Episode 44
Retirement Strategies Amid S&P 500 Fluctuations: What Are Your Options? | From The Trenches with Richard Taylor and James Boyle
You might already have missed the market bounce-back.
That’s the warning from Richard Taylor and James Boyle in this From The Trenches episode of We’re the Brits in America, where they break down the latest market movements and what they mean for investors and, in particular, expats.
With a mix of market updates and personal insights, they explore why staying invested during turbulent times is crucial, how tax loss harvesting can boost returns, and why diversification is key for long-term success. Plus, you’ll get practical strategies to navigate financial uncertainty. As we always say on the show, keep calm, stick to your plan, and ride out the uncertain times.
Beyond the numbers, Rich and James dip into the pick-n-mix, with book recommendations like Die with Zero by Bill Perkins and 4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, which encourage you to rethink wealth and time. If you’re an expat or immigrant looking to make smarter financial moves in the US, this one’s a must-listen.
We’re the Brits in America 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
Transcript:
Richard:
[00:00:15 – 00:01:52]
Welcome to we’re the Brits in America, a Plan First Wealth podcast dedicated to helping ambitious expatriates and first generation immigrants thrive in America. 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 living across the US to make the most of their opportunity and avoid the expat landmines.
We’re the Brits in America consists of three show formats. We have Ask an Expert where I invite in a fellow professional to share useful and important information that expats and immigrants need to know. Always an Expat, where I invite in a fellow expat immigrant with an interesting story to tell. And from the Trenches, where myself and my colleague James Boyle bring you behind the scenes at Plan first wealth and we share with you what we’re working on, seeing and doing as we build this business. But 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 views or positions of Plan First Wealth. Information presented is for educational purposes only. Now, if you aren’t already receiving our regular emails, please go to our website, planfirstwealth.com and sign up there. It’s free and you’ll then 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 episode of from the Trenches, where myself and my colleague, my esteemed colleague James Paul and I get together and bring you behind the scenes at Plan First. Well, to tell you what we’re working on, what we’re seeing, what we’re, what we’re hearing, what we’re thinking, and what’s going on as we build this business. So, hi James.
James:
[00:01:52 – 00:01:53]
Welcome back to New York.
Richard:
[00:01:53 – 00:02:03]
Yes. Yeah, I should have mentioned that we’re here in New York again. We try and get together every so often and we’re together in New York, which is, I love this city, but boy, is it expensive.
James:
[00:02:03 – 00:02:07]
Pricey. Pricey. Yeah, boy, even lunches, you know, everything.
Richard:
[00:02:07 – 00:02:11]
Is just like, okay, that’s where we are.
James:
[00:02:11 – 00:02:14]
And the last time we were here was right before the holidays.
Richard:
[00:02:14 – 00:02:19]
Last time we were here was stupid expensive. We were here with silly Season. Yeah, it was Christmas and it was just.
James:
[00:02:19 – 00:02:21]
Hopefully it was calmed down a bit.
Richard:
[00:02:21 – 00:02:25]
Unbelievably expensive. Painfully. I’m not coming back. Not doing it in December.
James:
[00:02:25 – 00:02:25]
No.
Richard:
[00:02:27 – 00:02:30]
Right. So I mean, not much to talk about. Right?
James:
[00:02:30 – 00:02:32]
Yeah. Calm week, you know, everything’s looking good.
Richard:
[00:02:33 – 00:03:06]
Nothing to see here. So, going to get into all this. Before I do, I just want to mention something. We have our first sponsor, we’re the Brits in America, is now sponsored by the Global Financial Planning Institute, or gfpi. It turns out we have quite a few financial advisors listening to this show, which is great. Cross border practitioners and budding cross border of practitioners. And the GFPI is an organization we are a part of. We’ve done education events there. I’ve been to a conference. I’m at their conference later this month. Wonderful resource, both educational and community for cross border financial planners.
James:
[00:03:06 – 00:03:06]
Absolutely.
Richard:
[00:03:06 – 00:03:26]
So if you’re listening to this and you’re either a cross border financial planner or you’re a budding cross border financial planner, check out the gfpi. I love being a part of it. So exciting times. Okay, let’s get into this. As we are recording this, this is, this will drop a week later, but as we are recording this, all hell is breaking loose.
James:
[00:03:26 – 00:03:27]
That’s a nice way to put it.
Richard:
[00:03:27 – 00:03:43]
Yeah, all hell is breaking loose. We are in the midst of a trade war. How are we saying that in 2025 we’re in the midst of a trade war? The US market, I should be much more specific. The US market is having a wobble. Doesn’t do it justice. We fell back. We crossed a 10% threshold.
James:
[00:03:43 – 00:03:44]
We’ll call it a correction. Right.
Richard:
[00:03:45 – 00:03:49]
We’re officially in correction territory. Is having a complete. Mel. People are losing their mind.
James:
[00:03:49 – 00:03:49]
Yes.
Richard:
[00:03:49 – 00:03:56]
You go on Reddit, you go on LinkedIn. Less on LinkedIn, but certainly on Reddit and other forums, people are freaking out.
James:
[00:03:56 – 00:04:39]
Retail. Right. If we can, if we can call it that. It’s sort of, you know, the, the, the people we’re talking to day in, day out, there’s some nerves. There is a lot of churn obviously right now. And a 10% correction in what, 20, 20 days is a pretty steep fall off. It is normal though. We want to say that the having a correction every year, entry year, I think if you look back to 1980, it’s 14.2% than 1950. It’s right around 14% what the average entry, entry year, max drawdown. So from the, from the high for that year down to the trough, 14% roughly. We’re not quite there yet. Not to say that there’s. It’s going to run more. We’ll see what happens after today’s inflation report, which I know we want to touch on, but it spooks people. It gets the nerves going.
Richard:
[00:04:39 – 00:04:40]
This is a spooky time.
James:
[00:04:40 – 00:04:41]
Yes.
Richard:
[00:04:41 – 00:04:45]
This is a policy owned goal. It’s political as well.
James:
[00:04:45 – 00:04:46]
Very political. Yes.
Richard:
[00:04:46 – 00:05:06]
Who, who’s your guy or gal who won? And if you’re a Trump guy, you spent the last four years in the wilderness freaking out. The Biden was gonna bought the economy and you might have missed out. And now Kamala, guy or girl. And what’s going on is freaking you out. There’s a very good chance you’re gonna miss. Yeah. You’re gonna sit out whatever happens now.
James:
[00:05:06 – 00:05:06]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:05:06 – 00:05:20]
It’s a narrative we tell ourselves by and large. The impression I’m getting is if you’re a maga, you’re okay with what’s going on because you believe in the bigger picture. And if you’re not maga, you worried that we’re about to kick off World War iii.
James:
[00:05:20 – 00:05:21]
Right.
