Turning Market Volatility Into Tax Savings – 50th Episode Special | From The Trenches with James Boyle

In a year of economic whiplash, staying invested is easier said than done, particularly when the market drops 20% in ten days. But that’s when the real opportunities appear.

In this special 50th episode, Richard Taylor and James Boyle are back in the trenches to reflect on client behaviour during turbulent times, the emotional traps that investors fall into and the importance of holding your nerve when the pressure is on.

Richard and James break down how to navigate volatility with a clear head and a smart strategy. You’ll hear their advice on how to:

·      Stay invested during downturns and why resisting the urge to panic can preserve your wealth and even unlock powerful tax advantages.

·      Use tax-loss harvesting to your advantage including a real client example where staying the course led to over $20,000 in carry forward losses to offset future gains.

·      Avoid emotional investing traps and what the infamous (but false) “dead investor” myth still gets right about behaviour and market performance.

·      Watch the economic signals that matter like May’s surprising rally and why upcoming jobs data could shape Fed decisions and market sentiment.

If you’re enjoying the show, please consider leaving a 5 star rating and review to help the mission, which is to help expats and immigrants thrive in America. Visit planfirstwealth.com to learn more about our services and connect with Richard Taylor on LinkedIn.

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

James Boyle:

[00:00:02 – 00:00:10]

In 2023 alone, the average equity investor earned 5.5% less than the S&P 500.

Richard Taylor:

[00:00:12 – 00:00:59]

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 a business I founded in a 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. Okay, let’s get back to this week’s show. Welcome back to another episode of from the Trenches. This is the show where James and I. No, sorry, my esteemed colleague James and I thank you. Just like we bring you behind the scenes of Plan first wealth and let you know what we’re working on, what we’re doing, what we’re trying to achieve, how things are going with clients and everything else that we get up to here in this fine business. So. Hi, James.

 

James Boyle:

[00:00:59 – 00:01:00]

How’s it going, Richard?

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:01:00 – 00:01:08]

It’s going well. It’s going well. Oh, I should mention as well. Drumroll, please. This is our 50th episode.

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:08 – 00:01:10]

Yes. Very nice.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:01:10 – 00:01:19]

You know what? I should have worked hard on the intro with that. I’m just winging it now. I used to prepare these. Now I just had to rock up and say the first thing I think of.

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:19 – 00:01:23]

Skill. You know, you can roll up and still be expected to perform.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:01:23 – 00:01:25]

I’m not sure anyone listening to that int.

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:25 – 00:01:25]

Would.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:01:25 – 00:01:37]

Would necessarily call that skill, but I appreciate that. Thank you. Right, so our 50th episode. We will reference this later on in the show, but let’s get straight down to business. What’s the first on the docket today?

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:37 – 00:01:43]

We have our. We have our. Just in time for the 50th episode. Our first retraction. Our first official retraction.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:01:44 – 00:01:44]

Oh, yeah.

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:44 – 00:01:48]

Before the armies of lawyers come after us.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:01:48 – 00:01:49]

Is this what they call a mea culpa?

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:49 – 00:02:00]

Now we know my pronunciation skills are subpar and you have to contend with my American accent. I don’t know if I would call it a mea culpa, but it sounds like one.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:02:00 – 00:02:04]

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So gone. You take it away.

 

James Boyle:

[00:02:04 – 00:03:07]

So we referenced. I think it was the last from the Trenches, right? We referenced a study by Fidelity. And then I went back and listened, and I doubled down and referenced a different study I thought I had read, where essentially the thrust of the story was that Fidelity had. Had allegedly studied, you know, 50,000 client accounts, and they found that over a 10 year period, 20 year period, the best performing investors turned out to be the dead ones, effectively the people who, who didn’t have access to their accounts. After our much needed research team looked into the issue, it turns out this is an apocryphal tale. Right? This is. We couldn’t actually find the source for this study, but I think the point remains and I could talk about similar studies that have been done that I have, we have researched, but we wanted to retract that and make sure that we’re not currying what turns out to be fiction as fact.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:03:07 – 00:03:31]

Yeah, yeah. Well people, this is why AI is going to take over the world. Because human beings are fallible and we are thus fallible. By the way, cracking use of the word apocryphal there, great word, apocryphal, a word we don’t get to use enough is a. It’s also a word that always elicits smiles in our house because years ago when I first encountered this word, I went and told my wife about this new word I’d learned. Apocryphal.

 

James Boyle:

[00:03:31 – 00:03:42]

I was just going to say, much like the adages in the past, a word you see, a word you see written more than spoken. I would say so. Really sweating looking at that word.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:03:43 – 00:04:05]

Also our first in joke because anyone who’s just listening to from the trenches for the first time is know is going to be wondering why on earth you just said adage. So if that’s the case, people go back to the last episode, hear us falsely falsely quote a study or no, sorry, really quote a study that didn’t exist, and also James mumble through the word adage. Unless they do say it differently in Philly.

