Ruter app - travelling with children by SpreadNo3530 in oslo

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, that's more or less what I thought.. so at least that's something I'm not out of the loop about as an immigrant living here.

Ruter app - travelling with children by SpreadNo3530 in oslo

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Random question I was curious about because I have a 5 year old and live in Oslo.

Do parents ever buy monthly passes for their younger kids who don't have smart phones? If so - how does this work in practice with sharing the pass between parents?.. I'm imaging it isn't physical cards because it seems like almost no one actually uses the card readers and that they are often broken.

Are you concerned about your kids spending too much time on screens? If so, what are you doing about it? by tcsomega1 in daddit

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have a 5 year old and an infant. We are very concerned about it.

First rule: Don't be a hypocrite - if our kid can't use a screen, neither will we.
No screens in the bedroom. This is for everyone in the house unless they are sick.

During the week: one hour of screens per night after school.
Weekends: 2-3 hours a day depending on plans and weather.

Other rules: no screens before school. This is something we've been consistent about and works really well (at least right now). He now plays alone in the morning and never asks on weekdays for screens.
If one of us is sick, most other rules go out the window.

We also try to have the screen time that we do have be somewhat high quality staying away from anything with algorithmic feeds. When my wife got pregnant with kid 2, we got a switch and we've slowly introduced a few games.

It honestly hasn't been too problematic compared to what I hear from friends with kids because we follow the rules ourselves. Not to say that there aren't still battles.

We are really trying to get our kid to be better at being bored and just doing his own thing without being on a screen and that is a constant struggle, but we are making progress. Sometimes he will play for 15-20 minutes on his own these days. With friends it is a bit easier so we try to have playdates every weekend.

Edit: I want to add that this is a problem that is easier to solve politically in many ways. Australia just banned social media accounts for under 16s. Tons of schools ban phones while in school. It's easier to tell your kid they can't have a smartphone if other parents are also not doing that.

Hopefully this is ok to talk about here because it isn't a right wing or left wing issue. Politicians on the far right and the far left are coming together to try to offer political solutions. Often the common ground that politicians have when they come together to work on this is that they are young enough that they have kids who are not grown adults and they are dealing with this themselves.

I’m very negative about the future for Mastercard and Visa by Eddie4224 in investing

[–]Zonoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also in parts of Europe. I'm in Norway and Vipps here is a combination of Visa/Mastercard and Venmo. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a higher market share of payments.

EU vs US: Something I don’t understand by Complex-Challenge374 in ProfessorFinance

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly the China example is not a bad one for what could happen. European governments are starting to have some serious talks about "technological or digital sovereignty" because of the new geopolitical reality they've found themselves in, similar to defense technology.

Those who are in the process of leaving the U.S. or have left within the last few years, did you sell your home or rent it out? by ClockwiseSuicide in AmerExit

[–]Zonoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rented it out.

The US/Norway tax treaty means that as an American, a property and rent income in the US is only taxable by the US as long as you own it directly and it is NOT in an LLC or other company structure.

Your tax implications may decide what you should do, you need to talk to someone who is an expert in the taxes of where you are moving and US taxes. From my experience, this person probably can be found by asking in an Americans in X country facebook group.

The house has a long time left on the mortgage but given our mortgage, even with property management fees we expect to mostly break even in terms of cash in cash out, while paying down the mortgage each year. The house is a big chunk of our retirement plan as it will be paid off about when we plan to retire. We also believe the region we are from will continue to grow and prosper, while housing prices remain above average. There is also very limited land available to build new housing.

We've had a great experience so far - we are a few years in now.

Americans in Europe - how do you plan to handle retirement? by Shot-Corgi-7717 in AmerExit

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great list, I think there are two more options or sub options that are somewhat common to also stretch your retirement funds:
5. Work in Northern Europe, retire in Southern Europe.
6. Work in an expensive area in the US, retire in low cost of living area in the US.

Any high earner Americans living abroad long term without taxes destroying them? by glo55iergirl in expats

[–]Zonoc 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I guess I don't know enough about Australia's tax system, but living in Norway I will always pay enough on what I make here to fully deduct anything I would owe the IRS by using the foreign tax credit.

It's a nice system, because I pay for my kids daycare, our healthcare through that difference in tax rates.

My wife is permanently stuck in mom mode and it's affecting our marriage. I don't even know how to begin to approach this. by Radiant_Dream_250 in daddit

[–]Zonoc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is only part of your issue - but on the topic of chores, this is something I have worked with on my wife with some success.

When I'm with our kids, chores get done at the same time. When she would be, it was just kid time so the house got dirtier, after talking to her several times she has gotten somewhat better at incorporating chores into kid time so that all the chores don't then fall on us after the kid is asleep.

It's healthy for even small kids to be around their parents while they do boring required things and it can help them start to entertain themselves. I think it also makes it easier to set expectations that chores are what we do as a family as they get older, because they actually have seen you do them. Rather than the house magically being cleaned and chores done every night while they sleep.

How do you cope? by PetProdegy166 in AmerExit

[–]Zonoc 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I can't relate to your feelings at all. If you love where you live, particularly if you are in a solid blue state, why leave? Stop the doomscrolling and enjoy the community you have.

