Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What Do You Think About The "Reversed 52 Weeks Saving Challenge"?

52 weeks of saving challenge
Just awhile ago, having a lengthy group chat with peer financial bloggers (you know who you are ;-)) and one of the topic discussed is : SAVING. Yes, one of the key element in personal finance is saving, it should come even before thinking about investing. 

Suddenly, I remembered a TV commercial that I watched in Melbourne a week ago which is also related to saving, it is called "52 weeks saving challenge". With this challenge, you can save $1,378 a year (excluding interest, if any) easily. It is a simple challenge by starting to save $1 for week 1, $2 for week 2, $3 for week 3 etc... till week 52. See sample table below for better illustration :


Of course, $1,378 (plus interest if you were to save it in the bank) might not be a big amount to many but it is a good start to promote the habit of saving. Just treat it as additional bonus lor! 

While searching through the Google, I chanced upon a blog post about "Reversed 52 Weeks Saving Challenge", which I thought is more interesting. As the name implied, basically it is still the similar challenge and the only difference is to reverse the amount you are saving weekly. In short, you are to save $52 in Week 1, $51 in Week 2, $50 in Week 3 etc... till $1 in Week 52. 

The overall yearly saved amount is still the same for both challenges ($1,378) but if we were to save the money in bank, the reversed method will attract more compounded interest. Some might say that to save $50+ per week upfront might be a challenge but the same challenge will still be applicable for the original challenge, the only difference is whether to face it earlier or later. 

What do you think?

Cheers!

12 comments:

  1. Well for one , what i would recommend especially for schooling peeps like me, be consistent , be disciplined , save 30SGD per week for a start (or minimum of 15sgd) , park it into an account with 0.2% interest , and slowly get your year end bonus , which then you can park some of it into some investment counters , and buy yourself a nice cuppa tea or bottle of wine , whichever you prefer or water :) The aim of these exercises i feel is to instill in oneself the discipline to consistently consciously save up , for me , my style is a fixed amount , what i spend on depends on me , so i make sure i've this certain sum set aside at the end of the month , probably $100 or already set aside b4 hand and i'll park it somewhere and forget about it till the end of the year , what you don't have , what you can't spend right ? (Forced savings might work for some peeps only , not all) Well that is my two cents :)

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    1. Ken : good to hear that you already put in place your own saving plan.. Keep going and keep saving..

      Since this is a challenge, you can continue to do what you are doing now and add this saving challenge to create an additional extra bonus at year end? Lol just thinking out loud

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    2. Uncle rich , my anyhow habtam plan isn't a savings plan exactly... It is something I do to save for a small purchase at the end of the year kekeke

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    3. Ken : whatever we call it, it is still a good practice xox keep going

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  2. My preferred style is to upfront transfer a sum for saving once the monthly salary comes in. The rest is for monthly expenses.

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  3. SRSI : yup! I guess most of us practice the same way as you (me including).

    I view this more like a challenge ie doing it on top of what we are currently doing...

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  4. Hi Richard,

    Interesting idea there about saving. Thanks for sharing :)

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    1. Hi SI : You are most welcome. Oh, nice chatting with you last nite ;-)

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    2. Hi Richard, nice chatting with you. Hope to learn more from you in both investing and blogging :)

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    3. Let's learn from each other. Feel free to drop me a line or text if u need nah sharing session ;-)

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  5. Hi Richard,

    I think reversed is definitely better. I suggest the same to am online friend too, when I learned that he's doing the same challenge. Personally I feel if he can save 50 per week, he can do 50 every week, so he should be able to save 50x52 =2.6k per yr. Savings is a habit that needs to be cultivated, so it'll make more sense to save consistently to enforce the habit.

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