 

James Boyle:

[00:04:06 – 00:04:14]

They do, they do, that’s rest assured. 50 episodes in we have our own inside jokes. I think that’s. I think that’s pretty powerful.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:14 – 00:04:27]

Well, most podcasts don’t make it this far, so that’s true. I think there is a stat that most don’t make it past 10 or 20 or something. The vast majority like overwhelming numbers. So the fact we’re here at 50 is a good sign.

 

James Boyle:

[00:04:27 – 00:04:30]

And growing, which we’re going to talk about. I know towards the end here.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:30 – 00:04:33]

Growing. Yeah. And much more coming.

 

James Boyle:

[00:04:33 – 00:06:02]

One more note on that before we get off of our official retraction. I did, I referenced this study earlier. So there’s an organisation called Dalbar, they’ve been studying the markets, or, excuse me, advisory firms, investors, individual investors, for over 30 years and I think they were incepted in 1994, they publish annually a study called the DAL Bar Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behaviour. The entire purpose of this study is to determine how individual investors call it retail investors fare in the market. So they published one last year. This is the most recent that is available. And it underscores, I think, the point we were trying to make in referencing this non existent study. They looked at what they call the average equity fund investor. So someone who’s investing in the markets. In 2023 alone, the average equity investor earned 5.5% less than the S&P 500 in 2023. That’s the third largest gap in the last 10 years of the study. All of that comes down to. They have a term for it, but it comes down to essentially emotion and trading. So trying to get in and out of the market, trying to time the market, getting scared out at the wrong times, thinking you know, better than, than, than the average investor. So in a bid to try to add some credence to the point we were trying to make last month, James.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:06:02 – 00:06:34]

I think there is a real study though. I think so. I think the story about the dead investors comes from a conversation, I think on Barry Rithel’s podcast and it was him responding to a question, but I think they were talking about an actual study which was. And again, I don’t want to be so declarative this time because we’ve got it wrong once already, but I believe it was investors who checked their accounts less, who logged in less, fared better because they were checking less, therefore making fewer changes, therefore they just let it, let it run. So the point is still valid.

 

James Boyle:

[00:06:34 – 00:06:36]

Yep, absolutely.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:06:36 – 00:06:44]

Money is like a bar of. So the less you touch it, the longer it lasts. Obviously that applies to spending, but it also applies to investing. Okay, let’s move on from that. What’s going on in the world?

 

James Boyle:

[00:06:44 – 00:07:09]

Wow. So what a month we had in May. For, for the listeners, we’re recording this morning of June 5th. As we know, we’ve been in a period of, of quite some volatility. So all this may change next week by the time you’re listening to this. But we had obviously a tumultuous April, which we, we talked about a lot. May, the S and p finished up 6.2% on the month, the NASDAQ up 9.6%. Inflation is steady. Yes.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:07:10 – 00:07:25]

Wild ride we’re having this year. Do you think about the conversation we were having in April, end of April, we kind of like soldiered through. But before, you know, February, March. Oh gosh.

 

James Boyle:

[00:07:26 – 00:07:53]

And how violent it was right. I mean, we’ve talked about the whiplash of, you know, shedding 20% effectively and I don’t know, a week, 10 days, trading days and then 10% day up. I mean, you know, we’ve, we’ve hit these points. But it just goes to show you, again, trying to predict what’s going to happen next is a fool’s errand. And certainly, you know, we’re not going to pretend to know what happens two months from now or six months from now. You want to make sure you have a plan and you stick to it.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:07:53 – 00:10:35]

Let me tell you a story, a real life story. I’m preparing for a client meeting that I’ve got after this and I thought, oh, this would be a good, a good thing to bring up on the podcast because every time it kicks off like it kicked off in February, despite all the work we do, always trying to prepare people for this and lay the groundwork, there’s always someone who nearly panics off the cliff. It’s different every time. And this time I got one email from a client. This is when it was real, when the market was just in free fall in those 10 days. And he’d only recently invested and he’s a long standing client, but he’d recently invested some more money and he said, I’m thinking, I’m thinking of getting out. This is just, it’s gonna go from bad to worse. I can’t, I can’t handle this. I’m thinking of bailing. And I just, I just said, look, please don’t. I, I can’t tell you what’s gonna happen next. I can’t pretend to have a crystal ball. All I can tell you is that’s not how you make money in the markets and investments in the long term. That’s how you destroy wealth. And he, and he stuck with it, thank goodness. And so not only that, so that, that’s, that’s is always gratifying that, because I’m sure without, without our involvement he would have bailed out and this, that might have been a pattern when we got back in. This is how you destroy wealth. So you destroy retirement, frankly. Anyway, I was preparing for this meeting I’ve got with him today and I was reviewing what’s happened and he’s actually, I mean quite, was actually up on the year. I wasn’t expecting that given the year. And he’s up from when he invested. Not massively, but he, but he is up. And not only that because of the tax loss harvesting we employed during the, during the Volatility, he’s got over $20,000 worth of losses now. So he’s actually. So. But compared to when. I’m looking forward to the meeting now because just I can say to him, look, you’re actually just ahead of where you were when you’re invested. You know, if you, if you’d fall into a coma, you’d think not much happened. You weren’t in a coma, you know, an awful lot happened and you know, it’s quite scary. But the good news is we took advantage of that volatility. You now have $20,000 more than $20,000 worth of losses. You can carry forward on your tax return. That’s going to reduce your future tax bills. The next $20,000 worth of gains. You’re not going to pay tax on it. Essentially, he’s now got $20,000 to carry forward and reduce his future tax bill. So yes, it was tumultuous, yes it was unpleasant. He didn’t bail out. He’s actually ahead now after all that. And he has over $20,000 worth of losses to carry forward to offset against future gains. That was a, that was a crisis well used.

