r/SwissPersonalFinance

Hey everyone,

Long story short, I’ve had a pretty rough time financially recently due to some medical and tax-related issues. One thing led to another, and I ended up with multiple debt collection cases/Betreibungen, including wage garnishment through my employer. Not exactly my proudest chapter, but I’m finally at the point where everything should be paid off next month.

The problem is that right now I have 3 CHF left in my account.

Whenever I get a bill that absolutely can’t be postponed, I pay it to avoid making the situation worse. I’ve already sold pretty much everything I could sell at home, and borrowing from friends or family isn’t an option.

I’m looking for realistic, legal ways to make the money quickly, odd jobs, online work, day labor, anything that comes to mind.

Thanks in advance for any ideas. I really appreciate it.

Good evening,

I need to buy a new and bigger car for my family. It is a decent amount of money (70k) and I am not sure what is financially optimal. The garage offers leasing with cembra at 2.99%. I could pay the full amount outright also.

What would you do? If you take a leasing, how do you optimize across first payment, length?

My stock portfolio is up 18% this year (previous years all positive also) so I tend to think that I should do leasing to maximize my investments. But I just don't like debt at all. Thoughts are very much welcome.

Dear all, I am thinking about asking for a 30k lombard loan with around 1.25% interest due to my current collaterals. What would be the downside of doing this to max out pillar 3 and put 23k in pillar 2? As I am a recent expat here, I would like to fill more my pillar 2 and recover some time.

Did anyone did this? I am not seeing any disadvantage to be honest as you get an immediate cerca 20% return on investment while paying 1-2% interest....

Thanks for your support

EDIT: guys, check the u/Equivalent_Trade6569 comment. I will drop this idea. Thank you dude.

Hey everyone,

I’m a trained chef, but lately, I’ve developed a huge interest in finance and the markets. I’ve been seriously considering going back to school to study finance, but I'm trying to figure out if that's actually necessary or just a waste of time and money for someone wanting to trade.

Right now, I have a stable career, but the long-term hours and physical toll have me thinking about the future. I definitely don't want to be doing this exact same routine for the next 10 to 15 years.

My dilemma is this: Should I invest time and money into formal finance studies, or is it a smarter move to keep my current stable job and learn trading online through courses, books, and practice in my free time?

If anyone here transitioned from a completely different background (like the culinary industry) into trading, how did you do it? Did formal education actually help you, or is self-taught online the way to go?

Appreciate any advice!

Hi everyone,

I’m 29, living in Zurich, and recently moved into a much higher-paying job. I now earn around CHF 150k base + roughly 20–100k bonus (I'm a finance professional), but since this increase is recent, I still have relatively little wealth: around CHF 35k in cash, debt free

My partner earns significantly less than me but has a much higher net worth. We’d like to have children in ~2 years and, longer term, maybe buy a property in Switzerland, probably in the CHF 1.5–2m range in today’s money, ideally within ~10 years.

I estimate that the cost of children will be offset by a higher income for me and my partner in the 10 year period

At the moment I can save around CHF 3.5k/month + the whole bonus. My plan is to keep ~CHF 10/15k as an emergency fund and invest the rest.

I’m thinking of:

- low allocation for pillar 2

- maxing my 3a (equity-heavy)

- Investing most of the rest in VT / global equities

- keeping a small allocation to Bitcoin (5%)

My main question is how aggressive I should be now. With a 10-year horizon, keeping a large amount in cash feels wasteful, but I also don’t want a market crash in 8–10 years to destroy our potential down payment.

For people who have been in a similar high income but low starting wealth situation: how would you approach this?

Would you change anything about this strategy, and would you start de-risking the future house down payment at some point ?

VT and Chill and Diworsification is what I constantly read here.

This is a perfectly great approach for the average Joe, don’t get me wrong! But with a minimum of reading and understanding of industries and financial statements, you can do it much better.

This may sound (and it is!) an effort for the average Joe, but what I found surprising is that even the “finance professionals” (please allow me a series of ?????).. use the same VT and chill strategy.

And those people -both the average Joe and the financial professional- are the ones that spend two hours to buy hiking equipment, but are not willing to spend 15 minutes reading and end of the year report of a company.

Why is that? Fear or lack of understanding of what opportunity cost means in investing?

Concrete examples:

People felt threatened and insecure on putting 30/40 K in Microsoft last month, when the stock was at$350.. and went up 20/25% in a week after the earnings.

