Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,237.
Disagreements about spending money.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,237.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue about how to spend money.
Sounds like fun.
Let's get started.
Wait a minute.
What happened to the $500 in our joint account?
I probably paid bills with it.
You know that our paychecks barely cover our monthly expenses.
I know, but I was counting on that $500 to pay for new tires for my car.
Do you really need new tires right now?
The way I look at it, if there's any balance in our account, I have dibs on it for some new shoes.
Forget it.
The tires are a necessity.
And your shoes are not.
We're each supposed to have $150 a month for discretionary spending for non-essentials.
And new shoes definitely falls into that category.
You don't need to spend $500 for a set of new tires.
You just want to splash the cash for some fancy ones.
Let's stop arguing about who gets to spend the money and first figure out what happened to it.
According to this, the money was withdrawn from our account for automatic contributions to our retirement accounts.
Our what?
Remember last month we decided to start saving money for retirement?
Whose harebrained idea was that?
Do you think we can get the money back?
I'm not sure, but if we can, I have dibs.
Ezra begins our dialogue by saying to Charlotte, Wait a minute, meaning stop.
What happened to the $500 in our joint account?
A joint J-O-I-N-T account is a bank account that two or more people share, which means that either person if it's a two-person account can spend money from that bank account or withdraw money.
We would say.
Charlotte says, I probably paid bills with it.
Charlotte says that she probably paid bills, B-I-L-L-S, with this $500.
Bills refer to obligations that you have to give other people money.
You may have a telephone bill.
The telephone company may send you a bill in the mail, a piece of paper telling you how much money you have to pay them for your telephone service.
Charlotte says T-A-Y-C-H-E-C-K is money you get from your job every week or two weeks, perhaps every month, in exchange for working at your job.
The verb to cover...
Here refers to the ability to pay for something, to have enough money to pay for something.
You have to have enough money to cover your rent, that is, to pay for your rent.
If we say something barely B-A-R-E-R covers your expenses, what you have to pay to live, we mean you have enough, but just enough.
You may need $100 and you have $101.
So you barely have enough money.
The money you have barely covers your monthly expenses.
Again, expenses just refers to money that you have to spend in order to live or in order to do a certain thing.
Ezra says, I know, but I was counting on that $500 to pay for new tires for my car.
Ezra understands that the paychecks that he and Charlotte get barely cover their monthly expenses, but he was depending on or relying on he says counting on the 500 to buy new tires for his car.
Charlotte says, do you really need new tires right now?
The way I look at it, meaning the way I see things, or in my opinion, if there's any balance in our account, I have dibs on it for some new shoes.
A balance B A L A N C E refers to an amount of money that is in, in this case, your bank account.
Charlotte is saying that if they have extra money in their bank account, she has dibs D I B S on it.
To have dibs on something is to have the right to have or to do something before another person.
It's a somewhat informal expression often used in families especially among children.
Children will say I have dibs on that seat on the couch.
In other words I am the person who gets to use that seat on the couch before anyone else.
Another way of using this word dibs is to call dibs.
I call dibs on the last piece of cake.
In other words, that's mine.
No one else can have it.
Charlotte says she has dibs on any extra money in their bank account so she can buy some new shoes.
Ezra disagrees.
He says, forget it.
He says, We're each supposed to have $150 a month for discretionary spending for non-essentials.
And new shoes definitely falls into that category.
Ezra and Charlotte give themselves each $150 every month for discretionary.
D-I-S-C-R-E-T-I-O-N
A-R-Y spending.
Spending that is discretionary is something that you control and that is not affected by any other rules or obligations.
Non-essentials refers to things that are not essential.
Something that is essential is something that is necessary.
Essential and necessity here are related.
Non-essentials are things that are not required, not necessary.
Ezra is saying that new shoes are non-essentials.
He says they fall into the category of non-essentials.
To fall into is a two-word phrasal verb, meaning that it has the characteristics of a particular group or a particular category.
That's why he says it falls into that category.
It is to be classified or it is to be described as being, in this case, non-essential.
Charlotte says, you don't need to spend $500 for a set of new tires.
