The 52 Weeks Savings Challenge: Here’s Why You Should Do It

I recently published an article about the 52 week money challenge. ( Read that article first before proceeding). In that article, I discussed how Nepali people can take on the savings challenge and laid out the modality as well as the procedure for it. What I didn’t discuss, however, was why you should do it. Why should you keep your money in a box and do the savings challenge instead of just spending it all? This article is an answer to just that.

Saving in itself is a very good habit that everyone should develop, but the savings challenge gives you a solid structure to work on everything that can go wrong with normal savings structures. At the end, if you can make it that is, you will feel satisfied and ready to take on more challenges like this.

It’s very simple

You got to admit, the savings challenge is much more simple than most other savings plan you’ll find online. It’s just increasing the amount you save by the same number every week. You won’t even realize how much you have saved until the end with something as simple as that. If you draw out the math for it, there will be quite a substantial amount of numbers to work with. But in concept, you’re just adding Rs 50 more than the last week into the jar. This simplicity saves you the trouble of calculating everything out and planning your savings every other day. Ultimately, sticking to the challenge becomes much easier.

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You’ll gain some momentum

Some of us are stuck with a mass load of debts, bills, and pending payments for our entire life. The sudden urge to spend never goes away and you are always left without money at the end of the month. Ultimately, your debts remain unpaid and you are under this constant stress of mounting bills and no money.

Here’s the thing though: the less you save, the less you feel like saving. This applies to pretty much everything. If you never start doing something, you will never have the momentum to push you forward either. But even if you do start, making it a more than one-time thing is another challenge in itself.

This savings challenge will help you overcome that. Sure, you can just save whatever you have left at the end of the month. But we all know how often that works out. Laying out a plan and giving yourself a challenge helps you stick to it. Plus, since starting out is really easy in this savings challenge, you will have a much easier time sticking with it in the beginning phase.

The savings challenge forms a habit

If you are anything like me, you will always have empty pockets before the day your salary is due. Forming a habit of saving can be very difficult, especially to avid spenders who just need that temporary dopamine. Taking on this savings challenge, however, will make forming a habit a lot easier.

The structure is always necessary to form any kind of habit. This challenge gives you just that. You will have a definite number you’ve challenged yourself to save every week and a specific goal in your mind. That will definitely help you form a habit. But again, I know this is true with other saving structures too, so what’s unique about this savings challenge?

It’s the way it is laid out. Starting out small and gradually increasing the amount you save will mean that the probability of you giving up early is very low. And once you do it for about 2 months, you will have a reason to stick by it, why give up when you have already invested this much? This mentality will be there all the way and with just a little bit of perseverance, you will be able to make it to the end. After that, you will realize that you now have a much easier time-saving money than you had before.

You’ll learn self-control

This applies to savings in general but is also relevant here. Saving and not spending go hand in hand. When you save money, you are constantly depriving yourself of that temporary dopamine your body craves. In doing so, you will be building a much more stable and rewarding long-term plan for yourself.

Of course, getting through this challenge requires a lot of self-control in itself. But once again, we have to go back to the structure of the challenge. Controlling yourself is much easier when you are taking small steps at a time. In the first month, you probably won’t even feel a difference in your life, it’s just Rs 700 in total. The second month will be a lit bit harder, the third month you will probably start sacrificing something and so on. In this way, you probably won’t even realize that you are controlling yourself, thus making the whole process much much easier.

If you still have some doubts about the challenge then this article puts it into perspective and provides some alternatives to the challenge too. I would still recommend sticking with this savings challenge though, it’s a great way to save money!