Latest / The Curve / Should Billionaires Be Taxed? + Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce's $20M Wedding.
Transcript
- 0:01Coming up in today's episode, a massive fight between me and my co-host Victoria Harris.
- 0:07We're talking about billionaires, how they should be taxed.
- 0:10There's a lot going on in California at the moment, and we have quite differing opinions
- 0:14on the best way to get money out of the richest people in the world.
- 0:17And then the royal wedding.
- 0:20We break down how much Taylor and Trevor spent on their wedding and the fact they spent more
- 0:26on parking than the average cost of a US wedding.
- 0:29Welcome to The Curve Weekly, where we read the finance news so that you don't have to.
- 0:33I'm Vic Harris, a finance professional who's had a career making money for other people.
- 0:37And I'm Sophie Hallwright, ex-TV radio producer who was very sick and tired of not understanding
- 0:42the economy, so we started this podcast.
- 0:45But before we dive into today's headlines,
- 0:46a quick word from today's sponsor.
- 0:56building a track record as a kiwi saver provider takes time and the real test is whether they can
- 1:01keep delivering returns year after year after year find out more about generates track record
- 1:07and see their disclosures in the podcast show notes and remember that track record does not
- 1:11guarantee future returns vick what is happening how are you how's new zealand give us updates
- 1:18I'm good.
- 1:19There's some great perks about being home.
- 1:21Firstly, you know, my parents treating me like an absolute child, which I'm just like really leaning into.
- 1:27Yeah, doing my laundry.
- 1:28I like literally came home at, was it like 6pm?
- 1:32Dinner was ready.
- 1:33I ate it for like 20 minutes, then jumped on another call.
- 1:36Didn't do the dishes.
- 1:38But also I love, you know, all that like Whittaker's, Vogel's, you know, all the, what do you call them?
- 1:44Delicacies.
- 1:45and also my favorite.
- 1:49I'm so jealous.
- 1:50I'm so jealous.
- 1:52God, I love an Almighty.
- 1:53Not sponsored, just so everyone knows,
- 1:55but God, I love those drinks.
- 1:56No, but go out and buy one, please.
- 1:58Everybody listening to this podcast.
- 2:00Why?
- 2:00You know, invest in what you love,
- 2:02invest in what you know.
- 2:03No way have you invested.
- 2:05I have.
- 2:05I'm so jealous.
- 2:07Why did you not tell me about this?
- 2:08I know I should have.
- 2:09Sorry, it happened really quickly.
- 2:11I feel like I brought the Almighty bandwagon to you
- 2:14and now you've cut me out of the deal.
- 2:16I'm so tough about this.
- 2:18I'm sorry.
- 2:18I'm sorry.
- 2:19But yeah, go buy some, please,
- 2:21so that it can put more money in my pocket.
- 2:22It would be fantastic.
- 2:26But it is a classic example, right?
- 2:28I don't feel guilty now.
- 2:29And now I have a much more wedded interest
- 2:33in seeing it sold out on shelves
- 2:35and like new flavors and all of that.
- 2:37I'm like, ooh, ooh.
- 2:39Yeah, it's quite fun.
- 2:40Yeah, it is super fun.
- 2:41And for anyone that's like, what do you mean?
- 2:43this is just the idea of if you invest in things you know you see around it's so much more fun you
- 2:50feel like a way more active investor because you can see when a product's doing well like even
- 2:56i was listening to the shameless podcast the other day and they have lululemon sponsoring
- 3:00their podcast at the moment and they've brought out this whole new align um line a line of a line
- 3:07you know what i mean align line yeah they've brought out a whole new um bunch of products
- 3:12are like you know that really buttery fabric by the way this is not paid for although it really
- 3:16sounds like it is that I love I'm obsessed with it they feel like you're not wearing pants and
- 3:21I've had them forever you know the ones I'm talking about they're like they have no seams
- 3:24anyway that to me was like the best product that Lululemon ever brought out the fact they're
- 3:29doubling down on something that I know that I've used that I really like made me think maybe their
- 3:36share price will come out of the toilet you never know I'm an LO convert oh god I'm wearing them now
- 3:42actually let's see can you see no i can just see your crotch she's literally opening her thigh
- 3:48right to the center of the camera like no i can now just see your bum yep i can see it nice fit
- 3:54very good oh my god please if anyone's not watching this watch it it's so funny they suck
- 3:58in everything they hold it like it's great it's like i'm wearing a second skin it's great been
- 4:03been a true lululemon you know supporter for many years but i just wanted some brown ones and they
- 4:10I had, Ello had them and I bought them and I was like, oh my goodness.
