We all know well that, money is crucial for every aspect in our life, without the fascinating green papers we cannot do almost anything that we want to. Having said that, many people are still lacking of fundamental understanding of money. We often hear the phrase financial freedom, so what is it? In my perspective, the definition of financial freedom it totally depends on one’s circumstance. There is NO specific number for it. If you are willing to further dive in this topic, there are tons of useful articles for you on the internet. In the scope of this article I would like to share to you all – my readers, the way I treat my money to achieve my own personal financial goal. Lots of people still have the bias that the biggest contributed factor for your financial success is income. Yes, we couldn’t refuse the important of income, it’s true but not enough. In fact, there are more than just how good of your paycheck. It is also the matter of saving and investing. For me, to get financial freedom, or at least have a better financial condition we need to come up with the answers for the following questions:Arizona, 2019
What do you want?
How can you increase your income?
How to save up your money?
AND, last but not least, how to invest your money?
To start off, it’s a must that you need to know what you want? As above-mentioned, there is NO specific number for everyone. So why don’t you sit down and think about the number that you want to get in short-medium-& long term. In other words, make your financial goal for the periods of 1-year, 5-year, etc. Secondly, how to increase our income? This is a key challenge to open up our door to a brighter financial condition. There are at least two ways you can do, either having a side hustle or honing the essential professional skills to increase your market value, it will boost your income. Especially for younger generation like us, it’s hard and slow to add up our first big money. Because for most of us we only have one single income stream, and it’s too little for fresh graduated. In my story, after the graduation, my goal was that saving up 100 million Dong in two years. Easier said than done, saving up our first big money is the toughest achievement (It is still hard for next big one but at least at that time you get more experiences). Recall about the time, my first monthly paycheck was around 9 million Dong, it was a good earning for a fresh engineer without any practical experience. And proudly to say, I always keep discipline with money since the early day of my career. So, with the income I saved 50% of it and lived on the rest.
Gentlemen! One thing to remember, always save first and spend the remaining portion.
My thought at the time was if I can save up 4 million Dong (Roughly 50%), within 2 years I can surely accumulate my first 100. But reality is not always on our side, at that time my younger sister entered university. Therefore, I supported her financially, I was happy about that, support family is always my first priority. And I’m so proud of her, since her second year at the university she could earn money to cover a part of her living expenses, so it frees me a bit. Anyway, that time I need to change my plan to achieve my 2-year goal. So I was thinking about get a side job, but I don’t know what I could do. One day while driving around Long Thanh, Dong Nai I came across an English teacher wanted from a local center. Without think twice, I applied and luckily I got the job, actually, I was good at English with and an impressive English Certification, combine with 2-3 year experience in tutorial, assisted English teaching. After getting the job, my total income was significantly boosted up. The side stream of income enough to cover all of my expenses and allowance for my sister. In fact, now I love teaching and I’ve been running my own online 1-1 course since 2018. It is fulfillment to do what you love and live on it, isn’t it?. Try to increase the income stream is crucial, as above in my case I tried to find a side job. First, I know what I want then I try my way to fulfill it. But this is not the only way, lots of friends of mine try to stay focus and excel their bread and butter, so they also can increase their income. Thirdly, how to save up our money? Remember that, no matter how good you are in earning, if you fail to save what you earn. You will end up in miserable. It goes without saying that saving is a must if you want to achieve your financial goal. Come back to my story, at the earliest stage of my career I have specifically defined the percentage for saving – 50% of the income. This number is also NOT one-size-fits-all, it depends on your situation, in order to come up with the number, you’d better sit down and draft all of your necessary expenses in number, the more specific the better. After that you can define the portion of your saving. Anyway, I have to repeat myself, after defining the number, as early as the first paycheck comes, the first portion you have to put aside is the saving. Saving first then live on the rest. Don’t practice the other way around.
Believe me, we are all vulnerable with spending temptation. Be discipline with your money.
