Living in America 2015

[rootypig]

New thread. In honour of:

1. allegedly Irish bangers discovered I saw in Trader Joe's today, which made me think of you lot and especially you Want2b, you pork fanatic - I will report back; and

2. taxes bloody argh! do I have to do this? NOW??? My green card was granted in August last year and I didn't earn a bloody penny. What am I supposed to put on a tax return

How else is everyone's American odyssey going?

yours chaotically, as ever,

rooty

We have an American one that covers everything and then English and Danish wills that refer to the American one saying authorities are to use the American one. We used a Danish lawyer DH has worked with before who knew an English lawyer and American law. Cost was $1500 which I expect is way lower than what it should cost.

Just be sure to set up your will so your children under the age of 21 don't inherit money directly as they won't be able to spend it. You need a trust (living revocable one) and the trust is the beneficiary of any assets in your will/life insurance payments etc. Suze Orman does a good job of explaining wills and how to set them up.

The American tax system for inheritance is much more favourable compared to the UK and Denmark too (NJ isn't a good state though within the US).

Thanks AhD re the EAD. Might just have to wait then...

And yes, rooty, more "Irish" here than in Ireland...!

I hate flippin' St Patrick's day here. To be fair, I wasn't that keen on it when we lived in the UK either.

I do find it strange that Americans seem to find the need to have some sort of heritage from other countries. I understand it's a country that developed through mass immigration, but still! It drives me crazy when people tell me they are Irish, English, Scottish, whatever and you ask them when they were last there and they look at you as if you're insane as nobody from their family has been to the "homeland" in about 100 years!

rant alert Dear America, it's St Patrick's Day, or if you really must, St Paddy's Day...but it's not, nor never has it been, ST PATTY'S DAY!!! Arghghhh! (Whew, thank God it's only once a year.) And why do you ALL need to wear green today? DC has been 'pinched' to goodness in school for erring by not wearing green. But why would he?! He's not Irish!

I'm not bothered about the adults - after all everyone in the UK uses it as an excuse to go out drinking. But all this bollocks about kids having to wear green and the FRICKING leprechaun bringing them gold. No.

And they all act surprised that I'm not celebrating it - I'm not Irish!!

Hi all - long time lurker and frequent namechanger (nothing to hide, just just never found a name more appropriate than my real one ). Have lived in NYC for 5 years, one DC, would like another but not proving easy this time round, SAHM very happy at home but ever conscious that life could get quite dull when kids are at school full time.

WHY IS IT STILL SO BLOODY COLD???

To the poster who asked a while back about her Easter egg shipment stuck in Customs, did you know that Kinder eggs are technically outlawed here (even though I see them everywhere), because of the risk the hidden toy could pose to an unwitting child? Not entirely sure what they expect to happen when child bites into egg, but it's a threat they take seriously. Shame, given how generally disgusting American chocolate is. Anyway, perhaps your package is being x-rayed for imposter kinder eggs??

Do you ever watch John Oliver (his show on HBO is called This Is The Week That Was, or something like that)? He's brilliant with picking out those sorts of hypocrisies. And very irreverently British about it too.

Hello everyone!

There were snow flakes in the air this morning when I got off the subway. I thought we were done with snow! I feel cheated.

Kinder eggs - Always shocked me but we have a secret stash that DH has brought over on each and every trip for the past 4 years (since we found out I was pregnant!). They make the very best bribes.

Paddy's day yesterday was super annoyed. I had a conf call at 11pm with my client in Asia so took a taxi home after the call finished. It took forever to get home. I got to bed at 1am and it physically hurt to get out of bed at 5.30am this morning. Brock I will be checking that show out. I will not have any shows on TV after Suze Orman finishes up on CNBC. I used to watch some real housewives but my goodness its all so d u l l.

We watch John Oliver, tres amusing, though he does remind me of a 12 year old in grown up clothes, he just has one of those faces. My other TV obsession is HGTV with House Hunters International, as I love watching Ameicans recoil in horror at the size of fridges in UK homes, and other known atrocities like...carpet! How very dare we?!

