Episode 72
Removing Tax Season Stress: The Hidden Risks of DIY Cross-Border Taxes
For expats, financial mistakes are not usually the result of bad decisions; they stem from incomplete information in an incredibly complex system. Different professionals can interpret the same treaty differently, and multiple defensible positions can coexist. In cross-border taxation, especially when tax treaties are involved, ambiguity is the norm.
In this episode of Expat Wealth, Richard Taylor – dual UK/US citizen and Chartered Financial Planner – is joined by James Boyle – Lead Financial Planner at Plan First Wealth. They explore real-world examples of how even well-informed expats can misinterpret reporting requirements, sometimes resulting in costly mistakes, especially as retirement approaches. Richard and James also address listener questions on Pension Commencement Lump Sums (PCLS) and provide insights into Federal Reserve rates and the US financial markets.
Richard and James discuss:
Pension Commencement Lump Sum confusion: Why tax professionals may give different answers on whether the UK 25% pension commencement lump sum is taxable in the US.
DIY cross-border taxes: Why handling the US system alone can be risky, given its complexity and the severe penalties for mistakes.
The danger of “scaremongering”: How US offshore reporting penalties can compound through penalty stacking, and how working with cross-border tax professionals can help avoid costly mistakes.
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Expat Wealth is supported by Plan First Wealth. Plan First Wealth is a Registered Investment Advisor serving fellow expatriates and immigrants living across the US on matters such as retirement planning, investment management, tax planning and non-US asset management.
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Expat Wealth is affiliated with Plan First Wealth LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Plan First Wealth.
Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Plan First Wealth does not provide any tax and/or legal advice and strongly recommends that listeners seek their own advice in these areas.
ABOUT RICHARD:
Richard Taylor is a British expat, dual citizen (UK & US). Originally from Bolton, he now lives in Greenwich, CT, where Plan First Wealth has its head office.
As the firm’s leader, Richard launched Taylor & Taylor, now Plan First Wealth, and continues to fuel the firm’s growth. Richard is a Chartered Financial Planner (UK – CII) in addition to holding the IMC (CFA UK) and Series 65 (US – FINRA).
Connect with Richard on LinkedIn
James Boyle:
[00:00:00 – 00:00:15]
To kind of set the table right these from the Trenches episodes. We want to be responsive to the feedback we’re getting. We received a flood of questions from a recent episode regarding pension commencement lump sum.
Richard Taylor:
[00:00:15 – 00:00:34]
We operate in the cross border space. A lot of what we cover is governed by the US UK tax treaty or tax treaties because there’s also a state, there’s other treaties, but essentially it’s govern my treaties. And treaties can be ambiguous. There can be different interpretations. There are different interpretations.
James Boyle:
[00:00:34 – 00:00:49]
Knowing that we exist in this ambiguous world of tax treaty interpretations, with different opinions from different advisors and different approaches, how can we manage this efficiently in the right way such that you’re protected to the extent you can be.
Richard Taylor:
[00:00:51 – 00:01:57]
Welcome to Expat Wealth, a Plan first wealth podcast dedicated to helping and ambitious expatriates in America and Americans overseas. Thrive. I’m your host Richard Taylor and Plan first wealth is the business I founded and run today and we work with successful expatriates, immigrants and internationally minded Americans to make the most of their opportunity and avoid the expat landmines. First, a quick disclaimer. While Plan First Wealth LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the the views and positions of Plan First Wealth. Information presented is for educational purposes only. Now, if you aren’t already receiving our emails, please go to our website, planfirstwealth.com and sign up there. It’s free and you’ll be notified every time we drop a new episode. And so much more. Okay, let’s get back to this week’s show. Welcome back to Another from the Trenches, the show where James and I get together and bring you behind the scenes behind the curtain at Plan first wealth as we grow this business and work with our clients. Hi James.
James Boyle:
[00:01:58 – 00:01:58]
How’s it going, Rich?
Richard Taylor:
[00:01:59 – 00:02:18]
Mostly good. Mostly good. We are this is the week of the massive snowstorm. So I’ve spent the week basically digging myself in my house out of snow. First of all, it was just getting the drive clear. And then, and then it was like starting to panic about the amount of snow that was covering that when it starts to melt, will inevitably find its way into my basement.
