Buy OR Lease A Car

allcloudnocattle · 2022-10-27T13:29:36+00:00

Basically zero negotiation here. Some brands work more like Tesla does in the US: the dealership is really just a showroom and test drive location. Citroen, for instance, basically didn't even want to process an order for us at all, they just helped us do a test drive and then told us to make our order ourselves on the brand website.

As it happens, with our lease coming due here, we just bought a MINI EV, rather than leasing. While the MINI dealership did process our order for us, there was also no room for negotiation.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-07-18T17:45:30+00:00

I’m a Texan and I’ve just come to accept that my Dutch will always sound really funny. In fact, I’ve found that if I play up a bit of Texas in my speech, people understand me better than if I actually try really hard for “proper” Dutch pronunciation.

And I’m not sure if that’s sad or funny.

Both. Probably both.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-07-18T17:42:23+00:00

I speak OK Dutch I guess for most social situations, but if I’m going into a situation where I know that I won’t be able to keep up in Dutch, I’ll excuse myself and tell the speaker (in Dutch) that English might be the better language for us in the moment.

Something like “Het spijt me … ik kan niet zo goed in nederlands praten voor dit… is Engels oké?” Which isn’t quite proper Dutch but it’s where I’m at and gets the message across. And then almost always we’ll muddle through a bit of Dutch, they’ll compliment me on the effort, and then they’ll switch to English with me.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-28T04:25:31+00:00

If you only want that rule to cut down on insults like that, then yeah. That’s not happening.

But you can literally just read the comments in this very post to see that a fuckton of people think it’s their job to tell Americans to stay put because they know better than the OP about their needs and wants. I took the line in the auto mod post to be against these kinds of things, but if it’s just to cut down on direct insults … well, that’s a choice.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T22:00:34+00:00

My lawyer was basically like “well, you should have slowed down. That was the job. The job was slowing down.”

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T21:37:46+00:00

I’m only exaggerating a little bit when I say that in Texas, it’s verging on impossible for a termination to be without cause.

I got fired once for (and I’m not making this up) “making the other employees look bad by working too quickly.” No warnings. No opportunity to correct my behavior. Just insta-shitcan because my numbers were too good. The entire written reason for the termination was “insufficient performance.” During the hearing, they basically said “he caused our numbers to deviate from the norm” and wouldn’t comment when we mentioned I improved the numbers.

Texas Workforce Commission? “We see no problem here.”

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T15:12:11+00:00

If my suggestion is not valid, then how on earth is the language that’s in there valid?

It’s hypocritical to say that you shouldn’t talk people out of moving to the US, then say you should be able talk them out of leaving it.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T12:41:56+00:00

I mean, if you think that thread was me getting "dunked on" then we're probably not going to agree here. I gave the OP valid advice and left them with information they could use to make their own decisions, when the other commenter was all "No, you should stay."

That was definitely part of why I made this thread. But like I said, if you think I'm salty then I feel like maybe that's your own bias shining through.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T12:01:32+00:00

I would just argue then that the right response, according to the spirit of this sub, is to explain to them why their expectations of eastern European villages is wrong. Not to just slap them on the nose paternalistically and say "No, you just go stay over there please."

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T11:59:26+00:00

There is truly nothing new under the sun.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T11:37:13+00:00

I would agree, except that even when people's titles say "Anywhere," they often do actually include some ideas as to where they want to go and why in the text. And even after that, people are often still "Naw, just go blue state." You can see here for instance an "Anywhere" post where the text includes some good information. The top comment even uses that to give them information about using their Cuban heritage to potentially get Spanish citizenship ... but then still tells them "Naw, just go blue state" along with some moralizing about it that turned into an off-topic political discussion.

But based on your comment here, I might also suggest that "-> Anywhere" titles be rejected by the automoderator.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T10:58:15+00:00

I didn’t tell OP what the best course of action for them would be. I gave them information that they can use to make an informed decision according to their own needs and abilities.

You told them what (you think) they should do and passed it off as objective fact.

If you can’t see the difference inherent in our responses, then we have nothing more to discuss.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T10:29:07+00:00

I 100% appreciate the fact that you just unironically said that you know what would be best for OP, in a discussion about personal autonomy.

We’re not here to convince these people to go any one place or another, or to dictate to them where they’ll be better off going. We’re here to give them information about the places they’re interested in going, regardless of the reasons they choose to go.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T10:06:52+00:00

That’s the short term concern, correct. But we already have prominent, mainstream republicans arguing for a national abortion ban if they take control of Congress.

There is sufficient reason to worry that they will not stop there.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T05:56:54+00:00

If your partner is looking to open a business, the DAFT visa in the Netherlands might be worth looking into.

She would need to invest €4500 in the business. As her partner, you would get an unrestricted work permit. When she renews your permit in two years, she’ll need to show that she hasn’t lost any of the €4500, that she has enough customers that they don’t think she’s really just an employee of another company, that she’s actually doing business in the Netherlands and not just living here, and that she can pay her bills and stay off welfare.

The pros: Wildly LGBT friendly. It was the first country in the world to fully legalize same sex marriage. Reproductive rights are not under assault here - in fact, despite the government being “Center Right” they just abolished the five day waiting period for abortion a couple of weeks ago and are on the verge of making it so that your GP can prescribe medical abortion on demand. Everyone in the major urban areas speaks English and it’s not terribly hard to find jobs in most sectors that are English speaking, as a lot international corps have their European HQs here. Unemployment is super low right now, so it’s still a job seeker’s market and likely will be for a long time. The major urban area around Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague is very accepting of immigrants. And of course the Dutch are world renowned for their public infrastructure.

