The Poor Swiss - Personal Finance in Switzerland -

Updated Trinity Study Results for 2019 – More Withdrawal Rates!

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 19, 2019September 19, 20197 Comments

Would you like to know exactly which withdrawal rate is safe and will sustain your lifestyle for a very long time? You will find the answer in this post with updated results from the Trinity Study!

I have recently talked in details about The Trinity Study. This study researched different withdrawal rates for retirement. Although the original research was not about early retirement, it is referred a lot in the Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) movement!

However, for me, there are two caveats with the original study. First, they are only covering the period until 1995. And then, they are not covering more than thirty years of retirement. Thirty years is not enough for some people wanting to retire early.

Therefore, I decided to reproduce all the results of the original study. I used much more recent data from 1871 to 2018. I have also considered periods as long as 50 years.

In this post, you will find how I did it, and all the results I have been able to gather from this data!

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All you need to know about Health Insurance in Switzerland

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 17, 2019September 18, 20194 Comments

The health insurance system in Switzerland is complicated. And since it is mandatory to have health insurance, it is imperative to understand it correctly.

These last few years, health insurance has become very expensive. But many people are paying much more than they ought to. You need to know that there are a few things we can do to pay less!

In this post, I am going to cover the details of the health insurance system in Switzerland. I am going to cover mostly the base health insurance in great details. You must choose wisely, and there are many options. I am also going to cover supplemental health insurance, but it is too varied to be covered in details.

So, let’s get into Health Insurance!

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N26 is available in Switzerland – Save on Foreign Currency Fees

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 14, 2019September 14, 201914 Comments

Everybody will agree with me that paying 1.5% of fees, or even more, on each transaction abroad really sucks! That is not something you want to think about when you are on vacation or shopping online in other countries. Thanks to N26, this should never be necessary anymore!

N26 is a digital bank offering transfers in other currencies for free! Not only that. But the entire bank account is free! And they are a bank! Your money is insured according to European laws. You can even withdraw money for free several times a month! That sounds great, right?

In this post, I am going to cover everything you need to know about N26. And since I have already talked about Revolut on this blog, I will compare both services which are similar but not equivalent!

Stay tuned to find out how to save money on foreign exchange fees!

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How to create a Neon account and use the mobile application

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 12, 2019August 30, 20192 Comments

I have recently talked about the best Swiss banks. I think that Neon is the best Mobile Swiss bank there is!

They have very low fees. And they have an excellent mobile application, with all the features you really need. And everything is available in English. This makes it a perfect fit for most people. I think it is the best fit for my audience.

So today, I want to walk you through creating an account with Neon. I will go through all the steps of the account creation with screenshots and explanation. It is a straightforward process that should not take you more than 10 to 15 minutes.

After this, we are going to see the main features of the mobile application.

If you have questions about Neon, please let me know in the comments below. I will be glad to answer all I can!

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How to Calculate Your Net Worth Easily

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 10, 2019September 10, 201910 Comments

Your Net Worth is a very important personal finance metric! This will tell you how much money your assets are really worth. It can also tell you how close you are to being Financially Independent. This is one of the best personal finance metrics that you should always keep track of.

Computing your net worth is not very difficult. However, there are some subtleties when doing. And it is important to get it right.

In this post, we are going to see how to calculate your net worth. It will tell you how much your possessions are really worth, in money. Having a clear idea of your exact net worth is very important. It will help you to see how far you are from reaching your goals. If you keep track of it, you will also see how well you are doing.

So, let’s get into it!

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One Hour Investor Book Review – Learn investing in one hour

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 5, 2019August 30, 20198 Comments

I just finished reading One Hour Investor, a book by Vishal Reddy. This book is an investing guide for beginners. The idea is that you can learn all the basics of investing in about one hour through the book.

The book is really fast to read and keep its promise of one hour guide, at least if you are a quick reader.

The book contains a lot of useful information about the basics of investing. Stocks and bonds are covered in details. The book even goes over the various strategies used for picking stocks.

Then, the book goes more into mutual funds and ETFs. It is explained why most people should favor them instead of picking individual stocks. Various investing strategies are also covered. And finally, it goes on into how to optimize investment taxes.

Stay tuned if you want to know if you can learn to invest in about one hour.

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August 2019 – Another expensive month

Mr. The Poor SwissSeptember 3, 2019August 31, 20196 Comments

August 2019 was a good month for us. We had several parties with friends and families. And we celebrated August 1st, Switzerland national day. And I got promoted at work! So, pretty good month overall!

However, we spent too much once again in August 2019. I did not account correctly for several dentist bills. It should be exceptional bills that we will not have in other months. But we should still account better for them.

However, we still saved a significant portion of our income this month. And our net worth increased significantly. So, it is pretty good all together!

In this post, I will go over what happened to us during August 2019.

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9 Things that are Terribly Wrong With FIRE

Mr. The Poor SwissAugust 30, 2019September 8, 201920 Comments

The Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) movement is an excellent thing. It is all about getting financially free from the job. That means you can start a new career or even retire without having money issues. Most people are going to like this!

However, it is not perfect, and by far. A lot of people following the FIRE philosophy are quite depressed. And even some early retirees are feeling depressed even though they reached their goal of becoming Financial Independent.

You should not believe that becoming Financially Independent will solve all your problems! Because it will not! It is not a cure for all your problems. A lot of your issues will carry over to your retirement. It is essential to fix your issues during the FIRE journey and not wait for FI to fix everything for you!

If you already do not know what to do with your weekends, you will be even more bored once you retire! And if you are not careful, you may well run out of money before you think!

Without further ado, let us see what is wrong with the FIRE movement and community!

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You do not need to pay for a budgeting app!

Mr. The Poor SwissAugust 28, 2019August 24, 20194 Comments

I strongly feel that most people need a budget. And everybody should track their expenses. However, I really feel that there is no need to pay for a budgeting app at all!

You should not spend money on your budget to save money on your budget!

Nevertheless, there are still many people that pay for their budgeting application. And I think for the immense majority of them, there is really no need for their fancy application.

I do not think you will recoup any of the costs. And I actually think that most of the features are useless if not harmful.

Let’s get into why you should not pay for a budgeting app.

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All you need to know about the Trinity Study

Mr. The Poor SwissAugust 26, 2019August 31, 20198 Comments

You probably have heard of the 4% rule if you are interested in Financial Independence. But do you know where it comes from? If you have read a lot about it, you probably heard about the Trinity Study. It is where it all started.

But do you know what the Trinity Study is? Probably not. A lot of things said about the Trinity Study are not correct. I am feeling like a lot of people talking about this study have not even read the original paper.

There is nothing mystical about this study. It is merely a research paper by three professors of The Trinity University. Hence the name.

And do you know that it has nothing to do with early retirement? So, why is it the cornerstone of most Early Retirement articles?

Today, I want to go into details about this paper and what it exactly is! We are going to see what is inside the Trinity Study. And also what this data is showing us. And finally, we are going to see what people get wrong when they talk about the study.

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