Shadowing Practice: Why Earning More Still Doesn't Feel Like Enough - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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You got the raise, so you should feel better, right?
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So why does it feel exactly the same?
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Because more money wasn't the solution.
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It's what happens after you get it.
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Somewhere along the way, earning more was supposed to solve the problem.
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Less stress, more freedom.
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But for a lot of people, that's not what really happens.
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I'm Jenny, and I'm Celine.
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Today, we're breaking down why earning more still doesn't feel like enough and what you can do to actually change that.
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So today we're going to talk all about lifestyle creep.
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What is lifestyle creep, Jenny?
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So lifestyle creep is a very insidious thing that happens when you earn more money, right?
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And you're progressing in your career and you are earning more, but then slowly your lifestyle,
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your choices and what you spend money on also creeps up very slowly to match that income level.
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So before you know it, you have more money than you did and you're still just as broke.
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Yeah, I feel like that can so easily happen though because the second you get a little bit more money, what is your first thought?
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Ooh, more money.
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What can I do with that?
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What else can I spend?
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Can I get that new car?
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Can I now go buy more clothes?
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Yep, all those things that you feel like you want but you couldn't before, all of a sudden you get a little bit more income and it seems more possible,
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but it's so easy for that to get out of hand and your behavior hasn't changed then.
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You're just spending more money the way you got it.
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The reason why it's a lifestyle creep is because it happens slowly, right?
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You get maybe a raise one year and then you decide, oh, I can upgrade my car.
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You get a raise the next year.
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Maybe, oh, I get another subscription.
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And you're not thinking of all the things that you're already spending.
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And so before you know it, you've added hundreds, thousands of dollars to your spending and it's negated anything that you earned for yourself.
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Yes, and most of the time you don't really need those things, right?
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It's not something you need.
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It's something you want and you feel just getting that extra money is what's gonna get you there.
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And that's when I've talked to so many people all the time that are like, if I just made an extra $100 a week or
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if I just made an extra $3 ,000 a year that I could have everything I wanted and I'd be fined.
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But then you end up saying the exact same thing
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that next year and the year after that because you haven't changed anything with your spending.
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So when you're figuring out what your baseline is, like I need this much to cover my expenses, anything after that, now you're choosing how to spend that money
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but the problem with lifestyle creep is your past self has really decided
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that for your future self you're setting yourself up for failure
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and that you don't get a choice in the future right you're tagging
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that money for other things before you even get to enjoy it
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so i think it is important here to mention
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that there is inflation it is a thing actual inflation there's actual inflation
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so things cost different yes and we want to make sure
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that when you do get that increase and you've made a little bit more money.
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That's not exactly the same amount.
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$1 ,000 today is a lot less than $1 ,000 20 years ago.
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And so all of those expenses, not even 20 years ago, just do five years ago.
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So yes, your income has gone up, but your expenses go up too.
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So you have to be mindful that that is for a reason why it's going up.
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There is just cost of living inflation, cost of living increases that you get to balance those out.
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Absolutely.
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And then once you know what your baseline is, you can work those increases into that, right?
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So you can put more money into those accounts.
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You can understand that you're going to be paying more.
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Even something as simple as you're paying more in the summer for your air conditioning.
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You need to make sure to budget for that, right?
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So the first step, we always say you have to know where you stand.
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You have to know where you are.
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As much as it stinks to see how much you have spent on food delivery over the past six months, you have to do it and so you can make a plan moving forward
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so get your baseline this is what i need to live
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this is nothing fancy this is what we need to survive
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so selene one thing that i think people struggle with is the social pressure especially
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when they're progressing in their career and i think
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that can be really hard
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and it has you have to do the mental work of taking a step back
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and saying just
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because they have it doesn't mean they can always afford it true you know how much debt people are in
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and the other thing i i think deserves to be talked about more is what does success look like right
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because social media is all about looks i have this brand
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i have this car i went to this vacation spot we
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were just talking today about a gym i go to this gym i don't go to the other gym
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and all of that if that really to me
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and i think to a lot of people though isn't what success looks like success
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and especially financial success is security it's i decide what i
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do with my time i decide what i do with my
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money i am at peace i can handle emergencies i don't stress about bills i am comfortable in my life
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and that's really hard to show
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so other than just me telling you this you would never know like
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But success to me is someone who isn't controlled by their bills and by their money.
