How many times have you wanted to try a savings challenge but felt frustrated because you have little to no money left over each month to save? Traditional savings challenges—which tell you to save a specific dollar amount per paycheck, per week, or per month—are often difficult to impossible for low-income earners.
That’s why I love the reverse savings challenge: It’s a low-income friendly version of the traditional savings challenge. Instead of telling you to save money that you don’t even have, the reverse savings challenge tells you how many more hours per week you should work to reach your savings goal, depending on your hourly wage and desired timeframe.
Doing a reverse savings challenge is how I’ve often approached saving money; I hope you get as much value out of it as I do. So if you want to save an extra $50–$250 a month, read on to find out how you can realistically achieve these goals even if you earn a low income.
Saving $50 a month
If you want to make an extra $50 a month (plus an extra 12% cushion for taxes), this goal is pretty achievable if you earn a low income. You just have to work a few extra hours per month to reach this savings goal:
- If you earn $17 an hour, you would have to work 3.35 more hours per month.
- If you earn $15 an hour, you would have to work 3.79 more hours per month.
- If you earn $12 an hour, you would have to work 4.74 more hours per month.
Saving $75 a month
If you want to make an extra $75 a month (plus a 12% cushion for taxes), here’s are the numbers you need to know to reach that goal:
- If you earn $17 an hour, you would have to work 1.26 more hours per week or 5.02 more hours per month.
- If you earn $15 an hour, you would have to work 1.43 more hours per week or 5.69 more hours per month.
- If you earn $12 an hour, you would have to work 1.78 more hours per week or 7.11 more hours per month.
Saving $100 a month
If you want to save $100 a month (plus a 12% cushion for taxes), here’s how you can reach that savings goal:
- If you earn $17 an hour, you would have to work 1.68 more hours per week or 6.72 more hours per month.
- If you earn $15 an hour, you would have to work 1.90 more hours per week or 7.6 more hours per month.
- If you earn $12 an hour, you would have to work 2.37 more hours per week or 9.48 more hours per month.
Saving $150 a month
If you want to save $150 a month (plus an extra 12% cusion for taxes), here’s how you can reach this savings goal:
- If you earn $17 an hour, you would have to work 2.51 more hours per week.
- If you earn $15 an hour, you would have to work 2.85 more hours per week.
- If you earn $12 an hour, you would have to work 3.56 more hours per week.
Saving $200 a month
If you want to save $200 a month (plus an extra 12% cushion for taxes), here’s how much more you would have to work per week:
- If you earn $17 an hour, you would have to work 3.35 more hours per week.
- If you earn $15 an hour, you would have to work 3.79 more hours per week.
- If you earn $12 an hour, you would have to work 4.74 more hours per week.
Saving $250 a month
If you want to save $250 a month (plus have an extra 12% cushion for taxes), here’s how much more you would have to work per week:
- If you earn $17 an hour, you would have to work 4.18 more hours per week.
- If you earn $15 an hour, you would have to work 4.74 more hours per week.
- If you earn $12 an hour, you would have to work 5.92 more hours per week.
If you earn a low income and can slightly increase your working hours, you can potentially save and invest $50 to $250 more per month, allowing you to make a massive difference to your financial future, espacially if you’re in your 20s or early 30s. If you can invest $50 to $250 a month when you’re young, you could potentially build a significant amount of wealth in the future.