Same thing happened with Amazon, or the past year with GE…

Additionally, you can play and try to find good companies that can be multi baggers over the years.. even if you are right six times out of 10, the return will be enormous!
——-

Please downvote me, but the approach most of people are speaking (the VT chill) will have a massive opportunity cost in 20/30/40y from now!

Small addition for the tiny percentage of people who are slightly more financially educated compared to the average Joe: you can argue that not many professionals are capable to beat the market long run, even in investment funds.

That’s absolutely true, but for a very clear reason!

You will never be blamed -as amanager in an investment fund - if the big company that you recommended to a client will not perform well that year. You will only say “wtf the company XYZ is doing, they have a terrible board..”. But if in the same position you suggest a smaller and largely unknown company, and that company has problems, you will probably be fired!

That -and the need of moving billions around- prevent professional professionals to have spectacular gains over a year. Small investors have much more freedom! Let’s use it.

Mich interessiert eure ehrliche Meinung dazu.

Es geht um eine Person im Alter von ungefähr 21–23 Jahren, die relativ häufig andere Menschen in ihrem Umfeld nach Geld fragt teilweise zum Leihen und es dann ein Monat später oder n längere Zeit nicht kommt oder garnicht.

Das Problem für mich ist vor allem: Die Menschen, die gefragt werden, sind selbst erst 19–25 und teilweise finanziell überhaupt nicht gut aufgestellt. Manche haben gerade genug Geld auf dem Konto, um ihre eigenen Lebenshaltungskosten zu bezahlen und sich selbst über Wasser zu halten.

Ich persönlich finde es ziemlich unverschämt, in so einer Situation immer wieder Freunde oder Freundin um Geld zu bitten.

Besonders frage ich mich, warum man nicht zuerst die eigenen Eltern oder andere Familienmitglieder fragt, wenn diese finanziell seit Jahren stabil sind und beispielsweise 3-4 stellig auch gern mehr für sie nicht dieselbe finanzielle Belastung darstellen würden.

Ich selbst wenn ich finanziell nicht klarkäme, würde ich eher mein Ego überwinden und meine Eltern fragen, sofern diese die finanziellen Möglichkeiten dazu hätten, als jemanden um Geld zu bitten, der selbst gerade erst versucht, sein eigenes Leben aufzubauen.

Ich finde es ehrlich gesagt ziemlich unverschämt, einer anderen Person möglicherweise finanzielle Probleme zu bereiten (auch wenn „beunabsichtigt oder nicht darüber nachgedacht), nur damit man gegenüber den eigenen Eltern nicht zugeben muss, dass man selbst gerade nicht klarkommt.

Mich interessiert deshalb:

Wie findet ihr dieses Verhalten grundsätzlich?
Macht es für euch einen Unterschied, ob das Geld tatsächlich zurückgezahlt wird oder nicht?
Würdet ihr selbst einen Freund/eine Freundin regelmäßig nach Geld fragen, wenn diese Person 19–25 ist und selbst gerade finanziell auf eigenen Beinen steht?
Findet ihr, dass man in so einer Situation eher die eigenen Eltern fragen sollte, wenn diese finanziell deutlich besser aufgestellt sind?
Und ab wann würdet ihr sagen, dass aus „jemanden gelegentlich um Hilfe bitten“ ein problematisches oder respektloses Verhalten wird?

Ich suche ausdrücklich nicht nur Zustimmung. Mich interessiert, wie ihr das unabhängig von meiner persönlichen Meinung bewertet.

Let me start, I came to Switzerland 12 years ago, pretty much randomly, because of a job offer. I had no particular interest in moving to Switzerland.

I’m 36 now, and looking back, the first year was fine. Everything was new and exciting, although I already felt quite early on that Switzerland probably wasn’t really for me. But I kept staying because of relationships, jobs, stability, and, eventually, life simply became very comfortable.

Now, at 36, I’m realizing more clearly that Switzerland doesn’t offer much of what I’m looking for in life. Lifestyle, weather, food, spontaneity, friendships, and relationships have become increasingly important to me.

I’m someone who enjoys spontaneity and warm, open social interactions. I like being able to meet people easily, have a coffee somewhere, start talking to someone, make plans spontaneously, and generally have a more flexible lifestyle. Switzerland can feel quite the opposite of that. A lot of life revolves around routines, planning and structure, and I’ve realized that this simply doesn’t suit me that well.