 

James Boyle:

[00:10:35 – 00:11:27]

That’s so true. And there’s something to identifying and then taking advantage, utilising opportunity in periods of uncertainty, in periods of volatility because it, it is scary. Right? And we don’t downplay this, I guarantee you sense of relief when that client came back and he said, look, I appreciate your advice, you know, I’m going to stick with it. We talked about the emotional payload, right, that is involved with these things. But also in that time when it feels like the world is ending and who knows what the next tweet is going to be or the next post social media post is going to do to the markets. There are opportunities there and if you have the reserve, if you have an advisor in your corner who can help you take advantage of those, you, you can come out of the other end of these things better off, even better off than you would have been had that period of volatility not been there. Yeah, that’s a powerful, powerful.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:11:28 – 00:12:22]

I’m seeing it right now. I’m looking at the evidence of this client and you know those, those periods you referenced, they are heavy. They really, they really weigh on a good advisor, Advisors, a good. I know there’s, I know there’s lots of cliches and stereotypes about advisors out there, but a good advisor cares deeply and they care about our clients futures and their well being and we know that comes from prudent Investment management that involves sticking with it and not making these big mistakes that we’re all, that we’re all susceptible to. And when we enter these periods where these mistake opportunities are heightened and at risk, it wears on us massively. But also it’s intensely gratifying. On the other side of it, when you know you had an impact, you know, a positive impact, not just in staying invested, but also in the other strategies such as tax loss harvesting, it’s really gratifying.

 

James Boyle:

[00:12:22 – 00:12:40]

Yep. It was, you know, not to, not to be dismissive of the volatility that we saw in April and May return. It was a bonanza, if I want to use a term for tax loss harvesting opportunities. And you know, if you’re not taking advantage of that, that’s not part of your plan. That’s something you really want to consider.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:12:41 – 00:12:49]

Yeah. Okay. So is there anything else which is, is there anything we need to be aware of in the markets or anything coming up or couple, couple items here?

 

James Boyle:

[00:12:49 – 00:13:20]

I think a lot of the attention now you’re going to see in headlines is on the jobs market. Right. Potential labour slowdown. ADP numbers were published yesterday. I believe as of record, private payrolls rose just 37,000 in the month of May. So that’s almost neutral. Not a great sign. They can not track the, the official BLS reports, which is due tomorrow as of record. But generally the trend is one that they, they follow. Right. So we are seeing a downward trend. Hiring appears to be losing momentum.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:13:20 – 00:13:31]

Things are weakening a little bit. I think we’re entering into a, into a tricky phase where now it’s attention turns to the, to interest rates again.

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:31 – 00:13:31]

Yep.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:13:31 – 00:13:48]

And obviously Trump’s making his opinion known there, but yeah, things are things. No, businesses don’t like uncertainty. And regardless of what you think about the last few months, they’ve been uncertain and all uncertainty remains. And I think you’re starting to see the results of that.

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:48 – 00:14:35]

Yep, I agree, I agree. And there’s uncertainty on the other end of that equation. Right. So you allude to this, but the Fed obviously is in a tough situation. They view, they’ve said this, few members have come out and said they view the tariffs as inherently inflationary. The extent of that remains to be seen. Right. We’ve seen some level of taco trades which we don’t have to get into. But I thought it was interesting this morning that the futures markets in for interest rates are pricing in only one cut now and that not coming until February or, excuse me, till September. Last time we recorded the futures market was Pricing in three cuts. So you can see that uncertainty is really on. You know, it’s weighing on all sides of the equation right now.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:14:35 – 00:14:43]

These, these things are, they change every 10 minutes like something happened, something happens tomorrow and things, they, they change so quickly.

 

James Boyle:

[00:14:43 – 00:14:53]

That’s why predictions here, I think the labour market. Yeah. If we see, if we see a shock jobs report to the downside tomorrow, that future market is going to.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:14:53 – 00:14:53]

Yeah, I know.

