Personal Finance Defined

Here at Saving Advice, we love money challenges because they encourage you to pay yourself first and build an emergency fund. While you shouldn’t rely on a money challenge to build and maintain your cushion, it is a great and easy tool to help develop a positive habit. Challenges also keep saving money at the top of your mind.

As we enter the new year, many people are looking for ways to stick to resolutions and improve their finances. These money challenges have become an increasingly popular way to do so. There are quite a few variations, but a money challenge we find interesting that will save you even more in the new year, is the 365 day quarter challenge.

The 365 Day Quarter Challenge

The 365 day money challenge comes in different forms. There is the penny challenge and the nickel challenge, and, if you’re looking to take your savings to the next level, this is a great way to do it.

If you aren’t familiar with the 365 day money challenges, they’re pretty simple and straightforward. Usually, you’ll have a jar or container where you place money daily, as you do with the 365 day penny challenge. Physically putting money away every day helps with follow-through. However, for the first week of the quarter challenge, you’ll need to make sure you have cash on you.

How this Money Challenge Works

Each day, you’ll add another quarter to the jar. On the first day, you start with $0.25, on day two you’ll deposit $0.50, three quarters on day three, $1.00 on the fourth day, and so on. Within the first 30 days of this challenge, you’ll have $116.25 in your jar. It’s amazing how far a quarter will take you, isn’t it?

Let’s take a look at all 365 days:

How about trying this one for yourself? If matching the amount of quarters to the corresponding day you’re depositing seems overwhelming, you can adjust it to fit your needs. For example, start with 30 days at a time every month. This will still save you $1,395. But, as you can see, if you stick to increasing your deposits by a quarter each day, you will save more than $16,000 in the year.

Download the chart here. Print it out and place it somewhere very visible (like your refrigerator) to help remind you of your goals.

The Real Challenge: Staying Motivated

The real challenge here is not saving money but rather doing it regularly and maintaining a savings amount. Many people have no idea how much to save and may only put aside money sporadically as they see fit. So, the issue is essentially keeping motivated. Here a few articles with ideas of how to stay motivated:

Addicted to Success has 12 motivation hacks.

Nick Wignall has some ideas from classical Greeks about staying motivated.

The Muse has seven good ideas about motivating yourself to work hard when you don’t really care.

It might be tempting to veer off your savings plan to spend on something impulsive, but your bank account will thank you in the long run. You will also thank yourself if you end up in a bind and need your emergency funds. And, the cost of feeling secure is truly priceless.

What are your savings plans? Will you be trying the 365 day quarter challenge this year?