- 4:14Okay, love it.
- 4:15Before we move into today's stories, I just want to say we have been nominated.
- 4:20Actually, Emily put us forward for this and our producer.
- 4:23And I must say, I would never have applied for this because I just would have assumed there's no hope in hell that we would win this or even like be in the running.
- 4:31I'm sorry.
- 4:32I would not submit an entry because I'm not going to win.
- 4:36What if Sina, who just won Wimbledon, was like, you know what?
- 4:40I'm not going to win.
- 4:41So why would I enter?
- 4:42You know?
- 4:43Are we comparing the winner of Wimbledon to our podcast?
- 4:46Yes.
- 4:48My point is we're New Zealand gals, you know?
- 4:51Yes, we've made our way across the world to the UK.
- 4:54But it's kind of crazy to think that a New Zealand-based podcast that's now in the UK is nominated.
- 4:59Anyway, the point of this is just to say, if you've listened to even one podcast and you've enjoyed it, could you please vote for us?
- 5:08We'll link that in the podcast show notes.
- 5:09I think it would probably be up there with the coolest thing that's happened to the curve.
- 5:13Would you get a Union Jack tattooed on your ass?
- 5:15Oh, shit.
- 5:17Shit.
- 5:19Would it have to be filled in or could it be the outline?
- 5:22Like it makes a difference.
- 5:23It's a tattoo on your ass.
- 5:25Like I honestly think I want to say yes.
- 5:27If we won this, maybe I will get a butt tattoo.
- 5:29I'm surprised you weren't like, how big?
- 5:31Is it filled in or is it outlined?
- 5:34Would not be the first thing I'd ask.
- 5:35Well, because I don't want it to be a big filled in flag, you know?
- 5:39Also, do I want the UK flag?
- 5:41Oh my God, not really.
- 5:43I would get a tattoo if we won this.
- 5:45Do I want it on my butt, which I will say I think is up there with one of my better features?
- 5:49Probably not, but it's a consideration.
- 5:52Anyway, today we're talking about taxing billionaires.
- 5:55The reason that this story is being looked at today.
- 5:57So I have been fascinated in this for a while.
- 6:00I'm sure you have too, Vic.
- 6:01So when I was on holiday, maybe a month ago, I listened to a podcast on this and it was
- 6:07teaching me all about how billionaires basically evade tax and how they country hop to avoid
- 6:13paying tax.
- 6:13You know, you hear like the Cayman Islands or Dubai or like it's a tax haven.
- 6:18And I didn't really understand the concept of this.
- 6:21And then when I was listening to this podcast, I started connecting the dots between politics
- 6:28the idea of taxes, how if you raise them, billionaires leave, etc.
- 6:31It was this big web, and it's absolutely fascinating.
- 6:34And so the fact that something's come up in the news this week that we wanted to discuss,
- 6:38I was like, perfect.
- 6:40I think this whole concept and topic is so interesting.
- 6:43Yes, there has been some news out that there is a vote coming in California this November,
- 6:51and it's all around taxing billionaires' wealth.
- 6:53and France has actually been fighting the same battle
- 6:57and it's causing a lot of controversy.
- 7:00I'm intrigued to know what you think, Soph,
- 7:02in terms of taxing billionaires.
- 7:06What I didn't realize is that so many billionaires,
- 7:09so people who have massive shares in companies,
- 7:12so whether it's like Jeff Bezos and Amazon or whatever,
- 7:15a lot of or almost all their wealth is tied up in stock
- 7:19within the business.
- 7:20And so if you're not being paid a salary per se or you're not pulling out money, then you're not paying a huge amount of tax.
- 7:29So I didn't realize that a lot of them, when they're evading tax or not paying taxes, because they're not technically paying themselves.
- 7:37I guess the companies pay tax.
- 7:39So let's take Elon Musk, for example.
- 7:42Like Tesla, SpaceX, when they make profit.
- 7:44SpaceX doesn't make a profit yet.
- 7:45But when they make a profit, they pay tax.
