Sometimes the motivation to budget and save is hard to come by. If you're looking for a jumpstart, a money challenge could be the push you need to build up savings and meet other financial goals. These 10 challenges are designed to help make saving money more interesting—and something you could stick with.
1. The 52-week money challenge
The 52-week money challenge is designed to help you build a savings habit over the course of a year. The gist: You put away an amount of money that corresponds to how many weeks it's been since you began the challenge. So you'd set aside $1 in week 1, $2 in week 2, and so on until you save $52 in week 52. By then, you'll have stashed away a total of $1,378.
This challenge could be great for those who would benefit from a slow build-up to saving larger sums of cash. But if remembering to transfer different sums of money each week feels too overwhelming or easy to forget, you could tweak the 52-week challenge to make it easier to accomplish. For example, you could set up an automatic $26.50 weekly transfer to an account you don't withdraw from, and by the end of the year, you will have saved the same amount.
- Pro: It could help you start a saving habit.
- Con: If you aren't organized, it might be tough to remember which week you're on and the correct figure to stash away.
Learn more about the 52-week money challenge.
2. The 100-envelope challenge
Every day for 100 days, you'll set aside a predetermined dollar amount in different envelopes. After just over 3 months, you could have more than $5,000 saved. To get started, simply label 100 envelopes from 1 to 100, then place them in a drawer or other container (numerically or out of order). Every day, choose an envelope at random, then put that amount of cash inside it. For example, if you pull envelope 6, put $6 inside. At the end of 100 days, your envelopes should contain a total of $5,050.
Don't let the sticker shock dissuade you from participating: You can customize the 100-envelope challenge to fit your financial situation. That might mean picking out an envelope less often, like once or twice a week, or changing the dollar amounts associated with each.
- Pro: It can be exciting because, if you choose the envelopes at random or out of order, you won't know the amount on the envelope until you choose it.
- Con: The daily commitment requires a lot of cash on hand to stuff the envelopes. Another, more secure option could be to deposit the cash several times throughout the challenge. Or digitize the whole process by transferring the amount of cash you're saving each day directly to a savings or investing account.
Learn more about the 100-envelope challenge.
3. The guess-your-bills challenge
Do you have any idea how much you spend on commuting, electricity, or even your monthly subscriptions? Write down how much you think you'll spend in the upcoming month on different bills. Then, as those bills come in, check the amounts against your predictions. Whether your guesses come in under or over the actual amounts, transfer the resulting difference to an account you won't touch for a while. In addition to forcing you to save some cash, this challenge might give you a better idea about your highest-cost bills—and spur you to reevaluate your spending.
- Pro: It's a simple and fun way to make a month's worth of transfers.
- Con: Depending on your guessing skills, you could end up with differences that are too little to impact your savings or too much for you to afford to transfer.
4. The 1% retirement challenge
If you automatically contribute to a retirement plan at work, such as a 401(k), with a portion of every paycheck, you might not remember how much you're contributing each year. Time to check in. To tackle the 1% retirement challenge, nudge up your contributions to your retirement plan by 1% of your total compensation. As in, if you're contributing 2% now, bump it up to 3%. The higher contributions would likely shift your current take-home pay in a small way, but it could help you save much more for retirement in the long run—and benefit from tax-deferred growth.
For instance, if you make $60,000 a year, contributing 1% more would amount to less than $12 per week. But if you make this change at age 35, you could potentially wind up with nearly $110,000 more for retirement than if you didn't bump up your contributions.1
(Psst ... got an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) instead? You could do some math to compute what percentage of your salary you're contributing regularly and increase it. Or you could instead contribute a larger lump sum, say, at the beginning of the calendar year.
- Pro: Once you file the paperwork (or make the electronic change) to increase your contributions, you're done. Automatic contributions do the saving work for you.
- Con: You could still use this saving strategy if you don't have a 401(k) or other retirement savings account, but you wouldn't benefit from tax-deferred growth if you set up automatic contributions to a savings or brokerage account.
5. The roll-the-dice challenge
If you roll dice in a casino, you might lose money. But if you do it at home as part of this challenge, you could keep your savings in the black. Start each day rolling a die, then transfer that amount to an account. So roll a 1, transfer $1; roll a 3, transfer $3; and so forth.
Rolling every day for a year could help you set aside anywhere from $365 (if you rolled a 1 every single day) to $2,190 (if you rolled a 6 every day). Just make sure to record your die rolls every day so you know how much to transfer into an account. Looking for more savings? Roll a pair of dice every day instead, which could double the money you stash.
