Introducing the $100 challenge: How we turn $100 into $350k

Bryce: [00:00:31] Welcome to Get Started Investing a podcast where we attempt to answer the most common money and investing questions from the community to help us all become better investors. If you are joining us for the first time, welcome, We strongly recommend that you scroll up and start at episode one. Now, while we are licensed, we are not aware of your personal circumstances. All information on this show is for education and entertainment purposes. Any advice is general advice only. My name is Bryce and as always, I'm joined by the equity buddy Ren. How you going? 

Alec: [00:00:59] I'm very good, Bryce. Excited for this episode? We're kicking off a new concept. Yeah, the hundred dollar challenge. 

Bryce: [00:01:07] The hundred dollar challenge. I'm really excited for this one. Something that we're going to play out all through 2023, and it started. 

Alec: [00:01:15] The rest of our lives. 

Bryce: [00:01:16] The rest of our lives. True for the next 40 years because it started with us when we're doing some research about the beautiful effects of compound interest.

Alec: [00:01:26] Yeah, the amazing wealth creating power of the stock market. 

Bryce: [00:01:31] Yes. We found out that by investing just $100 every month for 40 years and taking the market return each year you will have in your bank account at the end of it, $350,000. 

Alec: [00:01:46] Epic. 

Bryce: [00:01:47] Epic. 

Alec: [00:01:48] $100 a month. Invested in the stock market for 40 years. $350,000. 

Bryce: [00:01:55] Done. 

Alec: [00:01:56] Bump that up to $200 a month and you get 700 grand. 

Bryce: [00:02:00] Probably even more.

Alec: [00:02:02] Probably, actually. Yeah, you're right. 

Bryce: [00:02:05] It would compound even more. So that then got us thinking, look, there are probably things that we can do in our life to either save $100 a month or earn an extra $100 a month and set ourselves the challenge of doing that in order for us to get that $100 into the market month after month, year after year, until we hit that 350,000. So the hundred dollar challenge is every month Rand and I are going to be checking in, setting ourselves the task of either saving or earning an additional hundred bucks a month. 

Alec: [00:02:39] And that is an important point there. Bryce. We don't want this to become a stop aiding avocado toast. Absolutely not buying a lot of eating baked. This is this isn't about, you know, saving your way to becoming wealthy and restricting your spending to the nth degree. This is us doing both sides of the ledger, finding ways that we can save money because let's be honest. Well, I don't know about you, but I'll be honest. There's certainly ways that I can save money. Yes. Going back to pirating rather than paying for an ungodly amount of streaming services, say, you know, no all legal ways to make or save $100. But yeah, we want to do both sides of the equation. So who knows? One month I might be asking price for a pay rise that.

Bryce: [00:03:27] Yeah, go for it. We also want to hear from you the Equity Mates and get started investing community. In this episode we've got some of the community who have sent in some vox pops that will get some inspiration from to kick things off. But hit us up at Contact@equitymates.com or through our social media channels if you'd like to, to present an idea on how you would save or earn an extra hundred dollars a month. So I guess we can all get in this together. Yeah. And maybe we'll end up doing a thousand a month. Who knows? Well, I do have a question on that. If I do something that results in a in $1,000 windfall. 

Alec: [00:04:06] Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:04:07] Does that count. 

Alec: [00:04:07] As ten, ten. 

Bryce: [00:04:09] Months? 

Alec: [00:04:09] Well, no, I think I think the spirit of this is to do things that you can then consistently do every month. It's not like I'm going to sell some furniture at home. 

Bryce: [00:04:21] Why not? 

Alec: [00:04:21] Well, because then you're not getting $100 a month for 40 years.

Bryce: [00:04:25] The challenge kind of paid us out. If we just set up recurring revenue and get $100 a month. 

Alec: [00:04:31] What do you make?

Bryce: [00:04:32] Like, if I set up something now that gets me $100 month on month and I don't have to do anything for the next nine months, what am I going to talk about on the show?

Alec: [00:04:42] I will find things to talk about. If you just got $100 in one month and no recurring just $100 in one month and invested it for four years, you have two and a half grand. That's not bad. It's not bad. It's not quite $350,000. So let's get into it. Shawn, we've both got an idea that we're going to commit to this month. And the idea with this episode is once a month will actually be checking in and talking about what we said we were going to do and how we went and then what we're going to do for the next month. But before then, you told me that you actually were already doing this. 

Bryce: [00:05:20] Well, no, I just knew that this was coming. And there were a couple of things that coincidentally I did last month that saved me. I didn't earn anything but the. Saved me a few hundred bucks. So I thought, why not get the ball rolling and and kind of say what happened to me last month? And and then I'll and then we can crack into what happened next months, what we're going to try and do next month. So a couple of things. All of these were on the saving side and both of them were intentional. Firstly, I closed a credit card. I'm in the process of applying for a home loan and having a credit cards open is disadvantageous to what you can borrow. So closed the credit card and with that got rid of the annual fee that I was paying on it, which was 375 bucks. 