James Boyle:
[00:02:18 – 00:02:27]
Do you find that? I find shoveling gratifying to start, and then the third or fourth go around, you’re like, this is not fun.
Richard Taylor:
[00:02:27 – 00:02:45]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly that. Exactly that. It gets tiresome and exhausting very, very quickly. And this, this was a, this was a phenomenal amount of snow. I’ve never Seen anything like it? So cold. Right, okay. What are we gonna get to say? We have quite a lot on the docket here, James.
James Boyle:
[00:02:45 – 00:03:29]
We do to kind of set the table. Right. These from the Trenches episodes we want to be responsive to, to the feedback we’re getting from our audience, from our clients, from prospective clients, from people we talk with. And we received a flood of questions from a recent episode, specifically a recent episode with a tax advisor regarding pension commencement lump sum. That 25% that in the UK we all know you could take out tax free in the uk. So when we get a flood of questions and when they’re ranging in sort of intent and candor and what, you know, confusion and bewilderment, we want to, we want to use this platform to address that and to provide clarity how.
Richard Taylor:
[00:03:29 – 00:05:26]
We can we operate in the cross border space. A lot of what we cover is governed by the US UK tax treaty or tax treaties because there’s also a state, there’s other treaties, but essentially it’s governed by treaties. And treaties can be ambiguous. There can be different interpretations. There are different interpretations. And this PCLS issue, this 25 lump sum is, is a very emotive one for, for people with UK pensions, particularly British expats with UK pensions. And there are different opinions out there. There are tax advisors who consider it to be taxable no matter what. There are tax advisors who consider it to be tax free in the US no matter what. And then re the one, the episode you’re referring to is one that had on recently where he said, look, I believe it’s taxable when it’s taken as a lump sum, but there may be a case to be made that if you take it as a periodic payment, it’s, you can make a case for it. And we’ve had nearly all of these reviews represented on the podcast. Very soon, the next, next, always next part is someone who says I believe it’s taxable no matter what. So we’ve had three different tax professionals come on and say three slightly different things. And every time someone comes on we get people reach out to us. Oh, so this is what you think now? And no, we’re not tax advisors. We actually, I don’t think anything on this. I’ve never submitted my own tax return. I don’t ever intend to. I’ve got, I’ve got a heightened awareness of all the issues obviously. But I, I just know there’s different opinions. I am not a tax expert enough personally, but certainly not professionally to come down one way or the other. We’re bringing people on to expose these different viewpoints and to, to impress upon people that these different viewpoints exist and how important it is to go and get professional advice. Find someone you want to work with, find someone who’s going to help you navigate this and make an informed decision.
James Boyle:
[00:05:27 – 00:05:28]
Yep, absolutely.
Richard Taylor:
[00:05:29 – 00:07:11]
So that same episode, I had someone else reach out to me and I actually think they’d responded to the email that we send out. So they hadn’t. I don’t think they’d listened to it yet. So what I’m about to say might, if they’re listening, this might sound, this might sound a bit unfair, but I’m trying to make a wider point. So the email we referred to pension reporting, the different forms you have to submit when you’re, when you have UK pensions and they, they often differ between whether you have an old style personal pension and a sip. And this person who’s extremely knowledgeable, extremely engaged, had written to me saying, oh, so now, now you think 35, are you saying now 35, 20s. This particular form doesn’t apply for a sip. And essentially that’s absolutely not what I’ve said at all. And maybe if this person listened to the podcast, they’d have picked up what we were really saying. But it just really brought home to light for me, like this is someone who’s super engaged, super, super educated, super knowledgeable, is looking for answers and has read something, maybe off the cup, but has read something, put two, two together and got five. We hark on about not diying your own taxes in, In America for expats. I will always bang on this message, but it’s just, it was such a prime example of how you could be looking for all the answers and you can actually have the different pieces of the jigsaw, but not put the jigsaw together correctly. And do you know what? A lot of tax advisers don’t even put the jigsaw together properly. But at least if you have a tax advisor, if it ever becomes an issue, you can say, look, I work with the cross border tax advisor, I follow their advice. What more can I do? And that is a solid, solid defense. That’s a solid argument.
