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Now that I have setup my investment challenge account, it is time to start putting some of my savings to work. Over the first month of this challenge, I have transferred 6.50 into this account from a variety of sources.

A portion of that total came from the $50 increase in take home pay that I started bringing in at the beginning of the year. I dropped coverage in one of my work place benefits that resulted in $50 more in pay each month. I decided that since this money wasn’t in my monthly budget, I was going to use the increase to feed my investment challenge account.

Putting My Savings to Work

Instead of letting my savings pile up in my investment challenge account, I plan to actively invest it in dividend stocks. I am not currently earning any interest on this money, so it doesn’t really matter when I start using it to invest. Just as long as I can buy stock commission free through LOYAL3 or Robinhood, there is no need to let the money pile up.

My initial plan is to setup a small feed of money each month into one of my brokerage accounts from this source of savings. My only rule is that I must start small and never let my challenge account drop below the $25 initial deposit.

Sustainable Income Stream

In order to prevent my investment challenge account falling below $25, I must make this a sustainable income stream. Each month I must make sure that my balance does not drop and hopefully goes up as I grow my sources of savings and income.

I have decided that since my $50 savings each month is sustainable (coming directly from my paycheck), I will start with a $50 investment in the stock market.

Note – If I buy stocks in LOYAL3, I can invest $50 directly into partial stock shares. However, if I invest in in stocks through Robinhood, I can only buy whole shares. This means that I may not invest $50 exactly every month.

Why Even Have a Investment Challenge Account?

It certainly would be a lot easier to just transfer money each month directly to my broker after I cash my check.

So why would I setup a process to transfer $50 from my paycheck into my investment challenge account each month? And then turn around and transfer another $50 from the investment challenge account to my broker?

I am doing it this way to help me stay motivated. I want to see my cash actually flowing from one account to the next. My hope is to have many sources of savings and income feeding my investment challenge account – which then directly feeds my brokerage account.

$50 Monthly Stock Investment

The end result of all of this is that I will have a new $50 investment each month into the stock market. This is money I didn’t have access to invest last year or the year before. It is new money from savings and income that will help me plant a new money sprout for the future.

I plan to track my progress as the year goes by, so make sure to check out future updates!

Note – I will also reserve the right to not purchase stocks if there are no attractive purchases available. I certainly don’t want to overpay for a stock just to say I did!