I've been sick forever

Yeah, I think I have had a head cold for over a month now. I decided to start running again yesterday to see if that would boost my immune system. That, and I am trying to take a momentary (I wouldn't mind making it permanent) hiatus from meat. Have you read Eating Animals by Jonathon Saffran Foer? Read it and I am sure you will understand my dismay with the meat and fish industry. Also, is it really true that all of our flu viruses come from pigs and birds?

GROOOOOSSSSSSS!

If I want to get better, I need to fill myself up with something else. So running less than 30 minutes is supposed to help with this stuff. Long runs are good for other things, but for the time being I am just doing what I can to knock out this perpetual cold.

Plus I am working my arse off. Funny how the work starts to come in the second you get an entrepreneurial idea and you can't even find 5 minutes to work on the dang business plan? Oh, but I am not complaining. Mama's gotta bring home the bacon radicchio.

It's Almost Thanksgiving

Which is my favorite day of the year besides my birthday. And, can I just say, dear Reader, that I am thankful for YOU?

What I am NOT thankful for is the fact that I read the chapter on Turkey Factory Farming in the book Eating Animals today and I am THIS close to becoming Vegan. In fact, I feel like a complete ASS for eating meat and thinking that some part of me is just a little bit environmentally conscious. Because clearly the most important part of me is not.

Sigh. Tomorrow I will do like the Native Americans do and ask my food to forgive me.

The Accountants are Worse off than me!

I started teaching a Business English class for accountants. Nice people, really, and they are helping me get over my PROBLEM with Italian accountants... They are actually sweet, nice, don't mind talking, not averse to technology (two of them actually check their emails before and after the lesson-- wish MINE did once in a while). Not only that, but they're kind of funny too, and human! I'm glad I decided to take them on!!

But they make me sad, too. Because they all have something in common. People don't pay them. Sometimes they have to wait one or two years to get paid for their work.

Which makes me think. What the hell am I doing paying my accountant on time?? I could wait a couple of years and let that money work for ME!

No. I wouldn't do that. But many people do, apparently. Most of them are small and medium businesses because they pay their employees first, suppliers and service providers last. I wonder how they stay afloat. That will be my next question for them.

I will let you know what I find out.

Monti doesn't seem like a bad guy

Especially after suffering through Italy on Berlusconi... This, from the New York Times today talking about Italy's new premier, Monti:

"Addressing what he called a fundamental cause of Italy’s low growth, he said the government would work to grant young people and women greater access to the workplace. 'They are the two great wasted resources of the country,' he said."

Part of me says RIGHT ON!

The other part says HUH DUH! I could have told you THAT!    

Having Doubts

But I know that's normal. I have been so busy I haven't even had a chance to think much about my super duper business plan. I can't wait for the weekend. Except I have work to do.

Crimeny.

But my entrepreneurial idea is still there in the back of my head and I think about it every spare second I get.

Could it work?

It's amazing how things are coming together now that I am thinking like an entrepreneur. My ideas are getting clearer and it's great talking to my future partners about their ideas. Google docs are totally useful for collaboration. I have new enthusiasm for the future.

I know that we are creating something that has never been done before around here. It will provide a valuable service, too. Even so, an occasional doubt jumps into my head, which I try to squelch by taking notes and working on our business plan.

Will it work? Will others believe in our idea? Will it get funding? Will it give us satisfying work and a positive financial future? Let's hope it helps us and we help a lot of people like us in the process.

Send the good vibes. I need them.

Time to Write a Business Plan

First I wrote down all of my ideas as they came to me. This weekend I need to clean them up and narrow them down to create phases of implementation to start slow and leave room to grow. I pitched the idea to my two partners, who seem to like the idea. I will share my document using google docs and let them add what they want.

I downloaded the forms I need to help us complete the business plan. We are applying for funding, so we need to follow directions. I will keep you in the loop.

I am also starting my research phase and getting my head around the idea of being an entrepreneur. I like it. Here is what I am reading today-

There's more to do, but this is step one to creating a new working situation for myself. I have less than three years to do something. If I don't, I will be knocked into a new tax regime that will cost me lots and lots of money and will probably not be worth it for what I am currently making.

My two partners feel the same frustration. It's time to think big and try something new and different that has never been done around here before.

Send us the good vibes.

.

I Promise it's NOT a Doggy Bakery

Even though I'm pretty sure Italians would LOVE the idea, I'm just not interested in retail, or doggy snacks. Maybe it's more suited to France anyway.

My idea may be considered a tad crazy over here.

But I'm thinking Innovation, which has to be a little crazy to work.

I Have a Business Plan

I don't know where it came from but it did. I have a great idea for a new business and I am going to submit it to try to get funding for it. I don't want to tell you too much about it yet. I'm not afraid you'll steal my idea, of course, because I don't worry about such things. I am more worried that if I talk too much about it I will open myself up to criticism when I am feeling HUGELY optimistic. There's nothing worse than having someone pop your balloon just when you're feeling like the World is Completely open to you.

And today, by gosh, it IS!!

You wanna feel like a lousy mom?

