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Live Smarter Savings Challenges

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Challenge Yourself to Save Smarter

Set a goal, choose a challenge, and designate a way to remind yourself to make your deposits. Set a reminder on your phone, or deposit to savings on a pay day. If you’re saving the same amount each day, week, or month, you can use your mobile app to make a recurring transfer right into your designated account. Whatever works for you.


Live Smarter Savings Challenges:

Daily Challenges

Five-Cent Challenge
Start with a nickel on day one, and save an additional nickel each day. So 5¢ on day 1, 10¢ on day 2, 15¢ on day 3, and so on, for the entire year. At the end of the year, you’ll have more than $3,300.

Save Your Change Challenge
Add your loose change to a jar every night, and watch it grow quickly. At the end of each month, deposit your collection into a savings account.

Weekly Challenges

52-Week Savings Challenge
Start with $1/week and increase the deposit amount by $1 each week as you go. So $1 in week 1, $2 in week 2, $3 in week 3, and so on for a year. Another option is to do the Challenge backwards. Save $52 in week 1, $51 in week 2, and so on. At the end of the year, you’ll have more than $1,300.

Dollar Bill Challenge
Choose a certain denomination of bill, and save all the loose ones at the end of each week. Say you choose 5-dollar bills. Check your wallet each week for any fives, and put them all into your savings.

No-Spend Work Week Challenge
Choose a week to skip all spending for your 5 work days. Eat food you already have Instead of grocery shopping; borrow movies, podcasts, games, or audiobooks from the library; replace happy hour or shopping with fun diversions with friends. Budget what you would have spent, and move that to your savings.

Monthly Challenges

Ultimate Retirement Savings Challenge
Set up automatic monthly payments to maximize your IRA contributions. The 2019 contribution limit is $6,000 a year, $7,000 if you’re age 50 or older.

Designated Monthly Amount Challenge
Can you swing $50 a month? How about $100 or $200 a month? Each month, deposit what you can. Set a date to automatically transfer your funds, and watch your savings grow.

Save Smarter Challenges

Shopping Cart Challenge
Before you check out, take a close look at your cart and remove anything that’s a “want” and not a “need”. Take the same approach when shopping online, or try leaving items in your virtual shopping cart overnight, then decide if you really need to make the purchase the next day. Take what you would have spent and move it into savings.

Unsubscribe Challenge
Reevaluate all of your subscription services, especially streaming ones. Do you really use them? Consider eliminating any that you don’t use much anymore. Take that monthly or annual fee and move it into savings.

All-Cash Spending Challenge
Once in a while, choose a week to spend only cash. Simply withdraw a certain amount for the week, and spend no more than that. Credit cards can make it easier to overspend. If you spend only cash, you’ll be much more aware, and cautious about spending too much. 

High Earner Savings Challenge
If you are a higher earner but haven’t been saving enough, choose an amount to set aside from each paycheck. Start with $50, $100, or more if you can, and automatically save that much to a separate account each payday. If it’s not in your main checking account, you’re less likely to spend it.


Share Your Story

Have you already had a successful savings challenge experience? Let us know. We’d love to hear about it.


Need Help Saving Smarter?

If you’d like assistance starting or customizing a savings plan, we’re happy to help. Call 315-735-8571 to talk about your options or make an appointment with one of our friendly and knowledgeable representatives today. Simply click on the button below and select the “New Accounts” service from the menu.

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