 

James Boyle:

[00:14:54 – 00:14:55]

Immediately some more cuts.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:14:55 – 00:15:44]

Everyone’s watching that number. So things crossed. Okay, so let’s get on to, let’s get on to better things. So the 50th 50th episode. So we just want to take a minute here just to, to reflect back really on, on the journey. We are a primarily audio podcast, but we’re also a video podcast and actually where we get most of our engagement is YouTube. I just wanted to, to shout out. We have, we, we have a regular commenter called Simon. I won’t release a second name. I just want to say Simon, thank you. We see you. We appreciate your interactions and your feedback and your comments. So thank you and obviously thank you everyone else for listening. And we have. Sometimes we’ll get emails asking us to cover certain things, which is great. We want more of that as we’ll talk about later on.

 

James Boyle:

[00:15:44 – 00:16:23]

That’s what I was going to tag in there. We love the engagement. We get a tonne of emails, questions. We really appreciate that it helps us. We’ll talk about the journey here and the different iterations this podcast has been in the past and what we expect to see in the future. Preview a bit. But really we want this to be a dialogue with the audience, with the listenership. So if you have topics that are of particular interest, if you feel like you’re butting up against some of these issues and you don’t know specific aspects and you’d like to hear us do a deeper dive, we’re always open to that kind of feedback. We want to make sure we’re shaping this show to be of use to our audience to the best extent we can.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:16:23 – 00:16:47]

Yeah. So it turns out our audience likes attorneys. Tax attorneys. Yeah. So we can see our most listened to episodes. Our most listened to episodes are the man himself, Aiden Graham on estate planning. UK US estate planning. He. For anyone who doesn’t know, he’s a. A U.S. sorry, a UK estate planning attorney who specialises in UK U.S. matters. He’s been on twat three times.

 

James Boyle:

[00:16:47 – 00:16:49]

Three times soon.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:16:49 – 00:18:07]

Recently met him in New York, had a good chap. Virginia Latoya Jaeger is a. The. The OG International Tax lawyer based in Dubai and Switzerland. She’s got a very influential blog, ustax.org she’s been on twice and she’s gonna be coming on again. And recently we had Dan Price on. And that was a real win for this podcast, honestly. Dan is a. Dan spent 20 years at the IRS in the Office of Chief Counsel. 20 years in the belly of. Yeah. So we. Listeners to the show will know we talk a lot about voluntary compliance programmes. We talk a lot about these programmes because all 99.9% of expats and immigrants, in my experience, are in some form of offshore non compliance. Offshore non compliance can be very expensive and very scary. But there are routes back into compliance. There are IRS sanctioned programmes. One of them, the most common, the one we’re most familiar with, is called the Streamline programme. And Dan Price was 20 years at the IRS. He was involved in putting this scheme together. He was involved in the FAQs that are on the IRS’s website right now. He wrote some of them. He has reviewed, I don’t know, hundreds, maybe more of streamlined submission statements. He has seen the good, the bad and the ugly. This is someone who, I mean, what a win. What a huge win for us.

 

James Boyle:

[00:18:07 – 00:18:36]

I think he said not to trump him up too much, but I think he said thousands of streamlined submissions. He’s read. Yeah. And someone who was so important to the construction of the actual programme itself. I mean, it’s, it’s. It’s what a wealth of. Of knowledge that is directly relevant to. Like you say. I would. I would hazard a guess, 90% plus of the people listening to this, the people we talk to. Just an incredible source of information.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:18:36 – 00:19:23]

Yeah. So listen, we will. We hear you folks. We’ll have more attorneys on. I’ve already got. I’ve got one. Aidan’s coming back on soon. I’ve got Virginia scheduled. I’m sure Dan will come back on if he knows everyone’s cheering for his return. But if you. We. We can do lots more. So we’re gonna have. We’ll have more investment stuff going on. I’m looking to get some immigration people on. We’ll obviously, we’ll stick with the tax and the attorney stuff. I’m also out there scouring, looking for interesting expats because one of our other biggest shows was actually a guy called Steve DeFranco and he was the drummer for the band Bad Manners back in the day, before my time, this. But apparently that. That was a really popular episode as well. But he had A great story to tell, excellent episode.

 

James Boyle:

[00:19:23 – 00:20:17]

And that was early on in the life of the podcast, I believe that was before the name change and those things. One of the, one of the recurring themes that I hear from listeners is that there’s just areas here and, you know, anyone listening, I’m sure is aware of this, but there’s areas that it’s just hard to find good information, trustworthy information in what is at its core a niche ecosystem here. So if we can be the delivery mechanism, to the extent we can, to get the good information out there, we want to do that. And also relatable stories, right? People who have been in your shoes, we talk about, we see these problems repeat over and over again. If we can share stories of people who have resolved them, who have addressed them, who have gotten on the other side, that’s excellent too, you know, that, that, that provides a blueprint for people that’s important.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:20:17 – 00:24:00]

