June 2025 – E-Book is now available in French
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June 2025 was a decent month overall. There were some good things, but also bad things. The weather was nice, but already too hot (at least for me). We got time to meet our friends and family on multiple occasions.
Financially, it was a good month. We spent reasonable and managed to save about 47% of our income.
June 2025
June 2025 was an overall good month. The weather was pleasant, although very hot. It is becoming difficult to sleep now that the rooms are reaching high temperatures. On the other hand, we could enjoy the weather in the mountains and in the river. We also enjoyed our usual two-days family weekend with my siblings. Overall, we had a pleasant balance of time for us and time with others.
The big bummer this month was learning that our employer wanted us back to the office 2 days a week, after 5 years of remote work. For me, this is deplorable. Remote work makes me happier, and I had the pleasure of seeing my son grow every day.
This may not sound like much to many of you, but to me, this was a big hit. We have planned our life based on remote work. We do not even have two cars, so if I go to work on certain days, I have to take the bus so that my wife can drive my son to school. And the comfort of my home office is 10x the comfort of my employer’s office.
I do not plan to change employer for now, but this encourages me to accelerate my plan to financial independence. I do not see myself in an employer’s office for the next 30 years.
Financially, it was a good month. We are paying again cantonal and municipal taxes this month. We still have not received any federal taxes yet, nor any information about final 2024 taxes. But this will obviously come eventually (death and taxes…). Additionally, we received some dividends from our ETFs, as every June. So, overall, we could save 47% of our income this month, which is a good result.
Update on banks
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- Interbank exchange rate
As mentioned in our last monthly updated, we have reconsidered our strategy for banks. Since Neon was not free anymore for transactions in foreign currencies, we had decided to find an alternative.
To keep it simple, we have moved our main joint account back to Migros Bank. We already had this account since it was our primary bank account before Neon and kept it because of our mortgage. This will save us 72 CHF per year since we will not have to pay for the Neon Duo account.
To pay abroad, we will move to radicant. I think this bank deserves more of a chance. And since they offer the interbank exchange rate, we will save about 0.75% on each transaction in foreign currencies. This is also a good opportunity to try it out more.
Once the switch is done, I will update our articles to reflect all this.
Expenses
Here are the details of our expenses in June 2025:
| Category | Total | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurances | 831 | Expected | Health insurance for three |
| Transportation | 89 | Expected | Bus and parking |
| Personal | 1413 | Expected | Standard expenses, books, and a tooth decay repair |
| Food | 779 | Higher than expected | Usual groceries and a few eating out occasions |
| Housing | 850 | Expected | Mortgage, power and heating |
| Taxes | 5390 | Expected | Taxes at cantonal and municipal level |
In total, we spent 9355 CHF. Without taxes, this amounts to 3964 CHF, which is great because it is much lower than our monthly spending goal.
Our expenses are very standard this month and this is a good change of pace. One unexpected expense this month was a 400+ CHF bill for a tooth decay. Although it is expensive, it should not be recurrent.
Other than that, our expenses are rather uninteresting this month. Our food budget was slightly higher than expected. We had a few more occasions than usual of dining out, but nothing crazy either.
Starting from this month, we are not paying for kindergarten directly anymore. Instead, the company is paying it and we signed a convention for that.
Overall, I am pleased with these expenses. We managed to keep our expenses really low.
2025 Goals
Here is the status of our goals by the end of June 2025:
Overall, our goals are doing really well.
Our expenses are going down again, which is nice. And this is even the case if we add the kindergarten back into the amount (since it is not really saved, only moved).
Both our savings and income goals are doing well. But the best months are already behind us, so these two goals will go down over time.
So far, my health goals are doing really well, much better than last year. It will be very difficult to keep my health goals at this level in the future if I have to go back to the office. I currently work out every day of the week. But I have to go to the office, I lose too much time to be able to work out at home. So, two days in the office per week means a 40% reduction in workouts, which is bad for my goals and health. If necessary, I will go to the gym during my lunch breaks.
The same will be true with my walking goal, since we have no standing or walking desk at the office. Without an adequate solution, I can expect severe back pain again. So, I will have to find a way to improve that situation.
Both our power and water goals are doing well too. We have not done anything new in that regard, but we are keeping good habits and they seem to pay off.
So, overall, I am quite pleased with our goals this month.
FI Ratio
Here is the progress of our FI ratio as of June 2025:
Our FI ratio increased relatively well during the month. However, it was not that much driven by the stock market. Indeed, it was mostly driven by our reduced expenses and by our savings.
The stock market did really well during the month. However, the USD did not do as well and canceled some of our results. Fortunately, we could save money this month and this increase our FI net worth as well.