- Pro: It's a quick and easy daily ritual. If you have kids, they could get in on the fun.
- Con: It requires daily commitment and multiple transfers that can't be automated.
6. The check-the-temperature challenge
Ready to heat up those savings? With this challenge, your daily contributions to your savings account depend on the weather. Every day (or week, if that's more doable), check the forecasted high temperature, then transfer that amount of cash into your savings account. You can take part in the challenge for any length of time, from a week to a month or even a full year.
If you live in a steamy location with year-round sun, you might need to choose shorter timeframes to complete the challenge and ensure you have enough left over for daily expenses. On the other hand, if you expect a long stretch of single digits, you might want to double the temperature for a while.
- Pro: It ties saving to a task you may already do on a daily basis.
- Con: Higher temperatures could make longer-term saving harder to keep up with.
7. The birthday challenge
This year, every time you offer up a birthday wish, treat yourself too—in the form of extra savings. Mark your calendar with birthdays for all your family members, friends, and maybe even coworkers. When a birthday arrives, send out a "Happy Birthday" text, then immediately transfer a predetermined amount of cash into an account. You could set aside, say, $20 every time, or tie it to the birthday celebrant's age, so $8 when your niece turns 8 and $40 when your friend turns 40. (If you don't know someone's age, take your best guess—they'll never know.) You'll get relationship points for remembering the big day, plus some cash saved up by the end of the year.
- Pro: It gives you extra incentive to remember birthdays and spreads out transfers.
- Con: It might not create a consistent saving habit.
8. The subscription-pause challenge
Between streaming services, paywalled content, and shipping services, you likely have a handful or more of subscriptions taking your money. Think about whether there are any you could stand to pause for a little while. Direct all the money that would have gone to those subscriptions toward savings or investments instead. Your accounts will get a momentary boost, and you may find that you don't even miss the subscriptions after they're gone.
- Pro: This can be a short- or long-term savings strategy, depending on whether your pause is temporary or becomes permanent.
- Con: Some subscription contracts may be difficult to pause.
9. The no-spend challenge
For this challenge, you'll choose a specific period of time—perhaps a week or a month—during which you won't spend on extras, like coffee, restaurant meals, or new clothes. Every time you withhold from spending that cash, redirect it to your savings account. By the end of the period, you'll have stashed away some money—and maybe broken a draining spending habit or two.
- Pro: You have complete control over the length of time and amount of money saved.
- Con: Requires discipline to stick with it (and remembering to transfer the money).
10. The round-up challenge
When it comes to finances, every penny counts. So put those pennies (and nickels, dimes, and quarters) to work for your savings. Every time you spend, calculate the number of cents it would take to round up to the next dollar, then earmark that much for your savings. If you're spending cash, just set aside a jar at home that can house the coins you get in change. If debit cards are more your style, find out if your financial institution can automatically round up debit card purchases, then transfer that extra change to another account.
- Pro: Rounding up is a cinch and generally doable across most income levels.
- Con: It will take a long time to build up a large savings stash with this approach.
Ways to put your money-challenge savings to work
You've accepted the challenge and built savings ... now what? First, determine your goals for your savings. Do you need money for a big purchase—like furniture or a car—in the near future? Are you hoping to pad your emergency savings for a rainy day? Or are you looking long-term to your future retirement?
Once you know how you plan to use your saved money, you can decide where it should live. Here are some of your options.
A high-yield savings account: Think of this as the savings account you already know and love—with an extra kick. As the name implies, the interest rates on high-yield savings accounts typically exceed the national average, which can help your savings grow. High-yield savings accounts are generally available with FDIC insurance. Consider using this account for cash that needs to be readily available to you.
A cash management account: Cash management accounts (CMA) are a special type of brokerage account that functions kind of like a hybrid checking and savings account. You could consider this one option for where to store your emergency savings and could generally earn the same or more interest than you could get from a high-yield savings account at a bank. CMAs also allow you to buy securities including brokered certificates of deposit (CDs)—investments that generally pay a set rate of interest over a fixed time period. CDs could offer a higher interest rate than other choices, but they require a time commitment. In other words, money in CDs generally aren't liquid, so make sure you won't need the cash before the CD's term is up.
Consider an investment account for longer-term savings: Whether you opt for a regular taxable brokerage account or a tax-advantaged retirement account, investing your money could give it a chance to grow over time (though there is an inherent risk of loss). Keep in mind that certain tax-advantaged accounts, such as IRAs and 401(k)s, are meant to house your funds for a long time and can carry penalties if you withdraw money before a certain milestone.