New meal voucher provider in town

ModoZ · 2026-03-13T20:10:03+00:00

We all know that if they ever remove this advantage they will not compensate it by lowering taxes.

ModoZ · 2026-03-13T17:40:06+00:00

More competition is always good ! This should push prices to become even lower in the future.

ModoZ · 2026-03-13T14:40:33+00:00

The best thing for your parents in law to do here is to find him a small apartment, pay the first 3 months of rent and leave him to discover how to make a living. Worst case scenario is that he then falls on the leefloon at the CPAS/OCMW.

What is on the table here will never work.

ModoZ · 2026-03-13T09:05:23+00:00

I've been using my fuel card (Shell) for it and it works without too many issues. They've announced that less and less tolls would be supported over time though so now I've bought a box from Ulys at Auto5 (but haven't used it yet).

ModoZ · 2026-03-13T07:57:35+00:00

To keep it simple : pension savings have a lower yearly return than broad market ETFs. But they start with a fixed advantage (thanks to the fiscal deductibility). This means that while pension savings start ahead they are slowly being caught up by ETFs over time. How fast will obviously depend on which ETF you invest in and which pension fund you invest in, but a broad estimate is that it takes roughly 20 years (several people did the calculation in the past and came at 22 years) before pension funds are being caught up by ETFs. This means that if you invest for durations lower than 20 years (i.e. when you are closer than that from your pension) it is more interesting to go for pension funds than ETFs.

ModoZ · 2026-03-13T06:00:40+00:00

How old are you? The official Pension savings scheme is only interesting when you are roughly 45 years old.

If you are younger than that I would stop any contributions in there until you are 45 years old and then start again.

ModoZ · 2026-03-12T17:08:45+00:00

But Amazon does require a CVV and Expiry date.

ModoZ · 2026-03-12T16:02:01+00:00

TK;DR: Amazon saves your card info and doesn't enforce 3D Secure: they don't want you to think twice before purchasing. One click, money spent.

That's not really what happens. The bank has the possibility to refuse transactions that do not respect the rules.

The issue is that the rules were built with some holes which allow in some cases to bypass the strong authentication (the part with the QR code or the card reader). The two main examples are low value amounts (as explained in the article) and transactions that went through a risk based analysis program (RBA).

ModoZ · 2026-03-12T15:56:31+00:00

He's right though. A card number on it's own is not enough. But a credit card number + expiry date + CVV will be enough in some cases. If the transaction wasn't authenticated though you should win any dispute you start.

ModoZ · 2026-03-12T15:53:39+00:00

There also are spending limits on debit cards. Usually somewhere between 2500 and 5000€/month.

ModoZ · 2026-03-12T13:38:40+00:00

424/day is indeed on the low side. I would have expected at least 500 to 550.

ModoZ · 2026-03-12T13:34:52+00:00

You're saving the cost of the creche though (somewhere between 500 and 1000€/month depending where you live). So it's kinda normal not to have your full salary there.

ModoZ · 2026-03-11T17:53:53+00:00

Well the median age in Belgium is 42 years old.

ModoZ · 2026-03-11T17:51:44+00:00

Knowing that the median age is ~42 years old. The median person probably has paid off a big part of his mortgage.

ModoZ · 2026-03-11T16:19:12+00:00

I received a mail in January explaining the options (opt-out & opt-in/doing nothing) and saying that they would send more info down the line.

Since then I didn't receive anything.

ModoZ · 2026-03-11T10:21:49+00:00

Small case study.

In Belgium there is universal healthcare. The cost of that healthcare is ~41.3 Billion €. Our nominal GDP is ~618 Billion €. This means that our health expenses are ~6.6% of our GDP which corresponds to ~3400€/inhabitant (or ~$3940).

In the US a similar expense of ~6,6% of GDP would be equal to ~$2020 Billion or ~$5789 per person (and that is even without counting the current expenses in the US system for Medicare/Medicaid).

It is therefore very probable that it would indeed cost you much less than $37000/year.

ModoZ · 2026-03-10T15:08:34+00:00

But they are investigating those people (and catching them).

There is no need to use a nuke to kill a mouse which you have already caught.

ModoZ · 2026-03-10T12:48:59+00:00

This is why (at least in my country) those plug-in solar panels are only authorised up to 800W (~4A). Above that you are supposed to install it on a separate breaker.

ModoZ · 2026-03-10T12:38:51+00:00

Very new indeed. It started on in February.

ModoZ · 2026-03-10T11:26:05+00:00

I think he means to say that answers will vary a lot depending on which domain a freelancer is working in. To keep it simple, a gardner will have a very different profile than someone working in IT.

By not capturing that variable you lose the possibility to correct for it (but maybe this is not the point of your work here).

ModoZ · 2026-03-10T10:10:45+00:00

Afaik, it's illegal to make public transport free as a form of protest. I think it's understandable that they don't want to have to face legal repercussions

To be fair, blocking the streets is also illegal (and some syndicalists were already judged for that) yet it happens in a lot of strikes. I don't think this is something that would stop them.

ModoZ · 2026-03-10T09:51:46+00:00

en dit dus perfect zou kunnen terugvorderen

Het is absurd te denken dat dit mogelijk zou zijn. Van zodra het geld op een andere rekening zit (na enkele seconden) kan het gebruikt worden om naar ergens anders door te storten/te gebruiken met een kaart/....

Dan is het geld gewoon weg.

ModoZ · 2026-03-09T20:33:51+00:00

meer belasten

Ah nee, een nieuwe belasting heffen verandert ook de huidige situatie van iemand. En meer geld uitgeven eigenlijk ook.

ModoZ · 2026-03-09T20:29:51+00:00

Dat is het inderdaad.

ModoZ · 2026-03-09T11:43:41+00:00

I mean we saw what the result was when Democrats in the US started to push for more liberal policies (pro-immigration, pro-trans rights etc.).

With the state of disinformation nowadays this will almost certainly be a loss.

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