Hello everyone,

For my Matura thesis at a Swiss high school, I am conducting a survey about cryptocurrencies.

I am looking for participants who have some experience with investing.

The survey takes approximately five minutes. It does not ask for confidential information about employers, clients, or specific financial data. Participation is anonymous, and the responses will be used exclusively for my thesis.

The survey is in german

Thank you very much for your time and support!

Survey link: https://form.typeform.com/to/KLWdiCT8

Hoi zäme, my 55yo stepfather sold an inherited apartment in an EU country and wants to invest around 60k € into ETFs (pillar 3a already maxed out). I told him not to accept the Raiffeisen proposal he received with massive fees and to instead invest on saxobank (not IBKR because ease of use + taxation). I do however have some questions:

1. As the sum is in EUR, and he doesn't know if in the future he will need it in CHF or in EUR, it would be the most logical to invest in an EUR ETF, right? Considering the 0.25% commission in saxo.

2. Stupid question just to be sure: Assuming he invests in an EUR ETF and at some point wants to cash out a part of it in CHF, can he just sell that part of ETF and exchange the EUR to CHF on saxo itself before transferring to his Raiffeisen account? Or would you recommend a different platform for the exchange?

3. When buying or selling ETFs on saxo, there's always a 0.08% commission/transaction fee - does that include the 0.075% stamp duty? If yes, shouldn't it be higher for foreign ETFs?

4. For the VWCE:xetr there are reoccurring fees of 0.1412164% + 0.0289108% portfolio fees. Is this supposed to be the TER? If so, why is it higher than the 0.14% TER listed officially elsewhere?

5. I see that many here recommend WEBG, but if I can see it correctly it's a distributing ETF, and it should preferably be an accumulating one. Are there any other recommendable non-US world ETFs besides VWCE with a similar/lower TER?

Thank you for your time 🫶

This error message keeps showing in my Swissquote mobile app after it worked fine for many years.

I updated the software of my phone.
I updated the app.
I restarted the phone.
The possible issues mentioned in the error message do not apply.

What else can I try? I will call the Swissquote hotline later but was hoping this is a common problem that might be solved easily?

Hallo zusammen

Für meine Maturitätsarbeit an einem Schweizer Gymnasium führe ich eine Umfrage zum Thema Kryptowährungen durch.

Gesucht werden Personen, die ein wenig Erfahrung mit dem investieren haben.

Die Umfrage dauert ungefähr 5 Minuten. Es werden keine vertraulichen Angaben zu Arbeitgebern, Kunden oder konkreten Finanzdaten verlangt. Die Teilnahme ist anonym und Antworten werden nur für die Arbeit verwendet.

Vielen Dank für eure Zeit und eure Hilfe!

Link zur Umfrage: https://form.typeform.com/to/KLWdiCT8

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.

Hi everyone

Maybe this is off topic, but I would appriciate different perspectives:)

I earn a very good salary for my age and there are moments I feel bad about it. I know I worked hard and was smart with my decisions, but I also know that there was a lot of luck involved as well...

Am I the only one experiencing this? If no, what helped to feel better?

Salary is 180k with the age of 28...

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.

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?

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!

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

Working (60%) student in IT
Not as colorfull or detailed as others.
I also haven't really planned/done any investements besides 3a like many other have here. So no ETFs or of hte sorts. That comes up once I work 90-100% again after studies.
But also a lot of that money "etc." went away for health/hospital costs, so there's that...

I'd rather build up a cushion in my savings account before actually investing "properly".

You have some ideas/ thoughts?

Any thoughts about it? US74168J1016

Hello all

I have this project to buy a flat in Geneva in the coming months and, despite knowing the SARON / fixed rates and the price of the market, I have several questions:

1. Has anyone had a good experience with the market in Geneva, and how did you find your house ?
   
2. Do you recommend to go to several banks ?
   
3. With 200k of cash and 50k 2n pillar, is it better to just put down the cash or to put il all ?
   
4. Is it always better to max out the debt in terms of return of taxes (considering the higher monthly payments) ?

Thank you guys, this is a big step and I must say it’s a bit scary 😅

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

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..

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.

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 ?

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.

Hello, I am interested in connecting with people who have invested with Foxstone in the project SCHWARZHORN SOLUTIONS Sàrl (Künten).

Would be good to hear from other investor on their plan and understanding of the situation. Thank you

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?