Mr. The Poor Swiss

N26 is available in Switzerland – Save on Foreign Currency Fees

Mr. The Poor SwissBudget, Switzerland20 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 SwissInvesting2 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 SwissFinancial Independence, Investing10 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 SwissInvesting8 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 SwissMonthly6 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 SwissFinancial Independence22 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 SwissBudget4 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 SwissFinancial Independence, Investing8 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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Is Switzerland really So Expensive?

Mr. The Poor SwissFrugality, Switzerland8 Comments

People often cite Switzerland as the most expensive country in the world. Several of its cities, Zurich and Geneva, are also often named in the list of most expensive cities in the world.

Now, is it as expensive as people believe it is? Is everything more expensive or are just some items significantly more costly than others? And finally, are some things cheaper in Switzerland than in other countries?

In this post, I am going to answer these questions. We are going to discuss the price of several things in Switzerland. It should give us enough material to answer the question of whether Switzerland is really so expensive!

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9 Simple Tips to Find Cheap Kindle Ebooks in 2019

Mr. The Poor SwissFrugality, Budget15 Comments

I bought my Amazon Kindle more than six years ago. First, I purchased the original Kindle. A few years later, I bought the Kindle Paperwhite. I have been delighted with both. It is such a fantastic thing to travel with all my ebooks in my pocket and not have five or more heavy books in my luggage.

Over the years, I bought and read well over 120 books on my Kindle. At the time, I thought it was very cheap. And indeed, I was saving money compared to print books. I realize now that this may not have been the case.

For frugal people, there is one big issue with Kindle books: You cannot buy used books. In the last two years, I almost have not purchased any Kindle ebook. Instead, I bought many used books. There is a second-hand shop near my current job. I probably bought over 40 books during this time. I bought them for less than 2 CHF each on average. And I only bought books in an excellent state.

The problem is the room second-hand books take! My bookshelf is full, and books are piling up! I am going to build a new one. But after some time, the new one will be full too. The other problem is traveling. If I need several books, it is a pain to carry them.

So I only bought Kindle ebooks for traveling. But there are still so many advantages to my Kindle. Therefore, I have been looking for ways to find cheap Kindle books. Here are nine simple tricks to find cheap ebooks for Kindle.

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