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Sondre Pettersen lives in one of the most expensive places in the world. At 25, he works as a cybersecurity incident response analyst in Oslo, Norway, earning about $78,000 a year. He recently purchased a $465,000 apartment and carefully manages his expenses, saving around $1,000 a month while prioritizing travel, skiing, and other hobbies.
In this episode of "The Pay Check," Sondre breaks down his cost of living, sharing exactly how he earns, spends, budgets, and invests his money while living in one of the world's most expensive countries.
In this episode of "The Pay Check," Sondre breaks down his cost of living, sharing exactly how he earns, spends, budgets, and invests his money while living in one of the world's most expensive countries.
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00:00My name is Sondre Pettersen. I work as an incident response analyst making $78,000 a year
00:06or 740,000 Norwegian kroners living in Oslo, Norway. I'm going to share all my finances from
00:12what I spend on bills to what I have invested and where all my money actually goes. This is the
00:18paycheck. I work as an incident response analyst and what that entails is that I look at incoming
00:26alerts and I dig in the logs to find out what has actually happened. So my base salary is $74
00:33,700.
00:35I get an annual bonus of between $3,100 and $3,700 a year. In total that leaves my annual
00:43salary
00:43between $78,000 and $79,000. I also get employers stock purchasing program where I can buy stocks
00:51at the company at the 25% discount once a year and that is paid by an interest-free salary
00:57advance.
00:58So my pre-tax monthly salary is $6,225. I pay $1,380 in taxes each month. If I didn't
01:07have a mortgage or
01:08student loans I would have paid $1,700 in taxes each month and that is because we get a 22
01:14% tax
01:15deduction on any interest we pay on debt here in Norway. I also pay $71 for benefits per paycheck.
01:22That includes $31 for my preferential mortgage I get from my employer and $9 for my employer paid
01:29mobile plan and $31 for my comprehensive group insurance. This includes health insurance,
01:35travel insurance, life risk insurance, occupational injury insurance and leisure injury insurance.
01:41So some of the perks at my job is that I get financial counseling. I get a lower interest rate
01:47mortgage through my employer subject to tax. There's a subsidized canteen. I pay roughly $5 a day for
01:55lunch but it can vary. The food is very great. The canteen was just nominated for a prize. My favorite
02:02one is the salad bar where they have salads topped with animal and non-animal protein which also varies
02:08can be chicken or tofu or cheese and whatever and that is my go-to. I also get the discounted
02:15insurance
02:15for any other insurances I might need like car insurance, household insurance, etc. I also get a
02:22higher interest rate in my savings account. Right now it's 4.3%. My employer pays 7% of my pre
02:30-tax income
02:30into the pension scheme a year. During the summer we have a shorter working week down to 35 hours a
02:38week.
02:38Starting in May all the way through August. We also get a 20% discount on gym membership. We also
02:45have
02:45company cabins all around Norway but also abroad for us to rent for cheap. I work 40 hours a week
02:52but I get paid for 37.5 hours a week because I have a 30-minute unpaid lunch break every
02:59day. So I work in
03:00office five days a week but if anything comes up I can work from home if I need to. I
03:06have flexible
03:07working hours but I have mandatory presence between 9am and 3pm. In Norway we have 25 statutory vacation
03:15days and on top of that I get three extra days through my employer. I live in an area called
03:22Grynerløkka in Oslo and I live in a one-bedroom apartment. I bought my apartment. I paid $465 000 for
03:31it. My mortgage runs for 30 years and my interest rate right now is 4.29%. My down payment was
03:38$50 000
03:39and my mortgage is $2 060 per month. So the minimum deposits used to be 15% but it recently
03:47changed to
03:4810% which allowed me to buy this apartment. I saved the money for the deposit by working since high
03:56school and also through my internships during my studies and working besides studying. I pay $496 a
04:05month in building amenity fees which cover heating, water, maintenance. For utilities I pay $57 a month
04:1532 of which are my electrical bill and $25 which are streaming services. Of the $25 I pay $15 a
04:23month for