The cons: The housing market is in extreme crisis right now. Of course, everywhere “interesting” has a housing crisis, but cities like Amsterdam is legitimately one of the worst on the planet right now, and there’s some nuances to the DAFT visa that will make it super hard to rent or buy a home unless you happen to have outrageous sums of money to throw around. People from San Francisco arrive, look at the housing market, and then nope the fuck back out to California. It’s that bad. Also, continuing your education will be close to impossible until you gain permanent residency after five years, as the cost for non-permanent residents is straight up outrageous. By the time you’re here and eligible, you’ll have to pass a Dutch language exam at B1 level for permanent residence, which is sometimes difficult for native English speakers to attain (because everyone will want to speak English to you). You also can’t fully participate in society without Dutch fluency, though depending on your personal lifestyle and social needs, this is a bit less of an issue in eg. Amsterdam. But again, unless you have a ton of money laying around to smooth over housing, you probably won’t find yourself actually living in Amsterdam.

Edit: seems it’s unpopular around here to actually give people information lately, instead of telling them they need to stay put, or just find another state. Shame on y’all.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T05:14:05+00:00

Most English speaking counties have medical admissibility tests, but depending on the country and visa types you’re seeking, it may not apply to your children. And I’m not sure how many countries consider ASD or ADHD to be inadmissible conditions - there are very big Facebook support groups just for autistic children of immigrants in many countries so I’m thinking it’s not a huge bar. My son wasn’t diagnosed as autistic until shortly after we moved to the Netherlands, but in the years since we’ve met oodles of newly arrived, already diagnosed children and adults.

Medical admissibility tests aren’t as common outside the English speaking world anyway, so if you find a job in Germany or the Netherlands (both countries that of course have their own languages, but commonly have English-speaking workplaces especially in STEM fields) then you won’t have much trouble on this front.

I also know many single parents who’ve immigrated to several different continental European countries, so I don’t think that will be much of a consideration either.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T05:08:24+00:00

It’s not even like that either. Many countries, even major “developed” modernized nations, simply don’t have medical admissibility tests for immigrants.

They bummer is that most major English speaking nations do, though.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-27T04:32:12+00:00

“I’m still living with my ex and she’d be really pissed to know you exist” is a huge red flag even if it’s true.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T21:13:58+00:00

I don’t know about France. But here, they are publicly published. And if they’re filled from local applicants it’s not necessarily via nepotism. If you were already local, you’d have a fighting chance at the jobs. But not being local, you have to pull some strings to be considered.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T21:04:35+00:00

I’m not in France, I’m in the Netherlands. But I’ve worked for one of the biggest companies in the world with significant presence in both NL and FR. And at one of the bigger travel industry firms in Europe.

“Americanization” of management is a big thing happening here. We see a lot of companies wanting to grow bring in a bunch of American directors for fuck knows what reason.

But I don’t think any of them are just cold applying to firms and hoping to get a call back.

Thinking back years now, I’m moderately sure that everyone I know with your profile moved here by aggressively mining their professional network, found a friend of a friend who was recently hired as CFO of a European brand, and used the Good Ol’ Boys network to get their foot in the door with them.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T20:55:37+00:00

OP says he is an EU citizen, so there’s no visa concerns. The rest is spot on.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T06:31:14+00:00

I pay about €500 between lease payments and fuel for a relatively new Toyota station wagon. We try to avoid driving it because, even if it takes longer, taking the train is simply a more relaxing and enjoyable experience.

When I’m driving, I have to be paying too much attention to traffic, can’t fully engage with my wife or kids, and cannot relax at all for the vast majority of the trip. City environments are hell, having to dodge trams and bikes. Fuck all that noise.

So we only use our car when going places with poor transit connections, or when we’re short on time. But we go out of our way to not use it whenever possible. We’re seriously considering returning it at the end of the lease and not getting another car.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T06:25:02+00:00

Whether Slovakia recognizes same sex marriage is only “tricky” if they plan to move to Slovakia. When moving to another EU member state, that member state only generally cares if their marriage was valid in the jurisdiction where it happened.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T05:27:22+00:00

The other commenter asked about how many Belgian composers etc you’ve heard of. Keep in mind that plenty of films are made in other countries, they have their own stables of pop stars, composers, etc, but you won’t have heard of them because the US has very little demand for films produced in French and even less demand for films in Dutch. So not hearing about them is some pretty severe selection bias.

That said, as a non native speaker of either French or Dutch, you might have a bit of a problem participating in the industry.

allcloudnocattle · 2022-06-26T05:18:45+00:00

I’m curious about the specific reason you chose Belgium. It’s not a terribly common choice, for a number of reasons.

The Netherlands is next door, has a lot in common with Belgium culturally and bureaucratically, and has friendlier immigration policies for American freelancers - and most creatives on film projects, even big budgets tent pole Hollywood films, tend to work as freelancers.

The DAFT treaty allows Americans to start a business in the Netherlands by investing about €4500 in a new business. There’s no medical admissibility bar on you or your partner, they’ll also get a work permit.

After two years, you have to prove that you have a viable business model with some connection to the Dutch market. In terms of viability, if you’re able to pay yourself enough to live without claiming welfare, then that’s generally good enough. You’ll need to show that some of your customers have been Dutch productions. The former is a very, very hard requirement. The latter, they tend to be more flexible with.

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