For years now, Filipinos have been participating in this so-called Ipon Challenge. With the most famous one, the 52-week challenge, Filipinos would spend the next 365 days of cutting off 10 pesos up to 1,000 pesos per week to achieve amounts of 52,000 to 72,000 pesos by the end of the year. While others successfully have done it, others just couldn’t. That despite having enough enthusiasm and went off to a good start, the challenger will apparently quit the game too soon. Why? Filipino-Chinese Wealth Coach Chinkee Tan tackled in his book My Ipon Diary as to what makes saving up hard and also som helpful tips on how to achieve your saving goals. Here’s what you need to know.

For what are you saving for?

Just like anything else, having no plan is like having no direction at all. If you’re saving up for the sake of keeping up to the trend or because you’re in the mood to, chances are you’ll never survive saving up. What if you’ll lose the mood to save? What if you feel like spending the money already? These temptations will easily get to you because you have no clear goal waiting at the finish line—there’s no finish line, to begin with. Planning plays a vital role in saving up. With planning, you’ll have a direction to what to look forward to, how much you’ll cut off, and when to end this tough journey. Imagine resisting to buy your daily dose favorite milk tea for the sake of saving up, that’s hard! But when you plan, you know what’s all of these sacrifices for. A goal that will motivate you not to spend that extra 30 pesos or deposit the first 2,000 pesos from your salary to your savings account.

In planning, you must identify the answers for the following:

• What is it for?
• How much do I need to save?
• For how long?

Though most of us will certainly have short-term goals such as buying a new phone or car—in cash, one should also consider saving up for longterm stuff such as buying a house or funds for retirement. Having an emergency fund is important, too. What if you got struck by a bad typhoon, broke your leg, got sick, or laid off from work? With enough emergency fund, you’ll be able to get through financial obstacles without resorting to loan money. Apart from that, investing your savings would also be a smart idea—to let it grow. Just make sure though to know what and where to invest to avoid losing what you’ve saved.

The money you did not spend is the money you earned. – Chinkee Tan

So before you get your piggy bank ready, ask yourself, “for what am I saving for?”

Are you ready to commit?

Like any other challenge, for one to complete, having a strong-willed commitment will take you till the very end. When you pledge to deduct ten percent from your salary to save it up, commit to it with consistency. Discipline is another key factor in saving up. Remind yourself of delayed gratification. That the temptation of the short term happiness today is incomparable to the satisfaction you’ll be enjoying in the future.

Not a Priority

Did you know that the correct formula for saving up is to deduct it first before working on your budget? If you save whatever excess you have, then you’ll always end up saving nothing. Make it a priority to set aside the amount that you’ll save first.

Place your savings up into your top priority list, or you’ll never achieve that goal. Not even one cent. — Chinkee Tan

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Having said that, the next question you need to be asking yourself is, “when to start?” Well, start as soon as possible. Start now, at this very moment! Don’t wait for something to happen before you start filling up that jar. For beginners, you can slowly start by saving up 10 pesos daily. But of course, you’ll eventually increase it until you get the hang of it. — Did you start the Ipon (saving up) challenge for this year already? If you haven’t it’s still not too late to start. Start now!