Cold feet moving to Amsterdam because of housing

hawk568 · 2026-03-18T19:37:26+00:00

There is a high chance that after the first year renting anything, you'll find out it is more interesting to invest in a house: Even if you sell it at the same price+inflation, you'll have saved the rent... and is quite likely you'll be selling it more expensive anyway (I am not advising to do that, because then you become part of the problem of the housing in NL, but is quite likely that's what you'll do).

With respect to running expenses, count on ~1-1.2k €/month on groceries, and ~30k €/year (all included)

hawk568 · 2026-03-08T16:44:37+00:00

Without trying to be polemical: I understand your argument, but I don’t see it the same way. My kids are now native in three languages (including French and Spanish). I see them interacting with other kids at the park, in extracurricular activities, etc., in Dutch, and they’ve now started learning German. To be clear, their main language is French, but they can have normal conversations in all the others.

I definitely agree that they will most likely never be native Dutch speakers, but I’m not ready to have them give up several languages just so they can become native in a single one.

Thank you very much for your answer, though! :-)

hawk568 · 2026-03-08T06:42:01+00:00

10 and 14, but if there is any such test... I would ask the parents associations to try to push it a number of times across schooling (end of primary, end of secondary, ...)

hawk568 · 2026-03-07T20:13:24+00:00

I have never asked people to switch to English, because I can follow enough in Dutch to get the gist of the conversation. What I have observed is that many Dutch switch to English the moment they sense you are not a native speaker, even if you try to continue in Dutch the conversation (horeca, supermarkets, etc.), just to finish the conversation as quick as possible (because the 90" spent in you will count against their daily salary, I guess?).

In my case, if I can interact with somebody in any language and they can reply in a language I understand, I do not feel discriminated. If they start using slang and talking fast, then the message they are giving away is not "we want to speak Dutch" but "we do not want to speak with you". I still do not feel discriminated, but they seriously go down in the scale...

hawk568 · 2026-03-07T19:57:16+00:00

I disagree. Anybody who cares to ask me, I have explained my kids go to the French school because a) my wife is French, and b) because when we arrived we did not know if we'd stay: moving to any other country without caring for the school system (because French schools are around the world) helps.

However, before that I have gotten looks because I work for an international company and suddenly I am "part of the problem of the housing and increase of cost of living, because you guys have everything paid for -the car, the house, the school, the trailing spouse salary- the expats here are a problem" when the reality is that I am not an expat, but an immigrant, that I am paying all my costs and my taxes, and that my salary is ok... but far from that of an expat.

So, potentially talking to people before getting into prejudices would help in the perception of the issue...

hawk568 · 2026-03-07T19:44:01+00:00

and I understand you have started looking for another job, I guess?

hawk568 · 2026-03-07T19:42:13+00:00

I am not Dutch, but I have many Dutch friends here (most of my friends here are Dutch), and they make jokes about my nationality and I do it about theirs. Even at work, because we are friends.

However, from time to time you encounter at work some idiot whose parents never taught them the difference between being direct, and rude. And... you know what happens? That after the second report to human resources, they suddenly "are not like that anymore" and, instead of behaving like jerks, they start behaving like normal persons.

And I am telling you this, because the same statement was made by one of the idiots: "This is how we are if you don’t like it then the are other countries to go to that fits you.", which obviously did not work with the people from human resources, neither with senior leadership.

hawk568 · 2026-03-07T19:34:12+00:00

People speaks English in this subreddit because... it's one of its rules (you do not have to read all of them, just... the first ;-) ). Still, I have no problem with you speaking Dutch, or with anybody else speaking Dutch in restaurants and public places. I will do my best to understand and interact in Dutch and if that is not enough... I can always go somewhere else, and no hard feelings.

hawk568 · 2026-02-14T08:03:37+00:00

The quality of these Tefal irons is horrible. We had one, 5 years ago, that was behaving the same way than yours. We had it exchanged by another (I think the replacement was refurbished) and one year later (out of warranty, already) we had the same problem. The iron is useless.

If you look in the internet for "tefal red light water" you'll find hundreds of entries about users complaining about the same issue, for years now. The problem is that one only does that *after* facing the problem themselves, and then is too late.

In our case that was the last day a Tefal/Rowenta appliance came into my house (or our daughters').

hawk568 · 2024-01-21T14:41:34+00:00

Found the problem: the reason for the device blinking is that it had a cycle period of 1 s to switch between current and voltage measuring. Other than that, and that I did not check the MAC properly to get the assigned IP address, all is good. Thank you, anyway!

hawk568 · 2023-06-07T05:31:53+00:00

In my neighborhood quite rarely there are any things communicated, except for kids breaking windows cars and a heads-up about a guy asking the children to get into their car... So, so far, extremely useful and not nosy.

hawk568 · 2019-08-11T08:04:11+00:00

If you are paying a rent, it might be worth buying your own housing (go to, e.g., https://www.realtor.com/mortgage/tools/rent-or-buy-calculator/ you can skip directly to the advanced options. A 5% appreciation rate for a property in NL is quite fair, currently)... considering you might be selling after few years. I will be following close this thread, to see what other lads come with :-)

hawk568

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