[originaltext] If you are in your twenties, you own your first car, your car

If you are in your twenties, you own your first car, your career is more or less launched, and you are starting to look forward to owning a home, but you’re worried, too. Perhaps you’ve got some debt. You probably don’t have much in the way of savings. And with all your expenses, it doesn’t look like you will be able to improve the situation soon. If you wonder how to cut corners, there’s an obvious place to look at your spending habits. Do you buy a soda each weekend? Waste one dollar a day for forty years and when you set to retire, you find your account short by 190,000 dollars. Grab the calculator and you discover that over forty years going out to dinner twice a month at forty dollars each time, amounts to half a million. Even a pack-a-day cigarette habit will lighten your retirement account by 330,000 dollars. And the same with cable TV, and those cool earrings. They will probably amount to as much as one million. So, the first clue to accumulating wealth is to focus on your spending habits. Here are a couple of tricks to help you save even if you swear you can’t afford to. Start buying things that fall rather than rise in value. Pay yourself first. Before you pay the monthly bills, send 25 dollars to a mutual fund. Stop spending coins. From now on, spend only paper currency and keep the change every day. Get your family involved, and you’ll double your savings. Use discount tickets at the supermarket, but use them correctly. How? If you really want to make these tickets worthwhile, you actually must invest into your mutual fund the amount you save by using the tickets. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and your money.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. According to the speaker, what should one pay special attention to if he wants to save up?
17. How much can a person save by retirement if he gives up his pack-a-day cigarette habit?
18. What should one do before paying monthly bills, if he wants to accumulate wealth?