Cost of Living in Stockholm

Recently, there have been calls from my friends in India (and outside India as well) asking how would be the life, if they move to Sweden and how much money they can save :-) by working in Sweden.

It's a tough question to answer, hence I have written my thoughts in this blog post.

1. What's the tax? This is the first question asked always once they know salary range.
Sweden has the second highest taxation in Europe as per the statistics. However, tax payers still feel that tax is justified because of social benefits received. I will describe social benefits later.

www.skatteverket.se (Tax Office website) has the Tax calculation Table Here
1. Choose Income Year
2. Choose Stockholm Community or other Municipality based on locality you are going to live.
3. Click on "Download Tax Table". I have got below results displayed.

But does it mean that 30% tax for everyone? No, that's not the case. There is an additional link (PDF) here to understand and make it complicated :-). Let us take the case of salaries from 40001 to 45k SEK per month.

                                           

First column is Salary range. What about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 headers? Is this tax for Month 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 :-). No, that's not the case. As per the Tax office website, here is the description for these columns.

The tables contain six different columns. The same tax deductions may occur in some income layers in more than one column.

Column 1 refers to salaries, fees and similar remuneration to those born in 1953 or later if the income entitles them to tax deductions. The column should be applied regardless of whether or not a general pension fee is payable. For all 6 columns description : Click here

For me (at least), Column 1 is applicable (and I assume for the most of people, who are reading this page as well).

Hence, if my salary is in between 40001 - 40200, then my tax will be 9918, which is 24% approx.

If you see the heading clearly, it says it's Preliminary, which means that's estimated tax and actual might vary (may be a little) based on different contexts (for e.g. other benefits you might receive from your company in the salary such as lunch (like Sudexo) or Travel subscription etc. )

There is a catch here. Let us assume your current salary is 40200 per month and you are paying 9918 tax amount per month, Net salary is 30282. If your salary is increased by 500 sek per month, then salary will be 40700 and tax amount will be  10218. Net salary will be 30482. Overall, net salary is increased only by 200, that's interesting. Isn't it? Because your tax % is increased to 25% approx now as you are falling in range of 42601 - 42800. There is a gradual tax increase for every 200 sek increase in salary :-)

Is that the reason, not many people bother about salary revision in Sweden?? I have no idea!

2. What's the rent per apartment/house in Stockholm?

This is again a very tough question to answer because it's not easy to get a rented house or apartment in Stockholm. It's quite tedious task and so easily we can't get accommodation, especially if you have kids along with you! Rental rates are increasing quite rapidly in Stockholm.

If you need a house in Central, it's damn costly, the far you go from Central Stockholm, Rental amounts come down but not to a greater extent.

On an average: Central Stockholm

1 room in a shared Apartment(16 to 18 sq meter) is 9.5k to 12k per month

2 room Apartment(36 to 48 sq meter) is 14k to 17k per month

3 room Apartment(50 to 70 sq meter) is 18k to 20k per month

On an average: Going far from Central Stockholm

1 room in a shared Apartment(15 to 20 sq meter) is 4.5k to 6k per month

2 room Apartment(40 to 50 sq meter)  is 10k to 13k per month

3 room Apartment(51 to 75 sq meter)  is 14k to 18k per month

3. What are the living expenses (excluding rent)? 

What all we need to include when we say living expenses : Groceries, Utility bills such as Electricity, Broadband, TV Licence, Mobile, Transportation, insurance and some shopping? Numbeo website has very interesting statistics. 

However, I would say as below

On an average: 

If you are alone, not drinking or smoking regularly, expenses may be around 4.5k to 7k.

If you are living with spouse, expenses may be around 5k to 9k

If you are living with spouse and 2 kids, expenses may be around 7k to 10k.

Costs may vary based on your food habits, how far you are living from office and shopping habits obviously :-)

4. What are the social benefits? 

The amounts and rules for eligibility to receive the benefits are changing. Hence, I am providing the URLs to official website so that you can get the CORRECT information.

Child allowance - Click Here 

Parental Benefit - Click Here

I had a weird experience and complex situation and benefits varied from elder daughter and younger daughter even though all of us are moved to Stockholm on the same date :-)

5. Scenario based calculation. Here I posted Excel spreadsheet to calculate savings per month for a hypothetical scenario. Hope it helps!

6. Some more factors to be considered:

* Health expenses for adults
* Travel to home country
* Vacation
* Expenses in home country like home loan EMI or dependents in home country etc
* Income from home country
* Pension which you can withdraw @60 years of age
* Children Education

Write your feedback/suggestions in Comments. Thanks.