Thank you, HannahBanana, for letting us know how it is working for you right now. As for commuting, we would like to use as much bike/public transportation as possible. Definitely it is not the same, I currently commute around 15km each way (about 10 miles) to work. But our weather is on average 26ºC with highs around 40ºC and lows around 10ºC. We have been monitoring Helsinki's temperatures for almost a year, so we will have to get used to the fact our readings will be like substracting 30ºC to our current temperatures, hehehe.HannahBanana wrote: ↑Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:20 amYou should take into consideration that here in Finland we pay a lot of taxes. My average gross income is about 3.300 euros a month, but after tax and workers comp and other mandatory expenses I'm left with approximately 2.300 in net wages, which means I pay about 1.000 euros a month in taxes and expenses and that is with all the deductions I can make (travel between work and home for example).
For you to be able to provide for your family (in Migri's eyes, in reality you'll get by with less, but it may not be comfortable) you should land a job that pays a gross wage of 4.500 euros minimum, preferably more. With progressive taxation the more you earn, the more you pay out... People in the 6.000e a month bracket bring home about 4.500e in net wages monthly.
As for your housing, you will be able to find something tp accommodate your family for 1.000e a month, but it won't be in Helsinki, so you'll have to commute. Best bet would be looking at Vantaa alonside train routes, as this would accommodate both your rental cap and ease of commute. Commuting by public transport between Helsinki and Vantaa is approximately 110e a month.
With regard to income, I have not found anything about wages for my profession, but I feel confident about I will find that "dream job", even if this takes a couple of years (I hope it doesn't!). We don't have a problem about paying a lot of taxes. We have heard and read that they are properly used in education, health, roads and a lot of other stuff, and that there is almost no corruption. Here in Mexico I pay about 28% tax over my "profit", plus 16% VAT on almost everything we purchase, plus another almost 10% on social security and housing (That just gives you the right to get a government mortgage with 16-20% variable rate interests). We also pay housing taxes, a special tax to commerce and another "payroll tax". The worst thing is that a lot of money just dissapears in the hands of government and we get nothing in return. Hopefully this gets better with the new government...
But that's not the only reason to leave. We did a research of almost every worth-living country in the last 2 years and we felt in love with Finland. It just sounds amazing on paper, videos, forums, blogs, images, etc!
Cheers,
Mike.