James Boyle:
[00:07:11 – 00:07:48]
It’s one of those things where it kind of circles back to that same point, right? Like you said, this person is looking for answers, is engaged, is doing the research. It is so easy to make a misstep that you won’t know until retrospect. And then those mistakes can be costly. We know that the US system is punitive and complex and Draconian. You want to do what you can to protect yourself up front. However, that means certainly for our audience who is heading into retirement, and we’d say this a lot as well. You don’t want that hanging over you.
Richard Taylor:
[00:07:48 – 00:07:49]
Right?
James Boyle:
[00:07:49 – 00:07:50]
We do not want that threat.
Richard Taylor:
[00:07:51 – 00:08:12]
Imagine, I mean, I don’t think this. Has happened in this case, but just. Imagine if this particular person thought, oh, right, yeah, now plan first. Ralph has said, I don’t need to do 3520s for my sip, which is not what we said in the podcast or on the email. And then going forward, they started doing an 89:38 themselves instead. That could well become a problem at some point in the future. An expensive problem.
James Boyle:
[00:08:13 – 00:08:38]
You know, we want to get the point across that we empathize. Right. It makes our jobs harder too, this level of complication, of complexity. We understand why people want direct, clear, unambiguous answers. It’s not there. Right. So how can we, again, how can we manage it in the right way? I understand why people get frustrated sometimes or think, oh, why isn’t this clear? Yeah, it’s tough.
Richard Taylor:
[00:08:38 – 00:08:52]
Why is this so complicated? Why are there so many forms? Why are the penalties so high? I just want to. A few minutes ago I said I’d never submitted a tax return. What I meant was I never prepared my own tax return and submitted my own tax return.
James Boyle:
[00:08:53 – 00:08:54]
You know, I’ll be very clear.
Richard Taylor:
[00:08:54 – 00:09:05]
Everyone I have, every year I’ve been here, I have submitted through a tax advisor, a cross border tax advisor. I have submitted timely filed tax returns. Just I haven’t prepared them or submitted them myself.
James Boyle:
[00:09:06 – 00:09:08]
We want to make sure that’s clear to whoever might be listening.
Richard Taylor:
[00:09:09 – 00:09:09]
Absolutely.
James Boyle:
[00:09:10 – 00:09:20]
To underline that point, it’s probably worth saying too. And you’ll hear us say this, we’re not tax advisors. Right. We are SEC regulated. We registered investment advisors. We cannot give tax advice.
Richard Taylor:
[00:09:21 – 00:09:21]
Yeah.
James Boyle:
[00:09:21 – 00:09:24]
So it’s a matter of getting in the right experts who can help you with this.
Richard Taylor:
[00:09:25 – 00:09:52]
Yes, yes. You know, right on. On that note, you mentioned before punitive penalties and repercussions for getting it wrong. We did a webinar yesterday and afterwards we got a email from a client who said, guys, thanks. A really engaged client really met this client. But you tell me, great guy, basically said, look, you might want to consider not scaremongering. That was the actual language. Right.
James Boyle:
[00:09:52 – 00:10:12]
No, let me say a couple things because really enjoy working with this client. He’s always engaged, very proactive too, which we’re going to touch on here. We’ve gotten this Feedback a few times. Right. This is just the most recent, but we’ve heard this from a couple clients in the past. I don’t mean to call anyone out, but it is something we take on board.
Richard Taylor:
[00:10:13 – 00:10:18]
Well, this is why I wanted to bring this specific example up because this is from a friend.
James Boyle:
[00:10:18 – 00:10:19]
Right?
