Learn how to save BRL 6,890 in a year with the 52 Week Challenge

Do you have any dreams that depend on saving some money? Maybe you dream of taking an international trip, renovating your house, doing a graduate degree…

Regardless of what your dream is, if it depends on saving some money to make it come true, you’re going to need to take some measures to save, right?

And, as we often don’t know, saving money is not always an easy task. After all, a cup of coffee here, a dessert there, some blouses on sale and poof! Gone are all the savings for the month.

With that in mind, today we’re going to talk about the 52 Week Challenge, which allows you to save up to R$6,890 in a year! This amount may not be enough to buy a car from scratch, but you can already think about making a down payment or, who knows, buying your dream trip.

How the 52 Week Challenge works

The only way to make money without putting in a lot of effort is to win the lottery, so it’s important for you to know right away that the 52 Week Challenge doesn’t work miracles. On the contrary: it is a mathematical technique (very simple!) that requires discipline to work.

Each week, you must add a certain amount of money, which can be deposited in a piggy bank or a savings account – in this case, your money will still yield a little more per month.

You decide the initial amount that will be saved, however, to reach R$ 6,980 at the end of the 52 weeks (that is, a year), it is necessary to start with R$ 5. Each week, you must add R$ 5 to the amount saved in the previous week.

Thus, in the second week, you must deposit R$5 plus R$5, that is, R$10. In the third week, you must deposit R$10 plus R$5, totaling R$15 reais, and so on , according to the following table:

For this method to work, you need to analyze your budget and predict whether it will be possible to save the determined amounts until the end of the 52 weeks. The initial R$5 may seem like a small amount, but as time passes, the amounts to be saved are much more significant.

It is at these times that discipline will speak loudest: to reach the amount established for each week, it will be necessary to cut superfluous expenses and think twice about whether you really need to buy another pair of shoes. The advantage of using the table is that it allows you to view your balance, and this gives you super incentive to continue saving.

I won’t have all that money to spare. Can I start with less?

If you’ve done the math and you already know that it won’t be possible to save the higher amounts as you advance in the challenge, know that you can start with a smaller amount.

For example: when you start saving BRL 1, you must also add BRL 1 to the amount saved per week, so your biggest deposit will be BRL 52 reais (BRL 1 in the first week, BRL 2 in the second, R$ 3 in the third and so on). Of course, in this case, the final balance will be lower, totaling R$ 1,378.

If you decide to start with R$2, in the second week you will have to deposit R$4; in the third, R$ 6; and so on. Your total will be BRL 2,756, with a maximum deposit of BRL 104.

And, of course, if you are in a slightly more comfortable financial situation, you can start the 52 Week Challenge with a higher amount. Starting with R$10, for example, you could add R$13,780 at the end of that period.

Regardless of the starting amount, the 52 Week Challenge is a great way to help us save and reflect on our spending. By looking at the table, we can visualize how much we can save by not buying superfluous things and focusing on a long-term goal, changing our relationship with money for the better.