confusion and insecurity

If you want to be confused in Christmas times, why not try and solve some questions you have regarding your student loan…. Or try to understand why in its infinite wisdom when all other interest rates in the world are dropping, the Swedish interest rate for the student loans is increased….

Then again, let's not. I am very tempted to once more adhere to one [of many] advice that I received prior to leaving my loving country to go on this post doc. What kind of advice? Very simple, when I called and asked about some rules and “what am I supposed to do when I am now moving across the world on this very temporary visa etc?”.

The answer, from the Social security equivalent (Försäkringskassan) as well as the Unemployments department (Arbetsförmedlingen) and the Union for PhDstudents in natural sciences (Naturvetarförbundet) was, from all three places, “Don’t make any changes now since we don’t know what will happen when you come back. Just continue to pay what you pay and we will see what happens*”.

And, more importantly for me who always have been a very good girl and made the descisions like you are supposed to, “Do not tell the governemt more than what they need to know”. In other words, when I asked what to do the anser was; “don’t tell them you are moving out of the country until they ask you”.

Huh? So, now when I approach the magical “2 years out of the country” and my student loans are going to be recounted for pay back it is with a bit of a dread I am waiting for the letter this January. (The pay back is recounted every year based on my income two years ago…. Since I am old and only have “middle old loans”) Why? You see, if you live abroad you have two choices, either pay 5% of the loan or ask to pay 4% of your income in the foreign country. In my case these amounts are almost identical so the easiest way is by far to pay 5% of my loan. My problem? That I never “moved out of my country” official (since people told me three times not to make any difficult changes since it is harder to move back afterwards**) so I am assuming right now that it will be a bit of an problem?!

Of course, this was one of the questions that I asked at the time and got the reply “Don’t do anything prior to the fact. Wait for the governmental part to react and then solve it. It is hard to change it before the issue has been brought to our attention”. Personally, I find this approach very silly and strange. Not to mention very stressful (did I mention that I hate to do “wrong things” or mistakes?)

Anyway, I guess one of my stops on my way home this spring will be to visit (or maybe call but that will take ages on the phone) the agency and ask what on earth I shall do. I will of course then already have gotten the magical letter telling me how much I owe. And yes, no matter what that letter will be I am very tempted to pay in the full amount to start with and be done with it. Why? Because I am still paying off it and I will be rid of the whole thing by the time I am 65 years old…. See, one of the good things that happened with the “middle loan” is that it was a set time limit on when to stop making payments, never mind if it is paid off or not. Then again, maybe they will change that too…. In the state of “interest for the country” or something completely random?!

So, the person who hates insecurity more than I can explain, i.e. me, is going to have to wait until end of January to be able to solve all this…. And then probably wait some more. And trust me, someone will find a way to make this my fault I am sure. (Did I mention that I have been dealing with my own Governmental departments before and that it is a hassle… and you need to have a lot of patience…. And not try to be efficient since that never ever works.

Right, I guess the only thing that I can be happy about is that how ever I calculate I always end up with owing less money than I have in my special bank account back home for “paying off student loans in 2009 and 2010” which should mean I am in the good zone. Or, maybe I am just not good at math?!?!?!

Then when I get back I will try not to think too much about the things that happened with the tax return last year when someone deducted too little for the foreign post docs from Northern Europe which led to a back tax of more than 1000 dollars for certain people.... this year I have been kind of promised that it won't happen again. Let's just hope, shall we? (I have recounted but I am not that familiar with the US tax system so I can trust that it is really right.... but the other person responsible has also checked so I should be good. Should being the operative word here. I'm hoping.)

* I am, due to personal reasons, thinking about giving this up though. The only thing that keeps me paying is the fact that I know exactly how hard it is to get access once you are out. It is more than working full time for 6 months in order to go back into the system but if you are already in there you can still access things like…. “a special looking for employment place” and other “networking sites”. I don’t know though… there is a price… but at this moment I have already given them so much money that it would be a complete waste of not continuing I guess?! It’s hard in any event. I’m trying not to burn bridges, that’s all.

**the very fun part in all of this is that at the moment I have a right to stay in the States for exactly 30 days after my contract is up. I have a right to move back to my country, although I have no right to social security or really any planned medical/surgical treatments for a year [due to all the people who move away and not pay taxes but then when diagnosed with cancer/other expensive illness move back and want treatment] and no right to maternity leave. All this will be ok after a year of work…. Or maybe a year of residency if I am looking for a base line… I guess the funniest thing was when one of the people I talked to explained to me that since I didn’t own any property in my old country I could be denied to come back! I told them that that sounded very, very, very strange since I am still a citizen of my old country and we always have right of residency. That’s when they told me the whole “no right of anything else though”….

It is best to never leave, even if it means social security/unemployment than trying to survive on your own. Let’s just say that I am still a bit iffy about the last part…..