Alec: [00:06:11] Is fancy credit card.

Bryce: [00:06:12] But it was yes, it was one of the ANZ platinum frequent flyer that I got in one of those deals and then didn't end up getting the deal because I didn't read the terms and conditions. So. So the lesson to be learned, to read the terms and conditions. So there was a saving of 375 there for the coming 12 months, but I'd clocked that in as as last month because I closed it And then I, I did a, a review of just a lot of the subscriptions, but not just my streaming. I had a lot of other things in there that I was just what is this? What is that coming out? So like. 

Alec: [00:06:49] A share? Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:06:50] I sacked Disney.

Alec: [00:06:51] That's true. 

Bryce: [00:06:52] That's streaming. I had this social analyser thing on my phone that would like I could compare everyone's like social media channels that I had for work and. 

Alec: [00:07:03] Oh yeah, for work. 

Bryce: [00:07:06] Got a class on your Instagram so I sucked that. That was just something that was taking over in the background. I also had a, a subscription to Harvard Business Review, which was very expensive, right? But I just didn't really know where that was coming out of because this was coming out of like a random bills account that I never check. Did I just have money going in there? 

Alec: [00:07:27] Did you get a lot out of Harvard Business Review? 

Bryce: [00:07:29] No, I think no. Zero. I haven't read it for like eight months or something. So that netted too, about 110 bucks. So a. 

Alec: [00:07:39] Month.

Bryce: [00:07:40] All of those subscriptions were 110 bucks a month. Yeah. 

Alec: [00:07:43] Those full credit. Yeah. You've just really taken a really good month off the board for you. 

Bryce: [00:07:50] About five months worth. Well, I got about 500 bucks out of that. Five? About $500 saving 375 bucks for the year. Plus 100. Yeah, for the year. Yeah. Well, more than I'm going to.

Alec: [00:08:01] Have to be placing it. 

Bryce: [00:08:02] Subscriptions were 110 a month. 

Alec: [00:08:04] Yeah, Yeah.

Bryce: [00:08:05] And then 375 a year for the credit card. 

Alec: [00:08:07] Yeah. Yes. 

Bryce: [00:08:08] So that's what I did. The purpose of this would then to take action and take that 110 that I saved from the subscription and put it into an investing account. 

Alec: [00:08:17] Have you done that. 

Bryce: [00:08:18] I haven't, no. But Yeah. But that that's the goal is no point making the saving and then not redirecting that to some other form of spending. 

Alec: [00:08:26] It defeats the whole purpose of this. Exactly. Yeah. You could increase your auto invest by $110 a month now. 

Bryce: [00:08:32] Exactly. Yeah. And you could probably annualise the 375 over 12 months. So you're looking at about 30 bucks a month. There you go. 140 bucks. 

Alec: [00:08:41] Full credit. Not done. Well, I think we're getting close to our ad break, but maybe we get our inspiration and creative juices flowing. Producer Sasha has put together a montage of some of our friends and some of the Equity Mates community who have recorded what they would do for the $100 challenge. So let's listen to that, get inspired and then come back from the break and talk about what we're going to commit to doing for March. 

Speaker 2: [00:09:09] I currently have nine streaming services, most of which I don't really use, so if I can trim that back to the four or five I do regularly use, that'll save me about 40 bucks a month. Looking at my utilities, I haven't changed my electricity provider in over four years, but a quick online comparison tells me I can save about 10% by just switching over to someone else. So that's about another 20 bucks a month saved. Lastly, I currently buy a takeaway about two or three times a week on average. If I could limit that to 1 to 2 times a week moving forward on home. Actually, I'm a bit over $100 a month. Great. 

Audio Clip: [00:09:44] So at the moment I'm saving $18.80 a month already by having got rid of a fortnightly gym membership by moving house. Then I have just moved phone provider and I'm saving $8 a month. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it's going to mount up. And then there are two streaming services at the moment that I'm not really using each $10 a month, so I'm going to cancel those until I want one of them back because succession is coming. Then there's my monthly New York Times subscription for cooking recipes, which, to be fair, stack up. So let's say I put that on pause until I actually have used up some of the recipes and I've got a $6.18 saving month there as well. Again, not much, but it accounts to $150.98 a month at the. I'm apparently saving from, let's say, a few weeks ago or even today if I cancel the subscriptions. So even if I am back in one streaming platform plus one yoga drop in a month, I could still be saving 107.98 a month from previous spend. Hey, guys, it's Maddie from You're in good company. And one way that I could find an extra $100 this month is dusting off my old bike. And on the days that it is not raining, riding my bike into work, instead of catching the tram and saving lots of money on my myki. Okay, so what I've been doing this month, which has saved me some money, is instead of getting an Uber to places like concerts or night out, I get an electric scooter, which is the same price as public transport, and you get to beat all the crowds and it's super fun. 

