Live to Work or Work to Live?

Working in the US is quite different from Finland - mainly in terms of the hours you're expected to put in. Effectively, your employer (I'm talking about salaried employees at your typical high tech company... and my experience is from Silicon Valley) owns you. I have never had set work hours in the US, this is especially true as you hit more senior positions. Working in the evenings or the weekends isn't unusual and you may get emails at any time of day or night, especially if you work for a global company. You basically need to work as long as it takes to meet the deadlines and get "it" done. It is very easy to get sucked into feeling like you have to always be available. The hours you work really depend on your manager and the company culture. Vacations are fairly short (maybe 14-21 days per year depending on your tenure with the company) and many companies even find that people aren't taking their measly vacation days. (Huh?!) And when these stressed out employees take vacation, it isn't unusual for them to still feel compelled to join work conference calls from the hotel in Hawaii etc.

By contrast, Finns excel at work-life balance. Finland has pretty well established work hours: 37,5 hour week by law for most employees from what I understand. In fact, a friend in California works with a manufacturing team in Finland and shared how she has to get up for 6am meetings (4pm Finnish time) to catch the Finland team before they leave at 4;30pm sharp no matter what. No one worries about when her US workday should start. Finland, like rest of Europe, also has very generous vacation policy (I would have 35 days per year plus public holidays here!) not to mention a maternity leave policy American women wouldn't even believe.

However, such "liberty" comes at a price, literally.... Finns don't make that much money. When we moved to Finland my employer switched me to be a member of its European vs US organization. This had all kinds of financial repercussions. They initially told me my local salary would be less than 50% of my US salary. Yikes! I didn't quite expect such a big drop... That initial figure was a bit of a mistake in currency conversion but still low. Through some hard work they were able to raise the baseline. Also, I declined a car benefit (apparently standard practice... not sure if for all of Finland or just our company) and asked for the salary equivalent. In the end, converting from Euros to USD, my base salary is about 75% of what it was back in CA. And, amazingly, even at this partial rate I make a huge salary compared to most Finns. The average salary in Finland is 3500€/month (with 1€=1.2$ this is about $4200/month) and the median salary is 2900€/month. You can easily look up average salary for any job: a specialist doctor would make about 6,400 €/month, middle manager about 5,400 €/month while a teacher would make about 4,000 €/month and a restaurant server 2,000 €/month.

The salaries may seem very low, at least by Silicon Valley standards, yet people survive... and even thrive to get ranked as the happiest in the world. A bit of a head scratcher if you associate money with happiness at all. Especially given living here isn't that cheap either.

Food is about the same as in the US while gas is definitely more expensive. Granted people seem to cook from scratch, eat out less and use more public transportation vs own cars - all of which are cheaper, healthier and environmentally better alternatives. Buying houses in the Helsinki area is comparable to many places in the US. In the Helsinki area, average house price is about 4700 €/sq m which translates to about 440 €/sq ft or $527/sq ft. I look at single family houses in our area of Espoo advertised at 500,000-1,000,0000 €. Average US house price is ~$200/sq ft while in California it is ~$300/sq ft and reaches up to $1000/sq ft in the expensive San Francisco Bay Area. However, many other things are cheaper or "free" as in funded by taxation. No one needs to pay to send their kids to school since the public schools are great and there are no private schools. Access to public healthcare is free (the system is actually two tiered so private healthcare is available and many employees have access to separate workplace healthcare). Universities and child care are basically free, kids get fed excellent school lunches, public transportation is affordable and practical and dentistry is free for minors. I even get a monthly child "bonus" deposited on my account from the government as do all families with kids - literally cash for kids! There are a lot of affordable options for kids' hobbies as well and of course access to free or inexpensive sports e.g. public/community swimming pools or skating rinks. My haircut is just as much as back in CA but some other services seem cheaper e.g. my husband was impressed by the inexpensive car repair. Still, I'm guessing after all this "free" stuff there is still less disposable income in the pockets of Finns than their US, at least Silicon Valley, counterparts. Yet, they seem fed, they all have cell phones and most are well travelled (in general more so than Americans). I think it comes down to prioritization and less consumerism: maybe choosing to rely on public transportation vs buying a car, going on a trip to Thailand vs shopping for fancy clothes, eating in vs eating out, buying second hand vs buying everything new etc. In general maybe only buying things you need vs want?

Since we now reside in Finland we're also subject to Finnish income taxes. So not only do Finns make less money, they pay more in taxes than Americans. (Hard to say how much more... will need to investigate and come back to this.) First thing to note about taxes is that Finland's taxation system is actually incredibly well organized. The government runs like a well oiled machine when it comes to getting its due... You first estimate how much money you'll make, you get a virtual "tax card" that tells the employer what % to withhold (equivalent to US W2) and in the spring you get a pre-filled tax return to check. The pre-filled tax return has all your main sources of income that the tax authority automatically pulls from somewhere, your bank records or employers I guess. (Not sure how it works but it works...) So then for a lot of people "filing" taxes is as easy as reviewing and accepting the straight forward tax return document. No need to spend money on tax preparation - the services don't even seem to exist here for private individuals. If the tax return looks incorrect or you have special deductions, you can make your changes online and resubmit. If you owe money, you transfer it electronically like any other bill you pay in the bank here. I'm sure sorting through taxes won't be that simple for me because in 2020 I received part of my pay in the US and part in Finland. (There is a tax treaty between the two countrie so at least I won't pay double.) Ultimately, I'm sure I'll end up paying more than I already have and my annual income tax rate will be higher overall. Fair enough: I'm ok paying taxes. At least in Finland I get something in return e.g. healthcare, free universities, excellent public schools, great public infrastructure down to fabulous parks&rec services and a healthy social safety net that leads to low crime rates etc. (No need for gated communities, guns, security, lots of prisons etc.) My tax rate back in CA is actually quite high too and we pay federal, state and really high property taxes thanks to high valuation of CA housing, yet my ROI (return on investment) doesn't seem all that compelling.

I think ultimately the question to ask is what would you rather do: live to work and make more but have limited time to enjoy it or work to live and make less but have more time to pursue your interests or spend with your family. What does quality of life mean to you? How much is your time worth?

Working remotely from a summer cabin

For now I'm kind of enjoying best of both worlds. We're here in Finland and I'm working US hours remotely, paying higher taxes and making a salary between the two options. It has been an unusual year anyway since so many of us can work remotely and we're all spending more time at home than ever before. For us, it has worked out great but this is a temporary arrangement for a year. In July we return to the US and I re-enter the CA "rat race". I already feel a mid-life crisis coming on: I've been reminded there are alternatives to our "normal" life style. Actually, it may not be that "normal" at all... And now I don't know what I really want for the rest of my career/life. In fact, the options aren't limited to just Finland and US either. In reality, the world can be your oyster if you so choose... one could look to work and live anywhere and now even remote work is probably easier to find than ever before. Heck I can't even decide what to order in a restaurant: thinking about all the options and pros and cons globally is really stressful!