Richard Taylor:
[00:10:19 – 00:14:18]
Right. This is from someone who we have a relationship, we have a good relationship with, who trusts us and we trust them, who knows us and we know them, who is coming at this from a supportive place. So, yeah, I don’t want to think, I don’t, please do not for one second think I’m caught. I’m, I’m calling someone out in a negative way here. I’m saying I want to talk about this for a few, few reasons, but often it’s easy to dismiss this feed because it doesn’t come from a friend, but because this came from a friend. It’s been on my mind and I wanted to, and I didn’t want to just dismiss it as, oh, some, someone who doesn’t like hearing what we’re saying and wants to bury their head in the sand. This is not that person. This is not that person. Absolutely. This is coming from a friend. So I’ve, I’ve reflected on this for the past 24 hours and because I don’t, because I think it’s super important, I don’t dismiss it. And I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t want to be. We don’t scaremonger for the sake of drawing up business. We don’t need to. And I’ve thought about this, right. And I have come to the conclusion and I hope I’m not, I hope this isn’t just me deceiving myself, but I don’t think I would change anything because I truly do not think we are scaremongering. And the problem is, well, first of all, it was a 7 tax nightmare. So it was always going to have, it was always going to be inclined towards stuff that can blow up. But I’ve been doing this for 10 years here now and I have read and heard about everything that we talk about all the worst case scenarios. But more importantly, I have seen them. I have seen it happen. We have spoken to many, many people, not necessarily clients, but many, many people who have suffered the negative consequences we’re talking about. So I know it does happen. I also know there’s lots and lots of ways around it. Usually they’re not completely free, but, but there’s usually ways around it. But it happened that these and I think because the repercussions that we refer to are so draconian, are so completely out of whack with the misdeed. Yeah. The oversight, especially what we’re used to from the UK and Europe, people just assume that we are, we are being extreme, but we’re not. And I think that the best way to get a handle on that is listen to the podcast because with the podcast we have guests on experts, tax advisors, estate planning attorneys and that either then they are the ones who come and talk about this essentially in our webinars. A lot of the time I am we are repeating what we have learned from other experts. So you all you have to do is go and listen to actual tax advisors who deal with this day in, day out. Actual tax advisors who are helping people come into compliance. These are the people at the coal face and I don’t think they’re scaremongering. I’m excited to announce that Expat wealth has its first sponsor, the Global Financial Planning Institute. The GFPI exists to provide education, community tools, resources and ongoing research for financial planners and other advanced financial professionals working with international and cross border clients in the U.S. and and Americans abroad. I’m a GFP Institute fellow and I’ve put all our employees through their GFPI programs when they join us. I’ve met some great people. I’ve learned a ton. It’s a genuine community of internationally minded folk doing their best to serve their clients properly and critically sharing what they know in the oftentimes challenging and ambiguous US cross border environment. And as anyone in this sector will. Tell you, you’re always learning. So if you work with international clients and or Americans abroad, or if this is an area you’re looking to get into, check out the gfpi@www.gfp.in stute you. Will be glad you did and I. Hope to see you there soon.
James Boyle:
[00:14:19 – 00:15:00]
Leaving the idea of kind of scaremongering behind. If the experts are recommending an approach or recommending caution or recommending that you are really careful with filing and reporting compliance and taking treaty positions, we want people to listen to them. Right. We’re fiduciaries. We obviously have to place our clients best before our own. And if we didn’t bring these issues to light, we would be remiss, I feel, in our duties. So it’s unfortunate the punitive, draconian nature of the US tax system, but the reality is that’s how it is and we need to shed light on that.
Richard Taylor:
[00:15:00 – 00:15:19]
Absolutely. While we’re at It. I just want to shout out Simon on YouTube. I saw your comment, Simon, under one of our videos with Brian Dunhill. You said you think people tend to overthink FX when it comes to managing equities. And I just want to say I completely agree with you.
James Boyle:
[00:15:19 – 00:15:20]
100% agree.
Richard Taylor:
[00:15:20 – 00:15:24]
I 100% agree with you, Simon. They do.
James Boyle:
[00:15:24 – 00:15:29]
We could do a whole episode on, on currency and fx. But. But yes, we, we agree and it’s a great point.
Richard Taylor:
[00:15:30 – 00:15:35]
Yeah. Right. Should we just talk about what’s going on in the world right now in US Held interest rates yesterday?
James Boyle:
[00:15:36 – 00:15:47]
Yep. Slightly more hawkish, I think. Right. Seems like the Fed is really looking for softness in the labor market before they’ll move, which will be interesting to see.
Richard Taylor:
[00:15:48 – 00:16:22]
Yeah. I mean, I’ve got to tell you, I think this. I’m no PhD economist, but this seems sensible to me. 2.7 but there are questions about the quality of the data given the shutdown last year. Economies pretty robust. There’s a lot going on right now, particularly in currencies, but it’s pretty robust. Inflation’s still a concern. I mean, interest rates aren’t high. They’re also not low. They’re signaling that they don’t think they’re going to go up, they’re going to stay where they are or may go down. This just seems eminently sensible.