You don't need to spend $500 for four new tires, Charlotte is saying.
You just want to splash the cash for some fancy or nice ones.
The expression to splash, S-P-L-A-S-H, the cash, C-A-S-H, means to spend money on something that causes other people to notice you, especially when you're buying things that are expensive but aren't necessary.
It's an informal expression to splash the cash.
If you go out and buy a new Mercedes-Benz or a new BMW car or a new Rolls-Royce, even if you don't need one and after all, who really needs that expensive of a car?
We might say that you are splashing the cash.
Perhaps you want to try to get a new girlfriend, or perhaps you want your neighbors to think that you are very rich.
Ezra says let's stop arguing about who gets to spend the money and first figure out or determine what happened to it, what happened to the 50000?
According to this and we imagine that Ezra is looking at their bank statement, a piece of paper describing everything that happened in their bank account last month the money was withdrawn from our account for automatic contributions to our retirement accounts.
Withdrawn comes from the verb to withdraw, which means to take out of something.
When we're talking about money and bank accounts, we refer to depositing money, putting money in, and withdrawing money, taking money out.
The money was withdrawn from Ezra and Charlotte's account because for automatic contributions.
Something that is automatic.
A-U-T-O-M-A-T-I-C is something that happens without you having to do anything or take any action yourself.
A contribution is when you In this case we're talking about putting money or we would use the verb contributing money to a retirement account.
Retirement R-E-T-I-R-E-M-E-N-T describes what happens after you stop working, usually after the age of say, 65 or 67 years.
That's called retirement.
You are no longer working.
But, of course, you still need money.
And in the United States many people have what are called retirement accounts that you put money into while you are still working.
That money is then returned we hope invested in stocks or bonds or some other sort of financial instrument that allows you to make even more money with your money, so that, when you stop working, you have money to live on.
Yes, the government gives you money through a system we call social security, but often it isn't very much.
So this 500 that Charlotte and Ezra are talking about was actually taken or withdrawn from their account and put into their retirement accounts?
In many companies, this happens automatically.
You decide how much money you want to put into your retirement account and every month The company takes part of your paycheck and puts it into a retirement account.
That's what happens here at CED.
Charlotte says, our what?
She seems confused.
Ezra says, our retirement accounts.
Remember last month we decided to start saving money for retirement?
Charlotte says, whose harebrained idea was that?
Harebrained H-A-R-E-B-R-A-I-N-E-D means stupid foolish, something that was done without thinking about it very carefully.
Charlotte is saying that having a retirement account is a harebrained idea.
She says, do you think we can get the money back?
She's asking if you can then get that money back from your retirement account.
Either way, the answer to that is usually no.
The retirement accounts are often protected for tax reasons.
And so you can't just put money in and take it out whenever you want.
You have to wait until you reach a certain age.
Charlotte wants to get the money back, however.
Ezra says I'm not sure, meaning I'm not sure if we can get the money back, but if we can, I have dibs.
Notice once again the use of that word dibs, meaning Ezra gets to use the money if they can get it out of their retirement account which, as I mentioned, they probably can't.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wait a minute.
What happened to the $500 in our joint account?
I probably paid bills with it.
You know that our paychecks barely cover our monthly expenses.
I know, but I was counting on that $500 to pay for new tires for my car.
Do you really need new tires right now?
The way I look at it, if there's any balance in our account, I have dibs on it for some new shoes.
Forget it.
The tires are a necessity, and your shoes are not.
We're each supposed to have 150 a month for discretionary spending for non-essentials, and new shoes definitely falls into that category.
You don't need to spend $500 for a set of new tires.
You just want to splash the cash for some fancy ones.
Let's stop arguing about who gets to spend the money and first figure out what happened to it.
According to this, the money was withdrawn from our account for automatic contributions to our retirement accounts.
Our what?
Our retirement accounts.
Remember last month we decided to start saving money for retirement?
Whose harebrained idea was that?
Do you think we can get the money back?
I'm not sure, but if we can, I have dibs.
We have no harebrained dialogues.
Everything is thought out carefully and done to perfection by our own scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
