# Closing Ceremonies for “Save $100 This Week” Challenge

## By Mr. Money Mustache

## Fri, 06 May 2011 02:51:03 +0000

Many people clicked “like” on the simplistic yet powerful challenge called Save $100 this Week.

Did YOU do the challenge? I did, and now I’ve got more than $100 extra compared to what I would otherwise have.

You DO know you have to actually do this stuff if you want to become wealthy, don’t you? As much as I love you reading every day, you won’t get much richer with only that level of commitment.

To finish up reporting the MMM family results, we had $91 saved in the first five days, then:
Tuesday: Bike Miles: 6, Car Miles: 0, Spending: $0. Challenge savings: $10 for skipped car trips.
Wednesday: Bike Miles 4, Car Miles: 40 (ouch! wife drove to another town for a lady party, I drove my construction van around town to do a bit of actual paid work). Spending: $38 on groceries.
Week Total: Bike Miles: 45, Car Miles: 40, Spending: $187,
Challenge Savings: $101

Not Bad! If I were to keep this challenge going permanently, I’d end up about $76,800 richer after ten years. I probably will keep some of the changes I learned this week , because as with every challenge, you actually learn unexpected things as you go through it.

Now what do we do with the $100 we saved? If you have any debt, make a point of paying an extra $100 towards your highest interest balance, and do it quickly, before you get around to spending the hundred on something else!

For me, being recently mortgage-free, I can ‘stash it back into the handy Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX) where it will grow and pay dividends for the rest of my life. By the time I die at age 104, these 100 little employees will have contributed about $10,000 of income to me, even after adjusting for inflation, in the form of growth and dividends.

Sweet? Yeah, sweeter than just burning through another $100 tank of gas!

The NEXT challenge, coming tomorrow morning, will take it up a level. Actually about eighty nine levels, if you consider the levels to be measured in linear steps, because the prize for this challenge is nine thousand dollars!

Tune in tomorrow baby.