Author: Mr. The Poor Swiss

Mr. The Poor Swiss is the author behind thepoorswiss.com. In 2017, he realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut on his expenses and increase his income. This blog is relating his story and findings. In 2019, he is saving more than 50% of his income. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence. You can send Mr. The Poor Swiss a message here.

How do stock options work?

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

A stock option is an advanced financial instrument. In essence, it is a contract that conveys a right to buy or sell at a specified price up to a specified date.

In my advanced investing series, I want to cover options as I think they are interesting. Now, I do not recommend investing in options, and I have never done it myself either. They are an advanced financial instrument that most people will never need.

Regardless, I believe it is interesting to learn about these advanced instruments. So, let’s delve into the world of options.

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How to Open an Interactive Brokers Account in 2021?

By Mr. The Poor SwissFinancial Independence, Investing

Interactive Brokers is an excellent broker from the United States. It is known for its cheap fees and its unique range of offered investment products. It is being used by many personal finance bloggers, for instance.

It is currently the best broker that allows access to U.S. ETFs. And U.S. ETFs are the most efficient ETFs for Swiss investors.

In this guide, I go over the details of how to open an Interactive Brokers account. It is not very difficult, but there are a few things you need to know before you start your application.

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True Wealth Review 2021 – Cheapest Robo-Advisor

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting, Switzerland

Robo-Advisors are a good way to invest when you do not want to invest directly through a broker. They will manage your money for a fee. While more expensive than DIY investing, Robo-Advisors are significantly cheaper than an advisor from a bank.

True Wealth is a leading Robo-Advisor in Switzerland. They are the first  Robo-Advisor, started already eight years ago. And they are also the cheapest available in Switzerland.

I have reviewed other Robo-Advisors in the past. Now is the time to review True Wealth. I will take a look in detail at their investment models, their fees, and their security.

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clevercircles Review 2021 – Pros & Cons

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

clevercircles is a new Robo-advisor in Switzerland that has been brought to my attention. They are adding a community feature to the Robo-advisory world. Some people have asked me whether they should use this Robo-advisor or not.

So, in this review, I will analyze clevercircles in detail to see how good they are really, how much fees we need to pay, and how they invest their money.

By the end of the review, you will know exactly whether you should invest with clevercircles or not.

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Should you use a cash cushion in retirement?

By Mr. The Poor SwissFinancial Independence

When you retire based on a safe withdrawal rate, you withdraw from your principal month after month. The main risk is that you run out of money before the end of your retirement.

The main case when that would happen is if you retire just before a major stock market crash. A bad sequence of returns is a big risk for your retirement. One way to reduce the risk is to reduce the safe withdrawal rate you are using. But that means you will need to accumulate significantly more money. And you may also end up with a lot of money left at the end of your retirement.

Another solution that many people wonder about is whether they should hold more cash to protect themselves against that risk. This is exactly what we are going to find out today!

I have simulated a few usages of so-called cash cushions in retirement. We will see whether that makes sense or not.

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July 2021 – New schedule for the blog

By Mr. The Poor SwissUpdates

Overall, July 2021 was a good month for us. We could see many friends and family members that we had not seen in a long time. The weather was not great, with many floods in Switzerland, but the weather did not impact us too much.

Financially, it was an awful month because of the taxes due from next year. Because of that, we were not able to save any money during the month. But we already knew it was going to happen. So, this is not too bad in the end.

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4 Ways to make money with your vehicle

By Mr. The Poor SwissEarn

Many people would like to get some extra income with a side hustle. One way to do this is to drive with your vehicle and deliver people or things to some destinations.

Many people have their own vehicle and do not mind driving it around. So a good way to make some extra money is to use your own vehicle to deliver people and things. And there are even ways to make money with your vehicle without driving it!

So, in this article, we will see a few ways to make money by driving your vehicle.

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Wise Review 2021 (formerly TransferWise)

By Mr. The Poor SwissSave

Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a British financial technology company. They provide many financial services, but they are especially known for their very affordable currency exchange services.

You can use Wise to send money to other people in many different currencies, with excellent prices. You can also use your Wise card to pay abroad at a low cost. But you can also use it as a bank account and hold many currencies in your account.

But how good is it really? Should you use Wise? Let’s find out the advantages and disadvantages of Wise.

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How to Choose an ETF or an Index Fund

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

If you have decided to invest in a precise stock market index, you must first choose the stock market index. And once you have selected an index to invest in, you will have to decide through which index fund you will invest in this index. For this, you can choose either a mutual fund or an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). For popular indexes, there will be a wide choice of index funds replicating the performance of this index.

Even if you only choose popular funds for a precise index, it will still be challenging to decide. As you will see in this article, there are many things you can take into account when you compare two index funds. The most important remains the price, as most people know. But there are other points you can use to compare two index funds. And some of these points are not obvious.

In this guide, we will see all the things you can look at when you need to choose an index fund, whether it is a mutual fund or an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).

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Selma vs True Wealth 2021 – Best Swiss Robo Advisor?

By Mr. The Poor SwissInvesting

Robo-Advisors are a great tool to invest their money without unreasonable fees for people who are unwilling to invest time in learning to invest themselves. But what Robo-Advisor should you choose?

Selma and True Wealth are two great Robo-Advisors, my two favorites. In this article, I will compare these two Robo-advisors in detail.

I compare Selma vs True Wealth on different factors. We will check their fees, their investment minimums, and their investing strategies.

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