Happier Abroad Forum Community

Hello all, I've been reading this forum off and on for a few years, but never felt the need to post. Now I'm sitting in my apartment, don't have much to do (waiting on my flight date), and thought I'd post a quick intro.

Mid 20's
Male
American born and raised (Renounced last year)
Swedish citizen by ancestry (thank God for that passport)
Trying alternatives to a 9-5 job.
Bought a condo in Tbilisi for me to live in whenever I might get tired of work (should it come to that). I live here on $200 a month, and eat quite well. Let's me keep from burning out in the West, where you pretty much have to work because otherwise you're spending too much money just to exist/rest.

At the moment I am about to fly to Sweden to start my welder education, like I said. I'm in Tbilisi, Georgia at the moment, where I own 2 condos (1 to live, one for investment) and recently sold my tour-van, cause that business failed. I'm living in Sweden because my family is there: no choice really, despite hating the climate and the racism I'm subjected to there (once they find out I'm american they LOVE me, but my skin color looks like I could be arab, which I'm not, but it's enough for them to hate me on sight). In any case, Swedes are better than Americans, socially. You can talk to them and be real with them, as long as you don't mention that you hate liberalism, feminism, and every other crazy ideology that their country stands for. They're relatively humble, unlike Americans, but don't expect them to REALLY be your friend (like someone in Russia or Georgia would be).

I'm going to try to get my mother to move with me to Malta (assuming I get a job there/money from another source/etc, once I am done with my education). I know in America many people will accuse me of being a "momma's boy" for this, but the reality is if you don't care for and take care of you family (especially your mother), in my opinion you have no right to live, or be treated as a human being (much less be respected as "tougher" than me for some unfathomable reason). Making fun of someone for caring for their family is the most pathetic thing you could ever do. Family is more important than any girl, any amount of money, or anything else on this earth. Took me a while to figure that out after living in the US for so long...

Does anyone have any experience with Malta? Seems like a nice place, sun and heat all year round, they speak English, benefits of living in Europe (good infrastructure), but also the benefits of a middle eastern culture (social warmth and hospitality). Also, thankfully it isn't a Muslim country with all the political BS that brings with it. I'm planning on going on vacation to Malta this summer regardless, but some opinions beforehand would be nice. I lived in Corpus Christi, Texas when I was in the US. Was a cool city. Warm 90% of the year. Tons of sun. By the ocean. Relatively cheap. Was great. So you can see why I miss the sun, but also never plan to return to the US, even as a tourist. There's just no reason..

Been to: Georgia, Israel, Ethiopia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Sweden, Finland, USA (xD), Mexico (as a kid), Lithuania (for a day).
Had a girlfriend for 2.5 years from Belarus. Name was Natali (big surprise, eh?), phenomenal girl, HOT as f**k, she had some issues but she stuck with me through thick and thin, was an amazing change from American women that dump you the MOMENT you do anything they think is "wrong" in terms of dating.

I'm planning on starting a YouTube channel about my travels, studies, experiences, etc It will be more for me to document and share my experiences than to provide entertainment for an audience. Hopefully people will like it, if not, couldn't care less.


If you have any questions about places I've been, let me know! I don't know how much I will post here on happier abroad, I guess it depends how the forum's environment is. If there are more trolls than anything then there's no point. Just thought I'd say hi!

I agree...taking care of family is very important which the elites do not want Americans to do it. In Asia, its not even mentioned anywhere because its by default.

I think you should check out Asia also, to get different perspective on life. I think European Infrastructure in over rated...Thailand has better compared to its Cost of Living & taxes...Bangkok is the most visited city on the planet because majority of humanity can afford it plus the gas is cheaper so you can actually drive in the road unlike in Europe where Gas price is high so you think twice before going on a long trip, plus buying new car is expensive as well.

I'm getting work offers from Sweden in the range of 30 to 40k SEK/month but I'm reluctant considering the experience I had in Germany.

What would be the ideal salary in Stockholm and what would be my chances to get laid as an Indian

Hey starchild. I've only been to stockholm a few times. I'll list a few things I think might be good to know:

1. It's almost impossible to find an apartment. The government is stupid and limits the amount landlords can charge for their apartment (rent control). (The current amount is 4% of the value of the apartment charged in rent per year, whereas the average return on property in non-rent-controlled areas of the US is 11%) This results in rich people simply not building apartment complexes, because there is no profit in doing so. So it doesn't really matter how much you pay, you won't find one.

You could buy (I wouldn't recommend it, Swedish real estate is REALLY overpriced, and a crash is coming soon).

