Shadowing Practice: The Financial Habits No One Talks About (But Everyone Needs) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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If you said to yourself at the start of this year
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that you wanted to become more financially literate and it just hasn't happened yet, it still feels too complicated, too gatekept, and like you already have to be rich to start.
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Today we're going to go through 10 micro habits
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that you can start implementing today to feel like you're better with money than you currently are.
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Because let's be honest, not everyone can just immediately open up a stock to share as ISA and start investing £100 pounds.
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These things don't happen overnight.
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A lot of times financial literacy happens over a long time through small repeated actions
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and sometimes starting with baby steps or these things are much easier to do in your day to day.
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That's a lot more realistic than trying to follow complex strategies or trying to jump in before you're ready.
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So if you don't know me, my name is Mia McGrath.
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I built a six-figure portfolio by the age of 25 and I did not grow up with a ton of financial literacy.
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In fact, I never learned about it at school.
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I went to a state school and usually they don't teach it there.
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I, like many people, did not learn about money at school, from my parents, from my friends.
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There really was no obvious place to learn about this stuff.
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So although I'm not an accountant or financial advisor, I spent years studying this stuff in my spare time and obsessing over it.
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And that's kind of how I got here.
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At the start, it was dabbling in these small, consistent actions.
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And over time, it led to more advanced things like finding out my FIRE number and all these various things.
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But it's important to recognise that if I had to start again today, I would have no idea where to start.
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So let's go through the tiny actions that you can take every single day to feel a bit more financially literate.
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Number one is start checking your bank account on a regular basis.
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A lot of people might suggest to check it daily, but I would say maybe that's a bit excessive.
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It's completely up to you what you feel comfortable with.
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But if you're at a stage right now where you're not checking your bank balance at all, then that's definitely something you want to work on because the first step to financial literacy is literally just clarity,
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knowing what's in your account, what's coming in, what's going out, just having a clear view of this over the month as time goes on, not at the end of the month, because if you wait till the end,
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you could spend mindlessly and end up in an overdraft.
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You don't know what's going on.
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And I think this is natural to not check it because we sort of feel scared about what we're going to see.
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If you're not used to doing this, it can feel daunting.
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But what I want you to do without any judgment is
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to just start checking your bank balance on a regular basis every other day, not every second, not obsessively, but simply just checking in.
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Not knowing what's going on is extremely expensive
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because you could end up paying late fees on credit cards or missing certain payments.
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Overall, just checking your bank balance regularly means that you're getting better with money every day.
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Number two, I want you to start reading one article related to money every single day.
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Now, this sounds excessive, but if you're right at the start of your financial literacy journey, this is one of the ways that you can break into it without having to take immediate action.
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You don't have to open an account.
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You don't have to set money aside.
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You can literally read for free online whether that's yahoo finance
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or a trusted news source just reading one article that's related
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to money a bit of finance news something related to current events
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or even an essay discussing money philosophy
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or money issues i personally love abigail foster's sub stack she
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wakes up at 5 20 every day to go through the morning news on finance
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and anything related to
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that it's a free weekly newsletter i also have a similar one at frugalshik.co.uk where i speak about about my own experiences, lessons I've learned, even behind the scenes of content creation,
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everything to do with money.
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Because going on social media to learn about money, yes, can be very helpful, but it can be overwhelming.
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And there's so many different voices you're not sure who to trust.
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So I always think going back to the basics, reading news articles and reading essays is really helpful.
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Number three, learn one financial term a week.
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So over the next four weeks, I challenge you to learn these four concepts, ISA, dividend, ETF, and compound growth.
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The thing with financial literacy is you don't have to be an expert to start saving, investing, budgeting, or even thinking about your future.
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But the point is, it is crucial to understand these concepts at a basic level.
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Because if you don't understand what an ISA is, then you might start investing outside of one, which isn't the end of the world, but it's a ton more admin and maybe more stress down the line.
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A personal example is I was using a general investment account
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for the longest time without realizing what the benefits of an ISA was.
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Although I never sold my investments at a profit, so I didn't have to worry about paying tax on it, it still was just silly.
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And I was also investing in individual stocks, but that's another story.
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So do a bit of research over the next four weeks.
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And instead of forcing yourself to learn it on the spot as you're watching a video or reading a book, you can take a whole week to actually think through it and look at loads of different sources.
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Number four is make a splurge versus save list.
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Part of being frugal chic is just understanding your priorities with money, splurging what you love and cutting out what you don't.
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The point isn't to spend nothing at all, it's to be intentional, to direct that money that you saved on things
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that you don't really care about into things that you do care about.
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And there's no one size fits all.
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You don't have to be the person that rejects all material items and you only think about experiences.
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You could love designer bags and that could be your thing.
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But the whole point is you've outlined what you love to splurge on and what you like to save on.
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And you don't need some fancy template to do this.
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Open up your notes app and simply write splurge versus save.
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Things you enjoy spending money on and things you don't.
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Because part of budgeting is literally just prioritisation.
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Budgeting is there to allow you freedom to have excess money to play around with, to have more fun money, to have more money set aside for your future.
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This should honestly take you around five minutes and it makes all the difference.