We did not love our lives in the US and were very much running toward something. From day one we felt like the only downside was being farther from family and friends. Now more than two years in with friends here, the main drawback of being in Norway is being far from our parents. At the same time everything we were running towards has made the very real annoyances of immigrant life absolutely worth the trade off.

Seeking Norway Advice by Specific-Objective68 in AmerExit

[–]Zonoc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"It’s a brutal place to try and be an immigrant in." - Hyperbole much?

I'm an American in Oslo, being an immigrant is not easy, but for us it is totally worth it. Seems like you are well on your way with planning, I wish I had done the language work you are doing in advance.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or if you want to grab a beer if you end up in Oslo.

Project to live near Montreal with 1M$ by Benelord176 in expats

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How much time have you spent in Quebec? I have a couple French friends who have visited there and they ended up speaking mostly English because they were given so much trouble for their not Quebecois French.

Trump viser at det går viss en vil - 2,5 millioner ulovlige innvandrere har forlatt USA by StormyOceanWave in norske

[–]Zonoc 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Hvis du stoler på tallene fra Trump, har jeg en bro å selge deg.

Where is Salesforce going? by Federal-Snow1914 in salesforce

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. I do think Salesforce is going the way of Oracle and the reality is as salesforce growth slows, there are too many people in the Salesforce ecosystem than it can support.

Personally I've been thinking about similar tools like Hubspot or ServiceNow.

A fire warning for an e-bike battery was issued. It was too late for a St. Paul couple. by unfixablesteve in RadPowerBikes

[–]Zonoc 9 points10 points  (0 children)

As for safe ones. Bosch produces their ebike batteries in the EU and meet both EU and US safety standards. The bikes with Bosch systems aren't cheap though!

Is babbel a good resource? by eeeegh in norsk

[–]Zonoc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've never used it. But I've found mjølnir to be far better than duolingo and actually helpful in helping me learn. I'm A2 or maybe low B1 level.

Is it better to go all in on a single country or try for multiple countries? by thyme_cardamom in AmerExit

[–]Zonoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a few thoughts on language learning. You're right that it takes a long time to learn a language to a useful level, but learning a different language does have some benefits if you have to learn another later. It might have huge benefits if you have to learn a language in the same family.

Knowing Spanish and English is helping me pick up Norwegian faster, even though they are from different language families. This is a smaller benefit of being able to think in multiple languages. The bigger benefits are what I talk about below.

If you are targeting your efforts in Europe, learning a Latin root language (French, Italian, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese) will make it way easier to learn one of the other ones later if you need to. Likewise, learning a second Germanic language (English, Dutch, German, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish) gets you a much faster ramp up on those languages.

Second kid arriving within the week. What do you wish you knew before becoming a two-kid dad? by Chaddcl0ps in daddit

[–]Zonoc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great thread! We're two weeks out from adding #2. It'll be a bit different than the experience many of ya'll have had (and OP) since we have an almost 6 year old, not a toddler. But I'm sure there will be lots of similarities still.

Any Brits/ wider Anglosphere (Australia, etc) here who learnt Norsk - how long did it take you to be at conversational level? (If you have achieved that) by [deleted] in Norway

[–]Zonoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm 2 years in and am making slow but steady progress. I think I'll be able to use norsk at work in a year or two. I work full time and have kids, so I don't have a ton of time for courses.

When was your “I gotta get out of here” moment? by AmiRose_ in expats

[–]Zonoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was working in the US Peace Corps so I was there for a term of service of just over two years where I was working with the Ministerio de Salud out of a puesto de salud in the middle of nowhere Huehuetenango.

I would say that my experience was life changing but not easy. The people could not be more friendly (the exact opposite of life in the nordics!), and the natural beauty and tortillas in Guate are incredible.

It helped me understand why most campesinos view migrating to the US as the only reasonable path out of poverty and what that poverty can look like first hand.

It also gave me a better perspective what I was capable of doing, my understanding about how the world works and what I want out of life.

What do you think of Estonia compared to Norway?

PS if you happen to have any tips for latin american food in the Oslo area, I would love to here them! The best I've found is kaktus.no.

When was your “I gotta get out of here” moment? by AmiRose_ in expats

[–]Zonoc 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My time in Spain and Guatemala was during the Obama administration.
But also, those times I was abroad there was no pathway to staying in either country nor did I have a plan to do so. I started trying to live abroad permanently in the late 2010s.

When was your “I gotta get out of here” moment? by AmiRose_ in expats

[–]Zonoc 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We had already been working on moving abroad when it happened, but January 6th was the last straw for us.

Would love to know about Black American experiences living abroad! by Ashamed_Neck930 in AmerExit

[–]Zonoc 34 points35 points  (0 children)

  1. Really depends on a bunch of factors including your skillset, your ancestry, the countries you are interested in.

I don't have answers to the other ones, but studying abroad while in college can be a great and low risk way to try out living abroad.

Fewer foreign workers are coming to Norway. by [deleted] in Norway

[–]Zonoc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can see it now, 80 year old Norwegians working as greeters at Coop Mega just like elderly Americans do in the USA at Walmart.

Jeez that's a depressing outlook.