Anyone can start at any time. Just visit the Afford Anything blog and look for one Tweak a Week for an e-book about the challenge.
Tweak 1: Automate 1 Extra Percent - of your income towards savings or debt repayment anything that will improve your networth. I added 1% to paying off my 0% credit card transfer for a total of $367.
Tweak 2: Track Networth - I already have an idea of my networth because I use personal capital. But I updated some numbers in an Excel spreadsheet for a total networth of $174,437.49. I also track the ratio of networth to lifetime income as suggested in Get Rich Slowly. My networth is 37% of my lifetime earnings. That is pretty good. About 50% of my networth is the value I have in my house. I think it is better if your primary resident is less than 30% of your networth. Obviously, when you are young your home will have a bigger portion, but if it's too high than you could be considered house poor. The other half of my networth is mainly in retirement accounts. So even though I am proud of my networth and my ratio, I have room to improve.
Tweak 3: Check Credit Report (bonus freeze it) - I check my credit report at least twice a year, once when I do my taxes and a second time when I get raises in the fall. So, I ran the report a little early, but everything looked normal. I also froze my credit. I don't need my credit right now since I'm not planning to take out a loan soon.
Tweak 4: Have a Throw Away Day - The tweak only required one hour to declutter. So, I went through some of my clothes and my kitchen's junk draw to declutter.
Tweak 5: Sell an Item - I didn't have an item from the last week I could sell. I tried to sell an old couch instead, but I had it on the curb for a bulk trash day before I got a response. At least I finally got rid of it.
Tweak 6: Write Your Why - The reason I am doing the challenge is because this is the year of challenge and I thought a financial tweak a week went well with the year's theme.
Tweak 7: Automate 1 more percent - I now pay $417 to the credit card and I set up Surprise savings at Ally bank. It will move money from checking to savings account randomly. I have had $133 surprise savings in 5 weeks.
Tweak 8: Research Your Salary - When I changed jobs last year I researched my salary. It wasn't different than it was last year. I have averaged 8.31% raises since 2009.
Tweak 9: Create a Catch Phrase - I would rather have a baby than retire at 52.
Tweak 10: Adjust Thermostat by one degree - I don't have the thermostat on this time of year. I try not to get as far into May as I can. Last year I made it all the way through. I will keep the thermostat at 79 once I do turn it on.
Tweak 11: Fill Tires - I have never done this. So I had my dad show me how. One of the tires was low. I have not noticed a different in getting gas, because I have been quarantined for almost two weeks now.
Tweak 12: Delay Online Purchases for One Week - I did badly at this because I just bought yarn to make a baby blanket for my cousin's rainbow baby. I want it to be ready before the gender reveal. I will restart today.
Tweak 13: Switch Mortgage to Bi-Weekly Payments - I started doing this years ago. When you do bi-weekly pay half your mortgage every two weeks, by doing this you are making a 13 full payments a year. If you do this for 12 years you have shaved a year off your mortgage. My paid in full date went from July 2026 to November 2025. I have added an additional principal payment every month since my roommate, Paloma, moved in. Today I paid half of my April 2021 payment. I only predicted having a roommate for a year. If that happens my new paid-in full date will be August of 2024.
Those were the first 13 tweaks this year and another 13 tweaks to go. I like the challenges so far even though some of the tweaks I already do. I have notice some changes in the last quarter. I recommend the challenge to other people.
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