Thank you all for getting into the ranting spirit with me

I loathe, loathe, LOATHE "Patty's" too. Who in Ireland would ever say that?! Though I actually went out last night in Santa Monica with a French friend and managed to keep my lip buttoned. I mean, I don't identify as Irish (because I'm, er, not ) and I've been there probably more than fifty times (Irish family). But being out and seeing black, south and central American, Asian people, as well as white Americans, all dressed up like bloody leprechauns actually did make me see that it's just another big holiday here, like Valentine's day.

It was all the poncing round in green and dressing up the kids and talking about Irish heritage during the day that wound me up. I saw MIL who wanted to know why DD wasn't wearing green I think the heritage stuff is just another form of American - earnestness? that's not quite it, but close.

I am off to look up John Oliver! Want2b any chance of an early night?

I don't get the St Patricks thing either but I think I must have had my head in the sand yesterday as I didn't see any green apart from shamrock earrings on my barista in Starbucks... maybe it's not really done in southern states? Or maybe we're still hungover from mardi gras?

I stick with social security contributions as payout is higher if you take them out at 70 and have 20 years of work. DH should get both american and Danish as his employer pays the danish part for him.

Tonight is an early night. Exhausted. Too many 1am nights.

Sorry to derail from the important issue of British pension schemes (wtf is going on with George Osborne's hair?!), but I should probably add re John Oliver that he's a bit Ben Elton. In fact, he's probably the Ben Elton of this century. Ex-Cambridge, ex-Footlights (same intake/class as David Mitchell), bright and on speed. Not everybody's cup of tea. I tend to counteract with Bill Maher...

Anyway, back to pensions. Just out of interest, are you all paying in with a view to receiving in GBP on retirement in the UK, or would you convert to USD on retirement over here? I can't help but wonder whether, given I'm likely to end my days here (can't quite get my head around that), by the time I get there the unknowns of (1) what the state pension would be (2) what Britain will be saying to non-residents taking govt money out of the country (3) what Uncle Sam will be saying to people living off foreign earnings (4) reporting requirements likely only ever to get worse/more burdensome (5) to a lesser extent, where exchange rates might be (stranger things have been known to happen)....will it be worth forgoing the money now? Am I right to apply that money towards investment here myself, privately?

What do you think? Have I missed anything glaringly obvious?

I find it hard to believe state pensions will exist by the time I retire

I am disengaging slowly from the UK. I will always keep land there but I am not planning on a UK state pension. I think the US SS pension will change and become means tested.

Basically I'm not over invested in government programs. We plan to have our homes paid off and about $4-5 million in retirement accounts before we retire. We will also leave NJ when we retire to avoid estate tax plus stupidly high property taxes.

So time for me to whinge. I am shocked that people here in NYC walk so bloody slowly and are just slow in general. So frustrating trying to get to work.

Eeeek we have nothing put away for later life and seriously need to sort it out

When I first left the uk in 1995, I was advised to save rather than contribute to a pension. Not sure how valid that advice is, but I think that there will be no pensions in the uk by the time I retire (probably at the age of 80+!)

Pension provision is so important and often overlooked when deciding to accept an international assignment. DH was stupid to allow his employer to kick him out of the final salary pension plan. That plan has now been closed. We would have been set if he was still part of it because pension was 75% of final average of highest paid 3 years over the last decade of working. I still cringe when I think about it!

Brow don't worry. We had nothing 10 years ago. I think it's important to have your home free and clear if possible and then to have enough cash to survive. It's quite possible to get work for a few hours during retirement years to cover incidentals.

Went skiing in Colorado a few weeks back - most of the ski instructors were retirees who worked 6 months of the year - seemed an amazing retirement! I wonder if anyone would pay a semi-retired sunlounger / cocktail tester in years to come?!