Can Lucky Penny Day inspire saving habits?

Saving improves financial wellbeing. Lucky Penny Day offered some motivation. 

It was National Lucky Penny Day on 23 May. And it got us thinking. 

A penny isn’t worth much, so why get excited about it – and why do Americans have a day named to celebrate it anyway? 

Yet our language is full of sayings our parents and grandparents coined if you forgive the pun. Penny for your thoughts. In for a penny, in for a pound. Spend a penny (translation: visit the loo). Take care of the pennies and the rest will take care of itself.   

There are definite nuggets of financial wisdom in there.  

Saving is a mindset and a cornerstone of financial and mental wellbeing, but people don’t always find it easy. They might need a nudge and encouragement that saving small is a great start – and saving small can turn into saving big. 

1p saving challenge 

Tik Tok is full of saving challenges, though not all of them are sensible, while Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert has suggested people take up the 1p saving challenge every year.  

Martin calculated that by starting to save 1p on 1 January each year and increasing that amount by 1p every day (saving 365 pennies on the 31 December) and you’d have a sizeable £667.95 at the end of it. In 2024, with the extra Leap Year Day adding £3.66, it goes up to £671.61. That’s just for one person. 

There’s no need start on New Year’s Day either. Get going on 23 May and save £2.23 – there’s 223 days left until the end of the year – and add 1p on every day and you’d still build up a decent sum.  

Find some of those pennies by checking down the back of a sofa. Save it in a jar, or even better save the money digitally which is easier and avoids the temptation of dipping into it.  

It could build up into a useful rainy day, emergency fund to take care of unexpected bills and make life that bit more comfortable.  

What about a pension? 

And saving small over time can seriously boost a pension. Lloyds Banking Group data shows that someone who rounded up spare change from their purchases and put it into a pension could have a boost of up to £44,000 by retirement age. 

The average person saves around £180 through Lloyd’s Save the Change challenge which rounds up day-to-day spending and collects it as savings. 

If that £180 was paid into a pension it would immediately get a tax benefit and which would see £225 a year invested. 

Someone doing this from 20 years of age and retiring at 65 would have saved an extra £44,414, and a 40-year-old would save another £13,083 and a 50-year-old £5,827. 

The man who saved half a million 

Perhaps we should take a leaf out of American Otha Anders’ book.  

The 73-year-old saved all the pennies he got for 45 years. He had 500,000 of them by the time he cashed them in* and got $5,136.14 in return to pay for much-needed dental work. Luckily he had the savings for it, thanks to all those pennies. 

And yes, he kept up with his savings habit after that. Wise man. 

*Source: www.fox13seattle.com

**My simple trick to 'boost' savings and turn just £180 into £44,000 - but you need to act now | The Sun: Calculations assume the amount saved goes up by 2.5% per year and that the growth of the fund is at 4% after charges. 

There is support on our Be Money Well to help people save at https://www.scottishwidowsbemoneywell.co.uk/