Moving to Frankfurt-Advise on accommodation, pre-school

Hi there,

I currently live in Bangalore and planning to move to Frankfurt in a few days along with family-my Wife (Currently working in IT and may have to quit) and my 2.5 year old daughter. I will be working for Central European Bank. I have a few questions and any advise is much appreciated.

1. How much a decent accommodation for my family of 3 would cost? Any areas around Central European Bank that is advised? I am okay with a short travel to & from work.
2. My biggest concern is my kid's schooling. She hasn't had any formal schooling so far and I would like to make her join a decent English medium school in Frankfurt. Any advise on such kindergarten? She isn't fluent in English and I hope that won't affect her confidence in a foreign land where I don't expect her to have lot of friends at least to start with speaking to her in mother tongue for comfort!
3. I have been offered a Gross of 70K euro. What is the taxation for this salary and what would be my net take home?

Thanks in advance,
Madhu

1. You should consult the Frankfurt "Mietspiegel" (official survey of rental costs) and applicable flat for rent ads to get an idea. As a newbie, especially if you have to find a place quickly (meaning in under three months!), you are likely to have to pay more than average. And if you want a furnished place, far more.
Are you working for a "Central European Bank" (not known to me), or the "European Central Bank", which of course everybody knows (which is right in the center of the city, with few residential areas nearby)?
2. I am not familiar with the Frankfurt area, so cannot comment. But kids at that age learn languages at an amazing speed, so no worries even if you send her to a German kindergarten.
3. Income taxes (and other deductions) depend on many individual factors. But there are online calculators that can give you a rough estimate. I used www.brutto-netto-rechner.info, entered the abovementioned salary and some assumed parameters that may or may not apply to you, and got a payout of around €3900/month. This is above average (but not rich) for a family of three.

Thanks for taking time to respond.

My bad, yes it's "European Central Bank", thanks for correcting it.

Other than around the main train station in Frankfurt there are no really bad neighborhoods that need to be avoided. One usually concentrates on considering places that have good proximity to work place and/or school/child care - or to public transportation to get there. Sometimes living a bit farther away but close to a U-Bahn or S-Bahn line where one can quickly get to work without changing can be better than living closer but needing to either walk a long way or to need to change trains/buses multiple times.