- 7:48but also like he is a trillionaire on paper you know if he starts selling that stock then the
- 7:54the overall wealth of his decreases because he can't go and sell that all at once and liquefy
- 8:02his assets and then become a trillionaire on paper because as he starts doing that we all know
- 8:07if your founder if the founder starts selling shares it's like big red flags then everyone
- 8:10else starts selling and then your wealth you know starts spiraling into much smaller amount anyway
- 8:15What I'm trying to say is that he will get taxed a capital gain when he sells that stock.
- 8:21The company gets taxed in terms of the company that he owns.
- 8:26So therefore, the dividends that he gets from that stock are also taxed.
- 8:29So there are different ways that they are, quote unquote, taxed, but it's just not like
- 8:34an income tax.
- 8:36So the vote that's happening in California is a blanket kind of 5% tax on billionaires
- 8:45wealth so it's projected to raise around 100 billion over five years and as i mentioned france
- 8:53it's you know been debating a two percent tax so a lot like if you think of lvmh you know louis
- 8:59vuitton moe hennessy that's one of the biggest companies he called it in france and they're
- 9:05thinking of putting a two percent wealth tax on on billionaires which means you know the founder of
- 9:09of LVMH.
- 9:10But I don't know, like part of me is like the number of jobs that Tesla, Amazon,
- 9:17Microsoft, like all these incredible companies, LVMH have created, the amount of tax those
- 9:23companies, I'm not talking individuals, those companies pay in those countries that they're
- 9:30headquartered.
- 9:30And that's why a lot of countries and governments, you know, when Amazon's rolling
- 9:36out a new or looking for a new place to put its head office, they are scrambling to get
- 9:42that company to come to whether it be Seattle, for example, or whatever it is, Texas and
- 9:49whatever state.
- 9:50The number of states that go, okay, cool, we'll lower the tax threshold or whatever
- 9:54to get those companies in to provide jobs, to boost productivity.
- 10:00It's such a roundabout thing.
- 10:01I just think you can't blanket tax people.
- 10:04Otherwise, you're stifling creativity.
- 10:06You're stifling innovation.
- 10:08You're stifling people taking risks to create these incredible businesses, which create
- 10:11jobs, which create technological innovation, which create growth.
- 10:16It's a hard one, though.
- 10:17I think it's interesting when you look at the US.
- 10:19The US is a notoriously supportive country when it comes to innovation, when it comes
- 10:26to startups.
- 10:27But they also do have trailing taxes for billionaires.
- 10:30So if someone leaves the U.S., they have to pay tax for a period of time if they've left.
- 10:36And I think what's really interesting to think about is while I fully agree with you in terms of the business, I mean, the business has to pay tax.
- 10:44It would be completely absurd if they didn't.
- 10:47But why should Elon Musk proportionately pay less than me in tax just because his business pays lots of tax?
- 10:58because I have to pay income tax on my salary.
- 11:01And a lot of those businesses,
- 11:03the whole point here is that,
- 11:05yes, they pay business tax,
- 11:06but if they're not taking an amount out of the business
- 11:09and they're not being taxed on that,
- 11:11I think what would be a really clever way to do it
- 11:14is there's almost like a minimum amount
- 11:16that billionaires have to pay themselves in income
- 11:20so that they can be taxed on that.
- 11:22You know, like there should be,
- 11:23whether it's a quarter of a million, whatever,
- 11:26some money that's being taken from them personally
- 11:28to pay taxes because just because they've created all these jobs, they've also created a huge amount
- 11:33of wealth for themselves.
- 11:35Of course, they have to pay tax on the gains they make or if they sell
- 11:38their stocks.
- 11:39I think it's so unfair that the everyday person has to pay a huge amount on tax
- 11:44on their salary.
- 11:46And yet someone that has more money than most people in the world is able to
- 11:49avoid that.
- 11:50But you're saying money, but then you're saying they're not paying themselves.
- 11:53That's what I mean.
- 11:54I think that there needs to be a minimum amount that they pay themselves out
- 11:57the business because that's kind of the whole thing is they don't do that, which is how they
- 12:01don't pay tax on their income.
- 12:02So I think there needs to be a minimum.
- 12:03I think we're getting into
- 12:04pretty controversial territory.
- 12:07I know.
- 12:07And I think it's very good content.
- 12:09I love that we have
- 12:10a different opinion on this.
- 12:11Like I watched an interview with the CEO, sorry, the founder of
- 12:14Rocket Lab and Rocket Lab's share price has gone absolutely crazy.
- 12:18It's a company similar to SpaceX,
- 12:21creates rockets.
- 12:22It's just done fantastically well.