James Boyle:
[00:16:22 – 00:16:56]
It’s sort of calm right now, as absurd as that sounds. Maybe politically, but from the Fed’s perspective, things are calm. There are some what I would call things to watch. Right. The conference board survey for the labor market has really tanked. So if I could steal a term from Gen Z, the vibes are off. It feels like the job market’s getting tougher. Of course, anecdotally you’ll see headlines from the big companies. Amazon announced layoffs. That generates interest. But overall, right now, as things stand, it seems fairly calm out there.
Richard Taylor:
[00:16:56 – 00:17:26]
The topic of the moment, other than gold, is currency. The dollar is sliding. This administration has shown signs in the past that it welcomes a weaker dollar, but there’s limits to that. There’s absolute limits to that. So I’m not hugely concerned. And also a weaker dollar would often mean you’d expect the stock market to perform well because all the foreign currencies, foreign income earned, gets translated into more dollars. So it swings around abouts and we’ve.
James Boyle:
[00:17:26 – 00:17:49]
Kind of seen that. Right. I mean, don’t have to get too far into earnings, but meta up 9%, I think on a earnings beat commitment to ramp up AI spending S&P crested over 7,000 for the first time. I mean the party goes on right. Until it doesn’t. And you want to have a plan in place for inevitably when that turns. But as it is right now we’re doing okay. The markets.
Richard Taylor:
[00:17:49 – 00:17:55]
Yeah. And we’re going to have a new Fed chair soon. That’s happening imminently. Right.
James Boyle:
[00:17:55 – 00:17:57]
Coming up soon. Yeah, yeah.
Richard Taylor:
[00:17:57 – 00:18:16]
I’ve been worried about who that could be but apparently Rick Reeder, a very famous and well respected bond trader manager, is a fixed income manager. Is in the. Is in the mix. He’s a serious guy. So I think that’s quite encouraging. So yeah, things are okay markets wise.
James Boyle:
[00:18:18 – 00:18:24]
We’re trying to strain to say that we are talking specifically about the markets. Finance.
Richard Taylor:
[00:18:24 – 00:18:30]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Anything else to you want to add to this before we move on to pick and mix?
James Boyle:
[00:18:30 – 00:18:31]
No, that’s good.
Richard Taylor:
[00:18:32 – 00:18:34]
You go first. What are you reading at the moment?
James Boyle:
[00:18:35 – 00:18:55]
So let’s see. Dark, cold months in January. Freezing dark all the time. If you’re looking for a nice light, pick me up. I just wrapped up a book called Empire of Pain by writer Patrick Radden. Keefe goes into the opioid crisis, the opioid epidemic over the last 40, 50 years. Really, as you can imagine.
Richard Taylor:
[00:18:55 – 00:18:57]
40 or 50 years.
James Boyle:
[00:18:57 – 00:19:20]
Yeah, yeah. The Sackler family, who have a big focus of the book is how they’ve sort of distanced themselves intentionally for many, many years, if you could say, got away with it. So I’m being facetious. Not exactly light reading, but an incredibly well researched, engaging book. Empire of Pain. I think they had made a miniseries.
Richard Taylor:
[00:19:21 – 00:19:24]
Is that the one with Michael Keaton? Yes.
James Boyle:
[00:19:24 – 00:19:36]
I haven’t watched it. Yeah, I’ve heard it’s really good. It feels like that’d be two really depressing experiences back to back. So I’ve held off on watching the show, but that’s what I’m reading right now.
Richard Taylor:
[00:19:36 – 00:19:44]
The amount of lives the opioid ruined, individual lives and family lives, is staggering.
James Boyle:
[00:19:44 – 00:20:07]
And just the political, whether it’s incompetence, negligence, outright corruption that allow that to unfold the way it did is. Is staggering. And you’re talking about multiple generations of a family that, that reaped incredible amounts of wealth. Kind of like succession. It reads like succession a while, but.
Richard Taylor:
[00:20:07 – 00:20:13]
Well, I. I’ve read a few books since we last spoke. I read 1929 by Alex Ross.
James Boyle:
[00:20:13 – 00:20:14]
Andrew Ross.
