lol hmm yes but hawaii rocks
maybe we could do a LD tour or something then Who knows? The dutch forum has their 3rd RL meeting today. But then again holland is a real small country.
thanks for the mobile home info, i didn’t know that. I wouldn’t want to live in a mobile home though. I need space and comfort.
hmm the cost of living here is quite expensive.
especially in amsterdam house prices are very expensive and you dont even own the land it is on in most cases (in other cities/provinces this is different, when you buy a home you also get some land with it)
here in amsterdam house prices are almost unpayable. You cannot even get a house for under 150.000 euro anymore. houseprices start at 200.000 or more euro for a small house with a small garden and neighbors on all sides. And that is the suburbs.
taxes are very high here. 19.8 % sales tax and very high income tax. if your income is above a certain amount you pay 40% tax.
which can lead to situations where you get a pay raise but actually you earn less because you have to pay more tax because you have crossed the border.
gas is $5.50 a gallon or more. (goes in liters here, so it sounds less - 1 gallon is about 3 liters)
when you have a car you have to pay taxes over it, the bigger the car the more taxes. a normal sized car (small to americans) is about $50 a month. if you have a big car it can go up to $300 a month just on taxes. The tax is based on the weight of the car - the heavier the car the more tax you pay - and it doesnt matter if you drive it once a week to do shopping or every day across the country.
also everything is small. if you order food, for example mc donalds, your small size is our medium, and your medium is our large or extra large. For the same price or more expensive than in the US. In the US i found that food is cheaper and you get a bigger portion. Also no free refills here.
so in my opinion US is much cheaper than Holland, and even though cali may be one of the most expensive states to live in, i think for us it would actually not so much more expensive than what we are used to. - from what i hear now i havent been scared yet