- 12:23And the CEO came out and goes, I don't
- 12:26pay myself a salary because I have enough kind of drive, upside, whatever you want to call it,
- 12:33in terms of my percentage shareholding.
- 12:34So when the company does well, I do well in terms of my
- 12:37stock.
- 12:37I don't need to pay myself whatever, 100 grand, 200 grand.
- 12:41That can go towards hiring
- 12:44another few people or paying staff or reinvesting in the business to grow further.
- 12:48So therefore,
- 12:49I can, you know, my wealth can be bigger and the business can grow.
- 12:54And I was like,
- 12:55shit I was like good on you I was like you're forsaking you are so confident in the success
- 12:59of your business you know you you want to invest absolutely everything you can because you believe
- 13:04that there is a better return on your investment for investing in in your own business than taking
- 13:09your money and going and spending it that you are going that you are willing to forsake your salary
- 13:14I was like I want to invest in your business because you're putting absolutely everything
- 13:19on the table essentially in terms of backing yourself but you can't tell me it's not because
- 13:23they know 50% of it is going to go to tax.
- 13:26But I don't think it is a tax thing at all.
- 13:29I think if
- 13:29he was going to pay himself $200, I think it's more they genuinely would rather have more ownership
- 13:37in a business that they can influence and eventually spit out dividends from that they
- 13:44could live off.
- 13:45I don't know.
- 13:45I would do that with the curve if I didn't need a salary to live off.
- 13:50I need a salary to live off.
- 13:52But if I genuinely backed myself and was like, this thing could be incredible and let's put my salary to use to further grow, to further reach more women and therefore, you know, grow the value of our business and our shareholding, I 100% would.
- 14:09But I just think what it comes down to is that tax is essentially money that fuels, I guess, the well-being or the development of a country.
- 14:18And so like the tax and the whole point of it is that it creates, you know, health benefits for people who can't afford it.
- 14:25It's creating new roads.
- 14:27It's putting money into growing the country.
- 14:30And I think if that's not being taken from people who are actively living in the society and benefiting from those things, and you and I are paying all of this money towards tax to go and pay for that, I just think it's unfair.
- 14:46I think if we're paying 40% tax, why should someone that has billions of dollars not be doing that?
- 14:52Because the amount for them that that could go into then help everyone else collectively is quite significant.
- 14:58I think we're getting confused with this is a wealth tax on their assets, not their income.
- 15:05It's like another capital gains tax, I guess.
- 15:08But I think both things are an issue right now.
- 15:10Like both things are an issue.
- 15:12The idea of taxing assets is one thing.
- 15:14But the fact that most people who have the most money in the world don't pay normal tax on income is also so problematic.
- 15:21Yeah, and I mean, I guess we've seen this essentially happen in the UK and people just up and left.
- 15:29And then you're missing out on so much more.
- 15:34When people up and leave your country, that's billions of dollars of tax that you can now not get because you wanted to tax them more.
- 15:44There's a fine tipping point between taxing them too much that they leave or taxing a
- 15:50low amount and you get an influx and that actually works out to be way better.
- 15:55If you had 100 billionaires paying 10% versus one billionaire paying 50%, that's way better.
- 16:03I think you just have to up corporate tax.
- 16:06These companies are spitting out, these tech companies are spitting out billions of dollars
- 16:11of profit.
- 16:13the corporate tax rate should be increased in my opinion.
- 16:16I think it would be really interesting to look at the percentage of men versus women
- 16:20in terms of billionaires and who this whole conversation is massively going to be impacting
- 16:25because we talk a lot about how imbalanced the men that are running companies on the S&P 500,
- 16:33for example, are.
- 16:34And it's probably worth noting there's only 14% of the world's
- 16:39billionaires that are women so there's there's a there's a disproportionate amount of men that
- 16:43are impacted if this tax is risen yeah i guess my my the reason i wanted to bring it up and it's not
- 16:48to make it super gendered but i do wonder if the reason there's so much resistance to this
- 16:55is that gender split i feel like we talk a lot about the philanthropic mentality women have when
- 17:04they have wealth comparatively to when it's with men that have money.
- 17:08I feel like the reason that
- 17:10this debate keeps coming up and everyone is so resistant to it is potentially because it's
- 17:16essentially 80%, 85% men's wealth that this will be impacting.
- 17:22Yes.
- 17:22Yeah.
