There is a piece of paper hanging on my refrigerator’s door. It has two columns crudely drawn on it. At the top of the columns are the titles of “Date” and “Amount”. The first date seen on this piece of paper is 1/1/14, and the first number next to it in the Amount column is a big fat Zero.

Seven years ago today, something prompted me to take a blank piece of paper, the kind you find in printers, and to make a heading for the date and another heading for the amount I currently had saved and to put it on my frig. I might have had a few hundred in my bank account, but to be conservative, I started things at zero. And from that date until now, I have gone from having zero savings to having saved over $100K.

I decided on a set of goals. First, I decided I would save $1000, and second that I would then set the goal of doubling my savings on a yearly basis. This piece of paper would be my score card where I would record the date at which I achieved each of these goals. I wrote in the amounts $1000, $2000, $4000, etc. all the way to the final goal of a million. I even wrote on the page my goal date to reach a million in savings, 1/1/24. I picked that date based on the fact that if you double $1000 ten times you reach a million. I did not know that at the time and found that fact empowering. Something about knowing that has driven me forward. It no longer feels like an endless journey. It feels more like a marathon. Sure its a long way to run, but it is a finite distance and you can take it one mile at a time.

If I had to pick one reason why this has helped me, I would have to say it was the fact that I decided to set the goal of doubling my savings versus a percentage or a set amount. Something about the goal of doubling triggered something inside me that had not otherwise been turned on. Doubling feels like a step change. 10% or a given amount feels random or insignificant and did not have the same effect for me.

The beautiful part of the goal of doubling your savings is it doesn’t really matter what you set as your initial amount to save and then double. I tested this by creating a spreadsheet where I had several columns with different starting amounts of $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000. And believe it or not, there is only a difference of about 5 or so years in how long it takes to reach a million. I would encourage you to do this exercise yourself. Seeing is believing.

I can’t say what exactly prompted me to I started my journey to financial recovery and to pick 1/1/2014 as the date that I officially started recording it. Maybe it was a New Year’s resolution. I wish I could say it was a very well organized plan I launched into action on that date. The truth is it was just a series of separate events that occurred slightly before then. I guess you could say I had reached the point where I was simply sick and tired of being broke.

I still have debts, but my financial situation is far better than it was. I use to check my balance constantly to make sure it was not approaching zero. Now I don’t check it before paying my rent because I know there is enough to cover it. And with the current issues we are all going through, and the effect it has had on our economy, the concern of not having a job comes to mind, but I no longer have to wonder how I would get by if that were to happen. I now know the answer to that question. I can’t tell you how good that feels having spent so many years of my adult life living paycheck to paycheck.

There have been ups and downs. The dates between some entries are noticeably further apart than others. But on the average I have approximately doubled my savings on a yearly basis, something I would have thought was impossible. I still find it hard to believe. I sometimes make myself take a moment and just slowly read through the entries noting the dates and amounts and the increase year over year as a way of proving to myself that I did it. I actually went from Zero in savings on 1/1/2014 to having $100K in savings on 1/1/2021.

I still have a long way to go. Still have to pay off my student loan. Still need to save up for a down payment so I can afford at some point to stop renting. Still have some credit cards balances to pay off. But my current situation is orders of magnitude better than it was on 1/1/2014, and I can honestly say I have the simple piece of paper shown below to thank for that.

Edit [9/4/2021] – A few months later I was able to reach the next goal of $128K on my sheet and wanted to add a follow-up picture showing that along with the original posted above:

So what are you waiting for? Get yourself a piece of paper, a pen, a refrigerator magnet, and start your march to a million. It’s double or nothing from now on. You can do it!

Note: In the picture there is a note about including available credit. I did that at the time to encourage myself to pay down my credit cards. I currently have enough that I could pay off my credit cards and still be above 100K in savings.