Richard:
[00:05:21 – 00:05:22]
It’s perspectives.
James:
[00:05:22 – 00:05:27]
It’s perspectives. And I think leaving aside the political aspect, we can’t.
Richard:
[00:05:27 – 00:05:27]
In this.
James:
[00:05:27 – 00:05:28]
Yes.
Richard:
[00:05:28 – 00:05:29]
I’m not, I don’t want to get canceled.
James:
[00:05:29 – 00:05:30]
No.
Richard:
[00:05:30 – 00:05:31]
But in this particular.
James:
[00:05:31 – 00:05:32]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:05:32 – 00:05:35]
Wobble. It’s not even a wobble. I need, I need a better word in this.
James:
[00:05:35 – 00:05:36]
Correction.
Richard:
[00:05:36 – 00:05:39]
Correction. Which could get worse. This is inherently political.
James:
[00:05:40 – 00:06:00]
Yeah, you’re right. You’re right. And I think that’s why we’re seeing the extent of the emotional response that I think we have done. Right. Which is. It’s hard to divorce these things, obviously, like you say, from the politics to, to what’s actually happening. And that makes people even more terrified or nervous. Right. Or should I be getting out? What should I be doing? What should I be thinking about which we’re going to get to here.
Richard:
[00:06:00 – 00:06:05]
But have you heard that, have you heard people increased trading within 401ks?
James:
[00:06:05 – 00:06:06]
Oh, I hadn’t.
Richard:
[00:06:06 – 00:06:09]
People are going into 401ks and trading on the back of this.
James:
[00:06:09 – 00:06:09]
Which. Which.
Richard:
[00:06:09 – 00:06:11]
That’s the stickiest of sticky money.
James:
[00:06:11 – 00:06:11]
Yeah, it’s.
Richard:
[00:06:12 – 00:06:12]
It’s crazy.
James:
[00:06:12 – 00:07:15]
You know, we’ll talk about some stats and what we can do. You know, we talk, we’ve talked about before on this very podcast. How many times the best days follow the worst days. I know you have some great figures for us. What I will say and what these statistics. You know, if you can think of a key takeaway here, it’s that Selling when it feels right or getting out. Right. Getting scared and thinking this time is different and I need to get out of my investment. I’m going to go into my 401k, I’m going to log into T. Rowe Price, whatever it may be, and enact some trades. That is going to feel right in the moment. And very often that’s the most dangerous time to, to give in to those instincts, to make those moves. I know you’ll. You’ll have some from Guide to retirement from JP Morgan, which is really telling. I pulled one from Kelly Cox over at Compounded Friends, who were big fans of. In the last 20 years, if you sold out on a 2% down day. So we just had one on Monday. Right. It was 2.2.7% down or something like that. And then you waited two weeks. So not, you know, 10 business days, 10 trading days. You would lose out on a third of your total gains. So we’re not talking about stepping aside. Wait, wait.
Richard:
[00:07:15 – 00:07:21]
So. So you have a 2% down day, which is. Which 2%, when you and I are talking, doesn’t sound a lot.
James:
[00:07:21 – 00:07:21]
Right.
Richard:
[00:07:21 – 00:07:23]
But a 2% down day is shocking.
James:
[00:07:23 – 00:07:24]
Pretty much emotional. Yeah. Yeah.
Richard:
[00:07:24 – 00:07:30]
You sell thinking the world’s going to hell in a handbasket. I’m gonna, I’m gonna sell here and I’m gonna wait till things calm down.
James:
[00:07:30 – 00:07:31]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:07:31 – 00:07:32]
That’s what everyone.
James:
[00:07:32 – 00:07:34]
Some mysterious point in the future.
Richard:
[00:07:34 – 00:07:35]
It’s always having to wait for the dust to settle.
James:
[00:07:35 – 00:07:36]
Yes.
Richard:
[00:07:37 – 00:07:40]
And then two weeks after you sold, you go back in.
James:
[00:07:40 – 00:07:44]
Yep. A third of your total gains are wiped out. One third for two weeks out of the market.
Richard:
[00:07:44 – 00:08:14]
Wow. Well, listen, this actually fits with this. This is something I’ve been aware of. I’ve posted about this before. It never ceases to blow my mind, even though I know it. Yeah. Mine impact being out the market. This is from JP Morgan Guide to Retirement. This is S&P 500 over 20 years from the end of 20, the start 2025 to the end of 2024. If you just bought the S and P and stayed in the S and P in the can’t buy the index, but you know, a 10.4% return per annum. Per annum. That’s a lot.
James:
[00:08:14 – 00:08:14]
That’s a lot.
Richard:
[00:08:14 – 00:08:20]
Bear in mind, that includes the global financial crisis. 2018, 2022, 10.4%.
James:
[00:08:20 – 00:08:24]
That’s an investment doubling in seven years. Just for, for anyone doing the math.
Richard:
[00:08:25 – 00:08:34]
You miss the 10 best days in two years. The 10 best days. I. I don’t. I don’t know. Maybe what is it 2000 trading days in 20 years.
James:
[00:08:35 – 00:08:35]
That makes sense.
Richard:
[00:08:35 – 00:08:40]
Yeah. I don’t know. Somewhere you missed 10. I had to read the small print to see if it wasn’t 10 a year.
James:
[00:08:41 – 00:08:41]
Right.
Richard:
[00:08:41 – 00:09:04]
It’s not. It’s 10. If you miss the 10 best days out of 20 years, that 10.4% drops to 6.1% per annum. From 10.4% per annum to 6.1 missing 10 days. I can’t get over that. But there’s more. Just a bit more context. Seven of those 10 best days occurred within two weeks for 10 worst days.
James:
[00:09:04 – 00:09:06]
Yeah, exactly right.
Richard:
[00:09:06 – 00:09:21]
And furthermore, six of those seven days occurred the day after the worst day. Wow. Right. So here’s the thing you said before. We’re a 10% win. A 10% correction. It’s happened in 20 days. I believe that’s. If it’s not the fastest that’s ever happened. It’s close.
James:
[00:09:22 – 00:09:24]
I want to say fifth fastest. Oh, right.
Richard:
[00:09:24 – 00:09:24]
Okay.
James:
[00:09:24 – 00:09:33]
Don’t. Don’t quote me on that. I think it’s fifth, which is still. You know, we have corrections. If we have corrections roughly every year, like this. That. That’s up there. Right? That’s a quick. Yeah, that’s a very quick. Yeah.
Richard:
[00:09:33 – 00:09:56]
So things happen quicker now. The 2022 was quick. And 2020. I know there’s a lot of other stuff going on. 2020, this happened faster than 2007, 2008, which happened. I know there’s different circumstances, but just you think about the way we’re bombarded at the moment, from your phone to the social media to your tv. It’s. It is constant.
James:
[00:09:56 – 00:09:57]
A deluge.
