Renting in Switzerland – All you need to know

In Switzerland, most people rent their apartment or house. The reason is that access to real estate is quite complicated. But renting is not much simpler. If you want to rent in Switzerland, there are many things you need to know. You will be better prepared and better protected if you learn about this subject.

For instance, did you know that rent prices are indexed on a reference interest rate? If the rate goes up, so does your rent. But if the price goes down, you are entitled to a reduction.

Other subtleties are important when you are renting in Switzerland. For instance, there are many things you need to know about giving back your apartment. I am going to cover them in detail.

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Robo-Advisors: Invest without any hassle

My investment strategy is to invest myself directly with a broker. I believe this is the best strategy. However, it is not the most straightforward strategy. It can sometimes be complicated. And many people are not ready to invest themselves.

For people that do not want to invest directly, Robo-Advisors are the next best thing. They offer investments managed automatically by a computer. As such, the costs are generally lower when you compare with active investing funds from a bank.

In this article, we are going to see in detail what Robo-advisors are and who they are for. We are also going to see what Robo-Advisors are available in Switzerland.

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Automating Your Personal Finances is a Mistake

In the Personal Finance community, many people are advising everybody to automate as much as their personal finances as they can. I am not one of them. I do not automate anything in my personal finances. I do not like automation for my personal finances.

I think it is a big mistake. Automating your personal finances is a lazy excuse for not being rigorous enough to manage them yourself. The worst is the “set it and forget it” advice for automating your personal finances!

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The 4% Rule for Swiss Stocks – Can you retire early?

Today, we are going to see if the 4% Rule works in Switzerland, with Swiss Stocks, or not. I have wanted to do this experiment for a very long time. Now, I got all the data I need for a full simulation!

I have been able to obtain data up to 1924 for Swiss Stocks and Swiss Inflation. It was not easy since not many people are interested in the data. But now, it is done! So I could finally do the simulation!

I know that many of my readers are waiting for this. And I was also waiting for these results.

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What does the U.S. Estate Tax mean for Swiss Investors?

Many people think that investing in the United States Exchanged Traded Funds (ETFs) is dangerous. They believe that because of the U.S. Estate Tax. This tax will heavily tax the assets of a decedent.

This tax means that your beneficiary will only get a portion of your estate when you decease. Because of that, many people recommend not to invest in American ETFs (or even stocks).

But is that even true? Many people forget about the U.S. Switzerland double taxation estate tax treaty.

In this article, we are going to study in detail the U.S. Estate Tax and the U.S. Estate Tax Treaty with Switzerland. And we are going to see what this means for Swiss investors.

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How to Sell Things Online in Switzerland in 2020?

When you have a lot of things at home, there are probably many of these things that are not necessary. An excellent way to get rid of some of these things is to sell them.

You will save space and earn some money! There are many ways to sell items. But in today’s age, selling online is often the way to go.

For instance, recently, I did some ordering in my technology closet (yes, I am the kind of guy that has a technology closet). And I realized that I had way too many things stored at home. I also realized that I had way too many servers. So I decided to sell online a few things.

I am mostly using online websites to sell things. I am far from being a minimalist. It is easily seen by my technology closet that is still too full after a first purge. But I am trying to reduce a bit the amount of burden I own. And if I can get some money in the process, it is a nice bonus!

In this post, I am going to talk about what I am selling online in Switzerland. And how am I selling them!

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February 2020 – Quarantine and Quarter of a Million!

It is time for the second update of the year. February 2020 is already done.

Last month, we went to China amid the coronavirus outbreak. When we come back, my company put me on quarantine for two weeks. I had to work from home for about ten days.

Aside from this, it was a very uneventful month. From a financial point of view, it was not a bad month. We spent a bit too much on food. But I received my ESPP shares, which made a nice bump on our net worth. So overall, it was a good financial month. We managed to save 63% of our income this month.

We are still looking for a house. But we have not been very successful. I am starting to believe that it is not going to happen with the needs of both of us and our financial situation.

So, let’s see in detail what happened to us in February 2020.

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