Speaker 2: [00:11:23] Equity Mates and equity acquaintances. So we're trying to scrounge together 100 bucks a month. However I go on about it. Well, demand for my only fans was softer than anticipated, so I've had to get creative. Quick win number one is chilling out on the Ubereats pick up food where you can because the $450 in delivery fees and surcharges and whatever else Uber throws at you for the $15 pizza is not worth it. Number two is if you enjoy going out and having a drink, like be have a rethink about that $17 Kraft pile. I'll just hit up a Carlton Draught. And the same applies for if you're having a drink at home, there's no need for a $30 bottle of chardonnay. $15 is just as good. And number three is groceries. Plan out what you're doing, get exactly what you need. Don't aimlessly amble through the aisles of Coles and you'll save yourself a bit of cash. 

Alec: [00:12:32] All right, Bryce. We're back. We're doing a $100 challenge and out into the ad break. We heard from some of our friends and some of the Equity Mates community about how they would confront the $100 challenge. Yes, Confront is maybe not the right tackle it. Yeah. They would embrace the hundred dollar challenge. Yes. Any key takeaways?

Bryce: [00:12:52] Key takeaway was all of them were, and rightly so. This is this how you can start thinking about it. But all of them were on the saving side of things. None of them approached it from a I am going to increase my output and make an extra 100. But full credit. I think there is nothing wrong with reviewing line items in your budget and trying to find where you can save. So full credit to all of them. 

Alec: [00:13:15] Yeah. My big takeaway is that a lot of people have too many streaming services classes. We all can realise it, but we're all none of us can quite break. Break away from them.

Bryce: [00:13:27] No. If you'd like to contribute for next month's $100 Challenge episode, as I said, Contact@equitymates.com, you can also leave a voice note on our website. There's a on our contact page. You can just record a message for us on your phone and it will come straight through. Otherwise hit us up on our social media channels. We would love to hear how you're going to save or make an extra hundred, but Ren.

Alec: [00:13:52] Phone or.

Bryce: [00:13:52] Browser. So again, how are you going to approach the hundred dollar challenge for the month of March? 

Alec: [00:13:56] Well, Bryce, as we've been saying, we don't want to make this just stop eating avocado toast and buying coffees out challenge. This is as much about making an extra hundred dollars a month as saving $100. So for the first month I started researching best ways to make income. Yeah, you know, passive income at home, all that stuff. Like there's a lot out there. 

Bryce: [00:14:20] You're going to fill out a survey. I knew it 

Alec: [00:14:25] Because it's always the first one on any like how to make money at home list. Yeah. And I'm always like, I don't know how much money is in there. So I figured, let's find out. Have you done it before? [00:14:36][11.1]

Bryce: [00:14:37] Oh no? 

Alec: [00:14:38] So I read an article talking about some of the different survey sites. I've downloaded two of them on my phone. First one I downloaded it, said I couldn't start making money from doing the surveys until I started sharing my internet bandwidth, but I just. Maybe that's my April thing. Sharing my Internet data didn't use that one. But then I've got another app called at Attapol, and I've filled out three surveys so far and I've made $0.40. 

Bryce: [00:15:11] Oh, my goodness.

Alec: [00:15:13] Oh my goodness. So it could be a long month for me. 

Bryce: [00:15:16] So you're getting $0.13 a survey, so you need to be doing six 769 surveys to get a undred dollars in a month. 

Alec: [00:15:27] 769 divide. How many days? 

Bryce: [00:15:29] 30 days from the day of recording, You've got about 30 days. You need to be doing 25 surveys. 

Alec: [00:15:35] Now, look, I know we're not filming this, so only you can say it, but there's a heap of surveys here and some, you know, more than a dollar. A dollar to a dollar 53 anyway. So I'll tell you in a month how I've gone. 

Bryce: [00:15:48] Okay, well, we'll put this perhaps we'll put the link to the app that you're using as well in the show notes. 

Alec: [00:15:54] Yeah. But I mean there's no. 

Bryce: [00:15:56] Have a Look. 

Alec: [00:15:57] There's no endorsement. No. 

Bryce: [00:15:59] Oh absolutely. 

Alec: [00:16:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bryce: [00:16:02] Definitely won't be endorsing anything about sharing your own internet bandwidth. 