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I personally don't like to spend money on fast fashion, coffees, Pilates classes, but instead I do like to spend my money on traveling,
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experiences, seeing friends and family, high quality clothing.
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Your list might look completely different, but that's the whole point.
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Number five is listen to one money podcast when you're on your hot girl walk, when you're at the gym, even times when you're just waiting around.
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I really like to incorporate micro learning into my day to day, whether I'm doing chores.
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And when you stack those two habits, like something that you have to get done and also something that you've been curious about, it's just the perfect combination.
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Some ones I really recommend are Financial Hot Girl by Devamcha.
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I adore her as a creator.
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I mean, she's literally my biggest inspo.
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I love The Curve.
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I actually went on one of their episodes.
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They talk all things money and wellness.
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They talk about money in a way that feels really accessible.
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I love All Things Money by Ola.
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I've actually recently been on one of her podcasts, but she more talks about home ownership and saving.
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And of course, Friends That Invest, Simran Kerr is just an icon and she's almost the face of like financial literacy for women.
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She's amazing and I think her podcast is really digestible.
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Number six is kind of interesting.
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Calculate the real cost of something in terms of hours you traded for it.
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So I actually did this before I left my nine to five.
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My old nine to five salary was very average for my age, but it was about £30,000 a year.
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And so that meant roughly I was on about £12 an hour.
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So I remember thinking back to when I was younger in my shopaholic phase and buying a Prada bag for £495.
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So this was during COVID and I thought, oh, I'm gonna use it for life.
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And to be fair, I've got my cost per use out of it.
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When I actually calculated the amount of hours I traded for it, it was 40 hours.
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So that's a whole working week of my life.
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If a boss said to you, right, I'm not going to pay you any money this week, but at the end of it, I'll give you a designer bag.
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Okay, maybe you might do it, but it would definitely feel different to having the money given to you and then trading it for the object.
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I think we often forget the relationship between time and money and how much of our life we spend trading for it.
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The concept of this is to not buy nothing anymore
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or to reject spending money but it's just to think about it in these terms.
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A luxury watch might feel like a milestone for a birthday
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or graduation which is great but also we're forgetting maybe our parents
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or ourselves traded time for it in order to be able to buy it for us.
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And this is one of the ways that I avoid lifestyle creep
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which is when your income increases and your lifestyle increases alongside it.
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One of the ways I avoid that is by acknowledging this, that the more I increase what I want or the things that I want to buy, the material things I want to buy,
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the more hours of my life I have to trade in exchange for it.
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I actually optimize for optionality now, I optimize for spending less time working and more time increasing my income.
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So if I trade all of my disposable income for these extra things that I don't need, I'm essentially leaving myself with very little margin of time.
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So take an item you own and divide your hourly rate your current rate
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that you're being paid by an employer or whether you're freelance
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and actually see how many hours you traded for
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that item it's really interesting number seven is just take five minutes to understand
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and look at your payslip i feel like
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if you are not into personal finance
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or money this can feel like such a chore something
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that you'd never do
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but trust me the benefits of just making sure this is okay are very important
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because what i never realized is it's actually my responsibility to
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check my payslip not my employers there could be a mistake i just always look at the tax code
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if that looks correct the most common tax code is one two five seven l
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and so i would just make sure it's this or
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if not i would understand why it's not because you could be overpaying
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or underpaying tax without realizing it not only
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that looking at your payslip is important you can see what student loans you're paying off
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if you have one or pension contributions and just seeing firsthand how personal finance
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and tax applies to your own personal situation it just gives it
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so much more meaning than just learning about these tax codes in an abstract way.
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Number eight is setting a monthly money date with yourself.
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I am not a big drinker but you could definitely have this with a glass of wine, your laptop, a journal, a nice scented candle.
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Just set the mood and treat it as a ritual.
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Just review the last month, what you made, different sources of income, your nine to five if you have a side hustle, your expenses, what you typically spend.
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I would separate my spending into fixed expenses which are rent and bills, they never really change, variable expenses,
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things that you'll have to spend money on but they might fluctuate like groceries or transport.
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And then one-off costs like holidays, Christmas.
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And you might wanna set up these things called sinking funds, where you set aside money for the future for short-term events like holidays or Christmas.
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And you set this aside over the year so that they impact your finances less month to month.
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When I'm doing this monthly money date, I would look at my savings, my investments, where I am with my goals.
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The point of this is not to judge where you are right now.
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You could look at this and be negative net worth or not feel great about your finances, but at least you've taken the step, which is something that most people just don't do.
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You're already ahead if you do this step.
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And yes, this is one of the ways to become financially literate
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because you are seeing firsthand again how it applies to your personal finances.
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It's almost like running your personal finances like a business.
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You're getting in touch with what's going on.
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Number nine is read one money book.
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Now, this can seem very daunting, but I'll share with you some of my beginner level recommendations.
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Firstly, I think the psychology of money by Morgan Housel is a great introduction.
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There's so many amazing quotes from here.
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One of my favorites is, wealth is what you don't see.
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So it's often the person that looks the least wealthiest in the room that's often not dripping in designer, but secretly wealthy.
