Meaning Nr. 3: Make financial progress in Switzerland

Passive Income in Switzerland

Financial Independence in Switzerland

Minimalism/Frugalism in Switzerland

I've always been very careful with my money and have always been looking for ways to save up more money. It hasn't always been easy but it does pay off. The only financial goal that I have left is to reach FIRE (Financial independence and early retirement). I'm only 30 years old so I have plenty time left to reach that goal.

Enough about me. I would like to share some money saving and passive income techniques which work very well in switzerland.

1. Don't ever buy drinks that will cost you more than 1.50 CHF and limit the amount of such spending. Some people spend 10 CHF on drinks every. single. day. That's 3650 CHF a year, when you could easily make coffee or drinks at home instead.

2. Compare your insurance on Comparis and switch to a cheaper insurance. This saves me 250 CHF every month. That's another 3000 CHF a year.

3. Invest in alternative Goods (Whiskey Casks, Luxury Watches, Wine, Art) by downloading the Splint Invest app. You will get 50 CHF if you use this link

4. Avoid any service with monthly subscription costs. 

• Spotify is 12 CHF/m
• Netflix is 12 CHF/m
• You could use wilmaa, zattoo or a Mediothek-subscription instead
• TV Subscription is 30 CHF/m
• You could use wilmaa, zattoo or a Mediothek-subscription instead
• Internet Subscription is 40 CHF/m
• Compare the providers and choose the cheapest one. Make sure to call and complain about the high costs (every year) and they will usually give you a reduction for (another) year.
• From what I found, currently the best deal would be Teleking - I currently have a subscription with them for 37 CHF for 50 Mbit/s and I am very happy with them!
• Library/Mediothek Subscription is about 5 CHF/m
• The SBB Halbtax ticket is 14 CHF/m
• Cut this in half if you're under thirty and have a sunrise subscription. More info here
• owning a car license plate is another 20 CHF/m and renting a parking space in a garage could cost 150 CHF/m among other various car related costs
• Consider using a normal Parking space for 50 CHF/m or go car-free instead
• A Cell Phone service can cost 50 CHF/m for some people
• Go for the cheapest one you can find - sunrise and salt work just fine

I'm not saying one should avoid all of these costs - I say pick your poison. All of these subscriptions would cost an individual 333 CHF/m which adds up to 4000 CHF a year. Compared to this example, I currently save 2800 CHF a year (with the subscriptions to Internet, Car & Parking spot, Cell phone) in comparison to the example. I will get into details later on how this is possible.

5. If you drink a lot of coffee, throw out that capsule machine of yours and get yourself a portafilter machine. Since you can get coffee beans for ca. 7 CHF/kg and a kilo will provide roughly 60 coffees. This is less than 0.12 CHF for a coffee. At two coffees a day, you will break even in less than a year (if you used to drink the more expensive brands). This one is not a big saver - do it for the environment. Depending on the frequency and other factors you can save 100-600 CHF a year.

6. Do not invest more than a third of your fiat/real money. Keep the other two thirds safely in the bank, where it belongs. This is important - unexpected things happen and you do not want lose your happiness over money or not be liquid enough to pay important unexpectedly arisen costs. 

This will save you about 2 headaches a year.

7. Invest in crowdfunded credits (if you're financially stable). I am using https://crowd4cash.ch which will give you 4.50% - 9.80% interest. Minimum investment is 500 CHF. By Investing just half of what you safe every year, using the techniques above, you will make an additional 300 CHF a year using the safer types of credit (ca. 6% interest). That's some nice passive income right there.

8. If you're a hardcore-saver, cancel your credit card. A credit card usually costs 50-80 CHF a year. You can use alternatives such as Revolut or Twint. If you want, you can go ahead and also cancel your Maestro-Card/EC-Card. You can instead go to the bank-counter directly and get enough physical money to get through a month or so. Be sure to have an emergency depot. In total this will only safe you about 100 CHF a year.

9. If you want to safe money and but still eat out nice, judging people. There's a website that will pay you back 50% or 75% of consumptions in certain restaurants if you answer a few questions about the experience afterwords. It's called Testando. If you usually eat out once a month with your significant other, you could safe about 300 CHF a year but you will have to invest some time.

10. Make sure to get a cheap living situation going. There are many routes to go but I would say buying an apartment is the best option for convenience and saving money. If you choose wisely, you may save 1200 CHF every month. That's 14'400 CHF a year. I know that it takes a while to save enough money to buy a home. Meanwhile you could invest into a crowdfunded house or flat using Crowdhouse(6.6%) or Crowdli(5-7%)until you have enough quiche to buy an apartment alone. This could make you about 300 CHF a year if you invest 5000 CHF.

11. When travelling, compare flight and Hotel prices on Kayak. I also found Hostelz to work very well for finding a cheap hostel. Hard to put a price tag on this one considering everyone has a different travelling style. But I would guesstimate an average saving potential of 600 CHF a year.

12. You can invest in ETFs which is one of the more secure investmentforms on Selma. They will manage and invest the money for you and usually you get pretty good long term returns. You can invest 5000 CHF for free for a year by using this link: Selma Afterwards the cost will be around 3-5 CHF each month depending on how much your investment is. If you would rather invest in ETFs or Shares yourself, it is pretty cheap to do that on Degiro

13. If you get handled in a bad way by big companies, make a post on https://www.beschwerdeleicht.ch/. It helped me countless times to get what I want or get money (back). In total, I would say I safed about 500 CHF by using this service and its almost no effort.

Disclaimer: I don't take responsibility for any financial losses caused by my blog. This is just a consolidation of ideas and tips. I am not a financial advisor nor professional.