My 50k challenge

I've recently completed my 50k challenge. What's that? In the beginning of the year, I wanted to save money to complete a few short term goals that will commence in 1-2 years time. It's stated in this post here. Well, a few things had changed since then, but the challenge of saving 50k by 31st Dec 2009 remained.

I'm very proud to say that I've done it already, and it doesn't take 12 months to complete that. It took only 10 months. This is not a post to hao lian how much I can save, but rather, I wanted to share the idea that if you really set out a goal that you wanted to, planned to get it, you'll reach there.

I've never saved so much in my life in a span of one year before, so setting a goal of 50k is really out of my reach when I challenged myself at the start of the year to do so. Heck, I might not even earn that amount, much less save it. This is so crazy. These are the thoughts that ran through my mind throughout the months. But the driving force that pushes me to do it is that I've said it to everyone and I'm therefore accountable for what I've said. I must do it and well heck, I do not know how to get there, I'll try my best to reach there.

I set out to do a plan of how much I need to save to reach my goal. A simple calculation will show that I need to save $4.2k to hit 50k in 12 months. It's impossible for me to do this consistently for 12 months because I do not have a stable income every month. My peak season is towards the 3Q of the year and the 1st and 4th Q are usually much more free (and therefore lower income). Therefore, this is how it should be done:

Month---------Amt to be saved
Jan----------------2,500
Feb----------------3,000
Mar---------------3,500
Apr----------------4,000
May---------------4,500
Jun----------------5,000
July----------------5,500
Aug----------------6,000
Sept---------------6,500
Oct-----------------6,500
Nov----------------1,800
Dec-----------------1,200

Total amt=====50,000

If you're staring at it and wondering how can I ever do this when I don't even earn that much - well, I had the same thought as you. I remember telling my gf that this is so f**king insane BUT I'm still going to do it nevertheless. Armed with this suicide bomber mentality, I toiled month after month. I'm going to die trying it if I have to.

When you announce to the universe that you wanted this so badly, things will bend over backwards to make it happen for you. I cramped some much work in a single day that I broke all records in my 7-8 years in my career. I had the longest amount of work hours in a day (10 hrs of pure work, meaning 13 hours out of home), had the earliest lesson ever (7am), had the latest lesson ever (1130pm). I'm not out to set records, but if I really wanted something, I really have to do it. Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes.

All this takes a toil of course. I was very stressed especially over the Aug to Sept period. When I'm out pak talling with her on weekends, I'll sometimes whip out my black organiser and start to plan out the work for the coming week. I remembered confiding to her how am I ever going to save that much. I must have been quite a pitiful sight, because she gave me 1k to tide me over my darkest hours. Love her.

And so, when I mean that I've done my work for the year and I've earned enough, I freaking mean it. Nobody can say that I didn't do my best. This 50k challenge is especially sweet because there's a lot of people out there who care for me. When I feel like shit, they take me out for a drink and listen to my ranting. Hey, brothers and sisters who are followers of my blog, a big salute to all of you. I'm honored to have known you.