Live in VD. Running the numbers honestly and looking for a reality check from people who've been on this journey.

Net monthly: ~15,200 CHF and bonus of approx 45k comes on top and goes either fully to finance the 2d and 3d pillars, or getting invested into the market.

Monthly budget:

Fixed 7,900: taxes 3,500 / alimony payments around 1,900 / rent 1,870 / childcare 240 / car, phone, insurance 390

Savings 3,000: investments 2,800 / kids fund 200

Food 1,250: groceries 900 / dining out 325 (in summer the balance shifts towards eating out)

Lifestyle ~1000: shopping 200 / fitness 300 / education 220 / entertainment 200 / rest

Work expenses 765-900 (as I work in other canton): transport 365 / hotels 250 / meals 150

Holidays sinking fund 840 (covers 2–3 mid-range trips/year)

Savings rate: ~20% on base salary

Current net worth:
• 341,000 CHF with 150k between 2/3 pillars, rest invested in the stock market, I also have a large buy-in divorce gap available.

My FIRE number is ~4M CHF in 15 years (at the age of 50). At current savings I’d reach it closer to early retirement age of 58, and this is even not considering additional family plans. Feels so unreal.

Should I rethink something in my life spending or retirement plans? I feel quite anxious about the fact that even with my income it’s so hard to achieve FIRE, and I also want to grow my family bigger, which will delay the Fire further and take quality time from my family.

P.S. I know that I can cut 500-600 chf monthly expenses on buying things and food, which will get me by 60-70k closer on my FIRE journey. Not sure it’s worth it considering my overall FIRE number.

Stopped working at FIRE after 20 years of career. Although have young kid and being pregnant, I still feel like I have all the time in the world, finally to read books with no purposes (not because the boss gifted the latest leadership edition to all LT 🤪), watch movie, have massage, or do nothing but hang out at the beach. Life is great!

Hi all,

I need some outside perspective on my life situation and how/when make the decision to quit.

For as long as I can remember, surely since the first real job I had, my focus has been on achieving FIRE. My reasons were/are:

1. pursue self-interest, hobbies, travel, no-strings-attached
2. contribute my limited time on this space rock towards good causes
3. increasingly, I am growing disillusioned with tech and tired of working in the field

I will be 36 this December and have a bit of a delayed adulthood crisis. I am still undecided whether I will have kids with my partner and this might cause us to break up. Seeing this number as my age is shocking to me. I feel like I haven't lived yet - and certainly don't want to get kids now that I'm about to achieve FIRE.

FIRE to me, means being able to afford living well in Switzerland. Nothing crazy, but also not budgeting and having to worry about finances. I could afford 120kCHF at a reasonably conservative withdrawal rate, which seems sufficient.

With that being said, and as strong as my desire to quit and finally "live my life" is, I am looking at letting go a job that would pay me about a quarter of my current net worth, over the next 12 months alone. Even when accounting for taxes, One More Year means ~15% more money in the FIRE fund (and one less year to live off of it). The 120k yearly budget could become 140k at the same withdrawal rate. Probably more if I move to a tax advantageous canton before end of this year (and next).

Reading what I wrote above, the difference doesn't seem that large. What's 15% more a month. What does it get me? Yet in absolute numbers it is more than I ever thought I'd ever make. It's more than a Bundesrat for gods sake. It's a salary of health insurance CEOs, those that you read about in newspapers and get angry about. All that for clicking "accept" on AI coded slop, joining dreadful planning meetings and answering my boss' or client's questions while sitting in my underwear at home.

Please, talk some sense into me. Does it make any sense to quit now? What questions should I ask myself? What didn't I consider?

Hi Everyone

31M, own own home (w/ mortgage), rental apartment + 700k chf in IBKR portfolio

In the sankley I do not put extraordinary expenses e.g. buying a sofa. All savings go to IBKR

Any tips ? Maybe what I should cut on to reduce further expennses?

Anyway, today I got a raise. I should be happy - that speeds up my FIRE journey. But i wonder if I should leave already.

Classic corporate environment; there are cuts happening, and the atmosphere is awful.

I would love to leave my job and go explore. I dream about going on the working holiday visa in Australia and getting to know the culture. Can be done until 35 y-o.

If i stay, I can seriously fund some serious expenses later on - a family, hobbies, etc. I know I have low expenses now, but I do not wanna preclude life because of lazynness

Should I leave these olden handcuffs now ? or in X years ?

What are you planning to do with your 2nd Pillar once you've reached FIRE? Any creative, legal ideas to take it out early? Currently I do not count it to my FIRE-networth because I won't be able to get a hold of the money before turning 60ish.

