Finance Wiki: Swedish Personal Finance Terms Explained | Free

Every calculator here leans on some Swedish personal-finance vocabulary, allmän vs tjänstepension, ISK vs KF, skiktgräns, belåningsgrad. Instead of re-explaining each term inside every tool, the wiki defines it once, in plain language, so you always know what a number means and why it matters.

How to use it

Search or browse by category below to find a term. Each entry keeps it short: what it is, why it matters, and where it shows up in the tools.
Inside any tool, key terms link straight here on first use, so you can check a definition without losing your place, then jump back.
Always current: every figure that changes yearly is pulled from the same source as the calculators, so the explanations never fall out of date.

Pension16 entries

Occupational pension by agreement (avtalspension)

The occupational pension you get through a collective agreement, paid by the employer.

Right to move (flytträtt)

The right to move your pension capital between providers, with a legal cap on the fee.

Paid-up policy (fribrev)

What an occupational pension becomes when contributions stop, e.g. on changing jobs.

Premium pension

The part of your state pension you choose how to invest.

Allmän pension (public pension)

The Swedish state pension: inkomstpension plus premiepension.

Occupational pension (tjänstepension)

The pension your employer pays in on top of your salary.

The three pension layers

How allmän, tjänste and private pension stack, and how to read minPension.

Target retirement age (riktålder)

The moving retirement age that sets pension timing and a tax break.

Inkomstpension (income pension)

The largest part of allmän pension, revalued with wage growth.

Garantipension (guarantee pension)

A safety-net floor for those with little or no income pension.

The defined-contribution occupational pension for most white-collar staff.

The mainly defined-benefit occupational pension for those born before 1979.

PGI (pensionable income)

The income your public pension is actually calculated on.

Pension ceiling (pensionstak)

The income level where you stop building public pension.

AP7 Såfa (state default fund)

The state default for the premium pension: a low-cost fund that glides from equities to bonds as you age.

Divisor (delningstal)

The number that turns your pension capital into a yearly pension, set by life expectancy.

Tax20 entries

Income base amount (IBB)

The wage-indexed base amount behind most pension and tax thresholds.

Price base amount (PBB)

The inflation-linked amount that sizes deductions and many benefits.

Basic deduction (grundavdrag)

The slice of your income the state simply does not tax.

Earned income tax credit

A tax reduction given only on income from work, not on pension.

State tax threshold (skiktgräns)

The income level where extra state income tax begins.

The tax on your next krona, what a raise actually keeps.

Government borrowing rate (SLR)

A reference rate that quietly sets taxes on savings and student-loan interest.

Standardised tax (schablonbeskattning)

The flat yearly tax on an ISK or KF, set from the government rate.

Capital gains tax (kapitalvinstskatt)

The 30% tax on realised gains in a regular, taxable account.

Residual tax (kvarskatt)

Tax you still owe when the preliminary tax withheld fell short of your final tax.

Final tax notice (slutskattebesked)

Skatteverket's final settlement of your year: refund or residual tax, and when it lands.

Commuting deduction (reseavdrag)

A deduction for the cost of travelling to work above a yearly threshold.

Green technology reduction (grön teknik)

A tax reduction for solar panels, batteries and charging points, granted at the invoice.

Municipal tax (kommunalskatt)

The flat local income tax set by your municipality and region, the largest part of most tax bills.

SINK (special income tax for non-residents)

A flat tax for people who work in Sweden but live abroad, with no deductions but no tax return to file.

Interest deduction (ränteavdrag)

The tax reduction for interest costs: part of a net capital deficit comes back to you.

Employer contribution (arbetsgivaravgift)

The social-security fee an employer pays on top of your gross salary.

Dividend allowance (gränsbelopp)

How much dividend a close-company owner can take at only 20% tax under the 3:12 rules.

Self-employed contributions (egenavgifter)

The social-security contributions a sole trader pays on business profit, in place of the employer fee.

Enhanced basic deduction (förhöjt grundavdrag)

The extra basic deduction that lowers tax once you pass your target retirement age.

Work & salary4 entries

Lönestrukturstatistik (wage structure statistics)

Sweden's official salary data by occupation, from Medlingsinstitutet: full-time monthly pay, no overtime or bonus.

Lönespridning & percentiles

How salaries spread within an occupation: what p10, the median and p90 tell you about a pay offer.

SSYK (occupation classification)

Sweden's standard occupation classification, the four-digit code salary statistics are grouped by.

