Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

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xinef
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Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:19 pm

Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by xinef » Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:28 pm

We are a couple with a baby. And we will move Finland this year and plan to live in Espoo. I will continue my work remotely outside Finland and the income is about euro 2500 (after tax) per month. My partner and the kid will spend some times to settle down and get used to everything before she starts looking for a job. It can be 6 months or maybe sooner. My question is if 2500 euro should be enough for three of us to live in Espoo?

Thanks



Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

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Kuzay
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:54 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by Kuzay » Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:44 am

If you have enough money to start: first rent, security deposit and furniture( or rent a furnished flat), you should be fine.

xinef
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:19 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by xinef » Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:59 pm

Kuzay wrote:
Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:44 am
If you have enough money to start: first rent, security deposit and furniture( or rent a furnished flat), you should be fine.
Thanks

KenKenKen
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Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:04 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by KenKenKen » Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:10 am

I believe you can definitely able to live in Espoo.

Of course, it totally depends on what is your living style.

The average rent in Espoo is cheaper than in Helsinki, but the flat is larger. This is a city for someone who does not like crowds, it is more like close to the country. If you are from a bigger city, there are some malls but they are small such as Iso Omena, if you do not drive live in a place next to supermarket is a better option with kid/family. If you drive you need to consider can you handle the situation in winter, it is totally different world in winter, it is not about difficult to drive, is about a lot of preparation, changing snow wheels, and clear snow, if you are not master it, it will kill you.

What you need to calculate is the monthly expenditure such as, Car with Gas? Bus Cost? Rent? water Fee? Electricity Fee? Internet? Phone? Food supply for 3?

If you are not yet in Finland. But you are planning to move, you have to ask yourself how long are you going to rent or you would buy a house/flat?

Either you choose, you may need to prepare the start-up cost, such as renovation cost or furniture setup cost. Finland is an expensive country you will need to plan EUR10000 - 20000 for a start-up. But you better have larger saving to back you up.

But if you will buy everything from the recycling center, then it will be much cheaper.

Hope this can help.

FinlandGirl
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Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:43 am

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by FinlandGirl » Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:58 am

KenKenKen wrote:
Fri Oct 22, 2021 12:10 am
Either you choose, you may need to prepare the start-up cost, such as renovation cost or furniture setup cost. Finland is an expensive country you will need to plan EUR10000 - 20000 for a start-up.
This is not true, unless you really want to spend that much you can get all the furniture you need for a small fraction of that amount.

KenKenKen
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Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:04 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by KenKenKen » Sat Oct 23, 2021 2:44 am

I mentioned " such as renovation cost or furniture setup cost"

I think it is fair to have such preparation.

Also, it is depending on your life style, but I consider a family of 3.

You can check the furniture price from IKEA.

FinlandGirl
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Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:43 am

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by FinlandGirl » Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:27 am

KenKenKen wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 2:44 am
I mentioned " such as renovation cost or furniture setup cost"

I think it is fair to have such preparation.
I think it is really unfair from you to imply that people would need that much money for moving to Finland.

You are lucky that you were so rich to have that much spare money before moving to Finland.
You are quite rude towards people who do not have your luck.

NukkuMatti
Posts: 273
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 9:51 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by NukkuMatti » Sun Oct 24, 2021 12:16 pm

Besides the money you take with you or not, you have several other things to consider before you come:

Your income and how / where it is taxed, this depends on the tax treaty between your country and Finland hence your income is earned in another country. Remember when you move here you will in any case be taxed by Finland for earned income abroad, unless you are already taxed in the other country and there is a treaty to prevent double taxation (of income). You really have to sort this out very well beforehand , it will be a very nasty surprise to be taxed unexpected later. I would advise to check the percentages of taxation in both your earning country and Finland, most likely, Finnish income tax at such low income is lower, so better to be taxed only in Finland.

Then there is your health insurance, there is some basic information about that, if I understand it correctly you will be considered self employed so you need to take care of your own health insurance the first 4 months, but I could be wrong about that, it is not my field of expertise.
Check the link: https://www.kela.fi/web/en/national-health-insurance

You might also have a problem finding an affordable apartment, you income is above minimum but not very high so to get an affordable apartment might have a long waiting time, good place with info to start:
https://www.infofinland.fi/en/living-in ... l-dwelling.

Try to avoid Kojamo Oy (lumo) they are only interested in their shareholders and their managers in general have a biased view on foreigners when trouble arrives due to cultural differences which will in no doubt happen sooner or later with some neighbors. They are also more expensive than state owned Housing companies.

If you decide to go to Espoo, a strategical place to try and find a place might be near one of the new "Länsi"-metro stations connecting to Helsinki along the "Länsiväylä" = west-highway

If you are a DIY guy, in the neighborhood of Matinkylä / Suomenoja / Kaitaa would be a strategic place due to the close proximity of all kind of DIY stores AND the metro. Multiple shopping centers nearby and 5 lidl stores within the range of 0-5 km.