Richard Taylor:
[00:20:14 – 00:20:16]
Andrew Rossorkin. Yeah. Andrew Rossorkin.
James Boyle:
[00:20:16 – 00:20:16]
Thank you.
Richard Taylor:
[00:20:17 – 00:20:20]
He is just a super, super impressive guy.
James Boyle:
[00:20:20 – 00:20:21]
I’ve been meaning.
Richard Taylor:
[00:20:21 – 00:20:56]
He really is. Yeah, he’s a guy who wrote Too Big to Fail, which is an amazing book. Too Big to Fail. His opening paragraph is the ex CEO of Lehman leaving his Greenwich home. And at the time I’d lived in Greenwich and it was just a full circle moment for me going, yeah. When this all kicked off, I was living in Manchester, working for Scottish Widows and then this, this thing blew up the world and now I’m reading a book about this, the book about this whole saga. And it opens in a street on Greenwich in the town I now live in. Like what life is. Life is crazy.
James Boyle:
[00:20:57 – 00:20:57]
Wow.
Richard Taylor:
[00:20:57 – 00:22:24]
But he’s a super aggressive guy and I want to read this book partly because he wrote it and also partly because this was. This came out at the time when we were. Everyone was screaming about AI Bubble. It’s calmed down a lot now, which, because. Which really does give you a sense we just move from one manufactured digital. I’m not saying there’s not AI Bubble, but like, right, it’s all we talked about at the end of last year and now it’s all gold and macro political and, you know, and it’ll be something else and fx and in three months time it’s gonna be something else. And they’re all legitimate, but they all. We all get so worked up in the moment, we’ll get ourselves into a lather. But anyway, it was the AI bubble and I wanted to understand the parallels between 1929 because everyone get. Everyone’s so scared of the next Great Depression. And it was a great read. It was really interesting, fantastically well written and researched. And I came away thinking, yeah, we’re not going to have another 1929 Great Depression that follows. It’s just, it’s very, very different. There was no sec. Insider trading was not only illegal, it was basically how people made the rich people made money. It was, it was. They formed pods. Insider traded like crazy. It was just a complete free for all leverage was absolutely out of control. Like it makes what. What we’re doing now look like nothing. Like people were levered up like 10 times, 20 times, 30 times. It was completely insane. And it’s very, very, very different now.
James Boyle:
[00:22:24 – 00:22:25]
It was like the Wild West.
Richard Taylor:
[00:22:25 – 00:23:38]
Well, shock horror. We have learned an awful lot in 100 years and multiple crashes. And that led me into another book about the. I can’t remember exact name. It’s like the. The History of Marcus in five Crashes, something like that. And it is the Great Depression. It’s 1987. It’s in. I think there’s one in the 60s. It’s the GFC. It’s the Greek crisis of 2012. Again, really interesting. It just shows you every time it’s different. There’s lots of similarities and we learn and we have come along there. And the next one. There will be a next one and the next one. But I do think we have learned a lot along the way. So they were both quite encouraging and educational and interesting. And then I switched gears and I read. I just finished a book on John Lennon and Paul McCartney song partnership, Friendship. And it’s a fantastic. I’ve read several books on the Beatles, but this was slightly different in that it’s. Each chapter is a song starting from super early right until John Lennon’s death. And you learn a lot about their songwriting and their relationship and the Beatles. And that was just a. That was just a really great read.
James Boyle:
[00:23:38 – 00:23:40]
What was the title of that one?
Richard Taylor:
[00:23:40 – 00:23:57]
John and Paul A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie. I highly recommend that book. Anyone who’s interested in the Beatles. And I absolutely love the Beatles. The. And the older I get, the more. The more I love them. It’s a really great book. What are you watching at the moment?
James Boyle:
[00:23:58 – 00:24:52]
We caught up on Slow Horses season five. I think we’re behind on that. It’s so good. I guess this season, like I was chatting with my wife about it afterwards. Maybe not the strongest season, but I would say pound for pound, it’s one of the most entertaining shows on television. It’s just like the characters are incredible. Gary Oldman is putting on the performance of a lifetime and seems to be having a blast doing it. So it’s just amazing how consistent they are. And we actually saw, for our audiences might land. We saw a British comedian, James Acaster, live in Philly last weekend. Yeah, it was unbelievable. I won’t spoil any of the show because it’s a new tour. He’s touring North America. He’s going back to the uk. Second time we saw him in Philly. We saw him a couple years ago. Tickets were $25. Tickets this time were 225.
