Author: Baptiste Wicht

Baptiste Wicht 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.

Can you retire with cash instead of bonds?

By Baptiste WichtRetirement, Investing

This last decade, bonds have performed poorly, especially in Europe. So, many people wonder why they should have bonds in their portfolios.

I have never owned bonds. But I still like the idea of having safe assets in my portfolio. But bonds being what they are, what do we have left? Cash is still a safe asset, even safer than bonds. However, the returns are pretty bad.

Can you retire with a portfolio of stocks and cash? Let’s find out! In this article, I redo the results of the Trinity Study, using cash instead of bonds. The results are pretty surprising!

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Spending less will not make you rich

By Baptiste WichtSwitzerland

I want to touch on an important subject today, something called the biggest lie of personal finance. You will often read success stories from people getting rich by tracking their expenses and having a budget or doing some simple things.

However, these stories often miss some critical context. In practice, you will not get rich simply by spending less. You may save more money, but this is quickly limited, especially in such an expensive country as Switzerland.

So, I want to discuss the problems with this biggest lie in personal finance.

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IBKR Global Trader Review – Simple stock trading

By Baptiste WichtInvesting

Many people believe that Interactive Brokers is too complicated for them to trade. So, they choose an inferior platform instead.

Well, Interactive Brokers is not that complicated, and it just became even simpler! Interactive Brokers recently introduced a new mobile app, IBKR Global Trader.

Interactive Brokers designed the IBKR Global Trader to make trading simpler than ever and reduce friction. So, in this review, we see what this new app is about and whether it holds its promises.

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August 2022 Update – An expensive month

By Baptiste WichtUpdates

August 2022 was a good month with many events for us. We also had many things to organize and take care of. While good, it was a tiring month.

Financially, it was significantly more expensive than usual because of one considerable expense. But we still managed to save about a third of our income, which is excellent.

So, let’s delve into the details of what happened in August 2022.

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How do commission-free brokers make money?

By Baptiste WichtInvesting

These last few years, we have seen more and more commission-free brokers pop up. At first sight, they look great. Who would not want to pay fewer transaction fees?

But usually, if something is too good to be true, that is because it is! How do these commission-free brokers make money if they do not charge anything?

We discuss that exact question in this article! By the end of this article, you will know how these brokers make money and whether that is good for you or not!

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How much of a raise can you spend?

By Baptiste WichtEarn, Save

We all like getting raises at work! It always feels great to know your work is recognized, and you will get paid more.

But is a raise that important for your financial independence? And how much of a raise can you afford to spend?

In this article, I answer these questions through several examples. At the end of the article, you will know exactly how much of a save you should save!

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Migros Cumulus Visa Credit Card Review 2022

By Baptiste WichtSave, Switzerland

After stopping its partnership with Cembra, Migros Bank introduced its new credit card: The Cumulus Visa credit card.

Since the Cumulus Mastercard from Cembra was one of the best credit cards available, we need to look at this new Cumulus Visa credit card.

By the end of this review, you will know whether you should use this new Cumulus Visa credit card by Migros Bank.

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July 2022 -Another hot month

By Baptiste WichtUpdates

July 2022 was a pretty standard month for us, at least on the financial side. It was once again a scorching month, too hot for me.

But we still managed to see friends and family and have an excellent time. Financially, we are back to a standard month and saved about 50% of our income.

So, let’s see in detail what happened to us during the hot month of July 2022.

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I use budgetwarrior for my budget and net worth

By Baptiste WichtSave

I have talked a lot about budget and net worth on this blog. Now, it is time to talk about which budget application I am using to track my budget and net worth.

I am using a simple tool for doing these two tasks. I also use the tool to generate the graphs in my monthly reports.

While many people in the personal finance community use Personal Capital, Mint, or Quicken, I use a little-known tool called budgetwarrior. I wrote this application myself.

This article presents this tool and how I use it to track my finances.

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