52 Week Money Challenge

[Minethatbird]

I am doing this now. Have close to $1000. I do it by the Bingo method, which consists of putting in the amount I can afford at that time.

[Jeo123]

This is another example of the low balance/low interest rate debate. It once again comes down to who the audience is.

Is this the best approach to saving? Not by a long shot. In the beginning you're hardly saving anything and the fact that it's a manual effort will make you feel the pain every week instead of it being automatic.

It's no different than the people who do a 30 day excercise challenge. Sure, it'll help you, but if you stop after those 30 days and go back to sitting on the couch all day, it won't have done anything. There's a chance that for some people though, it will become a habit. By the end of this, the person is putting away over $200 a month towards savings and if they can stick with it, that's great. Even better if they can keep increasing every week for a 2nd or 3rd year.

Personally, I think it's a horrible savings approach. Set up a $30 auto deduction via bank transfer or even better direct deposit so you never see the money and never feel the pain. You'll just get used to living with less cash. It's why 401(k)s are such a good system. Sure, the tax benefit is nice and the managed plans are good when you don't know what to do with your own money, but the biggest advantage is the money is just gone from your pay check before you get the chance to see it.

I'm sure someone out there needs an approach like this... I'm just not sure how many of those people there are.

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by stoutboy

Does this really encourage saving like the 'pay yourself first' concept, or do people just end up blowing the money on some big ticket item at the end of the year?

I had a friend who was like that. He couldn't save a dollar if you put a gun to his head and was complaining about not having savings so I made him a deal for 8 months to prove saving is possible. If he gave me $40 out if his check every week and 25% of the money he had from side jobs I would save it for him.
About 4-5 months later he had a nice little nest egg. About 4500 bucks. . I wrote on the envelope every time he made a "deposit". He was with his wife once when he asked me how much he had saved. I asked him how much did he think was saved. His answer was 2-300 bucks. I told him about 4500 last I looked. He just stared at me. I showed him every time he gave me money on the envelope. After that before he could get any of the money he had to tell me what it was for and his wife had to agree with the spending.
I figured he learned and was becoming financially smart and a few months later I returned the cash to him and his wife. Which I later found they promptly spent on going to dinner, purses, fishing rods and frivolous crap
Some people are destined to simply be in debt forever because they refuse to change their spending habits