Read those brain development books that say you only have like two years to teach your kid everything in the world they need to know for the rest of their lives.

Anybody know a good suzuki teacher in Trieste?

Reading Material for the Office Bully

The Triestino workplace (especially the University) is full of office bullies. These are the insecure folks who like to throw their weight around, give favors to their sweeties because it makes them feel more powerful (there are less and less resources, thus the office bully is losing influence, and he knows it, which makes him even beastier!), send threatening letters to higher-ups when they don't get their way, and, sadly, often do get their way because the people they are bullying want them to shut up.

Well, I realized that the problem with these bullies is they don't read enough. So, I would like to propose three books that may help them realize that treating other people badly is not a healthy way to live.

Here is my first recommendation, The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. This is a great book for bullies, but also for their victims. Need some help walking away from negativity? Who better to explain how than the Dalai Lama!

Recommendation number two. The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. In this book we have the friendly ladybug who is happy to share her aphids with the grouchy ladybug. The grouchy ladybug wants all the aphids for himself, though, and likes to pick fights. When the friendly lady bug stands up to him, the grouchy lady bug decides she is "not big enough" for him to fight and goes off to find someone bigger to threaten. This keeps happening until he finds a whale who slaps his arse back to the same leaf he was eating on that morning. An important learning opportunity for all bullies!

And, since we're on a roll, dear Bully, here is one more book for you to try out. The No Asshole Rule by Robert I. Sutton. This one is good for the bully but also for the misguided boss who thinks that having a bully in the office is good for business. This book (yes, it was actually a Harvard Business Review Study) has a helpful formula for recognizing if you (or someone you know) is a card-carrying asshole. It's a great test. Try it!

1. Do you treat people you feel are higher in rank than you well and people lower in rank badly?

2. When you walk in a room, do the people in it leave?

If you answered yes to one or both of these questions, then you are DEFINITELY a card-carrying asshole. 

Yes, all three of these books are available in Italian.

Worst Case Scenario

If we are unable to buy this apartment then we have to think of a plan B for our little nest egg. I feel lucky that we're even worried about something like this, especially after our lousy work situations over the last couple of years which proved that it's not how much you make but how much you don't spend...

Are there any decent investments around these days? I don't trust anyone right now and got to feeling like the old Triestini, that the only thing you can count on is what they call "mattoni."  But I have had serious doubts all along, that for one reason or another, this transaction is not going to go through.

I hope I am wrong.

Buying this Apartment is like Visiting Oz the 1st time

So I went to the Wizard  Notaio with the documentation they asked for: the marriage certificate that says that hubby and my assets are separate (so that this is considered my "first house" and I get a tax break) and asked for an appointment. The seller turned in a document from his doctor saying that he is in his right mind to sell his apartment. But even this wasn't enough. Now I have to get get the wicked witch's broom  these documents:

1. Certification of Energy (whatever the hell that is and wherever the hell you get it)

2. Details of building permits (if built after 1967).

3. Details of livability (whatever that means)

Shouldn't it be the SELLER getting these documents together?

Hmmmph.

Attack of the Pregnant Woman

So one of our teachers walks into a public school today and is told that she has to leave. Her crime? Being pregnant. According to the school, pregnant people cannot set foot in the place within two months before their due date and three months after the birth. Apparently this is a "legal" issue. Of course no one bothered to call her and tell her yesterday and the poor, helpless, pregnant woman had to drive (the horror!) all the way to the school, only to be turned away.

Um. OK. I can understand if you're on a PLANE close to your due date, but in a SCHOOL? It's not even that far from the hospital. So what are they REALLY worried about?

Pregnancy isn't catching.

But it's a great demonstration of how Italy sees pregnancy on all levels: sickness, risk. By the way, I was working at the same school up until the week before my baby was born last year and went back (with the baby in a marsupial) soon after. This was brought up (in a positive way) over the course of the conversation, by the school, to highlight a certain understanding that we American breeders are a little different. It didn't help our friend's case, though.

She is a libera professionista, by the way. She just opened her tax code a few months ago, she has no maternity benefits at all. She doesn't work, she doesn't get paid. So she gets none of the benefits but is penalized for two months before and three months after the birth, even if she feels perfectly fine, is healthy and WANTS to work.

That's what you get for getting yourself pregnant I suppose.* .

*Ironic statement. Sneer.

How Many Americans Live without a Dryer?

It's uncommon to have a dryer in Italy. They exist but they're not common. In fact they are famous for: using too much electricity, making colors fade, wearing clothes out before their time.

At my apartment we hang them on a clothes stand thing and put it outside in the sun during the day and in the bathroom with a dehumidifier at night (especially during the in-between season). They dry in about a day.

By the way

The apartment I was telling you about? The one that was donated? Well, it's still there, and it's still empty.

Don't buy an apartment in Italy that was donated

So here is the latest thing to worry about when buying a property in Italy: donated property. This happened to a friend of mine very recently. She was interested in buying the small apartment next to her own small apartment to join them and make a bigger space. No problem. She knew her neighbor, he had already moved and the apartment was empty. He was happy to sell it.

