Shadowing Practice: Why ‘Making It’ Feels Impossible In The U.S. Now - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This is a mock monthly household budget for an American family in 1985.
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If we compare that to a hypothetical budget in 2022, we can see that most expenses scaled with inflation, with a few exceptions.
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Rent out of pocket, health care costs, and child care are notably more expensive in 2022, even when accounting for inflation and costs associated with retirement increased by more than 60%.
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But these numbers are not accounting for a big X factor consumer debt, such as credit cards and student loans.
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Total outstanding consumer credit was nearly $600 billion in December 1985.
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By 2022, it was nearly $4.9 trillion.
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Debt has been rising over time.
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You know, student loans weren't really a thing for baby boomers.
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Millennials have larger student loan balances, bigger mortgages, much bigger car payments than their parents did a generation ago.
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In addition to more expensive childcare costs, higher prices pretty much across the board.
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So that does make it more difficult to set extra money aside or make any long term plans.
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We're living in two separate economies.
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The American dream that was pitched to the Gen Xers and the boomers is no longer present in today's world.
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A lot of people, particularly the working class and the part of the middle class, don't think their children will be as well off as they were. That's a problem.
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Many, many people live in what I describe as a break.
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Even over the course of the year, they might make enough money to pay for basic living expenses and cover their bills, but if one major thing happens, then they can get behind.
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Here's why young American adults are struggling to make ends meet and what can be done.
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Millennials net worth quadrupled from $3.9 trillion to nearly $16 trillion between 2019 and 2024, but more than half report living paycheck to paycheck.
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A lot in this group have benefited from a strong jobs market and rising wages, and during the pandemic, many people bought a home that made a lot of people wealthier but more on paper.
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The disconnect between being rich on paper and feeling well off has been referred to as phantom wealth.
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Your net worth has gotten greater, but you're not feeling richer necessarily.
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It's taking young adults longer than their parents to meet some milestones, such as living on their own, buying property, and starting a family.
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It's a lot harder for young people today to save up for markers of the American Dream than it was for previous generations.
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I mean look at home buying, as we all know, we're in historically tight housing markets.
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There are very few homes on the market, and those that are on the market are extremely expensive, not to mention expensive mortgage rates.
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And the prices of homes has escalated over the last few decades much faster than actual incomes.
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So it is actually much harder for a millennial or a Gen Z to save up for a down payment to buy a home.
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It's not the overspending, it's the cost of living.
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I think the middle class, unfortunately, is dead for millennials and Gen Zers.
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Or best case scenario, the goalpost is just moved and it's still obtainable. But you have to make over six figures to have that middle class life.
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But people who are older were in a better economic time growing up, because the big difference is what I call the big three: Millennials and Gen Z-ers are faced with outrageous housing prices, whether it's rent or owning, massive monthly college student loan debt payments and daycare.
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Freddie Smith made a career shift from actor to realtor and started making content about the state of the housing market.
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In the summer of 2023.
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I was maybe one of the first or the handful that was able to say, hey, the housing prices hit $420,00, the interest rates hit 7%.
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You now need $120,000 to qualify for a home.
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And it went viral.
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And then it just bled into people asking comments and me making more videos than it got into the boomer versus millennial debate.
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And it just kind of continued to grow from there, and it took its own shape.
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I had to rebuild my life in my early 30s.
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So I'm really relating to the 22 year olds who are building their life, and it's a totally different economy than when I built mine and when I was 19.
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Not being able to save for a home has big retirement implications for millennials and Gen Z.
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Those who don't own homes, now, those are people who are in real trouble.
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They're trying to save, to get their own place.
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They're paying high rent somewhere. They're commuting a long distance or trying to work at home so they can save on childcare, or so they can save just on housing costs.
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Those living patterns are increasingly what's happening for younger workers.
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In the 1980s, the typical first time homebuyer was in their late 20s with a 30 year mortgage.
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That would mean they own their home outright by the time they retired in their 60s, providing them with a better chance at sticking to a fixed income in their retirement.
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A national housing shortage, high rent prices and competition from wealthier buyers are all making it harder for young adults to buy their first home.
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In 2024, the median first time home buyer was 38 years old, an all time high.
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You have a lot of people, 25 to 34, who are looking to start a family and cannot find a home for their families.
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Maybe the homes aren't where they want them to be inside the city, but even outside of the city, it's been very difficult for young families to find a place.
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So I think it's healthy for us to try to find different ways that maybe homeownership doesn't have to be the symbol of the American dream.
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But then to counter that, on my own point, I encourage those who can afford homes to buy it because once it's paid off, you're going to have a more comfortable retirement because you're not going to be subject to the ever increasing rent prices.
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Many Americans are navigating a new kind of economic instability, which traditional financial advice may not prepare them for.
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Rachel Schneider coauthored the book The Financial Diaries, with NYU professor Jonathan Mordoch.
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They spent a year tracking the granular spending habits of 235 families.
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What we saw was a huge amount of volatility.
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That was our core finding.
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The majority of Americans work hourly jobs.
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And so for them, the amount of money that they earn fluctuates week by week.
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I get 30 hours this week versus 45 hours next week.
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And so as a result, income is really up and down over the course of a month.
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And that flies in the face of all of the budgeting advice we usually give people.
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There's a difference between surviving and thriving. And I just think if we're going to claim that we're the richest country, the best country in the world, why isn't everyone who's working 40 hours, 50 hours a week thriving?
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How is that possible?
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On top of income instability, cost of living is increasingly unstable.
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Tariffs have added a lot of uncertainty into future economic conditions.