Last but not least, how to invest your money? Earning the first big money it’s hard but it’s worth. Now you are not alone anymore if you know how to invest what you have in hand and let the money generating itself, so don’t hesitate to learn how to invest guys. I don’t want to mention about the theory of investing anymore, because I believe that you might hear it from various of sources. But I can share my story, after a year of working I put my saving into stock market (all of it), with the big hope that I can double up my account in a shorter time. Be noted that, before jumping into the market I already had a basic understanding about it. Anyway, one more time life was not as my expectation, instead of making quick money I lost half of my account. And once again I was on a verge of missing the goal. After the event, I realized that there is no such thing called easy money, easy come, easy go. We need to be discipline in investment as well, the money we put in it is our sweat, blood and tear so let’s think twice on any investment decision we make. Now, I’m still investing the stock market but not with the “all in” spirit. Just 10% of my income every single month for stock. Early this year I also bought an apartment, so far it’s also a profitable investment. One lesson that I learn about investment is that we need to control ourselves first, I mean learn how to control your emotion, don’t naively to think that we are smarter than Mr. Market. Don’t be too excited with things you hear, things you see. Let’s step back for a moment, make a judgment by yourself and then make your choice. And get rid of the idea of overnight millionaire, instead of that let’s learn how to equip yourself to a stable prosperity.
I realized that there is no such thing called easy money, easy come, easy go
It goes without saying that listening is the most important skill in any language, before you want to communicate to others in their mother tongue. First, you have to understand what they are talking about? Are they complimenting or blaming you? SO learning how to listen is a must if you want to use English as your second language. In this article VTENGLISH proudly to share to you-my readers, the 5 steps listening method, which I believe the most EFFECTIVE (and a bit boring) way to QUICKLY help you conquer your listening proficiency.
To start off, you need to find a video that “fit” with your level, what I mean here is that the speed, topic, accent that suitable with your current level. For instance, if you’re a beginner, with limited vocabulary and grammar knowledge, you should find a topic which has normal speed and common topics, to name a few VOA learning English, American got talent/idol, etc. DON’T force yourself to watch CNN, CNBC, these channels aren’t mean for beginners, it will discourage you even destroy your motivation of learning. The topic that you choose is also crucial, let’s find topics that you’re interested in. I mean, the topics that you have some basic understanding in your own language so it’s way easier for you to understand it in English version. Or at least you like it, learning and doing something that you like, it couldn’t be better right! In conclusion, One word you have to remember in choosing video/topic is SUITABLE. Anyway, in this article Vtenglish will focus on VOA report videos, this channel is suitable for beginner and intermediate levels, reading speed isn’t too fast, reporters are focus on pronunciation of American English. Especially, the topics range from common ones like sport, culture, people, environment to more complicated such as economy, finance, stock market, etc. Alright, let’s dive into our 5 steps listening method
Step 1: Listen + Look at the subtitle (at least 2 times)
Yes, as simple as it sounds, you just need to listen and look at the subtitle simultaneously, this will help you have the first glance about the vocabulary and general content of the video or at least you can be familiar with the reporter’s accent and tone. Please repeat this process at least 2 times.
Step 2: Listen-Pause-Check vocab – read out loud (n times- until you fully understand all necessary vocabs).
Repeat step 1, but in this round, whenever you hear any new vocabulary. Let’s pause the video, check for the meaning of it (I highly recommend oxford or Cambridge dictionary), learn how to pronounce the word, try to understand the whole sentence which contained the new vocabulary, AND find the way to describe the word by yourself. (3 steps on learning new vocabulary). Then continue the process until the end of the video. Next, repeat the process some more times, until there is NO new vocabulary for you. Once you’ve done, time to move to step 3
Step 3: Listen without looking at the subtitle
Now you have the vocabulary, understand the general content, so it’s time for your ears working intensely. Play the video, whenever you miss a word, play it back for some times until you get it, repeat the process until you fully catch all of the words by using only your ears.
Step 4: Shadowing after reporter
Repeat step 3, but this time let’s try to shadow the reporters, in other words, you imitate their sound tone, the way they stress, the way they link words together. Repeat this step at least 3 times.
Step 5: Become a reporter
Last but not least, Let’s turn off the sound, look at the subtitle and read as the speed of the video, please remember the way you imitate in step 4. This time don’t forget to record your reading, later you can listen to yourself to see your improvement. One last thing, 5 Steps listening method, it sounds boring (actually it’s boring) but it works. Yes! Not only it works BUT it quickly improves my students listening proficiency. SO don’t hesitate to try it yourself and share to me the result. 5 tips to stay focused on learning, workingĐăng ký khóa học online MIỄN PHÍ về phương pháp tự học Tiếng anhFollow us on Youtube to learn every day
Alright, let’s dive into our 5 steps listening method