04:24Spotify and $10 and covers my cloud storage and AI subscription. I live by myself so I cover all
04:32the expenses related to owning and maintaining my apartments. Hi welcome to my apartment. In here we go
04:42straight to the living room. This is where I will sit down to watch tv or listen to my music
04:49doubles as
04:50dining room. Over in this nook I also have my work from home setup, gaming setup, computer stuff. Welcome
04:58to my kitchen. It's not that big but it's sufficient for me. It has an oven, microwave, fridge and freezer
05:06and also a dishwasher. Yeah it's sufficient for my cooking. If you turn around in the kitchen you will see
05:13my
05:13bedroom. Not the biggest but it has a nice big bed and a lot of storage for my clothes. I
05:19got this nice shelf
05:21from Ikea which helps me organize all my sunglasses and watches. Speaking of watches this Casio Oceanus
05:31it's only made and sold in Japan. Really cool so I got it when I was there and whenever I
05:37wear it
05:37I think about all the great turns I made skiing there. Another one I like is this old Seiko. I
05:46got it
05:47from my late grandfather so that's special to me. Yeah finally nothing special. My Casio for when I'm
05:56working out or running. I just use it to keep track of time or when I'm doing something where I
06:02don't want
06:02to break any of my other watches. This can handle everything else. Something that's important to me
06:10is my music so I bought these nice speakers. They were around $420 I think. My record player I've had
06:19for a long time I think it was $120. I also got a TV second hand for $300 I think
06:28it was. TV stand, Ikea,
06:31$220. I got my PlayStation 2 which I've been meaning to play. I brought it the last time I was
06:38home in Stavanger.
06:39This couch I got for free. It used to belong to my grandparents. For my setup I wanted it quite
06:46big
06:46and spacious because I spend a lot of time here. This chair was free from this second hand marketplace.
06:53So from the hallway we can open this door and enter the bathroom. Quite small but it has an in
07:00-unit
07:01washing machine which I greatly appreciate it. There's not that much to say about it. A shower, toilet,
07:08enough for one person. I think I get good value but I've been debating this because I've talked to
07:17people that pay way less but in rent than me but I've also talked to some who pay the same
07:24or maybe
07:25even higher to rent a similar apartment so I think it's fair but it's also really nice just to own
07:32my
07:32own place so I think that makes it worth it. I used to live with seven people so it has
07:38taken some getting
07:39used to living alone but I mostly enjoy it still. I spend a lot of time out of the apartment
07:46so getting
07:46home to a quiet place is nice to relax and unwind I think. So I budget around 32 dollars a
07:57month
07:58between single ride bus tickets and city bikes. I don't own a car. It would be expensive and also
08:05impractical here in Oslo to have one and so I think I'm better off without it. I can bike to
08:11work in
08:1110 minutes and there's also lots of stuff to do here when I come home after work. A car to
08:16me is a
08:17depreciating asset if you will and also it's impractical with parking around Oslo especially
08:23anything close to my apartment. I have some friends that have cars but they don't live in Oslo and none
08:29of my friends in Oslo have a car. But when I moved in for example and had to move big
08:35furniture I
08:36rented a car through like a ride sharing application. They have cars all around the city and some are
08:43really close to my apartment so it's very easy for me to rent a car and pick up whatever I
08:48need. So
08:49there are a lot of tolls in Oslo but they don't apply to me as I don't have a car.
08:53Parking is also
08:54expensive here in the city. If you have a fossil fueled car you would pay 405 dollars every year for
09:00parking. However if you have an electric car the same parking would cost 130 dollars. So the monthly
09:07bus pass is 70 dollars a month. However I don't buy it because I don't feel like I get the
09:16value out of
09:16it but if I know that within a month I'm gonna be taking the bus a lot then I will
09:22buy it. I think the
09:23price for transportation is fair because you can go a lot of places in Oslo. Also starting
09:30in November the price will be reduced to around 50 dollars as a means to get more people to use
09:36it.
09:36But it's a temporary thing so hopefully it's a success and it will be a permanent thing after a while.
