How a Five-Dollar Bill Can Change Your Life!

Last Updated on December 30, 2017 10:29 am by Steven

How a Five-Dollar Bill Can Change Your Life by John Panico

How a Five Dollar Bill can Change Your Life!

Picture in your mind having a five-dollar bill.  Now, what could you do with that $5 bill?  In and by itself, there isn’t a whole lot that $5 will get you.  A cup of coffee at Starbucks?  Maybe some fast food for lunch?  Buy some gas to get you to work?

So, how could a five-dollar bill have an impact on your life and prosperity?

I thought about that as well. I mean I am blessed to have a great income, but I wanted to do more.  Something that wouldn’t have a dramatic impact on my paycheck or my lifestyle, but would turn out to of significance at a given point in time.

So, at the beginning of 2015, I did something amazingly simple, but had a profound effect not just on me and my family, but when friends saw it, thought it was both fun and easy.

Again, my challenge to you is “How could a $5 bill make a difference to you at year’s end?”  I mean we are coming up on the new year.  What better time to set something in place..right?

You are killing me here…tell me your secret!

Here is what I did.  I simply kept EVERY $5 bill that came into my possession.  Every time that I came into contact with a $5 bill, it went into my wallet and was NEVER spent!

So, if I had a $20 and a $5 bill and I owed $3.50 to buy a coffee, I gave them my $20.  For the entire year, I never spend a $5 that came into my hands.

And the results were amazing.  Whenever I got home I would take every $5 bill and put it into an envelope in my desk (Now my friends may have been a little smarter to make their money work for them by actually putting it weekly into a savings account.)  I did that for a reason.  Every time I put money into the envelope, I would write the date and the total on it someplace.  And by not putting it into a savings account, I could literally see the amount climb as the envelope became fatter and fatter

Was it ever a challenge to keep every $5 bill that came your way?

Overall, I found it to be a very easy way to save money with the benefit that it really didn’t impact my life in a negative way.  I didn’t have $5 bill’s come my way every day, but when they did, I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything either.

Were there times that really tested my resolve to keeping every $5 bill that came my way?  Look at the example above.  I had a $20 and a $5 bill each.  When the purchase came to $3.50, I handed over the $20 bill.  Resolve had to come I when I was handed back three $5 bills as change…lol.  While it didn’t happen often, everytime it did, I had to remind myself that I was keeping EVERY $5 bill that came into my possession.

At year’s end, what were the results?  YMMV

I will tell you the more I put into that envelope, the bigger my smile.  I started in January and in early February, I had over $100.  As I told my friends about this, they started doing it as well.  We would tell each other funny stories of how the $5 notes came to us.  They started making goals with what they wanted to do.  One friend who felt she couldn’t afford anything announced that she was saving her money for a new living room set (and in September, she realized that goal!).

Me?  I just wanted to keep saving, I didn’t have anything I necessarily wanted.  I certainly didn’t have anything I wanted more than to see the envelope get bigger and bigger and the dates/amounts on it have scribbles keeping track.

Another friend of mine in the Salt Lake City area obviously used more cash than I did.  In June, she had over $700.  You might go a day or two (once over a week) without coming into contact with a $5 bill, but when I did, into the envelope it went.

So where did I end up?  Just a little over $1, 240.  As I said, based on if you carry more cash than I do (these days, I typically have $20-$40 on me), it is possible you will have more.  As I said, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)

Do it Again!

So after Steve asked me to write about some of the ways I have been able to demonstrate prosperity that has come into my life, I thought this was something that anyone could do.  To the point that I am going to do it again starting in January.  Join me on facebook and let’s have some fun together!

But even if you have less, you will have saved money that you didn’t miss.  And then you can put it into the bank, go on a vacation (that you didn’t think you could afford) or just buy something you wanted but was out of reach for you.  And when you look at it, you will say $5 can make a difference in my life.

This is a guest post by John Panico.  We appreciate his willingness to share his personal experiences with us.