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And those aren't the things that you're posting on social media.
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No, he wants posting the vacations, the houses, the new cars, the new clothes, the new purse, all those fun things.
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You don't post, I reached $1 ,000 in my emergency savings.
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But you should.
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We should.
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It's exciting.
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That's something we do.
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Yeah.
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We talk about it all the time.
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That's not something that you see all of the time.
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Very similar is hiding money from myself through automatic transfer.
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So that baseline number that I mentioned before, I know what my baseline number is.
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On payday, that goes away into one account.
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And then I have my spending budget.
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So my groceries and my shopping plan expenses.
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That is another bucket into another account automatically.
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Everything else, savings.
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It all happens.
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We hit paid on a Friday by like 12 p .m.
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Everything has been dispersed.
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And that is the only way I have been able to stop myself from spending the money, committed it to my savings and made sure
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that the lifestyle creep doesn't happen
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because like you said I set a spending budget for myself
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that has nothing to do with what I make it's like what I think is reasonable right so
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because everything extra is going into savings just like you described
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I'm like wow I'm really starting to save some money wow
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if I don't spend it that number starts to go up
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and when the number starts to go up you really don't want it to go down oh you've worked
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so hard for it.
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I know.
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And so that's really my biggest tip is hiding money from yourself.
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I think you did that as well.
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Make sure to automatically put that money away and then make a reasonable budget for yourself and stick to that budget.
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And then in the future, your future self will thank you.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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We did the same thing with the accounts.
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I feel like the accounts now having them separately
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and then hiding them is like the envelopes back in the day where you would put everything in a different envelope.
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And this is what you could spend on food.
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This is what you could spend on travel whatever it might be now we do it with the accounts
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and it's just out of sight out of mind
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and you know it's starting to build more money can change your life but only
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if you tell it where to go that's where real financial freedom starts not with your next race
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if this is something that you are feeling
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or have felt before you're not alone
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if this helped put things into perspective share this with someone who needs to hear it too
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and don't forget to like comment and subscribe we'll see you next time We'll be right back.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 128 sentences and 1504 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:21. The speaker talks fast, about 204 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- lifestyle /ˈlaɪfˌstaɪl/ (noun) — A style of living that reflects the attitudes and values of a person or group.
- creep /kɹiːp/ (verb) — To move slowly with the abdomen close to the ground.
- earn /ɝn/ (verb) — To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.
- baseline /ˈbeɪslaɪn/ (noun) — A line that is a base for measurement or for construction.
- expense /ɪkˈspɛns/ (noun) — A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.
- inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — An act, instance of, or state of expansion or increase in size, especially by injection of a gas or liquid.
- vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/ (noun) — An extended trip or journey away from home for rest or pleasure.
- cloth /klɒθ/ (noun) — A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes…
- distress /dɪˈstɹɛs/ (noun) — Physical or emotional discomfort, suffering, or alarm, particularly of a more acute nature.
- envelope /ˈɛnvə(ˌ)loʊp/ (noun) — A paper or cardboard wrapper used to enclose small, flat items, especially letters, for mailing.
- tag /tæɡ/ (noun) — A small label.
- solve /sɒlv/ (verb) — To find an answer or solution to a problem or question; to work out.
- sudden /ˈsʌd.ən/ (adjective) — Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
- automatic /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/ (adjective) — Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
- fancy /ˈfæn.si/ (noun) — The imagination.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- go up (verb) — To move upwards.
- do with (verb) — Only used in to do with
- back in (verb) — To reverse a vehicle into a space.
- break down (verb) — To stop functioning.
- end up (verb) — To bring to a conclusion.
- figure out (verb) — To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
- get out of (verb) — To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
- go down (verb) — To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 46 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: inflation /ɪnˈfleɪ.ʃən/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: automatic /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/, insidious /ɪnˈsɪdi.əs/
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 lifestyle, creep, earn.
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 changed · you've added · I've talked |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be fined · be talked · isn't controlled |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who isn · someone who needs |
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.