I need help on making a potential big decision

phil5p wrote:

Hi Guys,

I've been offered a role in my current company to take a role in Stavanger, based as an IT manager at an O&G firm.

Coming from the UK I am in a good position financially right now and earn around £35K with reasonably long/medium working hours. I've been offered a salary in Stavanger of 600,000 NOK, a local salary.

My big issue with making the move is I don't know if the salary will support my current lifestyle and allow me to save at the same time. At the moment in the UK I would typically eat out/drinks 3 or 4 times a week. As well as socialising as much as possible, I aim to save around £500 a month. I've worked out I would be paying 36% tax making my Norwegian salary similar to my UK salary once all deductions have been taken out.

My issue with the role that I have been offered is I don't know if the salary provided will allow me to maintain my lifestyle in the UK without compromise. The relocation to Norway itself would be fine, I've travelled a lot in the past and couldn't give you an answer for where I consider “home” to be.

Any thoughts, suggestions or help would be appreciated before I give my answer early next week.

Thanks,
Phil

Welcome to the forum.
Please take the time to read through the posts in the forum categories list,upper right hand side of this page.
For cost of living www.numbeo.com 

Is your company paying for accommodation ? Check out accommodation in the housing section at the top of this page.
You need to factor in medical insurance cover too if your employer is not covering that cost.

You need to work out whether this move is good for you in terms of future employment and advancement or not.
Ask your employer if they have a long term future for you in the company.

Good luck

This is such a huge question to try and tackle, I can completely understand why you're asking for advice!

I would say that a wage of 600,000 NOK will allow you to live comfortably in Norway. 400,000 would allow me to go out an eat around once a week, pay for bills including the cost of hobbies and things I could do without. 3-4 dinners out a week is expensive on its on though, it really does depend where you live an average dinner out could range from 250KR to 1000KR it'll be closer to the higher figure if you want to include alcohol.

Do you want to have a fancy car? It may well cost you double what it costs you in the UK, though your salary is almost doubled before tax so I would imagine you could handle it.

Do you have children? Childcare is generally much less in Norway that England so this could be somewhere you could save money.

I would imagine your wage would actually work out about the same with all said and done once you minus the extra cost of food, meals, and the general extra expense of living somewhere like Norway. Like you've mentioned the tax will cut off a huge chunk and the extra living costs would put another significant dent in it.

If you want to get an idea of rental prices FINN.NO will be helpful for that, I live pretty far from Stavanger so I can't be of much help with costs there.

Is there opportunity for future promotions in your new position? Promotions in Norway seem to offer bigger rewards than those back home in my experience.

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys. Appreciated.

Health Insurance: Included
Accommodation: Not included (Assistance relocating included)
Future employment: Yes - I think there is a lot of potential within the company
Long term: Potentially Yes
Car: Nothing exciting I'm afraid. One thing I would look to do is buy a motorcycle in Norway

Regards my circumstances, I'm a 24 to male who has basked in the single life the last few years, allowing me to manage my finances how I would consider relatively well.

I think all things taken into consideration, having checked Finn and numbero, I will be on a pretty level playing field compared to costs in the UK.

Having thought about it over the weekend, I think, tomorrow morning I will go into the office and accept

Hello Phlp!
Well, I live in Stavanger and the offer might sound very appealing at first sight, but is nothing extraordinary. You vill pay around 50% taxes on your salary, household rents have gone down drastically, and you can find something downtown and nice from around 12-14000, depending on how you are planning on living. Most O&G companies are located outside, and you will need a car (expensive in Norway + you have to pay toll. A beer outside is around 70 noks. I earn around 20000 nok a month after taxes, live by myself, drive an old cheap car and barely make it to the end of the month. Many people working for oil get the rent paid….if so go ahead…if not…I wouldnt think about it. It is not just about the money, but also the lifestile you will be missing! Weather, social life, entertainment…put clear….if I had the same job anywhere else, I wouldnt be here!
Good luck!

i am not so sure you want to still ride a motorcycle during winter.......i almost never seen one on the road during winter.

Bikes are horrendous to insure in Norway and you will only get a few good months out of it a year. Speeding fines are ten times what they are in the UK too so beware but if you really want to get one it'll be worth it to you

OK, so maybe I will need to put the motorcycle on hold until my return to the UK, when that will be I'm not sure.

Regards tax and NIS. I have estimated tax to be 36% and NIS to be approx 7/8. Does this sound about right?

@MissChrissyJohansen I see you are from the UK, do you pay NIS? One option I was looking at was to not pay NIS and pay voluntary NI contributions in the UK to protect my pension.

I am unsure if it applies to motorcycle...but if you are bringing in a foreign registered car to Norway, you only get 1 year to drive it "tax free".  After 1 year, the norwegian government will tax you for the amount that you PAID for that  car.  Note it is NOT the fair value of the car in the state that you brought over to Norway, but the initial purchase value of the car.

All my colleagues who brought over their vehicles had to bring them back and sell them after 1 year.  They then need to buy a car locally in Norway.

Hey,

Im also from the UK and I made the move to Norway 5 years ago. I initially moved over for a fairly low salary, although I thought it was good on paper. I believe you're in much the same position? 600,000nok is no way going to sustain the lifestyle you live on in the UK. I honestly found that with me earning 1,000,000-1,500,000 and my Wife earning 350,000 was compairable to earning £65k in the UK. Take in to account house prices in Stavanger and how terrible the NOK is just now too, ie if you travel to the UK regularly your gonna take a 30% hit compared to 2 years ago.

I bought a house over that I now rent out, I live in the Apartment below when I work over here and my family is now back in Scotland, I find thats the only way to make a Norwegian wage livable. Unless you want to live like a Norwegian, ie very very plainly and eat the most basic of foods and take cheap vacations.

Just a point (and possibly irrelevant to you, I'm not sure) but I know a few friends working in the O&G industry in Stavanger and Oslo and it's pretty dire at the moment. Very worried about redundancies and one has quit his job and got out of the oil industry before he got hit by the redundancy stick! Although as a result the renting prices have gone down and people are finding it hard to sell their houses. I wouldn't say it's the best time to move to Norway for a job in oil but I don't know your circumstances!