- 17:23And I think where women
- 17:25do show up on the list in that 14%, you know, a lot of that is money they've inherited compared
- 17:32to the majority of men which have been self-made and that's a whole kind of intergenerational
- 17:39wealth conversation that again also countries are trying to tax particularly in the UK you know
- 17:46increasing the inheritance tax all of that because there is this whole wealth transfer which was
- 17:51spoken about happening so yeah I think we are in a world where there has been massive rises in
- 18:00wealth creation and like i mentioned we've got our first trillionaire we've never ever had
- 18:07a single person on earth that has had that much wealth so it's like how do we equalize that a bit
- 18:13more i mean i'd be really interested to look at the this in more detail but the flow on effects
- 18:18particularly politically is actually so much more intense than i realized initially oh totally
- 18:24That's why all the top tech founders are in bed with Trump, because they know the last thing they want is a tax being introduced that they have to pay 5% tax on their overall net worth.
- 18:36But also, we're talking about if you've got $10 billion and you have to pay an extra few percent in terms of a wealth tax or a net worth tax, it's probably like half a billion.
- 18:50It's not really moving the needle.
- 18:52Half a billion.
- 18:53imagine what you could do with that money in terms of if that was then being put into
- 18:58fueling an economy or helping people and I know that it's not a huge amount of money but
- 19:04if if you know most majority of the world's wealth is with like 10 percent of people
- 19:08I just feel like it's super unfair for so much tax to be taken from the individual when really
- 19:15we're not looking at that top percentage of people with money and how more of that can be distributed
- 19:22When you say so much tax, I think you're not talking about dollar values, you're talking about percentage.
- 19:28Because obviously, if I'm paying 50% of my salary in tax, that's far less than a billionaire is paying in dollar values.
- 19:38I don't think the way about it is to tax billionaires more.
- 19:43It's more of a systemic issue in terms of how and why have we let corporations and companies get so big that there is founders with such large net worth.
- 19:56That's the issue.
- 19:58I would love to hear from anyone that's listening to this that has an opinion on it because I think that there's so many different ways that you can think about this conversation.
- 20:07if you're listening and thinking oh I really I'd love to share my opinion on this whether it's
- 20:11through the hotline we can link it in the podcast show notes or honestly leave it leave a comment
- 20:15where you're listening because it's so interesting for other people to read and interact I've loved
- 20:19seeing a lot of communication like happening between listeners on different platforms so
- 20:25if you're listening to this and you have thoughts on it or questions can you please comment because
- 20:29I'd love to dive into this more another time can I just say yes of course I just think it's very
- 20:35easy to blame billionaires for the situations that we're in and I just I think we are trying
- 20:44to find a solution having the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff kind of thing almost like an
- 20:49after the fact and I think we need to have a conversation of the before the fact having the
- 20:55ambulance at the top of the hill how do we how do we prevent creating such concentrated wealth in
- 21:02this world.
- 21:03What do you mean by that?
- 21:04And what would that look like if we were having the ambulance
- 21:06at the top of the hill?
- 21:07It means you're not going, okay, these people have made so much money.
- 21:11Now we tax them.
- 21:12It's like, okay, how do we make sure that that is more evenly distributed amongst,
- 21:19you know, instead of having the Googles of the world or the Teslas or SpaceX's of the world,
- 21:25How do we more evenly create, how do we more evenly distribute that wealth to begin with?
- 21:33How do we tax that wealth to begin with before it gets to that point?
- 21:38But what would that even look like?
- 21:39Would that mean more corporate tax as they're getting bigger and bigger?
- 21:42Or like, I don't even know what that means.
- 21:45I mean, I don't know, but it would be more corporate tax.
- 21:47It would be, okay, once a company's over a certain market cap, then like maybe there's
- 21:51certain things that come into place.
- 21:53Maybe it is being philanthropic, like a percentage of corporate profits have to go to charities in order to get, I don't know, to be public.
- 22:05I don't know.
- 22:06There's so many more creative things that we could think of than taxing billionaires, I think.
- 22:12But it seems like a very easy way to get everyone on board because there is a handful of few billionaires and there is billions of people that could easily jump on board with this and be like, yeah, you should pay more.
- 22:26It just seems like a bit of a cop-out in my opinion.
- 22:29Okay.
- 22:29Interesting, interesting.
- 22:30Speaking of philanthropic and people with lots of money,
- 22:34we're going to be speaking about Taylor Swift's and Travis Kelsey's wedding,
- 22:38which cost apparently upwards of $2 million,
- 22:40but they also donated like $26 million to charity,
- 22:43as well as Dua Lipa and Callum Turner's wedding.
