My husband is expecting a job offer in Germany ( near Dusseldorf). We live in Colorado. He can calculate the exchange rate between dollars and euros, but how to interpret the offer - if that is a fair salary and would we be living well?

We are middle class in American, own ( or rather hold a mortgage on) a decent house, 2 cars no payments, frugal but pleasant lifestyle. We'd love to come to Germany but wouldn't want to be broke all the time, especially considering that its been implied that he will be working long hours and why come all that way if we can't afford to travel & such.

Can anybody give a best guess as the difference between the two countries? Do you need to earn 20% more to live the same way, as an example. My husband would be a "manager" - an executive type and we understand that most everybody rents a place to live.

Ideas anyone?  

I've been hoping that there would be some replies to your posting. I have the EXACT same question. I am considering a job offer from a company near Dusseldorf and have been looking for the same information.

The only thing that I have found that gets close to being helpful is a city ranking at: www.finfacts.com/costofliving3.htm

You'll see that Dusseldorf is number 32 (the highest German city listed) - since there are some various US cities, maybe you can do like I did to get a rough idea what it compares to Boulder (I'm guessing, based on your ID!)

I'm sure that you have also checked into the tax rate and health insurances cost differences - but maybe your husband's situation is different. I'm considering a total move to become a "local" worked for a German company. These things have a different impact if your husband is considering an assignment by his present country.

When will you be moving? Maybe we can all get together after we are there - I've been there many times and the area is VERY nice.

Best wishes and good luck! I'll be watching for more replies.  

hi there*

just found this forum and your two posts......maybe I can help, since I am german, (still) living there:-)

the cost of living is very high!
compared to the income and ever since the (stupid) euro! they went one-to-one when the currency was switched from DM to Euro, and that is a sad fact:-( meaing, prices doubled!!!

gas prices went up 21% this winter alone!!!!!!!! I just saw that on the news today.
My daughter and I have a 2 bedroom apt. fpr 440 a month, plus utilities (150€), plus telephone and DSL (about 100€). no balkony, pattio or garden.

a liter (not a gallon) of diesel (car) runs about 1,15€, beeing the cheapest, gas is much more!!!!! so don't buy cars that use a lot of gasoline!!!! the state tax for my diesel is about 230€ a year:-(

try to get cheap houses/apt. because the cost of heating/water will be very high!!!!! especially if you rent a house!!!!

today, germany has the highest unemployment rate EVER! higher than after world war two! a lot of people are unemployed - so am I since last year! you will notice that germany is pretty broke......

another thing is the trash in germany, it will drive you crazy!!!!
they only give you 1 (one) small trashcan and they only come to empty it every TWO weeks!!!! you HAVE to recycle or you will drown in your own trash:-(
they have a so called system:
you have to get rid of your own glass and in some cities even of paper, and they give you what they call 'yellow bags' but only 60 for the ENTIRE year!!!!!

you use those for packagings and wrapings!!!!! it is insane, if you ask me! then you have another trash can (brown), for food left overs, since there is no garbage disposals over here.......thats also for tea bags, rotten bananas....etc you get the picture.
old furniture is picked up once or twice a year in most cities, but not in all cities!!!! if you have old or broken furniture, etc. to get rid of you sometimes you have to find other ways.....you also have to pay extra to get rid of electrical trash!!!!!

I lived in the US for 10 years and the trash issue was among the worst experiences for me!!! I didn't know what to do about my trash!!! and still sometimes don't:-)

if you have kids: put them in a private school, the german schools are rotten!!!!!
my daughter still has to learn latain (7th grade), rather than french or spanish, and all of her books are just falling apart. they are so old you think you catch a disease when touching them!!!!! she hasn't seen or used a PC at school for the last 4 years!!!!!

almost no PC's at public schools, and if, 4 kids share one once a month, it's pathetic! they get off school around NOON!!!!! if you are lucky!!

her last school let the kids out early every other day, (around 11 AM), because they didn't have enough teachers!!! they also didn't have physics and geography for an ENTIRE year, because of lack of teachers!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you get the (sad) picture.......

last but not least: kids shoes are very expensice!!!!!! most pairs run about 40-50€. bring lots of shoes!!

I wish you the best and lots luck!!!!!!!!!!!  

Another happy expat! (even if you are German)

don't know what it is about us expats but we just love to moan and complain.

Germany is not a bad as meerperle makes it out to be, yes Germany is a society of rules and regulations once you make that leap and understand that you will find that you will fit in quite well.

