Guidance of Offered Salary with Mandatory Expenses - Gothenburg

I lived and worked in Sweden for a few years. What you need to do is create a sample budget on a monthly plan.

Your monthly income is approx 52k SEK. Note that most salaries in Sweden are quoted AFTER tax (Nett) (EDIT: This seems to be true for expats but not generally) but you should confirm this for good order's sake. I lived on 46k SEK per month, which with careful budgeting, was sufficient to support two people and have some fun. I saved money by not taking alcohol (ridiculously expensive) and severely curtailing my eating out.

Next, write down your known monthly expenses. You can find pricing for all of this online. These will include:

• Rent (finding a place near/in Gothenburg should be easier than Stockholm, but I suggest you find one that is close to public transport. Identify a few candidate places and use the median rent as your budget. Also, if there is a waitlist, join it immediately.)
• Electricity (If you have electric heat, this could be a significant expense; in some cases it may be included in the rent)
• Internet / Telephone (The cheapest connection for you is probably Lycamobile; but you might like to have some data connection. Municipalities often have an ethernet connection straight to each house, which you can use to get internet through Telia or a number of other providers. I would suggest you start with your mobile phone data connections and then investigate cheaper alternatives over the next few months there.)
• Transportation (find an apartment near the metro and find the price of an all-access monthly pass - budget for two, one yours and one your wife's. Later on when you have settled in you can figure out how to save money by bicycling and paying per ride with a kontantkort (cash card).)
• Insurance: you will want renter's insurance, life insurance, unemployment insurance, and if you purchase a car, car insurance.
• Union Dues: Unions in Sweden are a good thing. I recommend joining the union for better deals on insurance, retirement, vacations, and job security. Your company should be happy to facilitate this; if they're not I'd suggest looking elsewhere for work.
• Trip back home to India every year: This is a known expense so you can budget for it.

Add all that up, and with the remainder, allocate for your variable expenses:

• Groceries / food / eating out (as you don't know what your costs will be, put a generous guesstimate and fine-tune each month after you get there). It's easy to spend about 6000 SEK per month on groceries if you are not careful. It's also easy to reduce that to just around 2000 SEK per month.
• Saving: In general, plan to save to maintain an emergency fund of 3-6 month's of your expenses
• Investing: common rules of thumb say you should put about 15% monthly take-home into investments. In Sweden, your employer will contribute to your retirement, but you can also contribute additionally. Alternatively, you can invest in mutual funds or in family members back home in India.
• Saving for a car / house / bigger apartment / computer / any other goals you may have.

Your SEK 15,000 will not go very far as relocation expenses. I suggest that it is best spent on good winter clothing (down-filled coats, ski mask hat, insulated gloves, pants, and boots for both you and your wife), a two-burner stove / toaster oven, some pots and pans, and basic furniture. Check out freecycle, the second hand stores like myrorna, humana, etc., and student housing trash rooms.

As a general guidance, avoid debt. Do not take credit cards to purchase stuff new. Buy stuff old and