- 22:45So we're going to look at the finances as well as other fun elements of that.
- 22:50But first, we've just got a quick word from today's sponsor.
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- 23:38I'm so excited to talk about this, Vic.
- 23:41I have been, I would say, stalking Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey, the whole, when the wedding, when the news came out,
- 23:48I was on a little tiny dinghy in the middle of kind of Cornwall on the ocean and I screamed and I said, oh, my God, the royal wedding.
- 23:57And I was like looking through being like Adam Sandler.
- 24:00Oh, my God.
- 24:00He officiated it.
- 24:01What's going on?
- 24:02Anyway, I was on this dinghy with all these randoms and I started out loud being like, oh, my God.
- 24:08And this happened.
- 24:09Blake Lively not invited.
- 24:10Like all these people that clearly just did not give a flying fart about the wedding.
- 24:16But I felt the same about the Dua Lipa, Callum Turner.
- 24:19It feels like we've had two of the most iconic weddings, really.
- 24:25I was going to say in our friendship group, in our wide friendship group.
- 24:28Callum Turner, my gym buddy.
- 24:30Dua Lipa and Callum Turner's photos were something else.
- 24:36Dua Lipa's wedding was a bit more my vibe, I reckon, than Taylor Swift.
- 24:40Yeah, me too.
- 24:41I don't think I'd want to be inviting people I'd spoken to twice to my wedding.
- 24:45Like, how do you know a thousand people, Taylor?
- 24:47Also, how do you get around that many people and say hi?
- 24:50No, you don't.
- 24:51That's kind of the whole point.
- 24:52You probably just don't talk to anyone.
- 24:54Well, anyway, they spent up to, rumored this is, up to $20 million on their wedding.
- 25:02Is that a lot?
- 25:03I don't think it's a lot.
- 25:04$20 million is 1% of her wealth.
- 25:08I'm trying to think what the equivalent would be for me.
- 25:10What's 1% of your net wealth?
- 25:13It's probably like me spending $100 on my wedding.
- 25:16It'd be like me having a $40,000 wedding.
- 25:19That's not a lot.
- 25:20That's actually really, like, comparatively, not to sound bratty, but, like, we're about to release a wedding episode.
- 25:26And the average that even our community spent on a wedding was not a lot.
- 25:30But anyway, she hired out the Madison Square Gardens, which the reason was it is apparently the only place that you can, like, lock down and have full security, airspace, everything.
- 25:43When I first heard it was going to be there, I was like, ugh.
- 25:45So what even is it?
- 25:46What is it?
- 25:47Because it just, to me, sounds like Times Square.
- 25:49It's like Wembley.
- 25:50It's like Spark Arena.
- 25:52It was one of the most extensive private ceremonies in history.
- 25:57I mean, she is worth, yeah, over $2 billion.
- 25:59So $20 million is not that much.
- 26:01But also, Travis Kelsey is only worth $70 to $90 million.
- 26:06She has 25 times more wealth than him.
- 26:08Isn't that the coolest thing ever?
- 26:10And here I am thinking like, oh, I wonder how he handles that.
- 26:13And I'm like, no, actually, go her.
- 26:16God, that's cool.
- 26:17Imagine having that much more money than your partner.
- 26:20I don't know how many couples there are where it's that way around.
- 26:25I don't think I'd like it whatever way around.
- 26:27Neither.
- 26:27Actually, I agree.
- 26:28The imbalance is quite extreme.
- 26:30Yeah.
- 26:31They'd be like, let's helicopter here.
- 26:32I'd be like, no, no, we'll just get the bus.
- 26:34Thank you.
- 26:34It's like me and you in our Greek holiday.
- 26:37fit wanting the audi and me wanting the like about to die in this tiny little sort of fridge on
- 26:42wheels it's really weird to have such a big wealth disparity with friends let alone your partner and
- 26:50i'd love to know did you have you looked at their prenup it's not public but again rumors are that
- 26:58it is one of the most elaborate prenup prenuptial agreements which makes sense right it's apparently
- 27:03It's over 40 pages, but apparently it was overseen by Taylor Swift's father, which is quite nice.
- 27:09He used to be a financial advisor, actually.
- 27:11Some stats of what she spent money on at the wedding, what that $20 million went to,
- 27:17was the venue alone was up to about $2 million, apparently, for three days.
