Mr. The Poor Swiss

Should You Contribute to Your Second Pillar in 2021?

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting, Financial Independence, Retirement, Switzerland

In Switzerland, you can make a voluntary contribution to your second pillar. These contributions come with some tax advantages since you can deduct that from your income. Therefore, you have a return equal to your marginal tax rate. And this return is almost instant.

However, the money is then blocked into the second pillar. And the returns on that blocked money have been very low in recent years. Finally, you can only withdraw the money from your second pillar if you retire, buy a house, or start a company.

Many people ask whether they should contribute money to their second pillar or continue investing in stocks.

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What is the best third pillar in Switzerland for 2021?

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting, Retirement

In Switzerland, contributing to your third pillar is one of the best ways to save on taxes. I recommend everybody to contribute to their third pillar.

But contributing to your third pillar is not enough. You should invest the money in your third pillar. That means you have to pick the best third pillar for your money. Since there are many options, it may be difficult to choose the best third pillar for your needs.

So, this article is here to help you! We will see how to choose the best third pillar!

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VIAC Review 2021 – Excellent third pillar in Switzerland

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting, Retirement, Switzerland

There are many third pillar providers in Switzerland. Some of them are good, but most of them are too expensive. You do not want to waste your retirement bank on fees. Therefore, you need to choose the best third pillar provider.

In 2018, VIAC started on the market of third pillars. VIAC is the first mobile third pillar. And they are really interesting! VIAC has very low fees and lets you invest up to 97% exposure in stocks. It is significantly better than what I have found before in other third-pillar providers.

In this post, I am going to do an in-depth review of VIAC! Among other things, we will look at the investing strategies and the fees of this service.

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How to file your taxes with Swiss and foreign securities

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

One question I get often is how to file taxes with stocks and dividends. And this especially gets popular when we add foreign stocks and foreign dividends into the mix.

Many people are afraid of investing because they think it will make it complicated to file your taxes. But in practice, it is not complicated to file your taxes even with a large ETF portfolio.

In this article, we will see how to file your taxes with Swiss Stocks and dividends, which is very simple. And with U.S. Stocks and dividends, which is slightly more complicated.

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February 2021 – More and more taxes

By Mr. The Poor SwissMonthly

Overall, February 2021 was not very eventful. We had some dinners with friends in small groups. Other than that, we did some walks around the wife and me. But nothing special.

Financially, we had to pay some extra taxes related to the withdrawal of our pension money for the house. And we had a few extra other large expenses this month.

In this article, you will find all that happened to us and our money in February 2021.

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How Much We Spent in 2020 – Full Expense Report

By Mr. The Poor SwissSave

I keep track of all my expenses. And monthly, I publish my expenses on this blog. But once a year, I also a full analysis of my expenses for the past year. It helps me put things in perspective. And it also gives me an idea of where my expenses are going for an entire year.

For me, it is an essential part of the way I am managing my money. I do not really budget, but I track all our expenses. And seeing expenses summed for an entire year help us realize how much we spend in some categories.

So, let’s see the expenses of The Poor Swiss family for 2020.

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Emergency Fund – Do you Really Need One in 2021?

By Mr. The Poor SwissFinancial Independence, Save

If you are interested in personal finance, you probably have come across the concept of emergency funds. An emergency fund is simply some money available directly that you can use for emergencies. Most people will advise you to get such an account. And they will insist heavily on this subject.

It is an interesting subject since not everybody agrees on the importance of the emergency fund. Some people have an emergency fund that can cover one year of expenses. And some people think you do not need one.

An emergency fund is a good thing. But you should be aware of its cost. It also has disadvantages. And you may not need an emergency fund as big as some people tell you. Too many people put too much emphasis on their emergency funds.

In this article, we are going to see both sides of the story. We are going to see in detail what an emergency fund is and whether you should have one or not.

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What makes U.S. ETFs so great?

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

I mostly invest in U.S. ETFs, and I have recommended these ETFs many times on this blog. I consider U.S. ETFs to be the best available ETFs. I have talked a few times about what makes them great in various articles. But since I still get many questions, I will now go into all the details of these U.S. ETFs.

I will not talk about Exchanged Traded Funds (ETFs) that invest in the United States. I am going to talk specifically about ETFs from the United States. What matters here is the domicile of the ETF. This is more important than many people realize.

So, let’s see what makes these U.S. ETFs great.

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How to manage your finances as a couple?

By Mr. The Poor SwissFinancial Independence

Today’s post is a guest post by Yasi Zhang from Fast Track, talking about the very important subject of how to manage your finances as a couple. I am very happy to have her as a guest writer today.

Money is a topic most people avoid talking about, so do newlywed couples. It is awkward to discuss money with your partner, but it is an essential exercise to do together as a couple because you are building a financial future together!

Some people have asked me about how to manage finances as a couple, and I find it might be a common struggle for many if you avoid talking about it with your partner.

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Selma Finance Review 2021 – Pros & Cons

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

Selma Finance is a Swiss Robo-Advisor with a different approach than other Robo-Advisors. Indeed, they offer you your own virtual personal assistant.

This assistant will guide you through investing. And through your chat with the assistant, the system will design a personalized portfolio. They are extremely interesting for beginner investors or investors not wanting to spend too much time learning the ins and outs of investing.

It sounds quite interesting. But how does it fare in practice?

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