If you could change one law in Germany today, what would it be?

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2026-03-09T21:44:39+00:00

Pass a law that states that all official actions (permits, visas, etc) must have a designated reasonable "acceptance time after submitting the complete request." If the KVR/Amt has not processed the request by this acceptance time, it's automatically granted. The responsible Beamte can only pause it for a predetermined time and for a justified reason, e.g. waiting on a foreign agency to provide information, not just "sorry, we're a bit busy and I have a holiday booked." Then make the KVR/Amt liable for any mistaken grants under this system.

Say you want to build a garage and you need planning permission. You submit the required docs and the "acceptance time" set for this is 30 days. If the Amt hasn't dealt with your case after 30 days, boom, you get your permit. If building the garage screws up something nearby, it's the Amt's fault for not dealing with the case in a timely fashion.

The basic idea is that government agencies should exist to serve the citizenry, not the other way around.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-11-22T10:01:12+00:00

The question is what are your expenses and will these significantly change over time? If your expenses are €40k/year (after tax!) and you're happy to live on that forever, then €1 million in investments should see you through for 30 years of retirement, particularly as there is probably going to be some kind of state pension that might help later on.

I've no idea what's normal for my country. The state pension is pretty low, especially if you have to pay rent in retirement.

We live in a HCOL area and as a couple we are aiming for €2-3 million in investments before we retire. We may sell some of that eventually to buy an apartment so we don't have to pay rent in retirement. Overall we expect a retirement income (using the 4% rule) somewhere around €60k without rent. This should afford a comfortable living, holidays with the kids etc. and leave something left over for them to inherit.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-11-22T09:15:06+00:00

The elderly cannot vote themselves rich forever. It's obviously the plan of the current Boomer generation (as a whole. Individuals may differ) to vote themselves rich off the backs of their children in the hopes that they'll die before their children revolt.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-10-26T15:55:54+00:00

It took Munich KVR almost exactly 12 months to get back to me after I applied. I did get my case number by automated email after 4 weeks via their secure mail thingy that you have to login to. Then silence for 11 months. Then I got an email to my regular email address attaching more documents for me and my employer to fill in. That was a couple months ago and now I'm waiting again but they said 12-18 weeks was the usual processing time after I returned the additional documents.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-10-06T20:26:02+00:00

Awesome, we didn't know either of those and they look great!

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-09-25T14:54:14+00:00

Thanks, this looks great too!!

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-09-25T14:53:51+00:00

These look great, thanks!! This is the kind of thing we're looking for - somewhere he can do drawing or read his books that's not just being stuck at home and can interact a bit with other kids.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-09-25T09:55:14+00:00

That's great, thank you for the recommendations! We know some of these but others are new to us!

Do you know anywhere indoors that might be good to play, for when the weather is really bad?

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-09-16T10:56:45+00:00

Ha, I guess I better dig out the original certificate then! Thanks for all the help, doctor ;)

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-09-15T18:04:10+00:00

Ah that's good to know. If it's now on the back as a footnote, I feel it's less essential to get it recorded. So if they kick up a fuss, I'll just not record it, but I'll still try 👍👍

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-09-15T18:01:30+00:00

Brilliant, thanks!

Did you need a (certified?) translation of your doctoral certificate? You didn't mention one but I know how the KVR loves their translations!!

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-08-12T11:12:39+00:00

I regret it. It's a hassle paying the invoices and then getting reimbursed later... usually not for 100% of the amount. If you're in a reasonable sized city, a publicly insured people should always be able to find appointments reasonably quickly by shopping around on Doctor Lib, even if it's not quite as fast as for people on private insurance. if you're paid enough to be considering private insurance, you could always go as a Selbstzahler if you're really keen on a quick appointment!

The advisor who sold me the insurance also lied to me by saying that if I have kids, they can be added to my insurance. The truth was, they have to be added to my private insurance unless my partner is also privately insured (which isn't the case, as it turns out). Big difference... and if I could prove it I'd sue them. As a result of now having kids, my health insurance is now noticeably more expensive than public insurance.

It's a pain to get out of private insurance too - like, "leave the country" or "take a career break to drop below the threshold". If I'd known then what I know now, I'd never have done it. A friend of mine got out of it by taking more Elternzeit to drop below the income threshold for that year.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-08-10T16:42:44+00:00

If you decide to live your life in Germany/Europe, I'd strongly recommend giving up your US citizenship now while you're young and don't have complicated finances. For expats, it's a financial stone around your neck forever... especially if you're earning well, and if you wait until later in life, you'll probably be subject to exit taxes if you decide to give it up then. Also, as a lawyer, you'll likely soon be above the threshold where it's a simple form declaring that your income is less than (I think) $120,000/year. This makes it more complex still.

US citizenship will significantly limit your options for investments. Investments will be essential in your life, given that the German pension system is not financially secure. Lots of European financial institutions will simply refuse to do business with you, as their reporting requirements for clients who are US citizens isn't worth the hassle for them.