Cost of living will depend on where your from, fly in from NYC and it will seem really cheap, move from backwoods Montana and the cost of everything will kill you.

Assuming its a a temporary relocation rather than a perment relocation here are a couple of tips to keep in mind when negotiating the contract.

First of all when discussing pay, ask them to keep the take home the same. Then things like taxes health care exchange rates are their concern. I have a friend who took a 25% pay cut when the dollar dropped to the Euro.

Moving allowance make sure it allows you a similar place to what you have now. From most expats I've talked to that are on a 2-3 year relocation the company picks up all the housing costs. Or more correctly gives you enough of an allowance that will allow you to rent an American style house.

Schooling, if you have older children than an international school is a must. If you have younger children than they can be put into German school.

Regarding the price of petrol, I wouldn't worry about it as company cars are standard for all expats. Only worry is they give you a diesel and you fill up with petrol. Opps!

Private health care is standard and allows you front of the line access to doctors etc. Walk into a crowded doctors office and you will be the next person to be seen, they love private patents here.

You'll love driving here compared to America Road Royalty rather than road rage. There is nothing like cruising a 100mph and being passed on the left by a family in a mini van!

The other big thing you'll notice is shopping isn't as nice but you adjust. A freind mentioned how nice it was buying kids clothes in centmeters rather than sizes, makes it much easier.

Overall it is a fabulous chance to experience the good and the bad of another culture.

Oh, before I forget, 6 weeks, and yes you heard that right, six weeks vacation from day one. Also you can fly almost anywhere in Europe for under a 100 euros these days.

Spend some time at www.toytownmunich.com It is one of best resources for info on Germany. As well as www.britboard.de has a large expat community in Dusseldorf.

To start here are a few links

Cost of Living Munich

Cost of Living Calculator

An important note on taxes, they aren't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. A single person is taxed much higher than someone with dependants

Hope this helps, and feel free to email or PM me if you have any further questions.

PS meerperle I agree garbage is a real pain here. Thankfully I live in a building with 3 1000l containers that are emptied weekly and the local land fill is open an unheard of 3 days a week including Saturday!  

Be wary of cost of water,, in cities it's much cheaper than in villages.. allow around 100 Euro's a month for water for a family of 3, Electricity - you can shop around for, be wary of insurance deals the contracts tend to be long, so shop around.. Taxes can seem high, but can be calculated, if you have somewhere around 6000 Euro income and married with child, then expect to lose 1/3rd in tax if your single expect to lose 1/2.. There are differant brackets so this is a ball park figure only...

Some little things like the following annoyances... in basic provisions..

Bread is very expensive - from 69 cents in budget/discount stores for 1 loaf, up to 2 euro's, milk is ok comes in at 49-59 cents for 1litre (2pts) but is only sold in 2pt containers - there seems to be nowhere which offers family size containers...

Fruit and vegetables also expensive and appears to be of poor quality in many large stores, but buying from little grocers and street traders is much better and often cheaper - don't expect the super markets to be the same - they have many incentive bargains but actually work out much more expensive and it's really easy to end up with horrendous bills...

In Germany it really does pay to shop around - this can actually be fun, and once you know where to go, it becomes a bit of a routine...

Another annoyance for a country very keen on recycling is the amount of junk garbage advertising stuffed into the post box on a daily basis.. Even when you put notices up they tend to be ignored...

Stores don't open on Sunday's and many other odd quirks..

DSL access in cities is excellent, but get outside a city and your stuck with analogue services, plus getting support from Deutsche Telekom in English is like drawing blood from a stone...

Things you'll like,
It's generally very clean, privacy is respected, outside the cities plenty open spaces and places to go... easy to get to other countries...

You have to take the pluses with the minuses - enjoy..

If you want English TV then satellite is pretty much your only option and there are many sites offerring a variety of services.. but one good one is
smart2check.com which is also run by expats...

Telephone call costs can be reduced by call by call routing there is some good sites for this like teletarif and I use a call dialler from the smart2check site for this purpose updated with the prefixes I want to save money on...

going back to rubbish... some areas collect paper, others don't and you have to take it to collection points - don't mix up the rubbish in the wrong bins - you'll risk fines.. and garden rubbish - don't burn it unless you have permission - you'll risk fines (permission is easy in some states, and impossible in others)...

If there is any specifics you want to know about just ask..

brgds
S.  

ps - I've subscribed to this post.. so I'll look out for comments..  

Thank you all SO MUCH for your responses.
VERY helpful.

Jen