Holiday pay (semesterlön)

The pay you earn while on holiday, and the two ways employers work it out.

Investing15 entries

Securities account (aktie- och fondkonto)

A plain depa where you own securities directly and are taxed on the real gain, unlike an ISK.

Brokerage fee (courtage)

The fee a broker charges per trade, a percentage or a fixed minimum, separate from fund fees.

Savings rate (sparkvot)

The share of your income you save, the strongest lever in personal finance.

Rebalancing (ombalansering)

Restoring a portfolio to its target allocation by trimming winners and topping up laggards.

ISK (investeringssparkonto)

The most popular Swedish flat-taxed account for funds and shares.

Kapitalförsäkring (KF)

An insurance-wrapped account, like an ISK with a beneficiary.

The total yearly cost of a fund, taken quietly from your return.

Ränta på ränta (compound interest)

When your returns start earning returns, why time beats amount.

Real vs nominal return

Nominal is before inflation, real is what actually buys more.

Index fund (indexfond)

A fund that tracks the market at low cost, the default core holding.

FIRE number & the 4% rule

How much you need to live off investments: spending divided by a withdrawal rate.

Monte Carlo simulation

Running your plan through thousands of market futures to see the odds.

Everything you own minus everything you owe, the clearest single measure of progress.

Why the middle value beats the average for a typical person when wealth is skewed.

ISK tax-free amount (fribelopp)

The tax-free floor on an ISK or KF, below which the standard tax is zero.

Housing9 entries

A tax reduction of 30% of labour cost for home renovation.

A tax reduction of 50% of labour cost for household services.

How gains on selling your home are taxed, effectively about 22%.

Kontantinsats (down payment)

The part of a home price you must pay yourself.

Belåningsgrad (loan-to-value)

Your mortgage as a share of the home value, it drives amortisation.

Lagfart (title deed)

The stamp duty and title-deed cost when you buy a house.

Pantbrev (mortgage deed)

The mortgage deed a bank holds as security, and when it costs extra.

Uppskov (deferred housing gain)

Deferring the capital-gains tax when you sell one home and buy another.

Kvar att leva på (KALP)

The left-to-live-on test a bank runs before granting a mortgage.

Loans & credit10 entries

Student loan (studielån, CSN)

The loan part of Swedish student aid from CSN, with a low state-set interest rate.

Annuity loan (annuitetslån)

A loan where the total payment stays roughly constant, unlike straight-line amortisation.

Amorteringskrav (amortisation requirement)

How much of a new mortgage you must repay each year, tiered by loan-to-value.

Fixed vs floating mortgage rate

Fixed or floating? How long you lock your mortgage rate, and the trade-off.

Blancolån (unsecured loan)

A loan with no collateral, higher interest, and the legal cap on its cost.

Effective interest rate (effektiv ränta)

The true yearly cost of credit with every fee folded in, the number to compare.

Kreditupplysning (credit report)

The credit report lenders order on you, and the copy you always receive.

Betalningsanmärkning (payment default)

A payment default from Kronofogden, and how long it stays on record.

Skuldsanering (debt restructuring)

Kronofogden's legal way out of debt you cannot repay: pay a set share, then a fresh start.

Kronofogden (enforcement authority)

The Swedish Enforcement Authority: what it does when a debt goes unpaid, and what it does not.

Safety net12 entries

SGI (qualifying income)

The income your sick pay and parental leave benefits are based on.

A-kassa (unemployment insurance)

Voluntary unemployment insurance, income-based since October 2025.

Income insurance (inkomstförsäkring)

A top-up above the a-kassa ceiling, usually included with union membership.

Föräldrapenning (parental benefit)

480 days per child: how the levels, the ceiling and the reserved days work.

Sjukpenning (sickness benefit)

Sick pay and the karensavdrag, then sjukpenning from Försäkringskassan.

Deposit guarantee (insättningsgaranti)

The state guarantee that protects your bank deposits if the bank fails.

Care of a sick child (VAB)

Temporary parental benefit for a sick child, separate from the 480 days.

Accessible cash covering a few months of essential costs, so a shock does not force debt.

The 50/30/20 rule

A simple budget split: 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings and debt repayment.

Collective agreement (kollektivavtal)

The union-employer agreement that quietly gives you occupational pension, insurances and more.

Waiting-period deduction (karensavdrag)

The deduction from your first days of sick pay, a fixed share of a week's sick pay.

Child allowance (barnbidrag)

The untaxed monthly payment for every child, plus the large-family supplement.