Or (really your only option), is to rent on the "black market". Basically you rent illegally from someone who doesn't need their apartment at the moment. Or more likely, that person stood in line for 15-20 years (we use lines to decide who gets an apartment, instead of the highest bidder like in the US), and is now going to charge you twice what they are paying (which is totally illegal, but they very rarely get caught).

2. There are a lot of Muslims in the major metro areas of Sweden. Stockholm, gothenburg, malmo. In most of Sweden you can walk around at night, and as long as you mind your own business no one will hassle you. But there are actually no-go zones in stockholm, where the police literally will not investigate a crime, should one happen to you, because they will get firebombed and pelted with stones (and sometimes shot at) by the muslims if they come into their "shariah zone". "Shariah" is the law of those areas, Swedish law doesn't apply, so just stay out of those areas.

3. 30-40K is a good salary. Most Swedish salaries hover around 26K per month before tax, which is plenty to live on outside of the big 3 cities. If I got a job in sweden I could live on about $700 a month, and save the other $2000 (after tax, 26k/mo comes to about $2,700 per month). It's quite a prosperous country (certainly compared to the US). You can tell by how many cheap cars are for sale here. You can buy an older honda civic with a perfect interior, super-nice exterior, and that is in excellent mechanical condition, with winter-tires included, all for $1000 USD. You literally cant get that kind of deal in America. I tried when I lived there. All I wanted was transportation, I didn't care about anything else, despite having the money for a more expensive car; I was being frugal and responsible. But I couldn't find it. Because all the cheap and good(ish) cars get bought up immediately by poor people who need that (and there are A LOT of poor people in america, unfortunately). Whereas in Sweden, where people have money, no one wants to drive a rinkedy-dink old honda civic. (But if you live in stockholm, DO NOT buy a car, you'll thank me later, lol)

In any case, if you can make 35K SEK a month you're hovering around some of the higher salaries in Sweden: here is a link to all the jobs in Sweden and their salaries, it is in Swedish but you can right click and get google to translate it for you (assuming you are using google chrome, otherwise just put the link in google translate): http://allastudier.se/jobb-o-l%C3%B6n/y ... thlySalary

It all depends on your rent. If I lived in my city, I can get my rent down to about $300/mo. Living in a decent area, with a studio apartment of about 30 sq meters. But this is because of rent control. and the fact that I have waited in line for 4 years, and even I can barely get those apartments LOL.

But in terms of expenses:
Food: whatever you pay now (assuming you live in europe/the US, you will pay in Sweden, or less. Vegetables are MUCH cheaper in Sweden than the US. Beef is slightly more expensive, but not by much. It all evens out, with a slight advantage for Sweden in terms of price.
Public Transport: $60-$100 for a monthly card on the stockholm transit network. I don't know exactly what they charge, but it will be something around there.
Health insurance: I honestly don't know, but if you are working and paying taxes...you should get free health insurance like everyone else in Sweden: that would be just and fair, but I don't know what is done in practice. As a citizen I get free health insurance whether I work or not.
As you can see, expenses are very low in Sweden... It's not like America where you need to pay an arm and a leg for health insurance, car insurance, gas, maintenance for your car, etc etc


Getting laid: Meh, I gotta explain this to you. I'm more white than brown (my last girlfriend, from Belarus, thought I was 100% white until I told her my actual ethnicity), but I'm not SWEDISH/aryan white (not light enough to be considered 'white' in Sweden. But even my little tinge of brown is enough to make Swedes hate me when they see me. Once they find out I'm American they love me. I can assume it would be even worse for someone who is Indian (I assume you are darker than me, since you're indian) But they have really begun to hate brown/black people, so this will work against you; but if you speak English very well, that will honestly make you more attractive than the average Swedish guy. You could find an arab girl who isn't religious, that might work (they're very beautiful, we just don't normally see that cause in their countries they are all covered up lol). But Swedes don't really sleep with anyone unless they get drunk. They are nothing like Russian girls. But at the same time they aren't horrible like American girls. Some of them are quite feminine. Just realize there are 2 types of foreigners in the Swedish mind: 1: Americans, Italians, Canadians, Japanese (good immigrants) and 2. Arabs, Somalis (bad immigrants). Indians are not really in either group, but in terms of dating you will probably get thrown into the second group unfortunately. On the other hand you'll probably get thrown into the first group in terms of jobs (Indians are known for being ambitious, at least in my mind). I can speak Swedish, but I never do unless I'm dealing with passport control. If I speak English I get great treatment, if I speak Swedish, I get horrible treatment. Easy choice in my mind.

In my opinion, if you're going to Sweden to make money, GO FOR IT. You'll make tons of money if that is your salary, assuming you can get something decently priced to live in (Sub 700 USD/mo). But if you're going for dating or social reasons, stay away.