Hallo zusammen,

ich arbeite 100 % (Mo–Fr) und überlege, zusätzlich am Wochenende einen Nebenjob zu machen im Kanton GR.

Viele können das vielleicht nicht nachvollziehen, aber ich hatte die letzten fünf Jahre in Deutschland ebenfalls einen Nebenjob und mir hat das immer sehr viel Spaß gemacht. Es geht mir also nicht nur ums Geld, sondern mehr um den Ausgleich und neue Erfahrungen zu sammeln.

Ist so etwas in der Schweiz grundsätzlich möglich? Wie sieht es mit Steuern, Arbeitgeber Verpflichtungen und anderen Dingen aus, die man beachten sollte?

Danke für eure Erfahrungen!

​

Hi everyone,

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has been through a similar situation with Intrum and Ricardo.

I paid the original Ricardo debt and the statutory interest, 45.60.The only amount I disputed was CHF 88 in "Bearbeitungsgebühren" claimed by Intrum.

I filed a Rechtsvorschlag against the Betreibung.

I'm wondering whether anyone has been in the same situation:

Did Intrum actually apply for Rechtsöffnung or sue you over these collection fees?

If so, did they win?

Or did they simply stop after the Rechtsvorschlag?

The key legal issue, in my opinion, is that the 2025 Ricardo T&Cs (applicable to my purchase) only refer to transferring unpaid debts to a collection agency that applies its own fee schedule. They do not clearly state that the customer agrees to pay those collection fees. Interestingly, the payment order even refers to the 2026 T&Cs.

Has anyone seen a Swiss court uphold Intrum's collection fees based on the Ricardo 2025 T&Cs, or does Intrum usually stop after an objection?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

Did anyone invest stocks/etfs using Revolut? Does it worth using it? I like the idea you could sell it immediately and the money is connected directly to Revolut bank account, so it can be used immediately.

Hi all.

In Switzerland your money ends up split across the three pillars, cantonal taxes, property and big life decisions, with no single place that ties it into one plan. I've been building a tool to fix that, and I'd love you to try and provide your genuine feedback.

It's at sorva.ch, and I'm posting for honest feedback, not to sell anything. Most Swiss tools I tried only look at one piece, skip the tax side, or fall apart the moment you change something, so I wanted one that does the whole picture properly.

The idea: you put your situation in once (the three pillars, income, home, household), and it builds a year by year plan of your whole financial life, modelled on the actual Swiss rules, canton by canton (federal and cantonal tax, AHV, Pillar 2, Pillar 3a). I built it to answer the things I could never work out cleanly in a spreadsheet:

• When can I realistically retire, and does the plan actually hold?
• How early is financial independence realistic?
• Which life goals can I afford, and when?
• How do different Swiss moves change my tax over a lifetime?

You can start from a ready-made plan or build your own and set every lever yourself. It also models the drawdown side (how you'd take money out across the pillars in retirement) and stress tests whether the plan survives a bad market or a long life.

What I'd genuinely love: try to break it. Do the tax numbers look right for your canton? Does the retirement or FIRE result feel realistic for your situation? What's confusing, or missing?

A few honest notes: the deep cantonal tax is ZH, BS, BL and AG for now (adding more), and it's in DE, FR, IT and EN.

On privacy, since it matters the most: no ads, I don't sell your data, and everything is encrypted on your device (in Sovereign mode you hold the only key, I can't read it). And to be clear, it shows you the strategies and the reasoning, it doesn't tell you which product to buy, it's an educational planning tool, not advice.

Link: sorva.ch. If a mod feels this isn't welcome here, just say and I'll take it down. Otherwise I'll be in the comments. Thanks a lot. Looking forward to your feedback!

Best Regards,

Chandni

I m thinking of opening a 3a account with Inyova as I want to be able to choose where my money goes and what it finances.

Anyone has experience with them ?

I also checked the option provided by the Alternative Bank but costs are much higher.

I’m a B permit holder in Switzerland, working full-time (100%) in consulting.

