Best Money Challenges To Try In 2021

Remember when you were a kid, your mum would encourage you to save all your 50 sen coins. Maybe you even upped your game by saving all your RM5 notes when you were older to see where it leads.

You see, Mum is onto something here. Saving those coins and notes is not necessarily just to afford to buy a new toy, but the act itself gets you thinking about saving and planning how to make it happen. 

While forming a habit, especially financial ones are easier said than done, there's no reason why you can't make it fun to achieve this goal even as an adult. One way is to set yourself a challenge.

Here are five popular money challenges for you to add to your 2021 New Year’s resolutions list.

1. Have a no-spend January. Or March. Or June

Timing is key here. Some may joke that no-spend January usually happens out of necessity, after spending all your money during the year-end holiday followed by festive season celebrations.

Perhaps you can set this no-spend challenge for the month after the festivals season is over. That said, a more accurate way to call it would be a ‘low-spend month’ challenge.

This is because there are many non-negotiable categories, such as your rent, car instalment, or even groceries. You’ll need to first identify your essential spending categories and lay out the rules before you begin.

A pro tip here would also be to list down items you would otherwise buy, had it not been a no-spend month. At the end of the challenge, revisit that list to identify items that are actually necessary, and those that aren’t. Who knew that this is a great way to thwart impulse purchases?

2. Stop dining out for a month

That leads us to this challenge. While not particularly difficult to pull off if you’re currently working from home, eating out can end up as one of the largest spending categories, only ranking below things like rent/mortgage, or money for family members.

For obvious reasons, ordering from food delivery services doesn’t count. To truly dine in, you’ll need to start cooking and packing your lunch to work/school. The plus side is, if you also have ‘eat healthy’ and ‘learn to cook’ on your 2021 New Year’s resolutions list, that’s three birds with one stone

Let’s look at how much it could cost to eat healthy and cook at home even for just one meal a day.

Note: prices are estimations based on supermarket prices

Estimated price at mixed-rice shop: RM9

Savings per meal: RM9 - RM5.40 = RM3.60

Savings per month: RM3.60 x 30 = RM108

That’s over RM100 of potential savings per month if you eat in for one meal. Just imagine how much more you can save if you plan ahead and make most of your meals at home. It could add up to several hundred ringgit a month which you can save.

3. Save RM1,300+ a year with the 52-week money-saving challenge

Once you’ve set yourself up to spending less each month or eating out less, it’s time to try the 52-week money-saving challenge.

Fifty-two is the average number of weeks in a year, so this challenge gets you to save money every week for a year. If you save at least RM25 per week which is not too daunting, this will add up to RM1,300 in just a year.

If you want to up your game, try saving up to RM50 a week, which is only RM200 a month if you think about it. In 52 weeks, that will give you RM2,600 without breaking much of a sweat. You could then use this savings to fund any of your short- or long-term financial goals, be it the emergency fund, your vacation, your debt, etc. The world is your oyster.

4. Try the compound-saving challenge

If you want to spice up your money-saving venture even further, then try this compound-saving challenge.

Take the existing 52-week template, but instead of RM25 a week, save just RM1 on the first week, RM2 on the second, and so on, until the end of the year. By the 52nd week you will be saving RM1,378, roughly the same amount as the original 52-week challenge. Except that you won’t feel a single thing for the first few months, as you slowly build up your money-saving tolerance. It will get harder in later months though.

You want to up this game too? Then try the 30-day compound-saving challenge. The same RM1 plus RM2 plus RM3 increments, but daily for a month. By the 30th day, you’ll already be saving RM465. So far, so good. Now, try repeating the same thing each month for a year, where you’ll be accumulating a whopping RM5,580.

This is the compound effect at play here. Next, let’s see how money challenges can help you plan your long-term financial goals.

5. Try a money challenge in real life

If you have got the hang of putting aside money each month in response to a challenge, it’s time to aim for a real-life goal. What about saving for the down payment of a house?

For example, if you’re looking to save enough to buy a new laptop so you can earn more money from your side income, you can start by finding how much is the laptop and when you want to buy it. You may need RM2,500 to buy a new laptop, and that means saving RM417 a month for six months. Seems out of reach? Break it down further. You only need to save RM13.90 daily to achieve that number.

In this case, we are only talking about putting money aside in savings. Imagine how much more you stand to earn if you invest the money too.

If you have a money goal with easily actionable steps, you don’t even need to set a challenge for it, only reminders. Otherwise, if a particular financial goal is too difficult to figure out by yourself, even after breaking it down, then maybe it’s time for you to get some help.

Need some help to reach your savings goals?

Once you’ve gotten comfortable with saving money, it’s time to go to the next level – set sights on your financial future, for example saving to buy your first home. All of the above would be futile if you do not stick to good financial habits for the long term.

This is where your grit, instilled by your mum from saving all those 50 sen years ago, comes into play. For starters, making it stick is as simple as writing it down, physically and digitally, so that you’ll be constantly reminded of your goals.

There are no rules to trying out different money challenges but if you want to increase your chances of ace-ing your new year resolutions, the Maybank Financial Goal Simulator can help you map out the way you want to save and grow your money.