Welcoming the New Year also means starting a new round of saving money. There are a lot of “ipon challenges” that have been trending online, each with different steps to follow and different amount of money you can save.
Why not make your own challenge? It’s more fun and it will add more excitement knowing that you have to test your own unique invention.
#1 Choose your “Alkansya of the Year”
This is the designated coin bank that you will use this year. Pick a bigger one to make room for bigger savings. It can be made of can, plastic, wood, or ceramic, as long as there is no way you can easily open it or see what’s inside.
You can decorate it to make it more personal. If you want to level up, you can even make your customized alkansya out of recycled materials found at home!
#2 Select a specific bill, coin, or amount
Your savings can range from as little as P10 a day to as high as you can afford.
Make it your own by formulating a doable strategy so that at the end of the year, you can have more earnings than any other challenges out there. Some stick to only P50 a day. There are those who set aside more than P2,000 a week.
For starters, loose change can be a good idea such as P5 coins. The famous 52-week challenge starts with P50 and accumulates every week. It ends with P2,600 to make the total savings of P68,900 by the end of the year!
#3 Devise a monthly, weekly, or daily chart
This will be your cheat sheet when it comes to deciding how much to put into your alkansyaof the year. Will your ipon challenge be on a daily basis? Every weekend? Twice a month? Every end of the month?
You are the one to decide on the course of this challenge. It’s your flow, your pace, and your call as to how often to drop some money into your coin bank.
#4 Keep a handy “Ipon Diary”
Get a small notebook or turn your unused journals into something where you can keep track of your monthly, weekly, or daily savings. This is where you do the calculations if you strictly follow your cheat sheet.
At the end of each challenge, you can also indicate where all your money will go. You can dedicate a part of it for travel, for wants, for other personal plans, or better yet, download the Maya app and put it all in your account for a cashless shopping spree!
#5 Make sure it is achievable
Some “ipon challenges” will not work for certain people. There are those that push you to save a specific amount in a week. Others can start good for a few months until they cannot maintain it anymore. It depends on the lifestyle and the income of every individual.
This is another reason why creating your own challenge is good, considering your capabilities. If you skip a week because you can’t afford to set aside that sum of money, you will surely lose the willingness to continue.
Skipping the indicated schedule on your cheat sheet will lead to forgetting about it altogether.
Making your own “ipon challenge” is a challenge in itself. From the creation of rules to the actual saving, it takes guts, discipline, and motivation to keep up until the very end.
But it’s fun to do, and can teach you a lot about financial wellness and personal goal setting.
Of course, at the end of the challenge, you have something extra to spend for anything you like. Then you can start another cycle of saving for next year!
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