My package is bigger than yours

Among the expat community there's much talk of your "package" i.e. what the company pays for or doesn't pay for while you're on assignment. For many expats, being abroad is a great financial deal because the companies pay for their housing, car leasing, school fees, language instruction for the whole family and various other goodies (career coaches, per diems, flights home, etc.). So imagine you had no mortgage, no car payments, free schools, no health insurance costs because those are covered by the state anyway, a really nice salary, and possibly a lower tax bracket than your local colleagues because you get the expat tax break. You're just awash in kronor. The joy! I think this is what people imagine when they hear the term "expat" -- visions of flash cars and cash and stay-at-home moms, no?

Then of course there are those of us on local contracts who pay for everything just like the locals and manage to just about break even every month. We got a lot of help with our move, of course, (which cost our friends down the street $30,000 out of pocket when they moved from Arizona), but there's no extras from the company and we're still duking it out with the tax office for the expat tax break. So the benefits of being expats for us are the cultural and personal ones, not the financial ones. And that's just fine. We sure hope Ava and Julian like their public colleges! ;)

How I love a strong greenback

When we arrived, the exchange rate was about 6 SEK to the little wimpy (but beloved) dollar. That meant that a small latte cost $5, a haircut was $100 and entrance to the indoor playhouse was $24 for 2 kids. It also meant that my long-suffering husband had to listen to me start every other sentence with "omigod, that's outrageous!!"

Then the economy tanked and the dollar got stronger (go figure) and now the exchange rate is 8 SEK to the dollar. Now 2 SEK may not seem like a lot, but for me it's like everything went on sale by 30% (or is it 25% you math whizzes?) and suddenly the latte is only $3.75 and the haircut is $75 (which is still ridiculous but not as ridiculous) and the playhouse thing is $17 and it's like I might actually pay those prices at home.

Of course since we are earning kronor, our buying power hasn't actually changed -- we still have the same income as we did last summer -- but the mental conversion panic has stopped and I, as a result, am a much calmer and more pleasant person after the big weekly grocery shop.

Money, work and taxes

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.