Other than that, not much happened regarding our FI ratio this month. Our progress is steady and in the right direction for now.
The Blog – E-book in French and social networks
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This month, I took the time to translate the e-book to French. The e-book is now available in English and French, in PDF and epub. This was requested by many readers. If there is enough demand, I will also translate it into German, but this may be expensive since I cannot do it entirely myself (my German is simply not good enough to be certain).
In June 2025, we also restarted using social networks for the blog. My wife is going to manage a Facebook page for the blog. And I will maintain a LinkedIn page for the company. We may introduce more in the next month as well. And my wife will manage all the networks eventually.
For some reason, I felt that the engagement on the blog was quite low this month. I received fewer emails, comments, and posts on the forum than usual. I do not keep track of these metrics on a monthly basis, so this may be only a feeling. We will see whether this continues the next month or not.
Other than that, I also strengthened some email automations. But there was nothing major happening on the blog.
Next month, I do not plan anything special on the blog. I plan to focus on writing and on the standard day-to-day tasks. If I have more time than planned, I may start a new project, but I do not know which one at this point.
Next Month – July 2025
In July 2025, there may be a big change coming, but we are waiting to be certain. Other than that change, we do not expect anything. My wife may start a German course, which will impact our schedule significantly for a few months, but we will only know late whether that happens.
Financially, we will be back to paying all three levels of taxes next month. So, our savings should fall back to something like 40% at most. But this is expected with the tax system. If we receive our final tax summary, we may get some money back, but this may take a while to happen.
What about you? How was June 2025?
More reading
January 2021 – Starting the new year in force
In January 2021, we managed to save 62% of our income and enjoyed living in our new house! Find out all the details!
July 2023 – Holidays
In July 2023, we had a nice time in Greece. Other than that, not much happened during the month and managed to save about a third of our income.
September 2020 – More furniture!
In September, we did not save as much as usual because we bought more furniture for the new house.
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Hi Baptiste,
Thanks for the update, 2 days at office is not hell on earth, but there are better places to be :)
Let me guess, you finally found your dream home … congrats if it‘s the case.
Have a nice day,
Isa
Hi Isa
It’s not hell on earth, but for me, it’s close!
Good guess, Isa! But we haven’t signed anything, so I am waiting until next monthly update to talk about it.
Going back to the office sucks. If it‘s impacting both of you at the same time, do you work for the same employer?
As for health: you can try incorporating the walking into your commute, like get put one or two bus/tram stations early and walk the rest.
I am always amazed how little you spend on food for the three of you. My partner and me spend about twice that and really don‘t like limiting ourselves there.
You spend almost 5400 in taxes in ONE MONTH? What the heck is your total bill?
Hi Barbara
No, we do not work for the same employer, this will only impact me.
Good idea. I am thinking about integrating some walk into my commute or lunch. And I am going to try to bring my walking pad to the office if possible.
Our food budget is something we manage well. We do not limit ourselves either, but we rarely eat out of the house and cook everything.
Last year, we paid about 75K of taxes, but this also included some taxes due from 2023 (advance payments were not enough). We expect this to be lower this year.
Love your blog, Baptiste. Wish it had been around when I was a lot younger-I would be a lot wealthier now!
Yes a bummer to be back in the office for 2 days a week after all your careful planning.
Thank you for the Radicant and Neon reviews and comments. I am investigating Radicant or Neon to replace BCV, since they have e bill, which is lacking in Revolut.
Sustainable investing does not offer good returns, yet and many of the principles are debatable, greenwashing abounds.
Using the internet, cloud, and AI, means more data centers. Data centers are massive consumers of electrical energy. I don’t know how much energy we save by taking the train and sorting our rubbish, but data centers (and of course bitcoin mining and AI) are massive energy sinks.
It also discriminates against people who cannot use internet banking, and cuts another social connection, that of the local bank. So many things to consider, and all I want is max return on my investment in my underfunded retirement.
Thanks again!
Hi Jane
We all wish we could learned earlier about money, me included, but better late than never.
Thanks for your kind words.
It’s entirely true that people that don’t (or can’t) use internet banking are at a disadvantage since these services are usually the best.
Hey Baptiste,
I’m also still waiting for my 2024 tax bill. It’s probably going to be much higher than the prepayments, since I had quite a few extra earnings. I actually stopped investing for now just to prepare for the big invoice coming that you have to pay in one shot. Haha
About Neon, don’t you think it might be a bit early to switch already? What if Radicant ends up announcing a similar change in a few months?
Hi Romain
I hope the tax bill won’t be too bad for you! It makes sense to prepare some cash for it.
It may be too early indeed. Now that the SNB is back to 0%, we may see some fees come back up. But I don’t expect that to happen until we see negative rates again. But I can totally be wrong.