Since Brexit i have lost the love for the UK and the way 'things' are going.
To cut a long story short, after a period out of work, I have the opportunity for a great role that would involve a permanent move to Stockholm. I have visited Stockholm many times and we have a visit with the family next week. Myself and Mrs Solarider have lived in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore over the years and love the thought of another overseas move, but this would be the first move with Solarider Jnr (who is 10).
We are very keen, and based on my own experience and the reputation of Sweden, it's a great place to live.
Does anybody have any first hand experience of life in Stockholm with a family? What's it really like?
Expensive 😃
No experience with a family. The folk I knew who lived in Stockholm were 20 something's.
The thing was having a room of your own. A flat/ house of your own was pretty much unheard of in the circles I moved in. The Swedish people living in London had much much more space.
Source- sharing a London flat with 5 Swedish girls for a summer
You has dat right; I'm here in Sweden and on this side of the country. STW has people on the west coast and up north!
@solarider Happy to answer questions about life here, but a brief summary is that I like it here and would not move back to the UK if I had the choice. Cost of living is more expensive (housing in Stockholm++, food, fuel), but generally more free time and quality of life.
PM me. Happy to talk about stuff via zoom/teams/meet
And replied!
We moved to Småland nearly 20 years ago with a 4 week old Scandywag junior, and we're still here so it works for us!
I think in general the setup between work and private life is better balanced than we experienced in the UK. As with everything, there are compromises, but worth a go.😁👍
Im a bit surprised you think cost of living is high as from my viewpoint in Norway the UK is not cheap.
My reference point is 20 years old with folk in bar/ shop/ retail jobs in their 20's.
Things might have changed. At higher incomes/ different ages things, especially housing, might well be different.
Source- sharing a London flat with 5 Swedish girls for a summer
Oh yeah? 😲
Im a bit surprised you think cost of living is high as from my viewpoint in Norway the UK is not cheap
I was going to say that.
Tax is also the thing people always mention, but compared to the UK I'm not sure taxes in Scandinavia are that bad. Maybe because you have a single tax rather than Income Tax, National Insurance, and Council Tax.
Source- sharing a London flat with 5 Swedish girls for a summer
Not sure the OP’s wife will go for that.
More seriously, what do locals have to say about ease of interaction? I was in Sweden as an exchange student for a year, which is not applicable to “normal life” but I found people relatively welcoming. Less so than in Denmark but much more so than in Norway (that’s enough stereotyping- ed.)
Pretty much that. Norway and Sweden are probably about the same for cost of living I guess, but Denmark (with their strong Danish krona) is a bit more pricey.
I lived/worked on secondment in Göteborg for 6 months in 2017 and thought it was great. Would have happily lived there a lot longer. One of my English colleagues was finding it hard to get his kids to learn Swedish because as the kids saw it, everyone spoke English anyway. But for an adult, it's an easy language imo with free classes and helps a lot to join in socially.
Tax is high but stuff works. Tax in the UK is high and you still get shit.
It's difficult to do a direct comparison, but I plugged some figures into ChatGPT to see what I got (asking it to include national insurance in the tax).
It seems once everything is taken into account the tax is quite a bit higher if you just look at income. However, once you have a mortgage and kids* then the amount you are actually taxed is pretty much the same due to the deductions.
*and that's without taking into account the heavily subsidised childcare.
I think the income tax thing is often overstated when it comes to Scandinavia. Where there is a major difference is in the wealth tax.
Taxation is also a lot easier (from a PAYE-type view). To get paid, you need a tax ID that is unique to you. This allows all of the things that you need, like a bank account, e-signing, Swish (money transfer/micropayment), and so on.
When you get your tax return, it's pretty much done for you. If you have extra stuff to add to it (like travel costs or something), you add those, e-sign it and it goes off to Skatteverket. If you need to pay them some money, you can send them it. If you have questions, you can phone them and they will help you.
sharing a London flat with 5 Swedish girls for a summer
I think I might still have a copy on VHS.
Personally I think interaction with the locals is just fine, but not the same as the UK, I.e. you won't be dropping by the boozer for one with your mates. That isn't going to happen, you need to go and do stuff or you'll be disappointed
And avoid expat clubs.
Taxwise it's higher than the UK, but not so much and much simpler, more direct.
Thanks all.
We are going out there as a family on Monday for the week to see what we think.
I have a firm job offer with relocation and the company seems great. The people also seem lovely.
On the tax, for the first 7 years, the first 25% of your salary is tax free, so it works out quite well compared to higher rate tax in the UK. Also, pension and social security is better than the UK since much of it is paid by the employer in addition to your gross rather than deducted from the employee.
Financially it's a no brainer. The job seems great. Myself and Mrs Solarider have lived in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, but before Solider jnr arrived, and we were much younger. The moves were easy when we were younger with more energy and less complications (education, family etc). The move itself is the only downside right now, but on balance the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks i think.
A good friend moved to malmo area 8 years ago to work for ikea. His kids were maybe 6 & 9 and went into Swedish school. I think they found it difficult to start with but fairly quickly became fluent in Swedish ( much more than their parents ) made friends and are both doing great. The older one is maybe thinking about coming to uni here though.
I think generally he found the Swedes a bit more reserved than here in Devon. I think people were friendly enough but they found it quite hard to connect beyond saying hello at the school gates / ice hockey club etc. He met lots of Swedes and ex pats through work. His wife struggled more - found it quite difficult to get a job without speaking Swedish and found it harder to make friends so was initially bit more isolated. She can be quite hard work though….
long story short. They split up, problems before the move magnified but…
both are staying in Sweden and love it there. My friend has a Swedish girlfriend who is much nicer/ more fun than his ex and is the happiest I’ve ever seen him. The ex is happy and has a new partner too.
TL;Dr Moving to any new country is hard & you need to put some effort in to establish a life but kids are very adaptable, especially ata young age. Neither of them regret the move and wouldn’t move back….
