New Year, New Savings Challenges.

As we enter 2024, it’s the perfect time to consider our financial goals for the new year and put a plan in place to obtain those goals. For some, those goals might be as simple as saving for the next Christmas, and for others it could be as big as saving for a vacation. Regardless of the extent of your goal, saving challenges could be a great and fun way to watch that money grow. 

A savings challenge is a savings technique that is highly customizable to best suit your needs. Doing a simple Pinterest or Google search can show an array of challenges that are easily replicated or customized, giving you an idea how to set it up, different amount increments and more. Below are a few of the more popular ones that people have had success with.

 
-365 Day Savings Challenge
This is a daily challenge that consists of starting with $0.01 and increasing every day by $0.01. By the end of the challenge, with the bare minimum being saved, you could save $667.95.
Day 1 - $0.01
Day 2 - $0.02
Day 365 - $3.65

-52 Week Savings Challenge
A weekly challenge where you pick one day a week to deposit a specific amount. Most start with $1 for week one, and increase by $1 weekly for a total of $1,378.
Week 1 - $1
Week 2 - $2
Week 52 - $52

Some people have short-term saving goals and have adapted these challenges to accommodate saving over a period of time, such as a month. 

-30 Day Savings Challenge
A quick but effective challenge for a short-term goal. Most people typically start with $1 on day one and increase by $1 daily for 30 days, to save $465 by day 30.
Day 1 - $1
Day 2 -$2
Day 30 - $30

There are many challenges that require giving up spending money to be able to have money to save. The amounts saved by these specific challenges could be harder to specify ahead of the challenge, but you could challenge yourself to see how much you could possibly save, or use these challenges as a top up method.  

-No Spend Challenge
Choose a specific period of time, whether it be a week, or a month, where you commit to not spending any money on non-essential items. The money you would have spent would then be redirected towards your saving goals. 

-Digital Detox Challenge
Many of us subscribe to many services and apps that we may not utilize often. By identifying and cancelling the ones we don’t use often, you could save a set amount of money per month that would be redirected towards savings. 

As mentioned before, these challenges are highly customizable to best suit your needs. They are a fantastic way to break down a goal into easily manageable amounts, without leaving yourself short. 

While the above amounts are a bit smaller and easily obtainable, these challenges are also great for larger goals. A popular one I have come across is for people who may be saving for a down payment for a house, to pay off larger loans, etc., is a 52 Week Challenge where you can save $10,000 by the end. For some, they divide the $10,000 over the 52 weeks and pay the same amount each week, and others have different increments each week, where they can use predicted income such as planned bonuses to save more on specific weeks to make up for the smaller weekly increments. 

If you have debt that is holding you back from considering your savings options or being able to reach your goals, there are options. 

If you are looking for advice, or a second opinion about your debt, it does not cost anything to talk about your options. Every financial situation is unique and viable options can differ from person to person. A conversation free of judgment, is the first step to determine options for debt that make sense for you. For a free consultation, please call or text (506) 645-1814 or email jaime@tackledebt.ca; or visit www.tackledebt.ca.