That’s why we started this. So just to give a potted history of people. The, the. James and I work in a business that I founded called Plan First Wealth. Plan first wealth exclusively works with us connected expats, mainly British expatriates living in America, but not exclusively. We also will work with other expatriate groups and also Americans overseas. But I started this because I moved here and I recognised being an expat is way more challenging in America than it is anywhere else in the world. I lived in Dubai previously, I’ve known lots of people all over the world and there, there is nothing, nothing akin to the additional rules and requirements and potential penalties that come from being an expat in America or in America and overseas. It is crazy. It’s. It’s a multitude of, of, of confusing forms and the penalties for non. Compliance or potential. Non. Potential penalties are astronomical. And I recognise that despite this, there was no one catering to expats in immigrants that I could find this information. I learned it all the hard way, you know, through, through making mistakes myself. It blew my mind, honestly. So the Plan first wealth was started to cater at that time just to Brits in America, fellow Brits, to try and help them avoid, I call them landmines. Avoid the landmines, take advantage of opportunities, but avoid the expat landmines. Because I also recognised people don’t move to America for the good life. America is a wonderful country. It is many things, but it’s not the good life. The good life, the dolce vita, you go to Europe or, or elsewhere. You know, people don’t come to America in Search of that they go other places. People come to America because it is the land of opportunity for all. It’s for all better or worse. Whatever you think about America, it is the land of opportunity. People come here because they got an opportunity in their career and you don’t turn that down. You come to America for the career of financial opportunities and then to have that jeopardised because of these crazy, idiosyncratic, in my opinion, utterly unnecessary tax compliance issues to jeopardise your success and even your security is. It’s unfathomable. So I set up the business to try and. To Try and help expats maximise their opportunity. And that involves all the time avoiding these landmines. And we did that for a number of years and I do a bit of blogging and bit of posting that’s having the same conversations. People, you know, five years in, people having coming to me and still not doing F bars. And I realised there’s still no one. Like there’s still this information isn’t getting out there. I talk about it every day, one on one, but the information’s still not getting out there. And the podcast was born, basically, I thought, how can we, how, how can we get this information out to a wider audience? People need to know about this. If you listen to podcasts, you’ve heard me say a million times, it’s better to prepare than it is to repair. Although if you find yourself in a situation where you need to repair, do so. Don’t just bury your head in the sand. But I want people to be in a position where they can prepare and avoid these landmines from the get go. Had a fantastic conversation with someone yesterday in the UK who’s moving here, who’s going to do just that. And the podcast was born to try and get this information out there because I have got a great network as well now. I know great tax attorneys, tax advisors, immigration attorneys, investment people, cross border. Brian Dunnit. You know, I know loads of great people and it was born to help get this information out there. So when people move here or when Americans move away, they can do so in a position of knowledge and they can thrive, they can avoid the pitfalls.

 

James Boyle:

[00:24:00 – 00:25:09]

The quicker you address these things, the more options you have. Right. And you, you touched on a really important thing that I think we, we come across a lot. Not to underline it too harshly, but there is sometimes a sense of hesitation in the gentler sense or outright defensiveness. Right. So one of the messages we also want to get across is these Rules exist. Right. And if you are in non compliance, it’s not some moral failing on the part of an expat. It is a direct result of, as you put it, the idiosyncratic, frankly sometimes psychotic nature of US rules and IRS rules and how they apply to foreign accounts and assets and income and reporting requirements. So, you know, if there is someone listening to this and these ideas resonate with them or topics we’ve covered make sense and relate to you, our message always is going to be to be proactive. And just because it’s. You do yourself a disservice to your point, Richard, that, that you threaten the very success that you came here to pursue by sticking your head in the sand if that’s something you’re doing.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:25:09 – 00:25:23]

Yeah. And look, the, the information’s out there. These, these governments are sharing information. Look at fat care. This information is going back and forth and with the advent of AI, they’re going to have exponentially more tools and ability to, to seek out.

 

James Boyle:

[00:25:23 – 00:25:24]

Absolutely.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:25:24 – 00:26:39]

So just get out ahead of it. But you know, just to expand on that, we focus a lot on the landmines. And, and what about today is still a landmine, although it’s not quite as dramatic. But the other way I also found frustrating was people move to America oftentimes mid career. Right. They’ve started in the UK or elsewhere, they’ve risen through the ranks at their company. Mid 30s, they’re doing really well and they get tap on the shoulder to come to America. Now by mid-30s they’ve got pensions, they’ve got retirement assets, they’ve got ISAs or equivalent or funds in their, in their, in their home country. A lot of the time they’ll maintain them, but they get here and either those, those products are now horribly uncompliant and tax inefficient or like the pensions, they can’t do anything with them. So they just languish for 20 years and then 20 years later they’ll come to us in their mid-50s and saying, right, I’m thinking about retirement now. I’ve got these old UK pensions and we pick them up and we like, okay, you’ve got a decent chunk here. You know, what could we, what could you have done with that? What’s the opportunity cost that you. It’s a silent cost. Yeah. You’ve got half a million pounds or dollars or euros, whatever it is, in these accounts. Great. You know that could have been 800,000. That’s a real cost.