- 27:24And Madison Square Gardens gave her no discount.
- 27:26She paid the full commercial rate, which I kind of like.
- 27:29I'm like, if you can afford it, then...
- 27:30Because it is kind of annoying when people have money.
- 27:32They then don't have to pay for stuff.
- 27:35It's crazy when people end up having money, they just get everything for free.
- 27:38It's like, come on.
- 27:39The amount of shit Kim Kardashian gets for free.
- 27:41Security was about $5 million.
- 27:44Flowers, catering, we can go through the whole list.
- 27:46But the key thing is that in order to shut down streets and everything in New York,
- 27:52around Madison Square Garden, they had to have a lot of police.
- 27:54What is it?
- 27:55The New York Police Department.
- 27:57And the NYPD is government funded.
- 28:00so this is why she donated 26 million to the city of new york was because of the disruption but also
- 28:07because she was like i don't want taxpayers paying for all these you know government funded services
- 28:13for my wedding you know whereas in venice with jeff bezos you know that's why the city was so
- 28:19up in arms a because jeff bezos but b there was no there was no payment to venice but also
- 28:26everyone loves Taylor Swift like there was no people in the streets of New York being like
- 28:32you know everyone was like oh my god I just want to see her I just want to see her I just want to
- 28:36like and oh my god I saw the the cutest thing all the leftover catering they came out and gave to
- 28:42people in the streets so they have people have eaten Taylor Swift's wedding food and they're
- 28:47just like frothing I'm so surprised they can do that for like health and safety reasons you can't
- 28:52even buy a bloody sandwich like after 5 p.m because they're like you'll get salmonella and
- 28:57you'll get sued and yeah yeah yeah if we look at the average price of american wedding though
- 29:02that's about 30 000 us dollars so travis and taylor's wedding cost around 300 700 times that
- 29:13and even just a permit a parking permit to sorry a street permit to shut down the street
- 29:21One street outside Madison Square Garden is about $60,000 US.
- 29:25So people are saying like the parking permits cost more than the average US wedding, which is quite wild.
- 29:33Can we just do a very quick tick off with some of the key things she spent money on, how much they were?
- 29:40Catering was supposedly $600 US a head.
- 29:44so that, you know, if you're thinking a thousand guests,
- 29:47that's like $600,000, not drinks.
- 29:52And her wedding dress was supposedly six figures.
- 29:56It was Christian Dior.
- 29:57So, you know, didn't expect anything less.
- 29:59I think the best thing about this story is for generations,
- 30:05there have been scary prenups that essentially protect a rich husband,
- 30:09you know, and that is why there's so many.
- 30:12it's really been an icky weird evolution talking about prenups but you know we're finally as we
- 30:18spoke about last week on the podcast the idea that there's almost 50% now of American couples
- 30:25getting prenups that's often led by women this is two very public examples Taylor Swift Dua Lipa
- 30:33where both of those women massively outweigh in terms of value or what their net worth is
- 30:40their husband and so the fact that yeah they both have very intricate public in a way prenups
- 30:50is really resetting that I guess just that conversation in general and yeah these prenups
- 30:56are they're not superseding or making it appear like there's any less romance in these couples
- 31:03or in these weddings it's just that they're in a business relationship now and so they're being
- 31:07adult about the fact that those conversations have to come as a part of that.
- 31:10Hey, and Taylor Swift might have to pay more tax soon.
- 31:14Do we want to tax her?
- 31:15No, no, we can leave her alone.
- 31:16She's fine.
- 31:17She's already paid $26 million.
- 31:19But I mean, that's a good example.
- 31:21If someone is, you know, you're saying before you were like,
- 31:23oh, yeah, everyone just loves to hate on billionaires.
- 31:26They wouldn't if they were
- 31:27donating lots of money.
- 31:28No one hates on Taylor Swift because she does do things like that.
- 31:32I don't want to bring the gender card into this, but I just think what women choose to do with
- 31:37their money is, from the examples that I've seen, very different to what male billionaires do with
- 31:43their money.
- 31:44We take Jeff Bezos' ex-wife as well.
- 31:47It's one of the largest philanthropic donations
- 31:50ever made.
- 31:51There are beautiful billionaires out there that do contribute a lot of money.
- 31:55Now, you should have referred to her as a beautiful billionaire.
- 31:57Beautiful billionaire.
