Shadowing Practice: Where Did Americans’ Savings Go? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In 2022, the American personal saving rate fell to a low not seen since the Great Recession.
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I think a lot of people have been just kind of cooped up during the pandemic times and now we're transitioning plus inflation.
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So it definitely has been a little bit harder.
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Economists will look at the savings dynamic and a sort of benign light savings accrued over the early part of the pandemic, and that's starting to get spent down. But on the personal level, though, that's not a pleasant process.
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This real time dip in saving is stressing out a lot of people.
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70% say they are stressed about their personal finances, and that includes 57% of people earning $100,000 or more.
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And the main factors contributing to financial stress for the six figure set include inflation, economy wide instability, interest rates and a lack of savings.
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The basic necessities of life substantially burden your income. It becomes difficult to save.
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That said. Americans are sitting with a lot more savings than they had in the past.
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According to bank deposit records, Americans as a whole are still better off than they've traditionally been.
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How much depends on which side of the income distribution you're on.
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Regardless, Americans across the board were drawing down those savings in the final quarter of 2022.
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So why did Americans stop saving and what effect will that have on this massive group of people that we call the economy?
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My name is Mykail, but the interwebs know me as the bougie budgeter because I make money easy. I am currently based in Phoenix, Arizona.
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The majority of US households use bank accounts. Mykail represents one of these households.
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I do take about 8% of my total income, and that is to my 401k contributions.
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My company matches at 8%.
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I also try to save an additional 15% as well as another about 10% of my take home pay I put towards my investing goals as well.
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So my personal savings rate after my take home, I shoot for about a 15% and I have my savings auto deposited right into my high yield savings account because if I do not do that, then I will accidentally spend it and I am a recovering over spender.
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And that was my solution to not overspending.
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Collectively, Americans have trillions more in savings than they did prior to the pandemic.
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For a broad swath of Americans, their financial condition is still probably better than it was pre-pandemic.
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But those cash cushions are deflating for the first time in years.
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The personal saving rate reflects how much income Americans hold onto after their taxes and regular spending.
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It's basically just the amount of that that is not consumed.
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Much of that income, particularly for what I define broadly as underserved communities, tends to go toward basic necessities like housing, food, health care, transportation.
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In February 2023, the personal saving rate was hovering around 4.5%.
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That's compared to a long term average of just under 9%.
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You would see spikes around the dates when those stimulus checks were sent out and those were not getting spent.
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Of course, the other thing that happened early in the pandemic is people were not spending money on the things that they were accustomed to spending on.
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As inflation has set in, the monthly savings rate has taken a tumble.
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This rate only describes one month of earning and saving. Take a look at the total deposits held by customers and banks and you'll see that there is way more value in people's accounts than any time before the pandemic.
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A lot of people would point to excess savings that occurred early in the pandemic, something like 2 to 2 and one half trillion dollars in savings above what we would have otherwise expected were saved by American households.
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Over the past 9 to 12 months, that stash of savings has eroded.
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It's probably somewhere in the 1 to 1 and one half trillion range.
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You had folks across the country accumulating a bit of a war chest of savings, and that really has helped to buoy the economy, particularly in a place like the US where consumption is such a big part of GDP.
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The top half of earners have over $1 trillion in excess savings. That's nearly three times as much as the bottom half, according to federal economists. But they believed the lower half still collectively holds hundreds of billions in excess savings.
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By their count, it breaks down to about 5500 per household. A note here, this may not mean that you have $5,000 in spare cash laying around.
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It may have gone to pay off that amount in student debt or a mortgage or a car or to wards your retirement.
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37% of Americans have not touched their pandemic savings and 45% of Americans either haven't touched it or have taken out a little bit.
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But the majority is intact.
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Only 17% of Americans have pretty much exhausted their pandemic savings, though.
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That cushion may be beginning to shrink.
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Inflation, a nd the implications for that across categories, whether it be food, whether it be fuel, whether it be rents, you're seeing cost inflation that eats into clearly people's current income, but also to the extent they have savings, it also eats into those savings because everyday things are just more expensive. And if you think about in a pre-pandemic world when a typical black family had about five days of liquid savings, there's not a whole lot of financial slack in the system to be able to weather periods of time without income.
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Economists believe that the extra savings have so far kept people spending and the country from recession. At the same time, a huge swath of the population is living paycheck to paycheck, according to recent surveys.
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Take a look at our poll of 1000 people across the country. What you'll find is that 69% are pessimistic about the current situation in the economy and they're pessimistic about the future. That's an all time high.
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I think the consumer is doing pretty well.
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The concern I have is that the whole world is talking about this recession that we're going to have, which we were supposed to have last year. Then we were supposed to have the first quarter of this year. Now we're supposed to have it the second half of this year.
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Sometimes when you scare people enough into thinking there's going to be a recession, they will stop consuming and it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Federal economists note that the low interest rates of recent years are backstopping many Americans. When this rate goes to zero, the cost to loan out cash declines.
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And you can see the effect playing out on this other chart.
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Personal interest payments sank below longer term trend growth. With these excess savings, the economy remains strong, but they expect those stockpiles to dwindle rapidly.
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These dynamics are observable around the world. Nearly all developed countries have declining household savings. Back in the States, trouble in the regional banking sector may affect the future direction of interest rates.
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The Fed is trying to slow down the economy.
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That reduction in lending by regional banks might very well do that work for them, which means that we may be near the end of interest rate hikes.
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The Fed's interest rate can affect how much money you make from saving.
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When the rate goes up, putting money away becomes more valuable.