 

James Boyle:

[00:26:39 – 00:27:16]

Yeah, you’re talking about material impact to a plan Right to someone’s finances. And like you say, it’s a silent issue in that it’s sometimes the easiest thing to overlook. Right. Workers just think, oh, I had that old pension plan or that old, you know, whatever it may be in the uk, a sip and isa, we’ll get into the issues that can cause as well. But leaving these things to languish, sticking them in a drawer and forgetting about them is not the way to go about, you know, financial success, pursuing, you know, the goals you want to do. So all of these things, we can’t say it enough. It’s best to be proactive, get in the driver’s seat, reach out for help where you need it, get the right team in place.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:27:16 – 00:28:38]

You know, bottom line, I love working with expats. I love expats. Expats for me are, they’re adventurous people, they’re bold people, they’re courageous people, they do cool things, they’re open minded. I just like them, I’m biassed, but, but I just like them and I want them to thrive. I want people come to come to America. I want them to, to uproot their families and come here and start again. And it takes longer than you think to start again or people, everyone says two years and after two years they’re only just finding the feet. It takes longer than you think to settle into a new place. And it’s hard being this far away from your family. It is. And your friends. And I want them to thrive. I really want them, whether they work with plan first, wealth or not, I want expats to thrive and I also want more Americans to consider living abroad. Now listen, they don’t need me to this. It’s since the election, apparently the inquiries have shot through the roof, but I think there is a tremendous opportunity for already successful Americans to change the quality of their lives by living abroad, temporarily or permanently, whatever or temporarily that becomes permanently, who knows? But I think there’s a tremendous opportunity. But again, it’s rife with obstacles. They’re all surmountable with the right advice and knowledge. But I really, I genuinely, really want expats and immigrants to thrive in America and outside.

 

James Boyle:

[00:28:38 – 00:29:17]

It’s not a historically American idea, is it, to move to Europe or move abroad and experience life elsewhere. But I think, and I think we’ve seen this borne out in the, in the, in the stats. People are only going to get more globally mobile, right? Technology allows for it, remote work, all these things allow for it in a way that was not even 10 years ago, right? Even really Prior to Covid, it was still a niche part of the working world. And I think as these technological tools continue to improve, as people get more and more mobile, this is a pattern we are not going to see slow down. And I could see it honestly gaining strength 100%.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:29:17 – 00:29:28]

And you know, they say there’s 9 million Americans abroad. I think that’s right, 9 million. That is a. Okay, that might not be, that might not be many as a percentage of America, but that’s a lot of people.

 

James Boyle:

[00:29:28 – 00:29:29]

It’s a lot of people.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:29:30 – 00:30:03]

Some of them are people who have come to America, worked for 20 or 30 years, taken u. S. Citizenship and then gone elsewhere. It’s not just purely Americans, but they’re treated the same and they need to know this stuff as well American as an American abroad, even if they’re going back to their home country. But, you know, I also heard of those 9 million. Apparently only 5. This can’t be true. Apparently only 500,000 filed an annual tax return. That. That cannot be true. But if it is, it gives you an idea of the staggering level of non compliance. Staggering level.

 

James Boyle:

[00:30:03 – 00:30:27]

It would not surprise me that that stat. Right. I know we’re both gun shy now about being declarative in our statistics without it at hand, but judging on our experience, my experience here and the people we talk to, like we say, no moral failing on anyone’s part. These are complex rules, but very, very common and very easy to slip into the trap of being in non compliance with the IRS and creating problems for yourself.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:30:27 – 00:30:31]

Anything else to say on our 50th reminiscence?

 

James Boyle:

[00:30:31 – 00:30:55]

No. You know, here’s the 50 more. I think we both really enjoy doing this. I think getting the message out there is gratifying. When we do hear feedback. I know we’re ringing this bell a couple times, but that means a lot to us. We appreciate that people are listening, that it’s providing value to people. So like I said, don’t be shy. Right, reach out, leave a. Leave a comment, send us an email. We want to hear what you’re thinking, what you’re looking for, how we can.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:30:55 – 00:31:36]

How we can provide it. Next up, I’ve got Holly Calder. I don’t struggle to say a surname. She’s got a new surname. She got married. I always have to. I’m still. I still always think of her maiden name before I get to her new one. She’s a partner at BuzzerScott in the UK and she’s coming on to talk about UK pension. So whilst we are. The show is expanding Away from just Brits because the business as a whole has. Holly is coming to talk to us about what to do with your UK pension once you’re in America. So you know what your options are, what you need to do taxation wise, what you need to do, reporting wise, how it interacts with the treaty, etc. Etc.