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We don't really know how this is going to play out just yet. And if people start to feel nervous about what lies ahead, then they may dial back on things like consumer spending.
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The tariffs are creating uncertainty for those people. They don't know what to do.
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Businesses aren't hiring more people.
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There just waiting to see.
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They have a stable business environment. They can go without stability they can't.
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At the same time, the tariffs are going to create a big sales tax on lower income people who spend more on the basics, which are going to go up.
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And so that's going to create problems for them too.
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What the historians tell us that every single new generation gets complaints from the older generation about how they're behaving irresponsibly, immorally, blaming millennials for spending too much on avocado toast.
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It's not. Student loans are a tough job market keeping millennials from buying homes.
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It's reportedly avocado toast.
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What's one piece of advice for young people out there who are spending their money on on avocado toast and don't have any goals, what would you say to them?
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I would say to them, you know, g et as much pleasure out of saving as you do spending.
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This kind of advice is usually framed as a warning against lifestyle creep, which is the idea that as people earn more, they suddenly start to spend more, and that's what prevents them from properly saving.
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I think that's why there's so much confusion, because you can point to a millennial who spends $1,200 on DoorDash. Not good.
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But you can also point to a millennial who's very financially conscious, making 80,000 and is drowning in debt and is living with a roommate and is a lawyer at 29 years old.
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That is not right.
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If someone got straight A's in school, straight A's in college, got a bachelor's, got a master's degree and is 29, making $80,000 and can't even get their own apartment, let alone purchase a house or have financial stability.
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So that's where I think there's something broken in the system.
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Even though households have become significantly wealthier, many consumer goods are also a lot more expensive. And at the same time, Americans are now largely on their own when it comes to things like insurance, retirement savings, healthcare. That makes it harder just across the board to feel financially secure.
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In some ways, Americans are even more financially vulnerable now, even as prices have come up significantly, consumer spending hasn't really changed that much. And that leaves more Americans relying on things like credit cards to kind of make ends meet at the end of the month.
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With economists now forecasting a possible recession in the months or year ahead, there's a greater chance that many Americans won't be prepared for an economic shock.
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There aren't so many people in the middle class. There's a big working class.
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Those are people who helped elect the president, who wants stable jobs, who want rising wages, who want to be able to do things for their family and improve life for their kids that they don't feel they can do now. But those people haven't seen much respite.
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The core kernel of wisdom in the avocado toast issue is make choices about what really matters to you. You spend money on stuff that will be of value to you.
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Also, good advice is create a savings habit.
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Unfortunately, the way that ends up getting translated to people is you should set aside six months of earnings in case of an emergency.
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And most people are like, yeah, that's impossible, that's impossible. It's a huge amount of money. And so and what people then take from that is I guess I can't save.
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So I always encourage people, once you do get that promotion, just stay where you're at for a while and just accumulate money, even for just a year.
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Maybe buy yourself something nice, but just keep that money for a little while and just enjoy the freedom, because all of a sudden you're not as fearful at work because you got a little cushion.
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There are more ways today to upskill than there have ever been before. I mean, there's online classes, certification programs, even, you know, online degrees.
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So it is easier today to make yourself more competitive in the job market, which will help if you do feel like your job or job security isn't what it used to be.
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There's a societal need here, and some of that is about embracing and understanding that if you are struggling financially, it is not your fault.
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People often feel a lot of shame and distress when their financial lives are not going smoothly.
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And yet a lot of what they're experiencing is not the result of anything that they have done or could have done differently. It is the result of choices we as a society are making.
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And can we make those choices in a way that will allow me to be financially stable and upwardly mobile?
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And then I also think the reality is that societal change is slow, and any one individual does have to make their financial life work as best they can.
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In this moment, we're going to see people cohabitating with friends for longer and coming up with creative ways to share childcare across families, because that's what it's going to take to make it work. And actually, we're going to see, I think, some real benefits in community that could come out of that. So to look for the silver lining of, okay, I might not be able to be as independently financially stable, but what does that mean for the interconnections I can and should create with other people?
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Who Will Benefit from This Video?
This video is perfect for intermediate English learners ready to practice real-world conversation and understand modern American culture. If you want to discuss economics, personal finance, or generational differences—while improving your listening and speaking skills—this is a great fit. The dialogue uses everyday language mixed with key terms, making it ideal for building confidence in both casual and semi-formal discussions.
Words & Idioms Worth Stealing
- "Making it": Succeeding financially or in life (e.g., "Many young adults feel like 'making it' is harder now").
- "Living paycheck to paycheck": Spending all your money each month with no savings (e.g., "Even with rising wages, half of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck").
- "Phantom wealth": Having high net worth on paper but not feeling financially secure (e.g., "Owning a home might create phantom wealth if you can't afford other costs").
- "Goalpost is just moved": The requirements for success have changed (e.g., "The middle class isn't dead—maybe the goalpost is just moved").
How to Get the Accent Right
To master the speaker's clear, conversational tone, try the shadowing technique: play a short clip, pause, and repeat it immediately, mimicking the rhythm and stress. Focus on words like "inflation" (in-FLAY-shun) and "mortgage" (MOR-gij)—stress the second syllable. Notice how the speaker softens "wasn't really a thing" to sound natural, not robotic. Use a shadowing app or shadowing site to record yourself and compare. Practice "shadow speech" with phrases like, "It's a totally different economy than when I built mine"—pay attention to the rise in pitch on "different" to emphasize contrast. With daily practice, you'll sound more fluent and confident in no time!
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 | have benefited · has been referred · has gotten |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · Those who don · those who can |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was pitched · can be done · has been referred |
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.