It took a few weeks to really realize how high the cost of living is here. It's the food prices, of course, but also gas ($8/gallon), parking a car in the city ($150/month), and rental housing (around $2000/month). The whammy is when you combine the high cost of living with the high taxes and you realize your expendable income dropped to about $3.40, which will buy you half an ice cream cone.
We had a few sleepless nights a week ago when we figured out what Adrian's take-home salary would be after giving 40% to the government. We decided that it makes sense for me to work. If I don't, there just wouldn't be the expendable income that would allow us to travel around Europe a lot, which was one of our reasons for coming to Europe in the first place. Adrian's company TIBCO (or Spotfire here in Sweden) said they would help distribute my resume around. So I tried to put together a good resume and have been doing some of my own networking as well, so we'll see. I'm looking forward to working in Sweden and all the cross-cultural confusion that will come with it!
Also, I found out about an expat tax break (25% of Adrian's income would be tax-free), so that should help, too.
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3 comments:
I'll think of this next time I get nauseous after paying $70 to fill up the gas tank! And that was at only $4.33 a gallon!
Come on, it's not that bad. With the Dollars current strength $8 is worth what ... about 30 euro cents. Bargain!
Today I spent $10 on a bowl of soup at lunch. Potato soup. At a little funky cafe. And it costs $2 to mail a letter. A little one.
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