09:42I do budget consciously for my food. I use a budgeting app to help me keep track of my expenses.
09:51In total
09:51I budget around 507 dollars for food. That includes 295 from groceries and about a hundred dollars for
10:00eating out. I also spend 112 dollars at work in the canteen. This could be more because I also have
10:08the option to eat dinner there after work as well sometimes. I very rarely eat out. I usually try to
10:14cook at home by meal prepping but if I have a really busy week like the last few weeks I've
10:19been
10:20really busy so then I've eaten at work in the cantina and then I could get the dinner for around
10:26four dollars for leftover food from the lunch which I think is a good deal. I never order delivery
10:33usually because it's just so expensive. If I ever do eat out it would be maybe 20 dollars for like
10:41a
10:41fast food meal or up to 30-35 dollars for a sit-down restaurant. So for meal planning I'm quite
10:50lazy in
10:50the kitchen so I will let my AI agent plan my weekly meal plan and then I will of course
10:56edit it but
10:58I have it connected to the same grocery app so it will create the shopping list for me and tell
11:04me
11:04where to go shopping. So I usually split my shopping between multiple shops because I live in between them
11:11and I go to whichever is cheapest and I have an app which tells me which grocery store is the
11:17cheapest
11:17based on my grocery shopping list. So now we go back from shopping, grocery shopping. I got a bottle of
11:26coke. This bottle cost 32.50 kroners which is 3.43 dollars. Additionally we paid 3 kroners or 32 cents
11:35for
11:35the plastic bottle itself. This will be given back to us once we return the bottle to the shop. We
11:42got some bread
11:43one dollar and 89 cents. We also got some jasmine rice, four dollars and 37 cents. So this bag is
11:51two kilograms so for one kilogram of rice it will be two dollars and 18 cents. And then some milk,
11:58this is 1.75 liters and in US dollars that is three dollars and 31 cents. And then a dozen
12:05of eggs,
12:06four dollars and 52 cents. All in all this was 17 dollars and 83 cents. Right now I have about
12:15210
12:16for my fun funds or my carefree spending money and whatever is left of that at the end of the
12:22month
12:22gets saved or invested. So I usually go out clubbing or to the bars around twice a month and which
12:29is way
12:30less than when I used to be a student. But it would cost me maybe a hundred dollars a month
12:35for that.
12:36I have several hobbies and I like to play tennis, paddle. I like to go for a run. During the
12:42winter
12:42time I really enjoy skiing both downhill and also ski touring where I walk up the mountain and then go
12:51skiing down. Skiing is my most expensive hobby I would say. A weekend trip skiing could cost anywhere
12:58between 200 to 400 dollars maybe. The seasonal pass at my local ski resort is around 30 dollars a month.
13:07And the equipment I think I've spent up to five thousand dollars in the last seven or eight years or
13:16so.
13:17This year I bought these new bindings which were really expensive and a thousand dollars
13:25because the bindings I used to have were getting really old and I kept ejecting from the skis when
13:33I didn't want to. So I wanted some some bindings to really keep in place both for uphill and downhill.
13:41And I can bring them on like a trip to Japan. I can use them both inbounds and also off
13:46-piste,
13:46out-of-bounds. These are my ski touring boots. They were the only ones in the shop I went to
13:54that fit me.
13:56They don't weigh too much and which is important when you're gonna be climbing 3000 vertical feet
14:02or more. They're they were expensive. They were eight hundred dollars I think.
14:07So all in all my skis, bindings and boots, two thousand four hundred dollars I would say.
14:14So it's an expensive hobby and then that's just the equipment and then you have to
14:18spend money to go skiing. But it's fun, it's worth it.
14:22I also pay forty dollars a month to avoid being bald. Unfortunately I inherited some bad genes from my
14:31dad. So I pay thirty dollars a month for Minoxidil which is like a serum I rub in my scalp
14:40and then
14:41ten dollars for some medication in order to have my hair not fall out. To me that is worth it
14:47because
14:48I don't want to be in my early mid-twenties being bald. So this was me when I first started
14:53in medication
14:54thinning quite badly. This was before I started not looking that great especially with wet hair and
15:02this was me one and a half years on the medication. Very happy with how it turned out.
