1. We are Canadian, moving to from Germany to Sweden (GOT). Will be staying in Sweden for 1-2 years only.
That's great! Then you have a head start on many things. If you're here full time for more than a year I guess its hard to avoid paying taxes here. I do however think that you e.g. can deduct interest on any mortages abroad and stuff like that.
One perhaps surprising start to such info is actually the tax office, whose "customer service" can be reached at + 46 8 564 851 60 if calling from abroad and at 0771-567 567 if calling from within the country. Once you reach the right person, they're quite helpful.
I'm sure there's also a few facebook groups of Canadian expats in Sweden who have more info.
You might check out if you can make deductions for "Dual residence" if you still have one more housing unit somewhere. Not sure if it will work though.
2.Going to keep minimal SEK in the bank, sending most earnings back to our financial "homebase" (Canada).
Sounds great.
3. I will be making 43k SEK per month. My employer does offer a pension plan, but I'm not sure it's worth it for me to contribute for only 1 year and then have the money tied up until I can get it in my 60s.
Depending on which plan they have, it might be an automatic contribution that you cannot change. The most common model pays in a percentage of top of the specified salary. See e.g. the ITP1 model at
https://www.collectum.se/en/Private-persons/ITP/ITP-1-and-ITP-2/ which is not that uncommon even when companies don't have the collective agreement. It MIGHT be negotionable to get this in cash instead.
But yes, I do agree, it's probably better not to lock money into a Swedish system if you're not planning to stay here long term. Some money will be locked in due to the tax portion of the pension system anyway...
4. We've been in Germany for the past 2 years living a 100% car free life. We will be keeping it this way when we got to Sweden!
Great!
And once in Gothenburg, if you feel that Sweden is expensive, just pop over to Denmark (e.g. 3 hours by ferry to Frederikshavn) or to Norway (3 hours to Olso by car) and you're sense of what expensive is will be readjusted. ;)