Probably moving back to Finland - my budget

[Ju_Ville]

Hello,

I was a regular on this forum from 2014-18 when I lived in Finland. When the job situation got worse, I moved back to Switzerland since I do not want to leech off any country, and figured I get a job easier in my home country. Now I am officially (early) retired, and would like to move back. The pension I would receive in Finland is little short of €1'600, and I would like this to suffice for life of me, and some pets. Additional income is planned for luxuries, I used to teach languages via internet, and with MSc in Psychology could also do some coaching, etc. But that is so far only in planning, so I am not really calculating with it.

Tax rate I calculated on vero.fi would be 14,5% or approx 200 per month. I would buy a fairly cheap house, so housing costs I budget at around 400 per month. I never owned a car in my life, and would prefer to keep it that way. Prices in Finland have gone up considerably from what I saw, since 2018, though. So if the trend continues, the Swiss pension will rise considerably slower than Finnish prices, so I will want to have easily more than I need just right now. Is that realistic? Anything I am missing?

And, in case someone has a room, or apartment for rent as a first touchdown for me, and my cat, please let me know. We are both clean, and well behaved.

[betelgeuse]

Tax rate I calculated on vero.fi would be 14,5% or approx 200 per month. I would buy a fairly cheap house, so housing costs I budget at around 400 per month. I never owned a car in my life, and would prefer to keep it that way. Prices in Finland have gone up considerably from what I saw, since 2018, though. So if the trend continues, the Swiss pension will rise considerably slower than Finnish prices, so I will want to have easily more than I need just right now. Is that realistic? Anything I am missing?

Make sure you understand the relevant tax treaties. The source country of the pension might also have the right to tax it. There's probably no double taxation but it might change the total rate you end up paying. Is all of your pension Swiss sourced?

[Ju_Ville]

Make sure you understand the relevant tax treaties. The source country of the pension might also have the right to tax it. There's probably no double taxation but it might change the total rate you end up paying. Is all of your pension Swiss sourced?

Thanks for your answer. I did read the tax treaty, and yes, all is Swiss sourced. Contributions of 2, or 3 months (over the approx 45 years worked) COULD be taxed by Switzerland since it was for the gov't. I doubt they will really enact that, though, since it would be such a small sum each year. And if so, Finland will deduct it.

[FinlandGirl]

I was a regular on this forum from 2014-18 when I lived in Finland. When the job situation got worse, I moved back to Switzerland since I do not want to leech off any country, and figured I get a job easier in my home country. Now I am officially (early) retired, and would like to move back. The pension I would receive in Finland is little short of €1'600, and I would like this to suffice for life of me, and some pets. Additional income is planned for luxuries, I used to teach languages via internet, and with MSc in Psychology could also do some coaching, etc. But that is so far only in planning, so I am not really calculating with it.

Tax rate I calculated on vero.fi would be 14,5% or approx 200 per month. I would buy a fairly cheap house, so housing costs I budget at around 400 per month. I never owned a car in my life, and would prefer to keep it that way. Prices in Finland have gone up considerably from what I saw, since 2018, though. So if the trend continues, the Swiss pension will rise considerably slower than Finnish prices, so I will want to have easily more than I need just right now. Is that realistic? Anything I am missing?

Cheap houses tend to be in areas where you need a car to go anywhere, and that will become even more of a problem when mobility becomes worse due to age.

This decrease in mobility is something you should consider in your retirement plans, both normal regression and sudden issues like a broken hip after a fall.

[inkku]

For inexpensive housing, consider the towns in South-Western Finland Kirkkonummi, Siuntio, Inkoo, Karjaa, Tammisaari is my take. Your house will keep the value and the prices are reasonable. I personally live in Siuntio, and love it. Siuntio is part of HSL transport system (D zone), you can commute in 40-60 minutes to Helsinki. All the services I need are within o,5-1km radius. Tammisaari is another love of mine. Kirkkonummi has some good areas, though it also has some awful areas. If you do not need to pay rent, just maintenance, that pension is definitely sufficient.
If you want to know more about those areas, housing etc, drop me a pm.

[Ju_Ville]

Thank you all very much for the input! Extremely helpful! I have to admit that I kinda sorta excluded the mostly Swedish speaking part from my considerations. But that is clearly a mistake, thanks to Inkku for awesome arguments in this regard. Anything new I acquire I have to consider what will happen when this my lifeform ends, be it new pets, or new houses. Leaving a house to someone that keeps its value feels much better, than producing the next ruin with broken water pipes.

[inkku]

Swedish speaking areas are socially much nicer imo than the finnish ones (i am finnish speaking). All the places i mentioned are bilingual, in Siuntio now about 70% speak finnish as mother tongue.

[FinlandGirl]

A fun fact about Finland is that Helsinki has a higher percentage of people with Swedish as native language than Turku.

[Ju_Ville]

The two language groups in Finland mostly have some knowledge of each other's language through school, though. I do not. As a Swiss, I sort of cannot move to an area without learning the local language. Swedish will do a lot of interesting interactions with a few of the languages I need on a daily basis. But if I end up moving there, I will just call it an experiment on language acquisition and upkeep Thanks again for the input. When decisions are being made, I will gladly come back to Inkku's offer of a PM.