Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

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saimanoj18
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Joined: Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:16 pm

Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

Post by saimanoj18 » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:21 pm

Hello Everyone,

This is Sai and few months back I finished my PhD in Singapore.

I recently saw an opening for Post doctoral candidate in Tampere University in Finland. I am considering to apply for it. But before that I would like to know how much roughly they generally pay for Post doc...and how much would be tax, living expenses and how much we can save.

I m single now but how much would be expenses to have a family or may be bring parents over... Can we sustain and may be save a bit with the post doctoral pay ?

How is it, regarding work and people and job opportunities there.
I work in the field of mobile robotics and computer vision.
When I was studying in undergraduate, I was always amazed by Finland and I am curious to know more and may be consider going there if possible :)



Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

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Querfeldein
Posts: 155
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2015 8:10 pm
Location: Helsinki

Re: Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

Post by Querfeldein » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:34 am

It will depend on the source of funding (ERC / Marie Curie tends to be higher, for example, than University's own funds), your experience and, to some degree, negotiation (but that is very limited, and is just about what level you will be entered). I would expect around 3500-4000€ / month before tax. There are some posts here discussing taxes, that will depend on your circumstances, so please look that up. There are also various threads about living expenses - the answer is most likely "it depends". You may also have to check if you can legally bring your family, I don't know about that.

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AnnikaL
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Re: Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

Post by AnnikaL » Sun Sep 17, 2017 3:34 pm

I recently started a post doc position here. There is a small room for negotiation on wages, but if you only got your PhD a few months back they will put you on the lower of the two post doc scales - I would expect - and then the leeway for negotiation is in a personal component. For this, you would have to demonstrate how you have already been performing a bit above what might be expected, ie having successfully applied for funding, or having some good publications. But yes, as was said, it will likely fall somewhere between 3500-4000€ / month before tax.

I'm planning to bring my family - husband, daughter, pets - and live on this, in the case that my partner can't find work, though of course we hope he does. But we will be mortgage/rent free effectively as we own a property in UK that we can rent out to cover this. It might still be a squeeze for having expensive holidays and suchlike but I'm sure we will get by day today.

I am really happy with my choice to come and the university environment here seems so much better in some ways than in UK and in some ways it is depressingly familiar. Ie very little job security, who knows what happens at end of contract, pressure to apply for grants etc. But in two weeks I have already met very nice people, and people doing great research.
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jsilverman
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2014 5:19 pm
Location: Toolo, Helsinki

Re: Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

Post by jsilverman » Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:20 pm

The union for academics in Finland has negotiated standard salary rates (and these are available on the university pages, usually). For a post doc, as said above, it will range from roughly 3-4k a month gross. These are relatively generous comparatively speaking, but keep in mind the tax rates here are higher than in other places.
"Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can, and wine to accept the things I can't."

necadam
Posts: 72
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:57 am

Re: Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

Post by necadam » Sun Mar 11, 2018 8:49 am

saimanoj18 wrote:
Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:21 pm
I m single now but how much would be expenses to have a family or may be bring parents over... Can we sustain and may be save a bit with the post doctoral pay ?
Yes, it is possible to sustain a family with your salary. If your wife has a job as well, you can easily make nice savings, otherwise it depends on your expenses – the most important will be the rent, which can go on the private market roughly from 800 EUR to infinity. :-)
Schools cost nothing, daycare costs almost nothing, as the bill goes to the municipality from the larger part (in Helsinki, the fee depends on your income and the maximum you can pay for municipal kindergarten is about 215 EUR). I would estimate that typical food expenses for an adult are 150–400 EUR monthly.
Not sure about bringing parents though, you should definitely check http://migri.fi first.

jsilverman
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Jul 22, 2014 5:19 pm
Location: Toolo, Helsinki

Re: Post doc salary, living expenses and savings

Post by jsilverman » Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:53 pm

150 a month for food is incredibly low estimate.

I have to scrape by as best as possible, and I find it very hard to maintain a weekly food budget of under 50 a week.
"Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can, and wine to accept the things I can't."


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