So they go through all of the checks and appointments and everything and just before making the final deal, the notary (they actually do work sometimes, I hear) uncovered the fact that this apartment had been donated. This is a clever way of having your apartment go under someone else's name so you can pay less tax on it than if you were to actually sell it. This works well in two situations: 1. you are so rich that you have a gazillion apartments and therefore a big enough percentage of your estate goes to your heirs that this apartment can go to whomever you want, or 2. You plan to live in the apartment you receive until you die. Then it will just pass on to your heirs and you don't have a thing to worry about.

Italian law protects the inheritance that should go to your heirs. There's no cutting your kids out of your will either. Two-thirds of your estate MUST go to them. If you try to donate your house to someone else in order to give them less, forget it. Your kids have up to 20 years after your death to get that house back, and they will. They have a right to it, especially if they didn't get that famous two-thirds (see, you can decide what you want to do with that other third, leave it to your guinea pig, but the other two are not your choice). This means that if you buy a donated house (it has happened and happened again and not come to light sometimes until the third owner after the donor gets the place taken away from him or her by the protesting heir or heiress, even after paying market price. GULP! Big loss, people).

So, don't buy a donated apartment, but if you are absolutely convinced that you must, don't pay market price. It's a high risk investment that could (probably) get taken away from you somewhere down the line.

If you have received a donated property you are not interested in, why not rent it out? You only pay 20 percent tax on the rent you recieve. Find a small place, live the simple life, and sock money away until you can buy the place you really want.

Just a thought.

As if our taxes weren't high enough

Now the aliquota for inps is going up to 28% on Friday (from 27%). Need I remind you that a regular salaried worker pays 9%?

Thanks to our friend, Eddie, for the news. He is closing his free-lance business the day the new percentage goes into effect.

Now, the government, which is already eliminating the simple tax numbers for those of using making less than 30,000 per year because there are "too many" of us, is making it even more appealing to evade taxes.

This comes on the heels of the dread I have been feeling all morning that SOMETHING must be done to change my situation. I am already trying to think of another investment plan since I will probably never be able to retire and get anything decent from either the American system or the Italian system, both of which I have consistently paid into but by the time my bones are too brittle to do anything it will have been too few years on either side of the pond.

This is a problem. I am thinking in lots of directions and I need to put it into action within the next two to three years. Here are some of my options.

1. Try to get a job in a company (ugh, but a steady paycheck would have its own reward).
2. Open a company with some other people doing similar work so we can save on accounting and go for bigger contracts).
3. Close my Partita Iva and opt for a Co.Co.Pro contract from clients (if they agree).
4. Close my Partita Iva and make less than 5,000 euros per year (ritenuta d'acconto)
5. Move back to America and try to get a job there (but what would husband do? This would also depend on what kind of contract he has two years from now. If he has a lifetime contract by then this won't make much sense unless I get lots of money).
6. Do something to try to up my income so that I can live decently in spite of high taxes. This would mean trying to quadruple my current income.
7. Buy up apartments I can rent out or start a B&B (you can have up to 5 properties you rent out without having to open a tax number and the tax is 20%).

Some combination of these could work as well. I need to think, plan, and act. The future feels scarey and a little depressing to me right now. I need to find a solution.

The other reason I didn't care about my phone

The phone I have is this one here, only black. It cost 30 euros. No, it was free, since my grandma bought it for my husband and then he gave it to me when we got a coupon for 10 euros off the same phone (hence, that one was 20 euros). Sure, it's low-tech so I would have had to re-insert those important numbers, but really, changing phones gives me a chance to purge numbers I don't use.

Plus, I knew I could keep my old phone number. So, no biggy. I would have probably cried if I had an expensive phone like an iphone (which in Europe means you pay full price for it-- we don't have those special deals for 2-year contracts and neat phones).

By the way, I get to look (not so) cool using my hand-me-down ipod touch (it was my mom's free with her computer, she gave it to my brother, who got an iphone and gave it to me, so I'm the third owner), which I use to check my email when I can find wifi (which in Trieste is not easy. We have it at our Association even though the Italian government wouldn't let us do a hot spot because of "security reasons" effectively keeping Italy in the stone age, while in Slovenia, even restaurants owned by old people have wi-fi free for anyone). Anyway just having it balances out my loser factor of the phone pictured here and makes me look somewhat up-to-date (in an out-of-date way).

Our cousin Paolo was still in the hotel when they found it so he's got it and is on his way back to Trieste on the train with it. Yeah!

Left my phone in Rome

and, surprisingly, life has gone on all the same. In fact, maybe just a fraction of a bit better since I haven't had to hear that annoying ring (perhaps I should change it?) since I was outside of Saint Peter's on Sunday (the one free day at the Vatican museum if you can stomach the wait. I couldn't). After that I apparently put it back in my pocket in just a way that it could fall out easily as soon as I sat down on a couch at the hotel (it was found and is on its way back to Trieste).

I didn't miss it at all. Not one bit. Although I felt quite GUILTY without it. As if my not being reachable at any time of day by anyone at all in the world was some kind of sin.