Ben has relocated to Germany. Good for him. You couldnt pay me enough to live in Florida

Absolutely.

Very first post after the Germany move post was:

Ink Business Cash Card: 8 Reasons To Apply

amazing how you can get 5x in Germany (or...someone's gotta pay for the move).

But good to see his mom doing well though...She left his dad behind or what?

I got all the CSR bonuses for groceries here in Germany... but I suppose the core demographic that signs up for Chase products is more stateside.

If read his post closely its not a relocation to Germany but some long trips. For one, his spouse probably doesn't have a visa to stay longer than 90 days and if they stay more than 180 days/yr in Germany the German Tax authorities want their share of his income. Also if you settle in Germany you have to get medical insurance which costs a pretty penny if you are self employed and aged >30-35y.

How much?

Depends what you want and its not too expensive. You can start with 150 Euro per month (with 1500 deductible per year, 60% for dentist) with base insurance and from there it goes up dependent what you want (e.g. private room in hospital, low deductible etc.) to around 700 Euro. This is for private insurance, if you go with the state insurance it depends on your salary but the maximum is also around 700+ Euro. There a non working spouse and children would be included while in a private insurance it is not.

With his income I doubt health insurance is a big deal for him in Germany. Taxes is a different story. Also you have a really hard time to buy ETF's or other investments (basically you end up in a twilight zone because of US and EU regulations each locking you out of the others investments).

The curse of Schengen days!

A spouse of an economically active German citizen can easily settle in the EU; and maybe it's more easily done in/via Austria for economically active German citizen than in/via Germany for a German citizen. Some way or another, the 90/180 day limit can easily be lawfully gamed by a well-off EU citizen wanting their US spouse to move to the EU.

There is the Surinder Singh route and this http://curia.europa.eu/juris/documen...rt=1&cid=85609 limitation to it for intra-Schengen cross-border re-settlement.

Indeed, it won't be health insurance costs that are a make or break for someone who seems to be making as much money as has been suggested in this thread.

He's probably going to keep most of his personal and business banking and investment activity US-based anyway. I don't know what kind of professional tax planning advice he has used and how much money is on the table for his blog business, but there are definitely some lawfully creative ways to make the tax burden mainly one due to Uncle Sam's levies even while paying Deutscher Michel his own due too. Whether or not paying for advice to get to such structures for tax management make sense financially, well, that's another matter.

If the spouse applies for a staying permit, s/he has to stay in Germany and become and with that tax liable. Just like when you get a green card for your spouse in the US

Big drama about Uber 'driver' not wearing a mask in Berlin... what the author and many of the readers forget is that Uber is not allowed to operate in Germany, they just broker limo services. What the limo driver does, is his/her business and hardly ubers...

Regardless of my personal feelings on masks, this is a poor argument. If I'm using the Uber app, and the app says drivers will wear masks, then I expect drivers to wear masks. If what you're saying about brokering services is accurate, it still is Uber's business, because if they are promising their riders something and the limo driver fails to deliver, then it's in their interest to break ties with the limo driver (or to not make promises to riders anymore)
I'd be willing to bet that in order to be on Ubers platform, they require the drivers agree to wear masks.

Uber Germany lost a series of court cases and is not allowed to operate the gig-economy model in Germany. On the bottom of Uber Germany it says:

There is still a contract between Uber and the contractor, which could require the contractor adopt certain policies.

Precisely. If the private hire limo doesn't want to wear a mask during rides not brokered by Uber, then that's their decision. But if they want the benefit of Uber's clientele, then there'd certainly be terms to access that benefit.

Sadly the T&C of Uber Germany are only available in German: https://www.uber.com/legal/de/docume...ermany&lang=de

But it is very clear: all Uber Germany does (and is allowed to do by court order) is arrange/broker a deal between the app user and a 'transportation service provider'. What the latter does or doesn't do is between the user and the provider. They clearly say that in section 6.