- 31:58Oh, Sophie Hall, right.
- 31:59She's a beautiful billionaire.
- 32:00Yeah.
- 32:01Anyway, I think with the prenup thing, if you don't sign a prenup, you're not avoiding the topic.
- 32:07You're just defaulting to what exists in your country.
- 32:12And so let's all be Taylor Swift and pretend.
- 32:14Pretend we have billions of dollars of wealth to protect.
- 32:18Because you might one day.
- 32:19You never know.
- 32:19Exactly.
- 32:20And make sure that we don't sign a contract without negotiating it.
- 32:25Love it, Vic.
- 32:25Very good.
- 32:26Stunning research.
- 32:27Now, before we wrap up today's episode, I would just like to say we've got an amazing interview coming out on Friday.
- 32:33It's our Raising the Curve episode with Kiera McMahon, who is a London-based financial influencer.
- 32:42This is the girl that I met.
- 32:44Yes, she's amazing.
- 32:45She's so cool.
- 32:46I was at an event.
- 32:47You're so humble.
- 32:48Vic was speaking at event.
- 32:50Yeah, I was speaking at event.
- 32:51I actually felt quite nervous because this girl was like, oh, I actually have a financial education platform and I post content.
- 32:58And I was like, oh, amazing.
- 33:00And then she showed me and I was like, this is actually really great.
- 33:03And, you know, she had like quite a few followers.
- 33:05And I was like, and I'm about to stand up and educate you on finance.
- 33:10And I was like, oh, but no, it was, she was lovely.
- 33:12Do you know what?
- 33:13You'll be pleased to know that she actually sported a very similar Wimbledon outfit to you.
- 33:18Similar hats was inspired by your outfit.
- 33:20So, you know.
- 33:21Shit, yeah.
- 33:22Teaching finance and fashion.
- 33:24I would say she reminds me a little bit of you, actually.
- 33:26She's kind of like a UK equivalent.
- 33:28Anyway, we have her on the podcast on Friday and she's so lovely and we had such a great
- 33:33conversation.
- 33:34There's so much we learned from it.
- 33:35So what I would just say, actually, if you're listening to this podcast, because we've had
- 33:38a bit of a change of like calendar, you know, we have our Curve Weekly on a Monday, Curve
- 33:43Weekly on a Wednesday and our Raising the Curve on a Friday.
- 33:46If you don't already follow the podcast, wherever you are watching, listening, because then you'll just be notified whenever we have an episode come out.
- 33:53We have some incredible voices coming up on the Curve podcast.
- 33:58They're going to be taking over me for a few weeks and because we're working on something pretty exciting.
- 34:03So, I mean, I hope they're great.
- 34:06I hope they're not too great, but I'm sure they'll be amazing.
- 34:08They're really great.
- 34:09You should be incredibly nervous.
- 34:12No, no, we do.
- 34:13we've talked about this for months and months anyone that's in the club or not we're talking
- 34:18about but basically um we've been working on something for nearly nine months now and it's
- 34:22just getting quite intense so vick is going to be focusing on that for the next few weeks and we
- 34:27have some amazing voices filling in for her so but it will all make sense very soon god we're so
- 34:33annoying that the constant tease i'd hate us i i i already hate me me too i'm sorry but it is
- 34:41actually worth it for sure.
- 34:43It's like our version of the royal wedding really, isn't it?
- 34:45Anyway,
- 34:46have a great week, everyone.
- 34:47Thank you so much for listening.
- 34:49And as always, send any feedback,
- 34:50thoughts, rate this podcast.
- 34:52And yes, we will see you.
- 34:54Oh, we'll see you on Friday.
- 34:55Bye.
- 34:56Bye.
- 34:56Thank you so much for listening to the Curve Weekly.
- 34:58Make sure you hit subscribe or
- 35:00follow wherever you're listening so you're always up to date with the latest finance and investing
- 35:03news.
- 35:04And feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you thought about this episode because
- 35:07we would love your feedback.
- 35:08We've got new Curve Weekly episodes for you to listen to every Monday
- 35:11but until then listen to a raise in the curve.
- 35:14These are our in-depth podcast episodes where
- 35:16we chat about all things money.
- 35:17We're also around all week on socials if you're hungry for more
- 35:19Curve content and all the links are in this podcast's show notes.
- 35:22We hope you have a great
- 35:23week and we'll catch you for the next episode of the Curve Weekly on Monday.
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- 36:00You got this.
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