Richard:
[00:09:57 – 00:10:03]
And things. I think, as a result, I think things happen. I think everyone’s more connected, more aware of this, and things happen much, much faster.
James:
[00:10:03 – 00:10:04]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:10:04 – 00:10:26]
So we’ve fallen in 20 days. You can’t preempt that. No, you just can’t preempt that. But it’s gonna bounce back just as quickly. And all the evidence suggests that’s the case as well. And if you sell out after a drop, because you can’t preempt these things other than never being invested, you can’t consistently preempt these things. So you sell out after a drop. You wait for the. You wait for this to settle. You’ve missed the best days.
James:
[00:10:26 – 00:10:26]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:10:27 – 00:10:39]
You’ve destroyed your investments. This is investing. It is painful. It is hard. It’s counterintuitive at times. It’s downright scary. When it’s your own money. Oh, it’s so much worse.
James:
[00:10:40 – 00:11:34]
Terrifying. Yeah. It can Be this is investing comes with a dinner. I saw that today. I saw that in a comment online. The corrections come with the dinner of investing, which I thought was a funny way to put it. We don’t want to belabor the point, but this is something we always touch on because like you say, this is what makes investing so lucrative in the long term. Right. And the power of compounding earnings and interest on, on your investments. People tend to forget that if you’re trying to time the market or if you make the fatal mistake of, of selling out after a correction like this and getting, you know, scared away from your investments. You also have to time the way back in. Right. There’s two elements of this. So no one is going to be ringing the Claxton Bell at the bottom and saying, okay everyone, let’s get back in, let’s jump in the pool now. It’s, it’s good to go. It’s going to be up and up from here. No one does that. You have to be in a place where you not only are Tim. Which we can argue about, you know, the possibility of doing that and doing it consistently. You also then have to decide to get.
Richard:
[00:11:34 – 00:11:35]
You and I.
James:
[00:11:35 – 00:11:49]
No, no, we’re not agree. Absolutely not. No. But there are still people that, that insist they can and you know, if they have the confidence to, to try to think that they’re going to get in at the bottom or you know, like you say, when the dust settles, that’s when I’ll get back in. You might have missed a bounce back.
Richard:
[00:11:49 – 00:12:21]
No, no, you’ve missed the bounce, but not. There’s no might about it. The stats we just talked about, you’ve missed it. That’s how you destroy wealth. That’s not how you build wealth. I’m just going to read something from, from Nick Murray. This was actually written before this got really. It’s all kicked off. But I think it’s so important because I think people, all of us, we lose sight of the fact that long term stock market is a function of profits. It’s a multiple of profits. That’s what it is. That’s why it keeps rising. Because people go to work, make more money, are ambitious, profits grow, valuations grow with it. But in the short term it’s emotions.
James:
[00:12:22 – 00:12:22]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:12:22 – 00:12:58]
It’s fear and greed. Right now we’re in fear and people lose sight of that. And that’s why you have to tune out the short term emotions and focus on the bigger picture. And which has not changed. But Nick Murray says this. No serious investor can make investment policy out of the waxing and waning of his tariff threats, nor media’s hysterical responses thereto. Tariffs will end up being whatever they are, the more draconian, the worse the American economy. This is the key part. And the great companies will immediately begin working around them, as indeed they do about everything. That’s why we own them ultimately. It’s why we believe in them. That’s it.
James:
[00:12:58 – 00:12:58]
That’s it.
Richard:
[00:12:58 – 00:12:59]
That’s it.
James:
[00:12:59 – 00:12:59]
That’s it.
Richard:
[00:12:59 – 00:13:03]
I will say one more thing. Yep, this diversification is working.
James:
[00:13:03 – 00:13:05]
Oh yes, that’s, that’s. We got a lot on that.
Richard:
[00:13:05 – 00:13:43]
The US stock market is having a, it’s in a correction. It’s, it’s really having a moment. Not just large cap, small cap as well. Meanwhile, bonds are doing. And bonds are growing and Europe and China are growing. Europe especially is having a real moment. This is why you diversified. Last two years people have lost sight of this. I think I saw a LinkedIn post in January and in it an advisor was saying, do you allocate your clients to non us? And I was gobsmacked by the responses, the comments, loads of people saying no, absolutely not, why bother? You get exposure to it from these companies, earnings. And I could not believe how many advisors got their clients 100% US.
James:
[00:13:43 – 00:15:25]
Talk about geographical concentration, risk and just blindly believing that the patterns in the last couple years, the last 10 years or so are going to repeat. This is meant to be illustrative, but since Christmas Eve, European value stocks have outperformed U.S. growth by 37%. 37% since Christmas Eve, since the last time we were here, essentially. So when we talk about diversification, this is meant to be illustrative, but since Christmas Eve, European value stocks have outperformed U.S. growth by 37%. 37% since Christmas Eve, since the last time we were here, essentially. So when we talk about diversification, it serves its purpose and it can insulate you to an extent to shocks like this, to times when in a 20 day period you have a correction. One other point on that. I don’t want this to come across as glib. These corrections can be healthy too. You’re talking about, you know, in the short term markets reacting emotionally. We’re off the back of a 20 plus percent year in 2023 for the S&P 500 and another 20 plus percent year in 2024 for the S and P. At some point reality has to seep back in, reset expectations, shake out some of that emotion, some of that irrationality and provide a basis of moving forward. On a way that’s not distorted by we get to let other people debate AI bubbles and things like that and when are we going to see returns on those. But it can be healthy. It doesn’t feel good when you’re looking at your 401k statement and it’s going down on the month. But in the long term, if you have a plan, if you’re diversified and I want to talk about tax loss harvesting, it gives you the confidence to be able to stay the course and like we say, capitalize on the long term.
Richard:
[00:15:25 – 00:15:38]
You don’t have to rise out the year yet. It’s February. My personal opinion is Trump is trying to get as much done as possible in this two year window and it’s going to be bumpy, but it’s still only February. A long way to go in this year.
James:
[00:15:38 – 00:15:58]
Long, long way to go. Some people, I should say, don’t like to hear that the advice is stay the course. They ask what can we do in times of volatility, like what should I be thinking about, what should I be considering? And a big one that I don’t know if we’ve covered on the podcast that we do for our clients. Certainly things you see headlines and things like that is this idea of tax loss harvesting.
Richard:
[00:15:58 – 00:16:18]
I’m glad you brought this up because I get, I’ve been, I’ve been getting emails when we’ve been doing tax loss harvesting, knowing them, going to my clients and I’m wondering, I want to make. Do they realize the silver lining that this is or do you just think. I don’t. I’m not sure they, they fully comprehend what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. So I’m glad you brought this up.
