The 52-Week Money Challenge: Pros And Cons

Remember how we said that most New Year’s resolutions were related to losing weight, job goals, or money? Well, everyone is still talking about them this week so we thought we’d jump in there too.

By now, if you’ve been on Facebook for even five minutes you’ve surely run into someone posting the 52-Week Money Challenge on their page.  If not, check out this great post from The Budgetnista, who can get you started on it. Don’t worry – you’ve still got time to hop in there.

What is the 52-Week Money Challenge?

Anyway, at first glance the 52-Week Money Challenge sounds terrific. It’s a simplified way to set money aside for Christmas. I mean, just look at week 1, with a $1 deposit and then week 2 with a total of $1,378 saved. Let’s be honest though. We all see posts like this each month (if not weekly) and yet we never really do anything with them. So, should you jump on the 52-Week Money Challenge bandwagon or not? Let’s look at some pros and cons for it and then you can decide.

52-Week Money Challenge Cons

The 52-Week Money Challenge sounds a wee bit gimmicky. Like a fad diet of sorts. And it could be for people who aren’t completely disciplined in money habits. The challenge encourages you to keep the money in a jar because you’re just dropping small amounts in each week as you build up to that $52 deposit. Here’s the catch though – if that cash is staring at you and you suddenly need to send in $16 for school pictures, what are you going to do? Raid the jar. Every time.

Also, why not just set aside $26.50 each week or $115 per month to get the same amount?

52-week Money Challenge Pros

Since we are all about budgets and frugality here, the truth is we find way more pros to the 52-Week Money Challenge than cons. It’s a great fit for anyone new to budget planning and for people who might have tight financial constraints today but expect more money coming in later (job changes, raises, etc).  The fact is, we’ve had moments of living from check to check and times where setting aside an extra $26.50 just wasn’t an option. So, this system can at least get you on track, with a much smaller initial commitment.

Bottom line: There’s not much downside to setting money aside, not matter how you get started!