Are you curious how much is the cost of living in Munich? Do you earn enough money to live as a nurse in Munich? Can you still save some extra bucket for your travel plans in the future? Do you find the city romantic and stunning?
Munich is the largest city in the region of Bavaria, Germany. It is one of the most expensive and beautiful city around the world. It belongs to the third largest cities in Germany, just like Berlin and Hamburg. Approximately, 1,558,395( updated June 2020) is the population in Munich.[1]
If you are an expat living in the city, it would be easy for you to make some friends because of its high diversity. There are also prestigious universities if you want to study further as a nurse. During at night the city tends to be more romantic with its beautiful lights reflecting on the old style architectural buildings.
Enumerated bullets from the monthly deductions:
1. Apartment Rent
Do not be surprise that apartment rent in Munich is expensive. A single apartment with approximately 30square meter can cost up to 1000 euros/month or more. A three rooms apartment might cost up to 1500euros to 2800 euros per month. If you want to live in the middle of the city, it might cost double. There are two types of apartment or ‘Wohnung’(in German), one is a fully furnished apartment with a complete kitchen, bed room and with furnished living room and the other is ‘nicht mobliert’ which means, the apartment is empty. You will be the one to install and buy kitchen, bed and other basic things. If you want to save some extra bucks and you are flexible you can live in ‘WG Wohnung Gemeinschaft’, with other individuals. It is a typical apartment with 3-5rooms but you have to share one kitchen and a bathroom. This is famous for students who are studying in the universities.
Pros and Cons Living alone vs in Shared Apartment
Living Alone Pros: You have your freedom, you can decorate your apartment whatever you want it to be.
Cons: expensive
Living in WGs ‘Wohnung Gemeinschaft’’/ Shared Apartment
Pros: Cheaper and you can make friends
Cons: You have to follow some rules at home, example: Throwing of Garbages weekly, Cleaning assignments.
If you are lucky, you do not have to pay extra money for electricity, heater and water . In German it is called ‘warm miete’, but if the Landlord says, you have to pay extra for the said payment, it is called ‘kalt miete’. It is always important to ask, if the total amount of the Apartment rent is warm or kalt.
2. Transportation (Train, Bus and Tram tickets)
Transportation is not a hassle in Munich. You can buy a single ticket, stripe ticket, day tour, monthly ticket or yearly ticket. Children has always a discount in train and bus tickets.
Single ticket- is the most simplest ticket. It is a one way destination ticket. Cost: It depends on the zone you are travelling. It might cost from 1.70 euros to 3.90 euros.
Stripe Ticket– has a 10 stripe ticket for disposal. Whether you are travelling today or next month, you are always ready and on the go. Every Bus, Tram, Trains has a striping machine. You can stripe/validate it before riding.
Day tour tickets– if you want to travel whole day in the city of Munich, you can purchase a Day ticket. Cost: 7.90 euros
Weekly tickets– Cost: 17.90 euros
Monthly ticket– if you will stay for a month in the city, you can purchase a monthly ticket. Price: 57euros (in Zone M)
Yearly tickets– you are only paying for 10 months, the extra 2 months in a year is free. You can pay it monthly or cash. Price: 654 euros
Note: the prices changes when you live outside the zone. The list above are most buyable tickets in Munich.
In additon: Munich is a bicycle-friendly city. The city built an extra lane for bicycle. ‘Fahrrad Straße- bicycle lane’
3. Groceries
You will find a lot of groceries near your place. You do not have to worry. Rice are always available, or you can buy it in Asian stores. Munich is a multicultural city. Do not be surprise that they love to eat bread, potatoes, and pastas.
Some toxic Filipino relatives thinks that when someone is working and living abroad, they are immediately rich. But the answer is a big No. Foreign nationals who are searching for greener pastures has always their budget list monthly.
The grocery budget depends on how a person eats: monthly budget price: 200-300euros (from my perspective)
4. Extras ( Recreations)
No work, No play. Work and Play. These are the things such as eating once in a while in restaurants to relax, buying extra luxury things, going for vacations to release from work burn-out.
5. Taxes , ,Steuer’ Germany has a progressive tax system: Germany charges more tax to high earners in a sliding scale.
Below are a lists which includes in the monthly salary deduction:
Income tax– is the money paid as taxes from the gross earnings.
Salary Tax ,,Lohnsteuer’’
Other monthly deduction in salary
Church Tax ,, Kirchensteuer’’
Health Insurance ,, Krankenversicherung’’
Retirement Insurance ,,Rentenversicherung’’
Loss of Work Insurance ,,Arbeitslosenversicherung’’
Care Insurance ,,Pflegeversicherung’’
In order to know how much is the monthly deduction from your main salary, you can use a german income tax calculator.
Others:
Deutschland Rundfunk- a license fee for broadcast. (You can pay it monthly, quarterly or yearly) If you wont pay it, you will be receiving a warning note until you will be called by the government for explanation. [2] The licence fee is a legally prescribed contribution for citizens, companies and institutions as well as for public interest bodies. For private households, the current fee is 17.50 euros per month.
If you have your own transportation, you also have to pay Auto Insurances.
There are a lot of different insurances in Germany which you can avail.
In other words, Munich is an expensive and stunning city. You will be mesmerized. It is a big city which in that case, you will always find a job in a short period of time if you are working hard.
Is it worth it living in Munich? Definitely, Yes.
Is it expensive compared to other cities? Yes. Yes.
Will you recommend a friend to live in Munich? Yes.
How about you, can you do some savings from your monthly income? Comment below.
Reference:
1. Landeshauptstadt München, Redaktion. “Landeshauptstadt München – Bevölkerung”. Landeshauptstadt München. Archivedfrom the original on 19 February 2016. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
2. Deutschland Rundfunkbeitrag Seite http://www.rundfunkbeitrag.de
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