PhD Aalto University Espoo Living Costs

[dbterminator]

Hi All,

There are PhD positions which I am interested in being advertised at Aalto University, offering 2400 euro per month salary. Can anyone advise on:

1. is this reasonable salary to live on my own walking distance to university?
2. would I be able to save any of this money? (maybe even potentially mortgage a house?)
3. rough tax calculation? (any discounts for students)
4. do salaries increase normally after the first year for doing PhDs in Finland?...(I have heard they may add bonus depending on personal performance)
5. any other general standard of living / life as foreigner tips / loneliness of PhD ( ) advise welcome.

So I looked around a lot of forums, there are numbers thrown around, but I am totally confused, different opinions, different locations! The tax calculator tool (Vero Skatt) seems super confusing for me as well. I did look up properties around the area, and it doesn't seem too expensive (like Helsinki).

Any advise / opinions would be highly appreciated, especially if you live around this area.

P.S. I live in London (so comparisons are welcome!)

[betelgeuse]

1. is this reasonable salary to live on my own walking distance to university?

Reasonable is subjective but it's enough to get by ok.

2. would I be able to save any of this money? (maybe even potentially mortgage a house?)

ymmv but yes

3. rough tax calculation? (any discounts for students)

20%. Doing a PhD gives no tax discounts.

4. do salaries increase normally after the first year for doing PhDs in Finland?...(I have heard they may add bonus depending on personal performance)

I would not count on it. Your supervisor should know for your situation.

So I looked around a lot of forums, there are numbers thrown around, but I am totally confused, different opinions, different locations! The tax calculator tool (Vero Skatt) seems super confusing for me as well. I did look up properties around the area, and it doesn't seem too expensive (like Helsinki).

What's confusing about it? You only need to give it your personal info (municipality etc) and put 28800 as your salary. You can leave everything else blank and get the rought estimate. Any deductions (and usually only a few are even relevant) would then just result in small adjustments down.

[dbterminator]

Hi there,

Thanks a lot for the advise. I understand then this is enough just to get by, by the sounds of it. what about getting a car, could it be stretching the budget?

The 20% tax seems to be accurate, supervisor confirmed it today as well as that salary does increase further down the line. I am also told by the supervisor that there are student flats (living on own) from 500 to 700 euro, but looking on asunnot.oikotie.fi, I couldn't find anything cheaper than 700 euros. Any advise towards this would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

[betelgeuse]

Thanks a lot for the advise. I understand then this is enough just to get by, by the sounds of it. what about getting a car, could it be stretching the budget?

Services like DriveNow probably make more sense.

https://www.drive-now.com/fi/en/helsinki

The 20% tax seems to be accurate, supervisor confirmed it today as well as that salary does increase further down the line. I am also told by the supervisor that there are student flats (living on own) from 500 to 700 euro, but looking on asunnot.oikotie.fi, I couldn't find anything cheaper than 700 euros.

The student flats are not on Oikotie.

[Upphew]

The student flats are not on Oikotie.

See hoas.fi

[dbterminator]

Thank you all for your replies, much appreciated. I am checking hoas.fi and it seems some flats are actually unfurnished, or don't say if they are. Are flats in Finland normally rented unfurnished? I am also looking into the option of sharing with another person (i.e. 2 person flat), are there any websites (apart from hoas) that you can rent a room only, or find a flatmate? I am going to visit Helsinki soon anyway, but any info. would be really helpful!
Thanks again guys.

[betelgeuse]

Are flats in Finland normally rented unfurnished?

They are.

[inkku]

have you done any basic googling it information searching here?
https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/housing-for-students
there are also loads of fb groups for rental searching. for instance
vuokra-asunnot Helsinki is the biggest

in Otaniemi, you don't need a car in my opinion, you can walk, ride a bicycle, use buses, underground. very nice and easy place to live in.

[inkku]

FB group
Vuokra-asunnot espoo....

[dbterminator]

Thanks all for your replies, I am looking everyday at various sources for accommodation, it's not easy! It looks like the only feasible option is to rent somewhere furnished for one month, then look for more permanent place while in Finland, it's too difficult to do everything from England. Even HOAS seems risky to wait for, and they don't prioritise PhD students and the apartments they can provide can be far from the university. Thanks all again for the suggestions.