15:11So I pay zero dollars for healthcare. It is 100% funded by the National Social Security Scheme
15:18here in Norway. If I go see a doctor for any reason I will pay $25 each time out of
15:25pocket. This amount
15:26is capped at $330 a year and it also covers medicine. So I take vitamin D supplements because
15:34here in Norway it gets very dark during the winter period and I also take omega-3 supplements because
15:41fish hair is quite expensive even though we have a lot of it. And I will spend around $12 a
15:48month
15:48on those supplements. My dentist appointments cost me around $20 but they are heavily subsidized for
15:55young adults. So in total my monthly savings is around a thousand dollars. When I get my monthly
16:03salary I have an automatic transfer setup of $400 which is invested automatically into my index funds
16:11but I also try to save whatever is left of my budget within the month which can be up to
16:17$600
16:17and I will save that split between my emergency fund and index funds. In stocks I have $3,700
16:26and in my index funds I have $14,000. For my pension my employer is saving for me. They pay
16:347% of my
16:35pre-tax income which equates to $5,230 a year and it is 100% employer funded meaning I don't
16:44have to save
16:44anything myself or match it in any way. So I have one credit card. It's free. There aren't any perks
16:52to using it but I need it in case I want to rent a car abroad for the deposit. That's
16:59the only reason
17:00I have it really. I have received student loans for six years five of which were for my master's degree
17:06which means I have $88,000 in student loans. However since I've now finished my degree the government
17:12will pay 40% of my student loans for me so I am left with $53,000 in student loans
17:19to pay back.
17:20So I will start paying back my student loans from January 2027 and the interest rate on the student
17:28loans is a variable 4.6% which equates to I think I will pay around $400 a month in
17:36student loans.
17:40In Norway a pint of lager is usually 10 to 12 dollars if you go to the bar but then
17:46you usually
17:47get four deciliters. I don't have a car but a gallon of petrol costs approximately 11.8 dollars
17:55and a gallon of diesel costs approximately 11.17 dollars. A big mac costs between eight dollars and
18:04five cents and eight dollars and 65 cents. A takeaway coffee could run you between 3.5 dollars and seven
18:12dollars. A cinema ticket will usually cost between 15 and 22 dollars. An unlimited mobile plan will cost
18:20between 38 and 55 us dollars. A monthly broadband bill is between an average 45 to 75 dollars.
18:29In Norway we have something called the sovereign wealth fund. It acts as our whole country's savings
18:36account. It is made up of surplus from our oil industry. It invests in real estate stocks and bonds
18:44globally among other things. We can use a part of the revenue from it every year to fund our welfare
18:51and infrastructure projects etc. But majority of it is saved for our future generations to come.
18:59Every citizen we get around 385 thousand dollars. I consider myself reasonably financially disciplined.
19:07I try to only buy things I really need and really want. I try to avoid buying things of impulse.
19:16If I think
19:17I want something or need something I will wait maybe a week or two and then decide if I still
19:22need or want
19:23it. Usually that filters out a lot of bad purchases. I don't really have a financial goal. I just want
19:31to save up
19:32as much money as possible I guess in order to live and use it however I want to in the
19:40future. In terms of
19:41retiring I don't need to be retired super early. If I can have a few years off that would be
19:48great but
19:49it's not something that I'm working towards. Talking about your salary is kind of a taboo in Norway a little
19:56bit. But I think maybe with the younger generation that we talk about it a bit more. At least I
20:02do with my
20:03friends. In terms of my salary I'm really happy where I am right now. I don't have salary expectations
20:12or like a specific number in the future that I want to hit. As much of a cliche it is
20:18it's for me it's
20:19the work I do and the people I work with are more important. For me buying an apartment was a
20:27big
20:27financial goal for me for a long time so I'm really happy that I've been able to do it so
20:33I haven't set my mind on anything else right now.
20:49So