James:
[00:16:18 – 00:17:36]
It’s a very important distinction. Number one, I think we could, you could have better branding for the concept because anytime anyone sees the word loss in an email, they start thinking, what does this mean exactly? Tax on sovereign, very high level, simplistic description of it. Be maintaining full exposure to the market, but also taking advantage of short term losses or long term losses really. So there’s two major mechanisms that you can tax loss harvest. Number one, there’s selling. I’ll give you a very simple example. I have stock in Ford and I’m looking at stock in gm. I sell Ford at a loss. I purchase gm, I’ve crystallized that loss. I get immediate tax savings on that. I buy gm, so I’m still invested in the market. Use these as shorthands. Right. For different indexes and things like that the benefit is that again, we get immediate tax savings, we get tax deferral and we’re not sacrificing time in the market. So we’re not trying to time the market, we’re not getting fancy and you know, trying to overlay making decisions about what’s going to bounce back when it’s purely getting tax alpha on your return in a way that improves your after tax return. By that I mean think about the money coming to your pocket after you paid all the taxes owed you by the tax man. You have a higher level of return than if you had just sat.
Richard:
[00:17:36 – 00:18:23]
I love that it’s trying to achieve a higher after tax return. Another way of putting it is we have clients in a diversified portfolio, which means things are going up and down at different times. Now before we did tax loss harvesting, let’s say the US right now would go down and then it would come back up and we wouldn’t do anything. We won’t be worried, but we would just, we just ride it down and ride it up. Now what happens is when it goes down, if it, if it creates a loss, what we’ll do is we’ll sell that, purchase a very, very similar asset. So you’re still invested, you’re still going to ride it down and ride it back up. Only when we got to the bottom, we, we crystallize a loss. And now what that means is that when we ride it back up, you can use that loss to offset against future gains for that asset or other gains.
James:
[00:18:23 – 00:18:24]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:18:24 – 00:18:27]
Thus deferring ultimately your tax or in.
James:
[00:18:27 – 00:19:01]
Your pocket you could against ordinary income. Now it’s up to a fairly low limit. It’s $3,000 for the year. But you know, you want to talk about immediate marginal rate tax savings. If you’re still working, you’re still earning a healthy income as a lot of our clients are. You know, it’s an immediate benefit that the big guys, the big banks have been offering this to their institutional clients for decades. If you know, years, if not decades, we now have solutions that can do this at scale for our clients. And I really think that if you’re not looking at taxless harvesting, opportun opportunities available to you, or if you’re not rebalancing at times like this, it’s something that you need to consider.
Richard:
[00:19:01 – 00:19:11]
- So if you’re one of our clients and you’re getting these emails from us and we’ve tax loss harvested, silver lining. Yes. This is going to reduce or defer your future capital gains bills. Jolly good.
James:
[00:19:12 – 00:19:17]
We Move to the recap. We had a. We had a barn burner of an episode, if I can be so bold.
Richard:
[00:19:17 – 00:19:30]
With Aiden on the podcast. Yes, this is our last podcast. We had Aiden. Shortly after Aiden and I did a two part special on Cross Border UK US estate planning. The UK went and changed the rules after only two and a half centuries.
James:
[00:19:30 – 00:19:36]
And two and a half months since we recorded those. It’s probably somewhere around there. Yeah, of course. Just in time.
Richard:
[00:19:36 – 00:19:47]
Hayden came back on to give us a. Give us an update and it was quite an update. It was good news. I think. All in all, I was there. I know you just listened to it again, tell us what your interpretation was.
James:
[00:19:47 – 00:20:02]
So if we start with the key takeaways, maybe is good because I think the technical side of it and it does get pretty technical. Aidan is an absolute expert in the area and we appreciate him coming on every time he does. If you’re interested in the weeds and the nitty gritty of what the changes are, are and how they might impact you, go and listen.
Richard:
[00:20:02 – 00:20:15]
You know, on that I sent this to a new client who’s going to go back to the UK and I sent them and I said, look, here’s that podcast episode I was talking about. Just to confirm you don’t need to understand or learn all this. I’m sending it to you in case it’s of interest. We’ve got your back on this.
James:
[00:20:15 – 00:20:16]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:20:16 – 00:20:22]
Yeah, that’s how I kind of approach these episodes. That’s the information. But if you’ve got a good team around you, you don’t need to worry about this stuff. A good team will cover it.
James:
[00:20:22 – 00:21:54]
That’s what I was saying too, because there are broadly using sort of broad based buckets here. There’s kind of two styles of investors. There’s someone who says, I really enjoy reading about this and I want to learn more and research and we have a ton of content on the website, obviously that we put out for free or there’s someone that says, look, I do my job at work and earn a living so that I don’t have to worry about this. And that’s where we can step in and help them. So a couple of things. It has provided clarity where before there was none, quite frankly. Right. There was a lot of ambiguity. We’ll talk about the ten year rule and things like that. For people who have left the uk, a key takeaway. And I think you guys landed on it at the end of the episode. There is that. With that clarity comes opportunities and landmines to use Our verbiage. Right. There are opportunities now with understanding more specifically how these rules are going to be in effect, how they’re going to be applied to both UK assets and worldwide assets that with proper planning in place, with the right team in place, you can take advantage of those opportunities. You can avoid the landmines, you can avoid the pitfalls. So that is a big win, even if you’re on the quote unquote losing side of some of these changes. Right. If, if you find that you might have to make adjustments to your plan going forward. A big takeaway for our clients is that now, 10 years after you’ve left the UK, UK inheritance tax will no longer apply to your worldwide assets. Still have to think about planning for UK situ assets. UK pensions is something we’re going to talk about in a minute here. But essentially once you’ve reached that 10 year landmark which my co host here.
Richard:
[00:21:54 – 00:21:57]
Has 10 UK, 10 full complete UK tax years.
James:
[00:21:57 – 00:22:00]
Yep. Very much simplifies things. Yeah.
Richard:
[00:22:00 – 00:22:05]
No, no more. What are your ties to the uk? What’s your mental state? Seriously, that’s what the old rules were.
James:
[00:22:05 – 00:22:05]
Wow.
Richard:
[00:22:05 – 00:22:08]
What’s your mental state in terms of how emotionally collected are you?
James:
[00:22:08 – 00:22:09]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:22:09 – 00:22:20]
Now it’s simply. Have you been outside the UK for 10 complete tax years? Yes. Okay. You are not, not UK domicile. UK inheritance tax does not apply to a worldwide estate, which is massive for people.
James:
[00:22:20 – 00:22:21]
Huge. Huge.
Richard:
[00:22:21 – 00:22:23]
Because their estates in America are so much bigger.
