About The Poor Swiss

My Financial Journey (Why I Started The Poor Swiss)

I started The Poor Swiss blog in October 2017. Before I started my blog, I barely saved 10% of my income on average and I decided to improve my dwindling finances. I was earning a decent salary but was not saving much money. Therefore, I decided to fix my budget, and I started reading many personal finance blogs. I then discovered the Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) philosophy. I decided I wanted to get financially independent. So I started investing and saving more and more of my income.

In 2021, I saved about 50% of my entire income! Every month, we work on improving our expenses to increase our savings rate. In 2020, we bought a house. We were able to save for the downpayment in only two years. In 2021, we welcomed our son into our family. We are now working towards financial independence in Switzerland.

My goal is to become financially independent. I do not have a set year in mind. But I would like to be financially independent before the age of 50. Ideally, I would like to become financially independent before. I do not know yet if I will retire directly since I currently like my job. But there are many reasons why being Financially Independent is highly desirable.

Every month, I will publish an update on how I am financially. You can also follow my important numbers, such as my net worth and my savings rate, in our monthly updates. As I learn new things related to investing and personal finance, I will also try to share my findings with you!

Since learning all of this was not easy, I decided to share all I learned through the blog. This blog is about helping you reach Financial Independence and learn about Personal Finance in Switzerland.

How the Poor Swiss blog can help you

The goal of the blog is to help Swiss residents to spend less, earn more, save more and invest their money to improve their finances. We write articles about many subjects:

• Financial Independence in Switzerland
• Frugal living in Switzerland
• Investing in Switzerland
• Earning more or starting a business
• And many more subjects

I am still learning new things about finance, investing, and Switzerland every single week. And I will share with you what I learned to make it easier.

What makes this blog different?

Several things may make this blog from all the other personal finance blogs.

1. A basic situation I am not a millionaire who retired in 5 years with an extra high income. I am not very successful in finance or investing, for that matter.
2. A different perspective I am among the few Swiss (and European) Personal Finance Bloggers. So I may have a different perspective than most.
3. Follow the full journey This blog started from the early beginning of my finance path. This blog started a few months after I finished my Ph.D., so just before the real work begins.
4. Transparency I share as many details as possible regarding my finances. You should be able to see the full story here! If you feel something is missing, please let me know!

I hope these traits will help make my blog interesting for my readers!

Why can you trust me?

Since I started this journey, I have:

• Saved for the down payment on a house in less than two years
• Increased our savings from less than 10% to more than 50%
• Invested heavily in ETFs through multiple brokers
• Created an LLC for the blog

I have also been featured in multiple Swiss media such as La Liberté and Bilan. And I have also appeared on multiple podcasts, such as Rigby, Fast Track Life and How It Ticks.

Or, if you prefer numbers, this blog is currently visited more than 100’000 times a month. And more than 10’000 people are subscribed to my newsletter.

Get started: Best resources for you

If you are just getting started in the personal finance world, I have a guide for new readers. This article will guide through the different categories of the blog and its best articles.

If you are curious about the services and tools I use for my finances, you can take a look at Our Toolbox. This page contains information about all the services I use and recommend.

If you need help with a specific problem, I have many tools that can help you:

• Comparison tools of financial services. These comparison tools will help find the best broker for your needs, for instance, but also the best bank or best third pillar accounts.
• Calculators for your money. If you want to find out how many years you need to work until retirement, our calculators will help you find out directly.

Join the community

If you would like to join our community, please join our newsletter. I share all my articles and financial tips in this newsletter.

If you prefer, you can also join us on The Poor Swiss Forums. In these forums, you can discuss many finance-related subjects or just chat with like-minded individuals.

Contact me

If you would to contact me, you can use this contact form to email me. I try to answer every email I get in a timely manner.

And you can always ask questions in the comments section of each article on this blog.

Why the “The Poor Swiss”?

Come on, everybody knows all people are rich in Switzerland…

Not really! If you look at net worth per capita, and income per capita, Switzerland is always in the TOP 10. However, we are also in the TOP 10 of the most expensive countries in the world. And Zurich is considered the most expensive city in the world. Switzerland is also one of the countries where it is the most difficult to own your house. It is also a country where many people do not get medical treatment because they cannot afford it.

The main problem is that there is a huge number of wealthy people in Switzerland because taxes are very affordable in Switzerland. This completely skews the averages. Do not get me wrong. I love this country! However, compared to the image that most people have of Swiss people, I am a poor Swiss.

And strangely, Swiss people are not educated in Personal Finance. Most people do not talk about their finances. And many people significantly overspend. For instance, too many people take their cars in leasing. Finally, young people do not care enough about their financial future. Hopefully, this blog will improve the state of Personal Finance in Switzerland.

How to support the blog?

All the articles from the blog are free and will remain free forever. But, many people still ask me how to support the blog. There are several ways to do that:

• Spread the word about the blog.
• Use my affiliate links and codes.
• Buy me a coffee (5 CHF)
• Buy me a kilo of coffee beans (50 CHF)

Transparency and accountability

To make us accountable, we are trying to share as much as possible regarding our finances!

If you are interested, you can find out more about us:

• Our Savings Rate
• Our Portfolio
• Our Goals

These pages should contain all the information you need! You can follow the full story month after month.

Disclosure

I am not a financial advisor and not an expert in investing. What I share here is my experience, not financial advice. This website is for entertainment purposes only. What I share on this is not to be taken as financial advice. I am not responsible or reliable for any money loss or suffering one would face after reading this blog.

Read my full disclosure for more information.