I recently got my first international client for SEO and UX website services (A skill I learned myself). The project is €500, but the client is asking for an invoice.

I’m not sure what I should do:

• Can I simply issue an invoice as an individual? If yes, what service (legal, or CH recognized)
• Do I need to register a sole proprietorship? If yes, how?
• Are there any restrictions with a B permit while being employed full-time?

I expect to get more clients, so I’d like to set things up correctly from the start.

Has anyone been in a similar situation please?

Throwaway account.

We often see posts here from people with very high salaries, huge savings rates, or already massive portfolios.
So I thought I would share a more “average Joe” situation from a family living in Switzerland.

I’m 31M, living in Canton Waadt/VD for about 4 years now.

Maried double income 1 child

Household income

Monthly net income:

• Me: CHF 7,800
• Partner: CHF 4,800

Total: CHF 12,600/month

Monthly expenses

• Rent: CHF 2,600
• Health insurance / LAMal: CHF 1,200
• Childcare / childminder: CHF 1,600
• Utilities: CHF 100
• Car insurance: CHF 45
• Internet: CHF 49
• Phone: CHF 30
• Groceries: CHF 650 Mostly shopping in France + tax refund when possible
• No car loan

Regular monthly expenses are around CHF 6,300/month.

Savings situation

On paper, we should be able to save around CHF 5,200/month, give or take CHF 200.

But in reality, this year has been more complicated. During the first half of the year, I basically could not save much because we had a lot of money to dish out for different things.

One recent example: I received an unexpected CHF 1,800 heating bill from my previous apartment, around 3 years later.

From July, the plan is to restart properly:

1. Fill my pillar 3a VIAC 99%
2. Then invest monthly into VT through IBKR

Current assets

Current net worth: around CHF 100,000

Breakdown:

• Emergency account: CHF 20,000
• Health/medical buffer: CHF 5,000
• The rest is mostly in BTC

Goal

My medium-term goal is to reach CHF 500,000 net worth.
I come from 0.

How am i doing ? Any constructive criticism ?

Curious to see how much you can actually save up each month in percentage of your net income

[i used ai to make it more cleanly formatted]

Has anyone been able to get a mortgage from Viac?

If so, were you able to pledge your 3a and 2a and put zero cash down? They advertise the possibility on their website, I’m yet to hear of real world examples.

Hi, how would you invest the money from a 3a cash account in any of those fintech companies like finpension, viac , true wealth etc. ?

Would you first make a new 100% cash portfolio then transfer the old 3a account to it and then slowly invest / raise the stock vs. cash ratio? From like 0% stocks to 100% wouldn't be a great Idea i guess beacause of the entry point. Or would you say that there are too much fees if you DCA and raise the stock ratio slowly every month +10% ?!

Hi everyone,

I live in St. Gallen and am thinking about whether I should buy a home.

Can anyone help me figure out which 2–3 banks usually offer the best service?

I’m currently a customer of Postfinance, Migros Bank, and SGKB, but I wouldn’t have a problem switching.

Thanks so much in advance

I built a few oss jobs that collect data from the web and quarterly reports from the hyperscalers about AI-related CapEx. This data then populates a static website, and an indicator is calculated showing the probability of the AI hype cooling down.

I host it for free on the GitHub page of the repo: https://laurentiugabriel.github.io/is-ai-hype-cooling-down/.

Hi, is there a platform that can help us figure out if we would be able to afford buying a home or actually more how 'high' could we go on the house price? We would like to understand if, based on our incomes, we could afford to buy a place in Switzerland, if so for how much and how much would be our mortgage payments on a monthly basis (to compare with our current rent). Does such a platform exists without having to shop around at multiple individual banks?

