Job offer from Munich

This is around the average salary in Germany. Doesn't sound exceptionally good for a software job but as I am not in this field I don't know specifics of what to expect. One should know that Munich is the most expensive area in Germany. One should be able to afford a reasonable apartment (although the housing market is very tight) but don't expect to be able to rent a stand-alone house; the vast majority of rentals will be apartments and a real house is very costly. Public education is good and it's free. If one opts for a private school for a kid then it will cost a good 1000 euros/month. In the end it depends on your life style. This is not a huge salary that will enable you to live in luxury – just comfortably.

Another factor that one often hears from foreigners coming for a limited number of years is their hopes to save money for when they return to their home country. Many have very unrealistic plans to save a thousand or 2 euros per month and find that miscellaneous expenses eats most of this up. To save anything significantly on such a salary takes discipline.

One factor can be transportation. Driving a nice car can cost a lot but if one finds the right place to live that is convenient with public transportation, even if not close to their place of work, can save a lot of stress of driving, parking and the costs of fuel, insurance , repairs etc. that come with a car. Plus there are rentals or car sharing schemes so one can easily have a car available if one needs one once in a while. And public transportation is not luxury but quite adequate and people of all classes and economic levels will use it if it is convenient for them – not just for the underclass.

Another factor for people from southern Asia is to know that one should not expect to have domestic servants! Possibly one can get somebody to come once a week for an hour or 2 of cleaning but half- or full-time domestic help is virtually unheard of. It would be both super expensive and very frowned upon. One is seen as trying to be elitist not to do their own house-work. If one has a small child some might arrange an au-pair to care for them. But they have to offer them a separate room, certain benefits and a fixed set income – all for strictly limited hours and types of duties – taking care of a child and light housework. The expectations and treatment that is standard in parts of the world for such help would be seen as exploitative in Germany and lead to punishment.

TominStuttgart wrote:

If one has a small child some might arrange an au-pair to care for them. But they have to offer them a separate room, certain benefits and a fixed set income – all for strictly limited hours and types of duties – taking care of a child and light housework.

I would like to add, to Tom's otherwise excellent post above:
The Aupair programme is meant for cultural and language learning. It is therefore restricted to households where at least one member is native German (and Aupairs cannot be from the home country of the other). Therefore, this is not an option for foreigners in Germany.