UpToWick

  Nobody believed in Apple in the 80s, apart from a few die-hard fans. Especially when it was taken over by old-fashioned MBA-type managers in a suit. It even went close to bankruptcy at one point in the early 90s. It risked ending up like Amiga.   Now it's the company with the largest market capitalization. But to get there it had to go through many years of pain and doubts.

It has already started to recover...   Investing in crypto today is like investing in Apple in the early 80s...

I was working until the end of last year in Germany, and for 4 years and 11 months I paid into 2 BAV plans, matched by my previous employer - A main one, which I started in 2015, managed by Ergo. Let's call it "Plan A" - A smaller one, managed by Alte Leipziger, started automatically by my employer after the new law in 2019, that forced employers to contribute an additional 15%. Let's call it "Plan B"   The lump-sum that I might get in 30 years out of these 2 plans is negligible, and I'd rather get this money out now, and invest it independently.   After quitting my job in Germany, I moved to Switzerland afterwards; I asked both companies what's going to happen to my 2 pension plans, and in particular if there is any way to get the money paid out... The answers I received by the customer service, and the content of the contracts, were not very clear...but up until now I thought that the simple answer was "NO", and I'd just have to wait until I'm 67 to get a tiny lump sum out of them. In fact, those 2 plans have been automatically converted in "Beitragsfrei" plans...   Recently, out of the blue I received a refund of the contributions paid for by my ex-employer, MINUS 30%, because - I paid into Plan A less than 5 years - I still have 30 years left to pension age, so I lose 30% of the employer's contribution... This made me wonder if I could actually get everything out, so I contacted Alte Leipziger again, and I was told...   "bitte klären Sie vorab mit der ERGO Pensionskasse, ob eine Abfindung Ihres Vertrages nach § 3 BetrAVG, zum 01.11.2020 möglich ist. Sofern die Antwort ja lautet, lassen Sie sich bitte die beitragsfreie monatliche Rente zum 01.11.2020 mitteilen.   Wenn Sie beides geklärt haben, melden Sie sich gerne bei mir, damit ich die Kündigung Ihres Vertrages in unserem Haus überprüfen kann."   Can somebody please explain me if there's a chance to get this money? I tried to Google § 3 BetrAVG, but the explanations that I found weren't very clear. Another alternative I'd be willing to explore, is to "transfer" these 2 plans into my Swiss 2nd pillar (the equivalent of the BAV), so that at least I don't have to keep track of 3 different pensions.   Thanks a lot

  I disagree with this common idea "you regret things you had not done". Some things are better NOT to be done. I don't need to put my hand on a fire to know that it hurts...   I did a similar move years ago, from a vibrant international city in an English-speaking country, to a middle-sized city in the middle of Germany (not far from Stuttgart), for career reasons. I ended up being stuck there for 3 years, and I still regret, almost 10 years later, to have wasted 3 years of my young life there.   I also don't believe in the "you can always go back to Berlin" idea...after you made all the effort to move, you won't move back soon, even if you don't like the job. And human beings tend to stick to suboptimal situations (e.g. toxic relationships), hoping that they improve, rather than make a move. Plus it's bad for the resume to have a short stint. You'll be stuck there for years...

  Does an Anwartschaft also make sense if You left Germany for another EU country (or Switzerland) While you were in Germany, your salary was above the Versicherungsplflichtgrenze, but you were voluntarily insured in the public system Am I correct that in this case there shouldn't be a problem getting back into the public system?

  I thought that only an intensive in-person language course was enough to get a language student visa. For the OP...please let us know if an online course is enough.

  Next time I'd suggest Involving your credit card company to dispute the charge, since Lufthansa in the end didn't provide the service Involving https://soep-online.de/en/

  What does he miss of Munich that can't be found in Ireland (apart from the weather)?

If you deregister from Germany you don't have to paid health insurance anymore. Well now you are abroad, but you should be able to deregister by post.   I think with a  Niederlassungserlaubnis you can be deregistered for up to 6 months.   If you can't/don't want to deregister...shouldn't TK apply just the minimum tariff (180 EUR/month)?

Since Friday evening my Mnet connections is not working anymore...there is DSL signal, but it can't establish an IPV4 connection.   The Mnet customer service told me I have to wait until Monday when somebody looks at it...I suppose the concept of "on-call" hasn't yet arrived here.   It's just one of the many example of the crap state of the internet infrastructure, in this country of lawyers and mechanical engineers..   Mobile internet is also worse than many developing countries I've been...

DHL lost a 100+ EUR air purifier that I sold through eBay...the package is not even traceable anymore on their website since a few days. Before it would show that it was stuck in Augsburg, now the system can't even find a package with that number... I've made 2 Nachforschungsauftrag (in German...because a global company like DHL is too incompetent to provide an English-speaking customer service), but nobody has ever contacted me.   This is just the last of many failures I've witnessed by this incompetent company over the years. Obviously I won't use them EVER again, but is there anything from a legal point of view that can be done against them?