Career wise, I also feel that Switzerland is relatively limited depending on what you’re looking for. There are obviously great opportunities, but a lot of the market is concentrated around areas like banking, pharma, consulting and a few other major industries (not to mention language that makes it all more complex). For me personally, it hasn’t provided the kind of career flexibility and lifestyle I’m looking for.

I have absolutely no regrets about moving here. Switzerland has given me a lot, including financial stability and a very comfortable life. But I’ve reached a point where I’m asking myself whether comfort and money are enough if the overall lifestyle doesn’t really fit you.

If I could go back to my younger self, I would probably put more weight on lifestyle and the kind of environment I wanted to live in, rather than simply following the best financial opportunity.

So I think the time may have finally come to pull the plug and move somewhere that fits me better.

I’d be really interested to hear from others who moved to Switzerland, especially those who have been here for 5, 10, 15+ years. Are you happier here than before? Did Switzerland turn out to be what you expected? And if you left, or are thinking about leaving, what changed your mind?

Hi guys,

Planning my return to Switzerland after a few years abroad and trying to figure out how fast I can catch up with the 3a Pillar contributions. Anyone dealt with this yet?

Cheers

I'm pushing 40 with a partner and a baby, I feel like we're doing OK but i'm not sure what the next step is to making sure we're secure, comfortable and making the best of our current position. I work 100% and my partner is SAHM. I have concerns that my role (Management role in an IT firm) could be eliminated within then next year or two.

Current situation:

Salary: 150k
Cash: 75k (Standard account, no interest)
Stocks 195k (VOO/VT)
Crypto 150k (Pays 2.5% interest)
Pillar 3A 45k
Pension 68k

No debts, rent and bills are well within my means, I also pay a fixed amount to my partner monthly on top of the family allowance.

Issues:

- I am struggling to find an independent financial advisor who isn't trying to sell me something

- My employer pays the minimum legally required into pension, which only covers less than half of my salary. I'm struggling to make that up with

- The crypto was a fun money account that did really well, I suppose the safe move is to begin transitioning it into VOO/VT

- Beyond financial security for me, once my kid grows up I would like to retire early and travel

Any tips on how to make this more efficient would be greatly appreciated

Hey everyone,

I’m just graduating and will be starting to earn a proper salary for the first time. Until now, I’ve mainly had an account with my local cantonal bank, since that’s where my parents used to transfer money to me.

Now that I’m starting my career and earning a full salary, I’m thinking about setting up my finances a bit more strategically. I want to invest a portion of my income right from the start, primarily in ETFs.

So I’d love to hear what you guys recommend:

• Which bank do you use as your main bank, and why?
• Which banks in Switzerland currently have the best conditions for a regular salary/current account?
• Is it worth switching from a cantonal bank, or would you just stay with them?
• For ETF investing, which platform/broker would you recommend in Switzerland?
• Would you recommend a Swiss broker such as Swissquote, a neobank, or an international broker?
• Are there any hidden fees or other things I should be aware of as a beginner?

My goal is mainly long-term ETF investing. I’m not interested in actively trading. Ideally I’d just invest a fixed amount every month and keep things as simple and cost-efficient as possible.

If you were in my position, just graduating and starting your first proper job, how would you set things up?

Would love to hear what you’re using and what you’d recommend. Thanks!

Timing or not timing...

Because for VT you require USD, and IBKR will do that for me, do I lose money because their conversion rate is bad? Do I have to convert my CHF before buying VT? Or does IBKR do that for me? I have to pay 15% and that costs a lot... So in 20 years let's say if I have 200k, I need to pay 2000 CHF? And where do I have to pay that? To the swiss authorities? Do I have to tell them I have money in VT in den Steuerunterlagen. It is so complex..

I want to buy a house and need approx. 500k of my funds for 'Eigenmittel'.

My setup is as follows:

• 70k savings account
• 150k 3rd pillar
• 900k in ETFs and some shares
• I don't want to touch my second pillar

My plan is to use 100k from my 3rd pillar, liquidate 200k from my ETFs/shares and get a Lombard loan of 200k based on the remaining 700k ETFs.

What do you think of this plan? Any experience with Lombard loans? Do you think it's too risky?

USD/CHF is sitting around 0.811 this week, the franc's weakest stretch in about a year. Normally that's when everyone starts asking "is the SNB about to cut into negative again," but this time the central bank's actually holding at 0%, and most economists don't see a hike until 2028 despite currency markets pricing one in as early as next March.