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That's the kind of wealth that you want to be building, invisible wealth.
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And that's one of the core principles I learned from this book.
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I also love Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
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This book is more around manifestation and money mindset, but it's been really helpful for me in getting over limiting beliefs and just expanding what I think is possible.
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And finally, The Simple Path to Wealth by J.R.
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Collins is a great introduction to everything personal finance from budgeting, saving, investing.
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I really love his take on FU money.
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This is something that I talk a lot about in my content, but building up funds that you have there so that you don't have to rely on anyone else.
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And I think that's really powerful.
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But the key is don't feel like you have to go and spend a load of money on personal finance books.
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You can often borrow these from a library or you can download a Kindle version, which might be less expensive.
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I personally like to integrate reading with my daily routine rather than setting a block saying reading, I just integrate it with another activity.
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For example, I read in the sauna and I find that a nice way to relax and not be on my phone.
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I've even read while commuting as well.
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I think that's a nice way to incorporate an unpleasant activity with a pleasant activity.
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Number 10 is to have one money conversation with a friend, a parent, a relative, a colleague that you trust and you get along with.
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Because when I think about my personal finance journey, so much of it was down to luck and who I was in the room with.
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And I wasn't in the most prestigious rooms, but it was more like at university when I had male friends and they would talk about stocks, you know, as naturally as they would talk about beer and sports.
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And it's just about opening up those conversations, not being afraid to look stupid by asking questions or also not being afraid to say, I don't know.
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So many times we just pretend to know something because we don't want to look stupid.
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But actually, when asked, you know, do we know what an index fund is?
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Just being honest, being like, no, but can you explain it to me?
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And that is how you build real financial literacy is actually in the day to day.
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It's talking to people.
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You know, some conversations that I would open up is speaking openly about salaries, income, what expenses you have, what bills you pay.
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How do you split your expenses between your partner?
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Okay, maybe some of these you wouldn't share with a friend or anyone, and money should be private, of course, but I think that money becoming a less taboo topic is a positive thing,
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because when we gatekeep and when we don't share things, it kind of only benefits those in charge.
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For example, not being transparent about a salary could actually only benefit your employer, because then people that are underpaid don't really know whether they are.
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In order to become financially literate, you don't need to be someone who makes these drastic changes or learns these really complex strategies.
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A lot of the ways to become financially literate are painfully simple and small habits that you can do day to day.
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You don't need to become obsessed with money, but you do need to understand how it works.
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Otherwise it will end up ruling your life.
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So those are 10 micro habits.
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If you enjoyed this video, give it a like and subscribe so you don't miss out on further content from me.
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I also have a weekly newsletter where I talk all things personal finance, mindset and careers.
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It's called frugalshik.co.uk and you can find me on short form too.
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I'll see you guys in the next one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “The Financial Habits No One Talks About”. This video has 197 sentences and 3072 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:27. The speaker talks fast, about 228 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| literacy noun | /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/ | The ability to read and write. |
| literate adjective | /ˈlɪtəɹət/ | Able to read and write; having literacy. |
| financially adverb | In terms of finance or money. | |
| splurge verb | /splɝd͡ʒ/ | To (cause to) gush; to flow or move in a rush. |
| payslip noun | A small document, included with an employee's wage or salary, giving details of income earned and tax and insurance paid. | |
| microwave noun | /ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌweɪv/ | An electromagnetic wave with wavelength between that of infrared light and radio waves. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| chore noun | /t͡ʃoɹ/ | A task, especially a regularly needed task for the upkeep of a home or similar, such as cleaning or preparing meals. |
| daunting adjective | /ˈdɔntɪŋ/ | Discouraging; inspiring fear. |
| firsthand adjective | /ˈfɜːstˌhænd/ | Direct, without intermediate stages. |
| gatekeep verb | /ˈɡeɪt.kiːp/ | To control or limit access to something. |
| obsess verb | /əbˈsɛs/ | To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion. |
| optimize verb | /ˈɑptɪmaɪz/ | To act optimistically or as an optimist. |
| integrate verb | /ˈɪn.tɪ.ɡɹeɪt/ | To include as a constituent part or functionality. |
| newsletter noun | /ˈn(j)uzˌlɛtɚ/ | A periodically sent publication containing current events or the like, generally on a particular topic or geared toward a limited audience. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| open up verb | To open. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
| cut out verb | To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something). |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| get over verb | To overcome. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You don't know what's going on.
- You don't have to open an account.
- You don't have to set money aside.
- I mean, she's literally my biggest inspo.
- How do you split your expenses between your partner?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | hasn't happened · I've learned · you've outlined |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | graduation which is · expenses which are · step, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being paid · is read |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 72 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: manifestation /ˌmænɪfɛˈsteɪʃən/, prioritization /prʌɪˌɒrətʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/, chic /ʃik/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, graduation /ˌɡɹæd͡ʒuˈeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: literacy /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/, digestible /daɪˈdʒɛstəbəɫ/, manifestation /ˌmænɪfɛˈsteɪʃən/, prioritization /prʌɪˌɒrətʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like literacy, literate, financially.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.