Richard Taylor:
[00:24:53 – 00:24:53]
Oh.
James Boyle:
[00:24:54 – 00:25:09]
So his. His profile in the States is. Is rapidly expanding, which cost us. But we’re happy to see. We’re happy to see his continued success. We. We had an absolute blast. If you get a chance to see him in North America or the uk, I would highly recommend it.
Richard Taylor:
[00:25:09 – 00:25:13]
Okay. We just finished Heated rivalry.
James Boyle:
[00:25:15 – 00:25:17]
My wife is watching it right now.
Richard Taylor:
[00:25:17 – 00:25:18]
No, I haven’t.
James Boyle:
[00:25:18 – 00:25:19]
I didn’t. I missed that one.
Richard Taylor:
[00:25:19 – 00:25:59]
And so we watched you. All the hype. So after. After a couple of episodes, I was like, this is this. This. This seems to be hype. More hype. It was just, you know, a love story. I was kind of a bit underwhelmed. But then the second half, I thought was great because it’s. And I was trying to understand why I thought it was so great. And it was because I was listening to another podcast where someone was talking about it pivot. And he said it was because you’re always waiting for the bad stuff to happen. You’re waiting for the homophobia to come out. You’re waiting for the. The someone to get shunned or beaten up or rejected, and it never happens.
James Boyle:
[00:26:01 – 00:26:02]
Uplifting, like, in that way.
Richard Taylor:
[00:26:02 – 00:26:38]
Yeah. And that was. It was when it went from, like, humdrum to. Oh, actually, I really enjoyed this because of that. And ironically, if you were writing out beforehand, you’d think, oh, the lack of the drama, you’d want almost. For a drama series, you’d want drama. But it’s almost a lack of the drama that made it so fulfilling and uplifting. So I actually went from being kind of underwhelmed to thoroughly enjoying that show. All right, James, I have to go to the doctor now. So we’ve brought this recording forward. Thank you. Because I think I broke my finger skiing and left it for four weeks, hoping it was a sprain. It’s not.
James Boyle:
[00:26:39 – 00:26:41]
Ran into a tree. Do I have that right?
Richard Taylor:
[00:26:43 – 00:26:44]
There’s just a tree. I wanted to give it like a.
James Boyle:
[00:26:44 – 00:26:47]
Wily coyote, sort of just bash right into.
Richard Taylor:
[00:26:48 – 00:27:08]
I was out of my depth in the. In the trees. My skis were too long. Whatever I’ve got, I’ve got. Learned many excuses. Ultimately, though, I slammed my finger into a tree, and four weeks later, I can’t straighten it. I can’t bend it. It hurts. It’s still swollen. I was it literally. Literally.
James Boyle:
[00:27:08 – 00:27:08]
Well, good luck.
Richard Taylor:
[00:27:08 – 00:27:10]
I hope you buy skis.
James Boyle:
[00:27:10 – 00:27:14]
I hope you get decent news. Maybe it’s. Maybe they can splin it or something. It’d be good to go.
Richard Taylor:
[00:27:14 – 00:27:17]
Fingers crossed. All right, James, good to see you. I will see you soon.
James Boyle:
[00:27:18 – 00:27:19]
Take care, everyone. Cheers.
Richard Taylor:
[00:27:20 – 00:28:18]
All right, folks, that’s another episode of Expat wealth under Our Belts. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it, and I appreciate you. If you’re enjoying the show and would like to support the mission, which is to help ambitious expats thrive in America. I’d ask you to subscribe to the POD wherever you listen and also consider leaving a rating and review. This stuff really does matter. Please help us get this information to the people who need it. That is to your fellow expats. Just a quick reminder that this show is brought to you by Plan First Wealth. We are a US Based financial planner and wealth manager and we help successful American and international families living across the US to make the most of their opportunity and ultimately to retire happier. If you’d like to know more about how we might be able to help you, you can find us on our website, planfirstwealth.com or you can look me up on LinkedIn. Do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. As always, thank you to the podcast guys for their help producing this episode and the entire show. See you next week.
Production