Hi, i am 28, live in switzerland have good money on the side, lower 6 figures with my wife on the bank, no kids yet

Together we have a salary of 200K CHF (living in swiss and earn swiss francs)

With 21(as a student) i bought a little new builded apartment (2 rooms) lower then 50m2 in austria

The value is maybe for the aprtment now 300K for sure

I have an open mortage of 200K now, the loan is going till 2050 something like this

the apartment is rented now i get 1K, 200€ are costs, 800€ is going into my pocket

i have to pay the bank today 900€, so "i have to give from my own money 100€"

The € credit, has a interest rate of 3.184% something like that

I know i could switch to a CHF mortage and get lower interest rates - would you do it?

My biggest issue is, i am afraid to swap it to a CHF loan - why? --> because, if my wife and I deicde to buy a bigger apartment and don`t rent anymore, then i think a CHF loan in a swiss bank will be "harder" punished for our "kreditwürdigkeit", then to have it in €, at a austrian bank and is self paying off

i had already talks in a bank, so thats why i have this feeling

Also, now the aprtment is a topic which only triggers me and also is only in my responisbility - if i swap to a CHF, maybe my wife would also trouble more about the loan

Would you suggest, to swap it, because it is a no brainer to earn CHF, get a CHF loan with lower interest rate

or would you also avoid all the headache and if it is good how it is, why change the running system?

Hi everyone,
My partner and I are currently in the process of buying an apartment in Bern, Switzerland.
We both have different retirement assets (2nd pillar/LPP, 3a, and other pension or insurance savings), and we’re considering using them to finance the purchase.

My question is: what taxes, fees, or withdrawal costs should we expect when withdrawing these funds for owner-occupied property?

More specifically:
Is there a tax when withdrawing from the 2nd pillar (LPP/BVG)?

Is there a tax when withdrawing from Pillar 3a?

What about Pillar 3b or life insurance policies?

Are there any other fees or hidden costs we should be aware of?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through this process in Switzerland, especially in the canton of Bern.
Thank you very much for your help!

(I would love some answer in French better for me )

The one thing I am looking to upgrade atm is the apartment I am renting. It is still the same studio I'm in since a student. Goal would be both to move cities and go from 1.5 to 2.5 rooms, this would increase my costs by about 6-8k a year. Which is a LOT.

Current rent: 800 in SG, I'm expecting around 1500-1600 in about 30min distance of Zürich. So the extra cost - tax savings should be about 6-8k more per year if I'm correct.

My current NW (broker, 2. pillar, 3. pillar) is about 180k, I am contributing 50k a year, so this would drop down to 42-44k. I am afraid it will be a huge delay to my FIRE plans. The calculations don't back this up, but psychologically it is still a big drop, about 17% less contribution per year sounds a lot.

I was thinking of hitting 200-300k NW first, or waiting for a job switch with a higher salary before moving, not sure if Im being reasonable or too cautious.

EDIT: FIRE target with 4% is 1-2M CHF. I know it's a very wide range, but I have options to relocate to cheaper places if I can't stand work any longer. My current expenses are 30k~ a year. (36-38k after moving apartments) So the 1,5- 2M CHF would be a very comfortable retirement in CH, anything less I would most likely move.

I know most people are on 150k+ a month here, but for the rest of us I wanted to ask if you would post your salary, or rough estimate, to get a feel of what the common folk are working with.

I'm a Schreiner (joiner) for the last 16 years working in a few countries around the world.

I run a CNC in a workshop and am earning 6500chf per month, 78k yearly, 13 months = 84'500

In Lucerne this works out to be towards the top end for a Schreiner.

Whats your situation?

Edit: haha shit, anyone need a cash job done around the house?

2nd edit: If you want to be really shocked/gain some perspective, some of my coworkers are 4000-4500 brutto, some even less.

Hi everyone,

I came to Switzerland a few years ago, but left about €70K in my home country. This money has been parked in either fixed-term deposits or accounts that yield some interest (namely, Trade Republic). However, it has always bugged me that I never knew what to do with this money in the long-term.

I have no plans to leave Switzerland or going back to my country, but either that and/or buying a property there is always an option (although highly unlikely, I would say).

Considering all that, should I just leave my EUR there or should I bring it to Switzerland and convert it into CHF?

Thanks!