4 ms·
Clearly not. I'm a swede and I used to live in the US, specifically the bay area, SF. I moved back to sweden 5 years ago and while I make less than half of wha
by hoebaggins 8y ago
Clearly not.
I'm a swede and I used to live in the US, specifically the bay area, SF. I moved back to sweden 5 years ago and while I make less than half of what I did (~150k/year) while working and living in the US, my living standard here in sweden is so much better in every possible way.
I make roughly the equivalent of $70k/year before taxes here in Sweden (it's above average) but I pay less half of what I used to pay for a 2 room apartment in the bay area but instead I get a 300 m2 architectural designed lake house less than 20 minutes from my office. Buying a house of this size and good location in the bay area would cost millions of dollars. I paid less than $400k.
I work remote 3 days a week, I get 8 weeks of paid vacation a year (currently on vacation and I haven't been at work since 14th of december), universal healthcare plus free private healthcare (well "free" because I do pay $15 in fees once every visit) as one of my employee benefits, free lunches plus so called Rikskortet (can be used to buy meals at restaurants or groceries that for me covers the whole month), wellness benefits (basically means I get a free gym membership at whatever gym or physical activity I want), a company car ('17 Audi A7) where I only have to pay for gas which I rarely need to do because I live close to work and I work remote more than half the time.
So basically I pay roughly the equivalent of $1500 a month in total (mortage, utility bills, insurance, food etc) for my current stress free life these days compared to when I used to live and work in the US where I paid $4000 a month just in rent alone for a small apartment.
I'd say that I have a quite comfortable life at this point.
- kochthesecond 8y ago8 week vacation and paid car and free lunches? I have never heard of anything like this.
- hoebaggins 8y agoI negotiated extended vacation days and a leased company car over pay. Makes both parties happy in this case. Free lunches as in the company pays for the food but the lunch breaks are not paid.
- pkz 8y agoI'd say that 8 weeks (40 days) of vacation is not the norm, even for software developers in Sweden. The law says 25 days. Most companies may do 30. And some will increase it for the 40+ staff to 35.
- hoebaggins 8y agoIt's not the norm, no. I negotiated more vacation over more pay and I get 25 days in the summer like everyone else and another 15 days to use whenever I can which usually isn't a problem especially during the holidays like now. I only had to use 10 days this year thanks to it being a "good year" when it comes to vacation and "red days".
- pkz 8y agoCongrats on a good deal!
- granjoz 8y agoWhere do you live to have a 300 m2 architectural designed lake house? Not around Stockholm?
- yowlingcat 8y agoVery nice. Read the rest of the reply comments -- I'm particularly impressed with how you used a mutually beneficial arrangement to both you and the company to boost your effective salary: lower your expenditures and lower their loss to taxation by offering you perks you otherwise need to use. Forgive me if this is obvious (not from Sweden so not familiar with the regulations there), but is there any reason why you can't negotiate even further down to have them pay for your apartment? Or is it something that you'd prefer to have independent from your job, or perhaps something else?
- abbe_k 8y agoHe is most likely taxed for some of these benifits otherwise it would be a major loop hole. His gym membership is probably not taxed as the government want to promote good health, but he has to pay tax for the car, free lunches etc.