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But if it goes down, that could change what your account offers in terms of interest when you are in.
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A rising interest rate environment.
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Savings rates do tend to lag that process.
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So right now the Fed has rates close to 5%.
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I doubt that very many people can get a 5% savings rate on a typical savings or checking account.
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It's a lot happening right now.
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People are losing jobs.
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There's just so much happening that it's okay if you're not having a 15% savings rate, but just as long as you're starting somewhere.
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There are many different ways to save your money, but different methods can generate returns for you as a saver in the form of interest.
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There's no easier way to save money than to have money taken out of your paycheck before you get it and have it go into a retirement plan That's either getting a tax deduction plus tax deferral, or it may just be tax free for life if it's a Roth. But either way, the money's taken out first.
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Cash stored under your mattress effectively delivers a negative return, at least when the US has inflation.
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As prices rise, your old money is worth less when it comes to your standard checking account. Big banks like Wells Fargo, TD Chase and Bank of America routinely offer low returns. By contrast, high yield savings accounts can deliver much more in interest.
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The national average is incredibly low.
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I'm high yield all the way, especially for any dollars that I'm trying to save.
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I suggest always any short term savings, any long term savings. I'm not a fan of leaving in a savings account, but anything that's between six months to 24 months leave it in a high yield savings account.
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The national savings interest rate was less than 1% in 2023, but some high yield accounts were netting 4%.
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That's much better than in the past, but still lower than inflation.
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And you may be shocked that you're still getting 0.1 or 0.3% and you can easily get north of 4% without taking any undue risk on your cash. That's a game changer.
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But not every bank offers a high yield option and not everyone seeks them out. Roughly 6 million Americans were unbanked in recent years.
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This means they don't use checking or savings accounts. The most common reasons were lack of funds, or they simply don't trust banks.
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You've got to reset the thresholds to make sure banking is not burdensome to these individuals, particularly for folks who have lower income, lower net worth, to the extent that they are banked, their money sits in checking and savings accounts.
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I think it's probably the case that a lot of families are leaving some money on the table.
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A high yield account is going to also offer a better rate than you might get with a typical savings account.
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You might often have to have a larger balance in that account to qualify for the higher rate.
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I had one of those moms who was also a money nerd just like me, and she had a high yield savings account back in like 2006 when the high yield savings rate was like 8%.
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Banks are offering higher returns for two reasons.
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Number one, they're competing for your business. And number two, the interest rate hikes out of the Fed make it easier for them to lend to you at a favorable rate.
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Smaller banks often use this strategy to build their deposits.
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Even companies like Goldman Sachs have used this tactic, and companies like Apple are getting into the game as well. Other products, like certificates of deposit, can make your money work for you.
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I actually got my first CD by myself without my mom. I was like, You know what?
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I'm probably not going to use this until I graduate and I'll let that mature.
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And I know that that rate is locked in, which is a lot different from a regular savings account where that rate is not locked in a.
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CD usually carries a higher interest rate, but it also has a fixed term.
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So your money is going to be tied up in that product until the term ends.
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So there is a give and take there.
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But I think for a lot of households, if they have the cash to invest over a certain period of time, the CD is a really good option right now.
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But no matter how you get it done, saving it all is a good start.
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Compound interest is real.
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So to the extent that you can put some amount away, even if it's below the threshold that you had set out maybe a year ago or two years ago when the environment looked very different.
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That's okay.
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Don't be hard on yourself. Saving a dollar today is still more than saving $0 today.
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So if you can only start small, start small and let that habit grow, you're still doing amazing.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 99 sentences and 2067 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:45. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% 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
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- yield /jiːld/ (verb) — To give as a result or outcome; to produce or render.
- inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas or liquid.
- household /ˈhaʊshoʊld/ (adjective) — Belonging to the same house and family.
- deposit /dɪˈpɑ.zɪt/ (noun) — Sediment or rock that is not native to its present location or is different from the surrounding material. Sometimes refers to ore or gems.
- excess /ˈɛksɛs/ (noun) — The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper.
- economist /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/ (noun) — An expert in economics, especially one who studies economic data and extracts higher-level information or proposes theories.
- recession /ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/ (noun) — The act or an instance of receding or withdrawing.
- extent /ɪkˈstɛnt/ (noun) — A range of values or locations.
- earn /ɝn/ (verb) — To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- decline /dɪˈklaɪn/ (verb) — To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
- invest /ɪnˈvɛst/ (verb) — To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
- folk /foʊk/ (noun) — People, persons.
- threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/ (noun) — The lowermost part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill.
- hike /haɪk/ (noun) — A long walk, usually for pleasure or exercise.
- lend /ˈlɛnd/ (verb) — To allow to be used by someone temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- back in (verb) — To reverse a vehicle into a space.
- eat into (verb) — To consume gradually, especially by erosion.
- lock in (verb) — To fix the value of (something potentially variable).
- take out (verb) — To remove.
- draw down (verb) — To lower (curtains, a portcullis, etc.).
- get into (verb) — To move into (an object), such that one ends up inside it.
- get with (verb) — To become intimate with; to kiss and cuddle with; to have sex with.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 24 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/, swath /swɑθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, recession /ɹɪˈsɛʃn̩/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/, cushion /ˈkʊʃən/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/
- Long words — get the stress right: economist /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/, necessity /nɪˈsɛsəti/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, certificate /səˈtɪf.ɪ.kɪt/
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 yield, inflation, household.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are stressed · is not consumed · were sent |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have been · has been · has set |
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.