I am sure that you all have seen the 52 week money challenge going around. This challenge is where every week you save an amount equal to the week of the year that you are in. This means in week 1 you will save $1 and in week 7 you will save $7. By the end of the year, your final savings deposit should be $52 and you would have saved $1,378 plus any interest earned.
This challenge has been around for some time but every year it begins to pop up on blogs as people make their new years resolutions. Everyone is challenging everyone else to take the 52 week money challenge in an effort to encourage more saving.
I already have a method of saving where I automatically transfer a small savings amount to my savings account. I will not be joining the 52 week money challenge because I already have a system that works for me. I think the challenge is great for those who do not have a reliable savings plan already, but for someone like me it just won’t work.
The biggest issue with the 52 week money challenge is that you have to manually make the transfer to savings because the point of the challenge is to make you think about saving. The actual amount does not really matter, even though they set it as deposit equals week. You are supposed to print off a schedule like the one shown above and mark off your deposit and then check to see the amount for your next deposit.
I think this fluctuating savings amount would wreak havoc on my zero based budget because I would have to change the monthly amount for savings twelve times!!! I prefer the system that I use, which is to deposit a set amount of money every month and not have to worry about changing the amount every month.
Again, I have nothing against the 52 week money challenge and I think it is a great tool for those who do not have any other method of saving. I will not join the challenge because I think that my system works for me!
Are you joining the 52 week money challenge? Let me know how it affects your budget!
Same here. I do a different plan, as it seems like much less of a drain. I tried the 52 week challenge and gave up a few times on it. Hopefully in 2015, it can work with this. Need to get money in the bank! http://www.7daysavingsplan.com And posting on FB each day helps my friends remind me.
Keith your 7 day savings plan seems easier to follow and the fact that the biggest amount is $7 seems more manageable. With the 52 week challenge you have to come up with $52 in one week and that seems tough for people to suddenly find. It also means that in December you need to save about $200…really? Right when most people are spending more on gifts and travel!!!
Keith & Lulu, I think one thing is for certain is that not every plan is for everyone. For me, the 52 week savings plan worked, but I started small and worked my way up to the final deposit of $52.00. I’m not saying it’s the easiest or even the most pragmatic, but it worked for me. And I actually automatically transferred money each week (I get paid weekly), so I budgeted it out every week/month of what I had to “save” that month.
Keith, your plan looks really interesting and I plan to look more into it. Lulu, I’ve been following your blog for some time now and I appreciate your weekly/monthly posts.
Hi Will, thanks for the great comment. I have been really slacking off on the posts because school is HARD!!!! Lol, that is not really an excuse because I really need to make time for readers. I am making more of an effort to get back into regular posts and comments like yours are the fire that I need.
I am glad that the 52 week money challenge worked for you. Actually anything that gets people to save is good, regardless of what it is called!