 

James Boyle:

[00:31:36 – 00:31:46]

I’m looking forward to that. That’s one of our most commonly asked questions areas, I would say, right? Maybe the most potentially. So that’ll be a great episode.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:31:46 – 00:31:49]

That’s it my friend. I think we got anything else to say.

 

James Boyle:

[00:31:49 – 00:31:51]

Pick and mix the most important segment.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:31:52 – 00:31:54]

Well, I have not thought about this at all. So you go first.

 

James Boyle:

[00:31:55 – 00:32:40]

I read a new book, a very new book, which is rare for me. They don’t tend to cross my desk, so to speak, until they’ve been out for a couple of years. But this was generating some buzz that I found interesting. It’s a book Careless People. Author’s name is Sarah Wynn Williams. She was a fairly high up executive at Facebook from 2011. I think she joined, was there for about seven or eight years. And it describes a Facebook that transformed from a relatively neutral sort of global policy positioning perspective to one that took a much more active role as we’ve seen in geopolitics.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:32:40 – 00:32:40]

Wow.

 

James Boyle:

[00:32:40 – 00:32:44]

You can put it. Fascinating, fascinating read.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:32:44 – 00:32:44]

What’s it called?

 

James Boyle:

[00:32:44 – 00:32:47]

Very readable. Paige Turner. It’s called Careless People.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:32:48 – 00:32:51]

Careless People. I mean what a great title. What a great title.

 

James Boyle:

[00:32:51 – 00:33:11]

So part of the buzz. I recommend everyone go out and read it and form your own opinions. But part of the buzz is that Meta has, has embarked on a fairly aggressive campaign to disallow the publishing the, the printing of this book. So there was, there was an effort to silence the author. Interesting.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:33:11 – 00:33:20]

Social media companies, they’re, I mean is it hyperbole to say that they’re in the process of destroying this planet? I, I, I, they’re destroying the social fabric.

 

James Boyle:

[00:33:20 – 00:33:34]

You come away. It’s not a feel good read, put it that way. You come away with a feeling of okay, the bottom line matters a lot more and next quarter’s earnings matters a lot more than you know, the, the real world impact on.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:33:34 – 00:33:38]

Have you heard of the Mountainhead? This film from the guy who created Succession?

 

James Boyle:

[00:33:39 – 00:33:40]

I heard of it. I haven’t seen it though.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:33:40 – 00:34:00]

Yeah, we watch it the weekend. It’s not worth watching. It’s not very good. But the premise which is just these uber rich children mentioned, it just skewers these tech tyke. Yeah, tech tycoons for being the immature babies that they are dangerous.

 

James Boyle:

[00:34:00 – 00:34:52]

There’s some of the most fascinating and dangerous through indifference a lot of times, which is sort of more insidious. I get sucked into a lot of these kind of business tycoon books. The one on Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes and the one on Uber and We Work. They’re all really fascinating reads. But one of the most interesting passages in the book, I think she’s talking to Mark Zuckerberg about almost what is your life now when you have unlimited funds? How does it transform how you view the world and manage your day to day? And he’s pretty frank with her. And I think she sees a transformation in him throughout the years. She worked directly with him for many years as well as Sheryl Sandberg, who’s up COO for for many years. It is a fascinating glimpse into a world that obviously 99.9999% of humanity will never come close to experiencing.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:34:52 – 00:35:05]

So great book, Joe. I said I hadn’t prepared for this book because I’ve done our weekly email this week. I have. And I’m just gonna rattle through this quickly. I’ve got quite a lot to share. Season 2 of the Last of Us didn’t like it.

 

James Boyle:

[00:35:05 – 00:35:06]

I haven’t watched it.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:35:06 – 00:35:26]

Well, no, that’s, no, that’s not, that’s not fair. It was a big come down from season one. Season one’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Season two was very disappointing. That’s what I’m gonna say on that books I’ve. This. Have I talked about the Silk Roads book that I’m reading? Because I’ve been reading it forever. Yes, it’s a must read. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a book on like trade.

 

James Boyle:

[00:35:26 – 00:35:27]

I gotta add this to my list.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:35:27 – 00:36:30]

Throughout forever, you know, literally thousands of years. And the old stuff like the 2000, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, all that was really, really. What was really, really interesting for me was it got more and more interesting the more and more modern we got. Especially where I am right now is it’s all about the array. Well, first of all, it’s about the British and the Americans involvement in the Middle east and oil and then how that led to the Iranian revolution and then the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And why this is also interesting to me is because all this happened just before I was born. So I’m, I’m peripherally aware of it. You know, there’s been news when we were growing up would hearken back to this stuff. You know, I’m aware it happened. And I’m also very aware that a lot of the major events in my lifetime, Iraq war, for example, can be tied back to this stuff. And everyone always talks about our involvement, British in America, involvement in the Middle east in oil. I was, you know, I have like a very superficial awareness of all this stuff, but I didn’t really. I couldn’t have told you why the. Why the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. I couldn’t told you anything.