That brings me to the next point:
Be prepared on a reasonable dose of foreigner hate fired at you by Finnish people you will come in contact with, which can be found in all little things but also sometimes in official / governmental institutes (hidden discrimination). A lot of this is in the details...
But to give short example: Espoo Center (at train-station and Entresse shopping center) is called by Finns : "little Mogadishu" due to the bigger amount of Ethiopians living there compared to the rest of Espoo.
Also most of this foreigner hate can be found with the age group that was raised in the "Kekkonen" era (Google Kekkonen, it was the longest sitting president of Finland I believe). Younger well educated people have less of this problem, but this quickly changes when you run into low / not educated jobless youngsters that are very susceptible for the populist political views of the anti immigration (almost racist) party Perus Suomalaiset, which is in the latest polls the biggest or second party of Finland.

Be also prepared to be investigated by your neighbors, jealousy is a national illness and there is this typical behavior often seen of: " If I cannot have what he has, I will make sure he does not have it either."

Now besides all the scaremongering:

When you already live here:
One thing to make sure you have that will help you considerably everywhere from getting a local bank account to picking up official papers from places is to get yourself a Finnish ID card for foreigners, because in some cases your foreign passport will not be accepted as means of identification and a Finnish ID is required, I got one too, it really makes a lot of things easier. You will get an ID for foreigners which has the mark on it that is is NOT a travel document but ID only. You need to make an appointment at the police station to order one. You cannot have it sent to a pickup point because in that case you need to ID yourself with....a Finnish ID (that is in the package) so when it is made you need to go to the police station again to pick it up with your passport.

The underlying reason is that only the police is considered to have all knowledge of all passports in the world and check if they are valid fake or real, this cannot be expected of any other employee of any other company or service provider. But every employee must know how to check a Finnish ID.

But, welcome!! and Good luck!!
Hope this info makes it easier to prepare!

ogiv
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:23 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by ogiv » Fri Nov 05, 2021 4:55 pm

FinlandGirl wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 10:27 am
KenKenKen wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 2:44 am
I mentioned " such as renovation cost or furniture setup cost"

I think it is fair to have such preparation.
I think it is really unfair from you to imply that people would need that much money for moving to Finland.

You are lucky that you were so rich to have that much spare money before moving to Finland.
You are quite rude towards people who do not have your luck.
@FinlandGirl - Generally your responses in this forum are very precise and useful. But it is not in this post. I don't think KenKenKen was rude to anyone. He/she mentioned his/her viewpoint. I too don't agree with KenKenKen's viewpoint that one requires 10K to get started in Finland. But there is no need to make personal attacks.

KenKenKen
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:04 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by KenKenKen » Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:45 am

I meant to advise in a safer point of view for some people who move the whole family to here.
Totally believe everyone has a different way to live their life.
I never say I was rich, but if a person moved to a new country without a job.
While he/she looking for a job, every day is an adventure to look for a job at the same time running their saving out.
It would be nicer to prepare more than less. Maybe the suggested budget is a high estimation, but as I said people can live in a more economic way.
Below is some reference, again it may not be accurate, anyone can just go ahead and do your first-hand experience.
But I have taken a lot of references before.
Such as https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Helsinki

FinlandGirl
Posts: 1329
Joined: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:43 am

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by FinlandGirl » Tue Jan 18, 2022 3:21 am

KenKenKen wrote:
Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:45 am
I meant to advise in a safer point of view for some people who move the whole family to here.
You are clearly too lazy to read the question when writing irrelevant stuff.

The question was "if 2500 euro should be enough for three of us to live in Espoo".
The answer to that is "yes".

And no, they don't "need to plan EUR10000 - 20000 for a start-up" despite you claiming otherwise.

And yes, Kuzay already gave the correct answer before you made your irrelevant and incorrect claims.
KenKenKen wrote:
Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:45 am
I never say I was rich, but if a person moved to a new country without a job.
While he/she looking for a job, every day is an adventure to look for a job at the same time running their saving out.
You are clearly too lazy to read the question when writing irrelevant stuff.

It was said that one partner "will continue my work remotely outside Finland and the income is about euro 2500 (after tax) per month".

While there are situations where this statement of yours might be relevant, it is 100% irrelevant for this thread.

KenKenKen
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:04 pm

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by KenKenKen » Tue Jan 18, 2022 8:28 pm

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

skyvera
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:56 am

Re: Can a family of 3 live on 2500 euro (after tax) monthly in Espoo?

Post by skyvera » Mon Feb 07, 2022 11:08 am

I moved to Finland with my family about 5 yrs ago and our family had moved cross-continent 2 times previously. Generally I agree with NukkuMatti on all the considerations before you could answer if €2500 is enough for a family of 3 to live in Espoo when you move from abroad. You will surely have surprises when moving internationally and doing research beforehand and getting as much as starting money you could will definitely help. Tens of, or even 100/200€ here and there will quickly add up.
Also I would not be too optimistic about finding a job here soon enough as a foreigner. Of course it depends on your background but my understanding is that the job market here is very much biased and your chances are relatively small if you don’t speak Finnish.
Anyway good luck with the moving!


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