What's wild is the franc used to be the reflexive safe-haven trade the second anything geopolitical flared up. This time, even with Middle East tensions still in the headlines, CHF hasn't done its usual flight-to-safety spike. The SNB's actively signalling it'll step in and sell francs if things move "too fast," which is a very different posture from the last decade of "the franc is too strong, please stop."

Feels like a genuine regime shift in how the market's pricing Swiss risk, not just short-term noise. Anyone here actually trading USD/CHF or EUR/CHF into Jackson Hole this week, or sitting this one out until there's a cleaner signal from the SNB's September meeting?

I'm based in Zug/Zurich, work in corporate finance (pharma) for the last 8 years, and alongside my job I've just founded my own company here in Switzerland where I have already some small projects running. Like most people here I hold stocks and ETFs for the long term — but I've been wanting to put part of my capital and, honestly, my time into something more hands-on: co-owning or partnering in a real, established small business rather than a purely passive investment.

Over the past weeks I've looked at a lot of listings on the usual succession platforms, and I've learned a lot (mostly what to avoid). What I'm realising is that the better opportunities rarely get publicly listed — so I'm trying to connect with people directly.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has:

* bought into or co-founded a small business here, and how you found it.

* is a business owner open to a partner who brings capital + a finance/operational background (not just money).

* or has simply gone down this path and has lessons to share.

Sectors I'm drawn to: women's health/fertility, pet services, personal finance, relationships, wellness — but genuinely open to other opportunities. Working languages English & Spanish (my German is conversational, not professional yet).

Happy to chat in DMs or in the thread.

Hi All! Looking for some constructive criticism from knowledgeable contributors about my plan: I'm a 53yo male, recently made redundant after 30 years in the investment industry. I want to become self employed, pull out my 2.4m 2me pilier and invest it myself. Approx half into 2-3x rental properties (already been doing this on the side for years with a couple of flats), to generate rental income which should be enough to live off (given kids leaving home soon, plus wife has a decent job etc), and the other half mostly in a global equity ETF to let it grow until my wife retires, when I'd start drawing it down to top up the rental income and her pension. I will also try to do a bit of consulting, teaching etc. I know I'll need to pay a withdrawal tax (7% in VS?), AVS every year (10% of income which will include capital gains I think), and income tax. I guess I can deduct car leasing, the odd meal etc? Any thoughts welcome, particularly on the tax implications, different structures I should put in place, whether I can then make tax deductible payments like 2me or 3a pillar payments like when I was employed etc. Thanks!

I’m less interested in the usual “VT vs. VOO vs. VWCE / accumulation vs. distributing” discussion and more interested in the bigger picture: what are your financial goals, and how have those goals shaped your investment strategy?

For example, are you:

- Pursuing FIRE and trying to retire as early as possible?

- Building a portfolio specifically to generate income?

- Living in Switzerland and structuring your investments around Swiss taxes and costs?

- Trying to supplement your salary with investment income?

- Planning to move to another country and investing differently because of that?

- Using a combination of ETFs, individual stocks, real estate, bonds, crypto, or other instruments for a specific objective?

I’d be particularly interested in hearing why you chose your strategy, rather than just what you invest in.

What’s your end goal, what approach are you taking to get there, and what factors (taxation, country of residence, income needs, risk tolerance, time horizon, etc.) have influenced your decisions?

I’m hoping to hear from people with different objectives and approaches rather than another discussion about which global ETF is best.

Hi!
I’ve been self-employed as a graphic designer in Switzerland for almost 10 years, although only for two years full-time. The rest has been as a side income.

Post-Covid, demand for graphic design slowed down quite a bit, which was also one of the reasons I decided to start a career change. I’ll finish my studies in June 2027 and plan to start a salaried job in architecture in summer 2027 (80-100%).

I still have one regular client I’ve worked with since the beginning, who occasionally gives me small jobs. Two other regular clients are ending their collaboration with me this year, and I’m not looking for new clients.

For the past two years, I’ve been declaring a loss from my self-employed activity due to the decline in work.

Every year, I have to do simplified accounts, pay AVS contributions, and keep track of all expenses and income. It’s becoming a bit of a hassle for such a small amount of activity.

I’m therefore considering ending my self-employed status as of 31 December 2026.

What would be the main advantages/disadvantages of doing so? Is there any reason to keep it open, given that I might still get the occasional small job with my client and here and there?