James:
[00:22:23 – 00:23:40]
Y A lot of, lot of we keep going back to our clients but a lot of the expats we work with were brought over here. Call it mid career. Right. 30s, 40s with a good opportunity abroad. Usually if not immediately earning a lot more, eventually in the fullness of time earning a lot more have built up a significant certainly to, to you know, what they might have had in UK pensions and things like that. A lot of it’s going to be based in the us. The, the threat or the prospect of that coming into their estate from a UK perspective, from, from potentially suffering UK inheritance tax on their US assets, it’s a pretty enormous threat or potential charge, a tax that you would be forced to pay. And now we know with this 10 year, you know, call it a line in the sand, it provides a lot of clarity that many of our clients can rest easy or it may help them figure out plans for the future. The other piece is this idea of a grace period coming back to the uk. So we have. This is enormous and I’m interested to see how this is implemented in full. I know Aiden was joking about the acronym. Right. They’re calling it the FIG regime right now, I think. And essentially it means that for clients who are, for people who are going back to the uk, and this describes a not insignificant portion of that.
Richard:
[00:23:40 – 00:23:43]
I think this is the most consequential for our clients to go back.
James:
[00:23:43 – 00:24:40]
Yep. I think this cohort is going to grow too, I would expect, quite possibly. So for those people going back to the uk, there’s now, and I don’t know if they’re terming it this technically, but again, call it a grace period of four years, wherein if you have income, capital gains arising from foreign investments, you can designate those assets, that income, those capital gains as foreign and you do not have to pay UK tax on it. Which is another fairly significant change for our clients certainly who are thinking to go back, it’s not a full stop, don’t have to worry about it. Obviously at the end of that four years, you then would need to consider, if you’re staying in the uk, what to do with those assets. So that issue is still there, but it gives you, you much more of a Runway. It gives you a grace period quite literally to address some of those things and make sure that you’re either in the process or putting a plan in place to mitigate those investments. Organize your assets in the right way.
Richard:
[00:24:40 – 00:24:43]
To make sure you still need tech advice because it’s still reporting requirements.
James:
[00:24:43 – 00:24:43]
Yes.
Richard:
[00:24:43 – 00:26:02]
You know, you can’t just, just say, oh, designate this in my head. You know, these have to be reported as a process. But this is, this is really big for a couple of reasons. One, because this applies to Brits who have gone, who go back after they’ve been outside for 10 years. Under the old regime, they were brought back in the fold pretty much immediately, I think, whereas now they get the same four year period, which is great. But the real, the real beauty of this for me is it makes, it gives us this grace period, gives people an opportunity to get their house in order once they’ve returned to the uk. So the problem with coming to the US and under the old rules, going back to the UK was once you’ve landed an established residency, if you’ve got assets you shouldn’t have or are less desirable. I’m obviously thinking of PFIX in the us in, especially in an isa, you’re buggered. Yeah, it’s too late. You needed to unwind them before you came. It’s done. And people, in my experience, I hope this podcast changes that. But in my experience, people move a Lot of the times without consulting professionals and then they, and then they land and they think, right, I’ll get my house in order. Now they go and see someone like us and we say, oh, we should come to us beforehand time and time again. Now when that happens, when someone’s going the other way, they have a period where it’s okay, you’ve not triggered that landmine yet. We have a period to unwind it and get you, get you optimal. So I think that’s huge.
James:
[00:26:02 – 00:27:08]
It helps us selfishly too. Right. We have more time to put the plan in place. You know, just, just logistically we have more time. We always, and you know, there’s still an element, like I say, of being aware of these things and taking action, but whereby before, like you say, a lot of times, problems, people with problems come to us and those problems are there. Right. We have to now figure out how to navigate them. If any movement towards a longer period of time or addressing those problems before they are issues helps us, helps the client, it just makes things a lot easier and an enormous benefit. The other piece I’ll say too just to that point is that very often, obviously ideal world, we wish people would take advice before they come to the US before they step on US Oil because of how many nuances there are. Sometimes people think they’ve gotten advice, they’re being moved by a company, they’re an executive mid level position, there’s a relocation package that includes some level of advice or planning advice or tax advice. And how often do we see that that advice is just. Yeah. Outright big four wrong. Yep, yep. All the time.
Richard:
[00:27:08 – 00:27:10]
There’s no F bar. So it’s 9:38.
James:
[00:27:10 – 00:27:53]
Yep. And you talk about sort of step one things. I had a conversation a couple weeks ago where similar story prospect. We were talking to a couple and she, this person was aware. Now they, they had kind of done their own research. This firm had been helping them for four or five years. She had reporting fund problems, she had PFIC problems. And you know, you never want to kind of talk bad about people providing advice in the industry. But, but I said look, these are sort of day one questions that should have been caught before you even landed honestly. And the fact that they’re not, it’s a shame but now you’re in the position where you have to address it. So I just want to make that caveat that sometimes unfortunately people think they’ve gotten advice and it is poor or it’s just subpar.
Richard:
[00:27:53 – 00:28:16]
Yeah. Next up, I’ve got Virginia coming back on Excellent international tax attorney, writes a highly influential blog and she’s going back on to talk about exiting the us. This is massive. It’s gonna blow some people’s minds. So if you, if you’re in the US and you’re in a green card or you’re thinking of getting a green card, you have to listen to this one.
James:
[00:28:16 – 00:29:15]
Yeah, we, that this is an area that we get questions about all the time. All the time. And, and, you know, you made a good point. I think it was with, with Aiden, that the lives we talk about goal shifting, right? The lives of expats, the people we work with are, are inherently changeable. May think they know what they’re going to do in three, five, 10 years and that can blow up and that’s part of the excitement, right? That’s part of the adventure of being an expat. And for me, obviously, I’m an American here in the States, but working with expats. So a lot of times, in my experience, I’m sure this echoes yours. The people who are now faced with a potential exit problem or exit tax issue maybe six months ago, 12 months ago, three years ago, they would never have expected to, to, to. To be exiting. And maybe things have changed, maybe kids have moved, maybe grandkids are in different places. So being aware of these things again in advance, having more of that Runway is, Is enormously helpful. So I’m looking forward to listening.
Richard:
[00:29:15 – 00:29:35]
I always say, I always say I’ve got, when I’m explaining our client bank to people, I say we’ve got clients, clients who are. Most of our clients are in the US and staying in the us. We’ve got some clients who’ve already gone back to the uk. We’ve got some clients who are definitely going back to the uk. And we have other clients who say they’re never going back to the UK but will go back to the uk. Yeah, I’ve seen that happen. Just something, Something changes and it happens quick. Really quick.
James:
[00:29:35 – 00:29:36]
It happens quick.
Richard:
[00:29:36 – 00:30:20]
I will. Let’s just say one more thing on this and we don’t need to belabor it because I’ve got Holly coming on from Buzzercott soon to talk about this. UK pensions were also brought in the UK inheritance tax net. Now, that means, as things stand, it’s looking like UK pensions could get taxed twice, both in inheritance at 40 and then income tax, which would give a blended rate of well above 50. So that’s pretty wild. It’s going to change the way people draw on the pensions. Less so for US is pretty much for us. We’re already recommending people drain their UK pensions. They add complexity to your US tax returns. They are more expensive and more cumbersome than their US counterparts. So for us, generally, we do recommend spending down your. Your SIPs or your UK pensions. But this is definitely something to be aware of. Yeah, but something’s got to give on that.