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:30 – 00:36:31]

I couldn’t. Yeah.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:31 – 00:36:59]

I couldn’t say anything more about the 1979 Iranian Revolution other than, you know, the Shah got deposed and it brought in the new regime and they hate America. I could tell you, I know Britain and America were involved in medal swimming, Middle east before that, but I couldn’t tell you any more than that. Now I have such a better understanding of all this and that’s just been. I love it when. I love it when reading does that. So that has been. It’s just a book everyone should read. Honestly, everyone should read Silk Roads.

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:59 – 00:37:02]

Yeah, I gotta read that. I’m a sucker for those. Kind of like.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:37:02 – 00:37:04]

Yeah. Oh, it’s huge though, James.

 

James Boyle:

[00:37:04 – 00:37:30]

Generation spanning historical books where. Because it’s so easy to feel like. Is it enormous? That’ll be one that I read all, you know, alongside other ones, probably. Which probably is a good way to digest it. But, you know, it’s so easy to feel yourself removed from. From the tapestry of history, you know, where it feels like things that happened before you or things that you didn’t cover in school happened in isolation and then. And then to experience one of these stories.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:37:30 – 00:37:31]

Right.

 

James Boyle:

[00:37:31 – 00:37:40]

Or. Or books that help you piece those things together and you realise, oh, yeah, we are really a consequence of everything that’s come directly before us and beyond. Is fascinating. Yeah.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:37:40 – 00:38:06]

Oh, absolutely, yeah. And then I’ll just give you a throwaway one. Much easier. You know, I’m a huge fan of Dan Snow’s History here, a podcast from a British historian. He. You’ve heard the name Captain Cook. Yeah. Basically discovered Australia and you. I didn’t know much more about him other than the discovered Australia. He’s done a episode on Captain Cook and it is just a fabulous story.

 

James Boyle:

[00:38:06 – 00:38:07]

Wow.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:38:07 – 00:38:26]

There is so much more to the story than I realised. And Dan Snow is a consummate storyteller. I’ve listened to it once, I’m listening to it again. There’s a part two, it’s not out yet. I can’t wait for it. It’s an hour and 20 minutes, I think. And I urge Anyone who’s got a spare hour to. I think it was 22 April, Dan Stowe’s history here. Captain Cook, you will not be disappointed.

 

James Boyle:

[00:38:26 – 00:38:33]

Wow, nice. I I that, you know, that’s another thing that we don’t learn any of that in American school. So I’d be interested in listening to that.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:38:33 – 00:38:41]

I’ll just throw you one thing I learned straight away from that. Australia was originally found by a Dutchman, someone Tasman or something. I think he found the island, the Tasmanian Island.

 

James Boyle:

[00:38:41 – 00:38:42]

Ah, okay.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:38:42 – 00:38:49]

Everything, every name, there’s a history to it. It comes from somewhere. And I love discovering things like that. That so.

 

James Boyle:

[00:38:49 – 00:38:51]

And surely there were people. There were people there already.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:38:51 – 00:39:11]

Oh, of course, yeah. I mean, yeah. The European discovery. Yeah, yeah. I think, I think Captain Cook was the first one they set foot on there. I think this, this, this, this Dutch guy just sailed down the coast. I think he’s like the first person to see the east coast of Australia. But Captain Cook, actually, they made landfall on there. But there’s so much, there’s so much more to the story. It is a fantastic listen.

 

James Boyle:

[00:39:11 – 00:39:14]

Dance now. I gotta. Is he by himself? He does it, he does it on his own, right?

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:39:14 – 00:39:18]

Sometimes he does on his own. This one he does on his own. Sometimes. Most of the time he has guests on.

 

James Boyle:

[00:39:18 – 00:39:19]

Okay, cool.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:39:19 – 00:39:20]

Yeah, check it out.

 

James Boyle:

[00:39:20 – 00:39:51]

Pick a mix. That was a good one for not having prepared. You had a lot, a lot to share. So 50 episodes in, obviously, we want to thank everyone who has listened, who continues to listen, who is subscribed, or, excuse me, who follows us. That is a message we want to get out there. So if you are enjoying the podcast, make sure you follow us wherever podcast app you’re listening on. Leave a review if you can. Five stars. That helps tremendously with the algorithms. And like we said earlier, we want this to be a dialogue. Get in touch, send us an email, send us a note, leave a comment on YouTube. We really appreciate it.

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:39:51 – 00:40:56]

Yes, please. Thank you, everyone. And here’s to the next 50. 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 enjoying the show and would like to support the mission, which is to help ambitious expats and immigrants 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, I. E. Your fellow expats. Just a quick reminder that this show is brought to you by Plan First Wealth. We are a US based lifestyle 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 happily happier. If you’d like to know more about how we might be able to help you, you can find us on our website, www.planfirst wealth.com or you can look me up on LinkedIn. Do get in touch. Would 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 time.