Alec: [00:16:07] It was weird. I won't be sharing that. It was. And I filled out a survey for them and they know that you can't earn money until you enable internet sharing. 

Bryce: [00:16:14] I don't know what you're doing. 

Alec: [00:16:17] All right. So anyway, surveys that may I'm going to once and for all either confirm or debunk the make easy money from home by filling out survey. 

Bryce: [00:16:26] Yeah I did it once at university. Got five bucks for it. 

Alec: [00:16:30] Five bucks. Geez. Better right back there. Yeah. All right. What are you going to do? 

Bryce: [00:16:38] So I I've got one that's going to be a bit of a logistical struggle, but should I be able to pull it off? It's going to be a big windfall. And I'm under a lot of pressure from my parents at the moment to sell my drum kit, which is sitting in which is sitting in their garage in Wagga and I'm in Sydney. But it's not just like your ordinary drum kit, it's one that I had procured over many years, so I'm actually quite emotionally attached to it. I don't want to really do it, but for me. 

Alec: [00:17:15] For people who are new to the podcast and haven't heard Bryce's backstory, we actually met at uni when he was studying a percussion degree. 

Bryce: [00:17:23] Yes. Yeah, correct. I was in music, so the drum kit is there and it's big and it does take up a lot of their garage, but. Then there's also bongos and triangles and all sorts of bits and pieces.

Alec: [00:17:37] Xylophones, timpani, like all the good stuff, all. 

Bryce: [00:17:40] This stuff. And so in order to sell it, I need to get pictures of it and do a bit of a jam. We all to. 

Alec: [00:17:46] Sell stuff in library. We've all used Gumtree. 

Bryce: [00:17:49] So what I'm thinking is either try and sell a part of it to just make this easy, or I just go all in. 

Alec: [00:17:56] Oh, you just do like these. 

Bryce: [00:17:58] Symbols of A facade?

Alec: [00:17:59] This month I'm going to do the floor tile. Next month I'll get into the snare. 

Bryce: [00:18:06] I wouldn't Sell it. So what? I'm going to try and sell the accompanying percussive percussion instruments. So the jambos, the bongos or the triangles. I think it's going to be easier to get that up than the full blown kit. So that's what I'm going to try this month, is the supportive percussion. 

Alec: [00:18:22] Parents are going to be so annoyed that every month there's going to be someone coming to their house to pick out one part of this drum kit. 

Bryce: [00:18:29] I'm not going to use this as every part of every month. I'm not going to do this until I sell the full kit. It's just going to be the challenge this month. I'm going to try and get away some of this. 

Alec: [00:18:38] What if you're emotionally attached to it? Why don't you just move it to your small apartment in Darlinghurst and stop playing? 

Bryce: [00:18:44] Trust me, I've had that conversation with Harriet, and it's. We don't have the room for it to begin. It's like it's. It's big. So, yeah. Anyway, that's a conversation for another day. But that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try and sell some or all of my percussion instruments based in Wagga. 

Alec: [00:19:02] Can I ask you one question? If someone in Wagga or surrounds in the central West is listening to this just cause. Yeah. And he's like, I want a drum kit or my kid wants a drum kit and they hit you up with an offer. Are you willing to sell? 

Bryce: [00:19:17] Absolutely, yeah, I'm willing to sell for the right price. 

Alec: [00:19:21] Okay. And I'm also using an Equity Mates channel to promote it. Do I get half the revenue? 

Bryce: [00:19:28] We can take that off. If you're in Sydney, if you're listening in Melbourne, Canberra, anywhere in Australia. 

Alec: [00:19:34] Overseas. 

Bryce: [00:19:35] Even, we'll post it, we'll post it. Obviously like. 

Alec: [00:19:38] Capurso cost.

Bryce: [00:19:39] It'll be included in the sale price, but it's not limited to the Wagga or Riverina region, so it's a great kit pel export, eight piece double kickers, double bass hardware. 

Alec: [00:19:52] Bryce will sign it or not sign it, whichever you pay more for. 

Bryce: [00:19:56] Exactly. So that's what I'm going to do Ren And I'm going to leave it there.

Alec: [00:20:00] All right. Well, that concludes the first episode of the $100 Challenge, a.k.a. Sell Bryce's shit on the podcast. If you want to submit your suggestions for how we can either save or earn $100, let's go on this journey together and keep reminding ourselves that those small changes every month, just $100 more a month compounded at the market average return over 40 years is $350,000. 

Bryce: [00:20:28] Amazing. Love it. It's as easy as that. And Ren we're going to pick it up in a month's time.

Alec: [00:20:33] Well, we'll be back next week with another dose. 

Bryce: [00:20:35] Obviously. 

Alec: [00:20:35] Yeah. Anyway, see you next week.