James:
[00:30:20 – 00:30:25]
I was going to say that there’s no real resolution right now. Right. You know, to the letter of the law.
Richard:
[00:30:25 – 00:30:26]
It feels like.
James:
[00:30:26 – 00:30:46]
Yeah. That this idea of. So for anyone, if you listen to the episode, you’ll hear this. But it doesn’t dissolve the pension wrapper necessarily. Right. So you could suffer the inheritance tax at a very high rate, obviously. You know, it could be 40%, and then your beneficiaries or your children, whoever it may be, will be taxed upon it as income.
Richard:
[00:30:46 – 00:30:46]
Income.
James:
[00:30:46 – 00:30:55]
Yeah. So that. That’s a pretty enormous. Hopefully there are some massaging of the. That accounts for that.
Richard:
[00:30:55 – 00:31:30]
All right, should we. Should we talk about someone who we’ve been chatting to recently? And we hesitate to talk about this, didn’t we? Because it’s like an ongoing conversation. But I posted about it on LinkedIn. I did. I was just so deflated, I think is a way to put it. We come. This. What we’re alluding to here is something we come across all the time and it bugs me every time. So we’re chatting to a prospect. Great guy, really successful. Really successful. And perfect client for us in many ways because his philosophy. He’s just read the book. I think it’s Die with Nothing or Die with Zero.
James:
[00:31:30 – 00:31:31]
Die with zero.
Richard:
[00:31:31 – 00:31:38]
Bill Perkins, which advocates like an American’s really bad at this. Wealthy Americans really bad at this. Spend it.
James:
[00:31:38 – 00:31:38]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:31:38 – 00:31:58]
You’ve earned it. Spend it. You get one shot at this. Live your life. Spend it. Spend it. Spend it. We wholeheartedly. We have a hashtag, one life. One life, which is all about this. I wholeheartedly agree with that. So. So we got really excited because we’re like, great, successful client, big life, big assets. We can. We can really, like, have an impact here.
James:
[00:31:58 – 00:31:59]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:31:59 – 00:32:10]
And then it transpires that an insurance agent beat us to it a number of years ago and he is loaded up, and I mean loaded up with whole life. And my heart just sank.
James:
[00:32:10 – 00:32:11]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:32:11 – 00:32:18]
Because whole life is the exact wrong product for dying with nothing. For spending it all.
James:
[00:32:18 – 00:32:29]
One thing. We talk about goal shift. And you’re right, number one, especially in this situation, that’s not to impugn what happened in the past Right. If you’ve held these policies 10, 15.
Richard:
[00:32:29 – 00:32:31]
20 years, maybe that was his dated goals.
James:
[00:32:31 – 00:32:32]
Right. Maybe things were different.
Richard:
[00:32:32 – 00:32:33]
He was 35.
James:
[00:32:33 – 00:32:37]
Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.
Richard:
[00:32:37 – 00:32:41]
How can. You know, how can. Sorry, I’m getting worked up just talking about it.
James:
[00:32:41 – 00:32:51]
It’s one of those things not to bring us full circle here in some kind of strange way. Financial, poetic way. But the problem exists now, right? In some ways. Now, obviously, I don’t.
Richard:
[00:32:51 – 00:32:54]
I don’t think I’m blaming the client. I’m the insurance agent.
James:
[00:32:54 – 00:32:54]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:32:54 – 00:33:00]
Who’s sold the tax benefits. Oh, if I hear. If I hear about tax free income from insurance one more time.
James:
[00:33:00 – 00:33:06]
And this is something that, you know, insurance in the way that it’s meant to, you know, a lot of agents.
Richard:
[00:33:06 – 00:33:07]
Would talk, there’s nothing wrong with the product.
James:
[00:33:07 – 00:33:08]
Right.
Richard:
[00:33:08 – 00:33:09]
We’re talking about the way it’s sold.
James:
[00:33:09 – 00:33:16]
Tax free. Bequeathing of assets and things. That is the exact opposite of what this case in particular called for.
Richard:
[00:33:16 – 00:33:24]
Right. So it’s not the product what he has. Perfect. For someone who doesn’t want to spend it all down and wants to leave a big legacy for the kid.
James:
[00:33:24 – 00:33:25]
Perfect.
Richard:
[00:33:25 – 00:33:30]
The problem is that’s the exact opposite. The exact opposite of this guy’s objective.
James:
[00:33:31 – 00:33:43]
Yep. It was a case that was so clear. Right. When we, you know, coming away from it, that. Okay, so these are the goals. Right. This is how we would organize the investment. And. Oh, this is not serving you in any way. Right.
Richard:
[00:33:43 – 00:33:49]
It’s not. Know this guy, he had it. He’s got. He’s got the building blocks or he had. And then this is just.
James:
[00:33:49 – 00:34:06]
And it’s not impossible, we should say. I mean, there’s ways to navigate it and build a plan. Looking forward now, obviously the past is the past, but there’s a way to liberate things and make sure that your portfolio is structured in a way to service what you’re looking into.
Richard:
[00:34:06 – 00:34:18]
You referenced the compound before, and I remember listening to Josh on. Of Josh was asked on this compound, like who. Who serves who? And he was like above 25 million. That’s why a house world because they’re dealing with the IPOs.
James:
[00:34:18 – 00:34:18]
So.
Richard:
[00:34:18 – 00:34:23]
Yeah, it’s like captive 10 to 25 million as RIAs. We’re an RIA for anyone listening.
James:
[00:34:23 – 00:34:23]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:34:23 – 00:34:33]
Fiduciary, mostly. Investment led planning led. That’s RIA World. 10 to 25 million. Two to 10, he said is a knife fight.
James:
[00:34:33 – 00:34:33]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:34:33 – 00:34:43]
And that because you got insurance agents in there, you got the warehouses, you got RAs. That’s where most of our clients are. Most of our clients in the 2 to 10 million. So we are in this knife fight where we’re a fiduciary.
James:
[00:34:43 – 00:34:44]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:34:44 – 00:34:56]
Which is the. The only way to be in my opinion. But hamstrings you against people who only have to demonstrate suitability, which is a radically different standard with fee based versus this kind of nonsense where it’s upfront commissions.
James:
[00:34:56 – 00:34:57]
Yep.
Richard:
[00:34:57 – 00:34:59]
Which aren’t disclosed. I don’t think. Are they disclosed?
James:
[00:34:59 – 00:35:05]
They probably have to be somewhere. But I could tell you that very few times is someone going to understand an insurance contract.
