Know the monthly number before you move

Monthly, annual, and the gap between them

A monthly budget is the number you live on; an annual budget is the number you actually spend. Flights home, insurance renewals, visa fees, tax preparation and the one-off purchase of a bike or a winter coat do not fit into a month, but they are real costs of living abroad.

Build both. The monthly number tells you whether the salary works; the annual number tells you whether the plan survives a full calendar, including the months when two big costs land together.

Price the category, not the average

Cost-of-living indices are useful for ranking cities and dangerous for budgeting. Your rent depends on the neighbourhood, your food depends on whether you cook, and your transport depends on whether the city is walkable. Use an index to choose a candidate city, then price the categories you actually spend on.

The calculators here take your numbers rather than publishing a single “cost of living” figure for a country. A budget built from your own categories is the only one that survives contact with your bank statement.

The first year is not the normal year

The first year abroad carries setup costs that do not repeat: deposits, furniture, appliances, documents, a bike, winter clothing, a local driving licence. A budget that fits the second year can still fail the first. Keep a separate first-year line and fund it before you move.

Who this is for

People comparing cities before a move, remote workers checking whether a salary travels, students budgeting a first year abroad, and families deciding whether one income can carry the household. Every calculator uses your own prices and your own household, so the result is a plan rather than a national average.