My Ultimate Savings Challenge Every Year

This article is part of "My 30 Realizations before I turn 21."

My first realization is: "Don't rush. Trust God's Perfect Timing". You can read about it if you want to learn a thing or two from me. Just simply click the highlighted phrase. If not, then don't bother. Lol Just kidding.

So in this article, I am going to share with all of you the ultimate savings challenges that I have set for myself each year since I started my journey as a college student.

Before I start with my Savings Challenges in College, let me first share the foundation of how this challenge started.

I have been saving money since I was a child. My parents would make my brother and me an improvised bank or a Bamboo Alkansiya/Bank where we can put our excess allowance every day. We used to save 1 peso (about $0.02) to 5 pesos (about $0.10) every school day. This routine goes on and on until the end of the school year. During school breaks, which is exactly in time for our town fiesta, we would use our savings to buy clothes and toys. That is how I learned the value that comes with saving money.

Back in High School, the purpose of saving money for me was only to be able to buy new clothes, shoes, and even a new cellphone. I was in 8th grade when I first bought a brand new phone using my savings that came from my school allowances. Then when I got in Senior High School, grade 11, I learned about ways on how to earn free money through cryptocurrencies. Claiming free coins on faucets and joining airdrops is what welcomed me into this crypto world. As years go on, it opened my mind that I can save more money if I get to learn more about it.

Now, back with My Ultimate Savings Challenges, here are the Savings goals and deadlines that I have set since the start of my college life.

First-Year College:

Goal- To save P100,000.00

Deadline- December 21, 2018

• Before I turned 19 years old, it was my goal to have 6 digits savings in my bank account. I was so confident that I can tick it off before my 19th birthday because when I graduated from Senior High School, I already have 15,000 pesos savings in my wallet. Plus I was very frugal, so an allowance of 1,000 pesos every week in college is too much for me so I saved most of it.

• Unfortunately, I wasn't able to accomplish this challenge as I was only able to save 70,000 pesos before my birthday. I was short of 30,000 pesos at that time.

Second-Year College:

Goal- To save P200,000.00

Deadline- December 21, 2019

• As you can see, my goals add up every year. Before I turn in my 20s, I wanted to achieve this goal of having 200,000 pesos savings on my 20th birthday. I worked so hard to accomplish this goal. I applied for scholarships just to get a stipend. I had a small business in college where my classmates are my customers. I also saved most of my weekly allowance.

• Again, as expected, I wasn't able to accomplish it because it is somehow impossible to save 130,000 pesos in just a year. But I was able to have a total of 144,000 pesos savings.

• However, I still felt like I succeeded with this challenge because when I shared my story to a Savings group on Facebook, my story got featured on a Savings website. I also shared my story on my YouTube channel, and up to this day, I still receive overwhelming comments.

• I also published that story on this platform. You can read it if you want.

My 100,000 Pesos Savings Journey At The Age of 20: Tips For College Students

Third-Year College:

Goal- To save P210,000.00

Deadline- December 21, 2020

• I only added 10,000 pesos to my previous goal because it's like saving 10,000 pesos every year since I was born. If you get me. 😁

• Exactly 29 days left and I am still unsure if I will be able to tick this off. I can easily accomplish this goal if I choose to withdraw some of my earnings from my investment in Cryptocurrency, but I am saving those for the future. So I want to work hard to achieve this goal without having to choose the easy way out.

• I already have 150,000 pesos savings in my Bank account. I am also expecting 20,000 pesos worth of stipend from my Scholarship. I have small savings with 16,000 pesos in my different savings account. That means I already have 186,000 pesos. However, I am still short of 24,000 pesos to accomplish this goal.

• Luckily, I still have 29 days left to work on the needed amount of money.

Fourth-Year College:

Goal- To save P250,000.00

Deadline- December 21, 2021

• Hopefully, this will be my last year in my college journey. That is why I have decided to keep my saving goal simple and realistic. It is still challenging because the last year in college is the worst, so I have to juggle everything by that time.

• I may also adjust this goal if I find a stable freelance writing job or any freelancing job out there.

• Originally, my goal was to save 500,000 pesos before I graduate from college because I have a dream of having a backpacking trip to Europe as my graduation gift for myself. I know you would say that I worked so hard in college only to waste it all on traveling, but it's my life, my decisions. Haha!

• Kidding aside, I will surely use this money as my safety net when I will be in the real world already. Whether to use it in finding a job or to use it to start a business.

You might ask, what is my realization after all of these Savings goals that I have set for myself?

Well, the only thing I want to point out is that if you start saving money as early as you can, then you will be able to save yourself when the rainy day comes.

Sure, money is not everything. But money can bring food to your table, buy your clothes, and all the necessities you need to survive.

I am not craving money. I am craving time and financial freedom. I don't want to end up being frustrated when I get old because I didn't start at a young age.

So I'm gonna leave you a question:

"It is not easy to save money. But when we grow old, isn't it harder that we don't have savings?"

That's all for now because I still have classes to attend. 👌