This started with a spreadsheet I could not trust

Like a lot of people around the strait, I ended up with a job on one side and a home on the other, and a spreadsheet that was supposed to tell me whether that made sense. It had a tab for Danish tax, a tab for rent, a stale exchange rate somebody had pasted in months earlier, and a commute cost I had guessed. Every time I changed one number I lost confidence in the rest of it.

The frustrating part was that the information was all published. It was just scattered across two tax authorities, two housing markets, two currencies and a bridge — each source answering one small part of the question, and none of them answering mine.

So Øresund Life is the tool I wanted: you answer a handful of questions about your work, your home and your commute, and it models what is actually left in your account at the end of the month on each side. Two minutes, no account, and your answers never leave your browser.

What I promise about the numbers

Every rate and price carries a source and a date, listed openly on the assumptions page. Where a figure is our own market estimate rather than an official rate, it says so — I would rather show you an honest estimate than dress a guess up as a fact. The exchange rate is pulled live from the European Central Bank, because it is the variable that quietly moves everyone's budget.

Some things I deliberately do not do. I do not publish live delay or departure data scraped from operators, and I do not give tax advice. The calculator is a model to think with; SKAT and Skatteverket decide your actual case.

Where to start

If you have an offer in hand, start with got a job in Copenhagen. If you are weighing the move itself, read Malmö vs Copenhagen or working in Denmark, living in Sweden. If you already know your numbers, skip straight to the calculator.

If something looks wrong, it probably is somewhere — the rules change and prices move. Tell me and I will fix it.