A young Joburg analyst saved almost R7,000 in 2019 – by putting aside 10c in January and following this simple strategy

Bright Khumalo

• Every morning in 2019, Bright Khumalo set aside an amount equal to the day of the year, times 10c. 
• It's called the "10c challenge" and by the end of the year he saved almost R7,000.
  
• He hopes to save double that amount in 2020.
• The simple savings strategy is easy, because only small amounts are needed every day - also, saving becomes a daily habit.
• For more stories, go to Business Insider South Africa.

On January 1^st 2019, Bright Khumalo woke up, took 10c out of his wallet and set it aside.

On the following day, Khumalo, an analyst and portfolio manager with Vestact Asset Management in Johannesburg, set 20c aside, and on Day Three 30c.

Since then, the first thing he would do every day is to set aside the day of the year times 10c. 

By Tuesday, December 31^st he had more than R6,900 (including interest) saved. 

This is called the “10c challenge”, and he got the idea from the UK blog Skint Dad.

“When you wake up, you must remember what day it is and save that amount,” says Khumalo.

The challenge has proven a success with savers, as the routine of saving the money every day at the same time starts becoming a habit.

Also, the daily amounts that you need to set aside are small, and you can often easily rummage through your bag or trousers to get the target amount.

If you don’t have loose cash on hand, some savers have a weekly ritual to transfer a weekly amount to reach their goals.

Khumalo saved the money in a Tyme Bank GoalSave account, which has above average interest rates, he says.

He has been chronicling his savings adventure on Twitter, under the hasthag #SavewithBright.

“The idea is to get everyone into the habit of saving from a young age. That’s why it is less about the money and more about the behaviour. The aim is to get the youth into the habit of saving,” Khumalo says.

Many of his followers have been taking his lead:

His goal is to eventually partner with a digital bank to set up a functionality which allows clients to automatically save small daily amounts in a fixed deposit amount.

Khumalo doesn’t yet know what he will do with his savings for 2019. “I want to invest it into something impactful.”

2020 goals

For 2020, he is exploring other saving methods to see if he can save at least twice the amount he did this year.

“The strength is in the momentum. So maybe since it will be year 2 of the challenge we just multiply the daily amounts by 2 and in year three with multiply by 3?”

He believes this will help his savings keep up with inflation and help to boost the habit of saving.

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