Richard:
[00:35:05 – 00:35:09]
We’re involved in this knife fight and it honestly, it just demoralizes.
James:
[00:35:09 – 00:35:11]
It’s frustrating. Yeah.
Richard:
[00:35:11 – 00:35:13]
So I’ve got nothing to say. I just. We’re going to keep talking about it.
James:
[00:35:13 – 00:35:13]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:35:13 – 00:35:23]
I’m going to publicize every come across. We’ve got. We’ve got Mark Maurer from Low Lord Insurance coming on the pod at some point to talk about it. There are obviously there’s great insurance agents out there and there’s. To a hammer, everything’s a nail.
James:
[00:35:23 – 00:35:23]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:35:23 – 00:35:25]
So you. That’s what this is. Yeah.
James:
[00:35:25 – 00:35:47]
And the question is in what? What am I looking to accomplish here? And how can I, in this vast ecosystem of things out there and tools at my disposal, how can I make sure that my clients are going to do that in the most efficient, tax efficient, you know, proper way? It’s okay, what’s the problem? And then how can I solve it using this tool over here? Because I get an upfront commission for it. That’s usually what we see. Which is unfortunate.
Richard:
[00:35:47 – 00:35:51]
Okay. All right, let’s move on from that. So I think we’re done.
James:
[00:35:51 – 00:35:54]
Yeah, that was good. Yeah. Pick and mix.
Richard:
[00:35:54 – 00:35:54]
Okay.
James:
[00:35:56 – 00:36:14]
The best segment, I would say, or the most fun to listen to. Maybe it’s funny because I was. I had a few coming in, but actually I want to talk about one in particular that ties back to Die with Zero, which I think is. Is alumni to our pick and mix. At some point, I can’t. It was either me or you. Okay. I had read it, really enjoyed it.
Richard:
[00:36:14 – 00:36:16]
I listened to podcasts with him and I like the guy.
James:
[00:36:16 – 00:36:24]
Okay. Really important ideas in that book that you don’t see very often in. In other books in this sort of ecosystem. Right. The idea of actually spending your wealth and.
Richard:
[00:36:24 – 00:36:28]
And you see, I’m a lifestyle, financial planning Paul Arms and disciple.
James:
[00:36:28 – 00:36:28]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:36:28 – 00:36:37]
You know, this has very much been my. From 2009. March 2009, when I attended a presentation in the Radisson Blue in Manchester. I have been all about spending.
James:
[00:36:37 – 00:37:49]
Yep, yep. And, and I would say that’s still a rare outlook. And, and you know that’s, that’s why we’re proud of being that, you know, it’s tends to be the opposite. Right. It. Hoard it. Hoard it. So I had mentioned in a previous pick and mix and this would have been probably sometime last year a gentleman from Liverpool, writer by the name of Oliver Berkman. He came out with a book, I think he was a guardian writer for a while. Came out with a book called 4000 Weeks, which is the average lifespan of a human. And it was really meant to sort of talk about the finiteness of existence and structuring your life in a way that maximizes your opportunity and you spend time on the things that mean the most to you, which is things we preach to our client. He came out with a follow up called Meditations for Mortals. It’s a really cool. A lot of the same idea. So you know, if you’ve read one or the other you might not have to double down. But I found that a really good refresher into this. What is a mirage of five steps down the line my life is going to reach the stage that I really believe is the end point. And that’s when I can really enjoy living. And that’s when I. And this is, this is human nature. Right. This is what we fall into the trap of. And reading one of these books, you know, I really enjoyed both of these, is such a potent reminder of that is a fantasy.
Richard:
[00:37:49 – 00:37:50]
He’s got to be happy in the moment.
James:
[00:37:50 – 00:38:49]
Yes. And, and when you can, when you understand that, when you know that oh my to do list is never going to be full like blank, I’m never going to be in box 00. That is freeing in a way. It’s a way that you could say, okay, if I let go of that mirage, how can I then expend the energy I have, the limited energy and time I have into the areas that are going to be potentially most productive or most meaningful, however you’re going to interpret that. And again, it’s one of those things where the book is structured in a very unique way. It’s 28 entries, short entries. It’s designed to be read over the course of a month. So you read an entry, you reflect on it, think about it, you come the next day and read it. And I did, did follow that pattern. I tend to blaze through books but this one, I force myself to go at that pace it is such a potent reminder of the things we talk about, of the things that you might read in a die with zero. Of the things we try to get our clients to see that what you have is right now. That is what’s meaningful. How can we. Right, right.
Richard:
[00:38:49 – 00:39:04]
So you recommend this? I would recommend it because I’m goal oriented. I’m always chasing the next thing and I believe happiness and contentment will be the attainment of that goal. And intellectually I know that’s not the case, but I can’t seem to override.
James:
[00:39:04 – 00:39:37]
My wiring and there’s. I don’t want to make it sound. Because he doesn’t come across as preachy at all. It’s very practical, kind of, you know, actionable, where that instinct that you have and I have to an extent can be powerful, can be a powerful motivator and you can leverage that to do the things that are meaningful for you in the context of understanding that, you know, that that doesn’t come. So, yeah, I really enjoyed that. I’ve read he has a newsletter, I think a bi weekly newsletter. Really have enjoyed both of those books. So that was 4, 000 weeks is the first one and then Meditations for Mortals is the second.
Richard:
[00:39:38 – 00:39:49]
Okay. Mine’s a little bit different. So I’m going to start with something I listened to yesterday, which is not what was not a Pick a mix for today. My what I listened to yesterday, I listened to Bill Burr on Fresh Air. I love that guy.
James:
[00:39:49 – 00:39:50]
Yeah. Yeah.
Richard:
[00:39:50 – 00:40:03]
He’s funny, he’s thoughtful, he’s thought for broking. He’s kind of vulnerable now. He is just. He’s just brilliant. So I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Bill Burr. He kind of got into a bit of a ta tat with Terry Gross. It was great.
James:
[00:40:03 – 00:40:04]
Oh, wow.
Richard:
[00:40:05 – 00:40:15]
Everything’s cool. But it was. They disagreed on some stuff and she pushed back and he pushed back and he was just. It’s just great. This is gonna sound so random. Star Wars. Ah, so I’m not a sci fi guy.
James:
[00:40:15 – 00:40:16]
Me neither.
Richard:
[00:40:16 – 00:40:43]
Never been a sci fi guy. I’ve seen. Seen the first three, the original three Star Wars. I’d seen some of the. The next one, the ones that came in the early 2000s. I hadn’t seen any of the more recent ones. We’ve got Disney I was familiar with, got all these other shows right. Mandalorian Acolyte. And I was like, oh God, well, they’re just Disney just wrecking this franchise, whatever. But then we went to Disney. We went Disney last year for. With Roman and there’s a Star wars world there and it’s. It’s so cool.