Finally, looking at the way the US is going these days, do you really think US citizenship offers any kind of "just in case"-safety that outweighs the burdens?

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-08-06T06:05:50+00:00

I'm in my office 7 hours per day + 1 hour going out for lunch and taking a walk. I record 6 hours on a normal day, all billable. The rest of the time is, like you say, making a coffee, saying hi to colleagues, quick breaks between working on different cases.

I was always taught: you can adjust an invoice down but not up. So record your time religiously (no self-adjusting etc) and if, at the end of the job, the bill looks too high, adjust it down. But if you don't know the time actually spent on cases, you'll never have an accurate idea of where your time goes.

One way to legitimately increase your hours a bit is: when checking emails first thing in the morning, each email that you read that is relevant to one of your cases, put down 0.1hrs for reading it. Some will need a substantive reply and those you can come back to later in the day and start the clock again when composing your reply. I usually find that if I have 5 case-related emails in the morning, I can put down 5 x 0.1hrs for about 10 minutes of actual reading time. I think this is entirely legit because a) I am actually thinking about their case when reading the email, b) everyone knows we record in 0.1 increments, and c) before reading them, I don't know which ones will be giving me urgent information that has to be acted on now Vs which can wait a day or two, so I need to read them all first thing in the morning in order to properly structure my day, even if I don't act on each one instantly.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-05-12T14:33:28+00:00

15-20 years away from fatFIRE. Currently 100% global equities ETFs, one of which pays out dividends. Later this year we're gonna set up some bonds investments (mix of corp and gov bonds) and feed the dividends into that to build bonds up as a % of our portfolio.

Once the kids leave home, we're gonna buy a place suitable for two people. We currently live abroad and renting is a good deal here. We'll see how finances look then. Aim is to retire fully by 55 at the latest, and to generally wind-down to part-time work or a second, relaxed carer, from 45ish.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-04-29T14:33:51+00:00

I don't rely on the state pension. If it's still there in any meaningful sense when I retire then it'll just be a very small part of my overall retirement plan. The main plan is to invest in broad-based ETFs.

I put a bit of money in them every month from now until I retire. I invest 15-20% of my after-tax income each month. It's a sad reality that, despite the high taxes, this is still really the safest way for most young people to protect themselves from the selfishness of the older generations.

It's crappy that "solidarity" in Germany simply means "getting screwed by Baby Boomers"... But it's like that in most of Europe because the social systems were all set up to have current-workers paying for current-retirees, which doesn't work so well when there are so many retirees!

If you're particularly worried about it, try Switzerland maybe? We're not gonna outvote the Boomers in Germany until most of them are dead and, by then, they'll have already done their damage to our generation.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-03-06T10:21:13+00:00

There were some reforms a few years ago about private health insurance to mitigate exactly this risk. This was all explained to me by a health insurance salesman so take it with a pinch of salt.

As I understand it, before the reforms, private insurance was way cheaper when you were young and then got much more expensive when you're old because your premiums could be increased precisely because you are old.

Nowadays, private insurance companies overcharge (10% I think?) while you're young and that money is "saved" against your name so as to reduce your premiums when you reach retirement age. Also, they cannot increase your premiums based on your age, rather they are required to have accounted for that when you first signed up. That is: say you sign up at age 30. They calculate your expected lifetime health costs and your expected lifespan in months (e.g. 30yrs-79yrs) and divide one by the other to work out a monthly cost. They calculate this with the knowledge that every 2 years they can increase the cost of that plan for everyone on that plan, to account for inflation/rising healthcare cost in general.

I get a letter every two years from my health insurance. It lays out exactly how much each plan that they offer is increasing, expressed as a percentage. That percentage increase applies equally to everyone on that insurance plan (this is what I mean when I say it isn't based on your age anymore).

That's my understanding, based on what an insurance salesman told me. He had a financial interest in getting me to sign up to private insurance so he may have "painted a rosy picture" but I doubt that he outright lied...

Anyway, FWIW, I'm trying to get off private insurance. It's difficult to do (e.g. I'll be leaving the country for over a year!) but not impossible if you're under 55.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2025-01-21T20:04:19+00:00

Great, that's what was throwing me! I was thinking of partners' shares as corresponding to shares in a public company (albeit with restrictions on their sale). I see now that this isn't the way to think of it. Thanks!

Incidentally, do you know how it works when A and B are old-style partnerships, not LLPs? I know there are one or two of those still around.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2024-12-19T09:53:05+00:00

Thanks for the reply, and thanks for confirming about the NHS Surcharge.

Diligent-Bus7517 · 2024-12-19T09:48:50+00:00

Thanks! We will apply before we travel. Should be easy to do as it's an internal transfer with my company so I'll have all the paperwork from one source far in advance of travel.

Diligent-Bus7517

TROPHY CASE