James:
[00:40:43 – 00:40:45]
I’ve heard it’s really nice. Yeah, yeah.
Richard:
[00:40:45 – 00:41:00]
And then my son’s been talking about Star wars, so I started watching Star Wars. So it turns out I really, really like Star wars films. The original three are great. The next three are okay. The one’s really bad. And then the final three are. Actually, I really, really enjoyed them.
James:
[00:41:00 – 00:41:03]
These are fairly recent, right? Yeah, yeah.
Richard:
[00:41:03 – 00:41:23]
Seven, eight and nine. But I’m now watching. I’ve just watched Acolyte and now I’m watching the Mandalorian with Roman. And two things why this is about pick and mix. Number one, because the Mandalorian is fantastic. I love it. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve watched on tv and I’m surprised. It’s got Baby Yoda in it. He’s not actually.
James:
[00:41:23 – 00:41:23]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:41:24 – 00:41:32]
And I’m surprised myself. I’m only halfway through the second. I’m how much I’m truly enjoying it. It’s got Pedro Pascal in the lead role, who’s a great actor. You never see him because he’s got a mask on.
James:
[00:41:32 – 00:41:32]
Yeah, yeah.
Richard:
[00:41:32 – 00:41:51]
It’s just a great show and I’m enjoying it. But it’s this ritual now where my wife takes the youngest upstairs to bed. And me and Roman, my 5 year old, we sit on the sofa, just those two, and we watch 20 minutes, 25 minutes, half an hour, the Mandalorian. And it’s just this thing we have.
James:
[00:41:51 – 00:41:52]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:41:52 – 00:42:15]
He looks forward to it. I look forward to it. And you know what? You know how I find parenting really hard? Especially when they were young kids, they kind of. The relentless kind of. Well, the relentless of it really took it out of me. But now they’re in this age where it’s just magic. And every day it’s still hard, but every day it gets more and more rewarding. And this moment is just so special.
James:
[00:42:15 – 00:42:16]
That’s cool.
Richard:
[00:42:16 – 00:42:24]
And I know one day it’ll be gone and I’ll. And I’ll miss it. And so I am in the moment, enjoying it. It’s just this, this wonderful moment of like I’m having. I’m really enjoying this TV program which.
James:
[00:42:24 – 00:42:26]
Completely took you by surprise.
Richard:
[00:42:26 – 00:42:34]
I love Alien movies, but that’s it. But I’m having. I’m loving this program, Mandalorian. I fully recommend, really recommend it to everyone.
James:
[00:42:34 – 00:42:34]
Yeah.
Richard:
[00:42:35 – 00:42:46]
Even if you haven’t seen all the other Star wars films. And I’m having this like really fantastic special moment every single day with my five year Old, who seems to be six. And it’s just a great. It’s just. It’s just. That’s my pick and mix.
James:
[00:42:46 – 00:42:59]
And, you know, that’s something that he’ll remember forever, too. But I don’t have kids. I don’t know if the listeners know that. But are there. Are there. I’m always. I’m bad at knowing what’s good content. At what age are there moments that is he. Does he get frightened at all? Is it. Is it like that?
Richard:
[00:43:00 – 00:43:02]
Well, he was terrified of Michael Jackson’s thriller.
James:
[00:43:02 – 00:43:04]
Oh, okay. That scared me recently.
Richard:
[00:43:04 – 00:43:18]
Yeah. The younger one also likes it. Well, I don’t know. The best I’ve talked about before, Bluey is just the best show going. There’s also Steven Spielberg’s involved in this cartoon called Camp Cretaceous, which is. I was gonna ask really good.
James:
[00:43:18 – 00:43:21]
Is that Jurassic park related? Okay. Because that’s like.
Richard:
[00:43:21 – 00:43:23]
How old is Romans? 5.
James:
[00:43:23 – 00:43:33]
- So I probably was watching Jurassic park and I remember being terrified, but. But loved dinosaurs. You know, love it enough that you kind of tough through it.
Richard:
[00:43:33 – 00:43:34]
The cartoon’s great.
James:
[00:43:34 – 00:43:35]
Nice.
Richard:
[00:43:35 – 00:43:39]
Really great. And Roman’s currently mastering into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I love, obviously. So that’s.
James:
[00:43:39 – 00:43:40]
That’s.
Richard:
[00:43:40 – 00:43:41]
That’s good times.
James:
[00:43:41 – 00:43:45]
That’s having, like a resurgence, I think. Right. Then they. They came out with a couple new movies or.
Richard:
[00:43:45 – 00:43:47]
Oh, we haven’t seen them. If they have. We just watched the old ones.
James:
[00:43:47 – 00:43:59]
There was one from a few years ago, I think that was. It seemed popular. Yeah. I mean, that’s excellent. First of all, the memories that you’re making. Yes. And pizza. Right? It was always.
Richard:
[00:43:59 – 00:44:00]
Yeah, of course. Pizza.
James:
[00:44:01 – 00:44:05]
Yes. Yeah. Excellent. Well, that’s good. That’s a nice light note to end on.
Richard:
[00:44:05 – 00:44:11]
I know we started from tariff war, mayhem nonsense to go. Ninja Go.
James:
[00:44:11 – 00:44:43]
Ninja Go. That is. That’s a normal path for us in these things. Right. We land on. Excellent. Well, thank everyone for listening. That next episode with Virginia, I know, is going to be a big one, I’m sure, and one we refer to often. So certainly we recommend you reaching out about that and don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Right. You have our emails. Richard at plan first. Well, James at plan first. Wealth. We read everything that comes in. We appreciate the feedback, questions that you have. We’re happy to introduce segments on the show to cover them and. And, you know, we really enjoy doing this.
Richard:
[00:44:43 – 00:44:44]
All right, cheers, James.
James:
[00:44:44 – 00:44:45]
Take care, everyone.
Richard:
[00:44:45 – 00:44:45]
Let’s go get some lunch.
James:
[00:44:46 – 00:44:48]
Yeah, absolutely. Bye. Bye.
Richard:
[00:44:51 – 00:45:52]
All right, folks, that’s another episode of we’re the Brits in America under our belts. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it and I appreciate you. If you’re interested, join the show and would like to support the mission which is to help expats and immigrants thrive in America. I’d ask you to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen and also consider leaving a rating and a review. This stuff really does matter. Please help us get this information to the people who need it, that is your fellow expats and immigrants in America. Just a quick reminder that this show is brought to you by Plan First Wealth. We are a US based cross border financial planning and wealth management firm and we help successful expatriates and first generation immigrants and internationally minded Americans living across the US to make the most of their opportunity and ultimately to retire happier. If you’d like to know more about what we do for people like you, you can find us at 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 with joining, producing this episode and the whole show. See you next time.
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