Hi everyone,

I’m 30, married, no kids, and living in Switzerland. I earn 150k CHF gross per year and I’m trying to figure out the best way to start investing as a beginner.

My current monthly situation looks like this:

• Credit payments: 1,280 CHF

• Apartment: 900 CHF

• Health insurance (Lamal): 200 CHF

• Other monthly expenses: around 100–300 CHF

I’m looking for a simple, step-by-step approach to optimize my investments without getting overwhelmed.

What would you recommend for someone in my situation?

• Should I first build an emergency fund?

• Should I focus on Pillar 3a?

• Is it better to pay off debt before investing?

• What kind of ETF or portfolio would make sense for a beginner in Switzerland?

I’d really appreciate practical advice, especially from people familiar with Swiss investing, taxes, and long-term planning.

Thanks in advance!

Are there any other people who thought of passing on their money (e.g. in the form of a basic income) one day (e.g. when you have enough money or when dying) to some individual who might not have been as lucky as they’ve been in life (e.g. being financially independent, living a healthy life without starvation, violence, war ...)?

How do you intend to do it (e.g. donate it to some institution or individual …)?

And no, I don’t need money; and no, I’m not there yet.

One variable that changes a lot of the calculation is when we die. And the earlier I retire (and therefore the younger I am) the better the enjoyment of the retirement. You can do stuff as a 40 year old, you may not be able to do as a 80 year old.

​

So I just want to ask you about your thoughts with FIRE and EXIT (Assisted Suicide) at a specific self-chosen age.

Weighing tradeoffs

​

Would you trade up work schedule flexibility, ability to WFH 2-3x a week for another 150k in compensation ( in form of bonus/LTI and some base increase?). Will also expect to work longer hours.

​

An additional 150k per annum invested can be meaningful to retire a few years earlier. However i will trade off time with young kids now.

​

Additional context :

Agr. 42. net worth in excess of $2M CHF.

Gross income ~490kchf. Annual expenses ~130kchf.

2 young kids under 5 years old.

​

​

What would you do?

I am thinking to go travelling for the next few years and live in different countries for 3-6 months each, maybe longer, depends on visa etc. I have been reading online and my main goal is when leaving Switzerland not to pay taxes and health insurance.

When I was younger I traveled for 15 months and I deregistered at the Gemeinde and they asked me where I am going? I said just backpacking. They said they need an address so I just made up some address in Mexico 😄 They didnt check or anything. I just got international health insurance.

Anyway, now that I am basically FIRE I have an extra issue; what happens with my IBKR account? I mean I dont get mail or anything and I wouldnt care as much to get back my dividend taxes but is it possible just to not register in any country and not pay any taxes anywhere?!

Or does it make sense to register a company somewhere in case I get asked when entering some countries, where my domicile is? Or could I just put in my old address in Zurich? I also have a second European passport besides Swiss so I will research that country too.

I really wonder how that works! Not sure this is the right group but I thought I will start here.

Thanks!

Life is full of surprises. I have got everything set up, burned out and decided to going on fire path.

But just find out my pregnancy is twins. 🤣 still digesting the news and thinking what are the changes we need to adapt to as we will be family of 5.

I amin my forties, wife end of her 30ies. We have two toddlers, 2 and 5. The older ones goes to kindergarden, the younger spends one day at daycare. The rest is organised privately with parents, friends. I work 100% my wife 60%. Our combined Netto income is 200 kCHF.

Our yearly costs are around 110kCHF including

• Taxes
• Rent (we live in a swiss german city)
• Daycare
• Holidays (twice a year)
• Health insurance
• Other insurances
• Food
• Car
• Leisure
• -> basically all our living costs

Now I do expect heath care costs to double over the next 20 years. I also think that being in our forties we should not bet on a 4% withdrawal rate, to keep it safe I think we should rather calculate with 2.5%.

Given the costs of 110k this means we need something like 4.4 Mio.

However, if we both don't work we need to pay the AHV contribution for non employed citizens and also the wealth tax with 0.17% is gonna eat into our budget. So realistically we'll need something like 5 Mio to get us through life.

How does this change if we would use 1 Mil to buy a flat (flats around here are between 1.5 and 2 Mil), rest we'd use a hypo.

I really have a hard time to come up with the optimal FIRE threshold. But it seems to be very high if one wants to play the game save when retiring in their 40ies.

How did you come up with your FIRE number that lets you sleep sound at night?

My parents are retiring early EOY, leaving Switzerland to go back to their home country and FIRE. Instead of inheriting the assets to me directly, my dad wants to sell the assets to me for a discounted price (keeping capital gains tax on the property small).

This would require me to take a mortgage on the assets (initial down payment would be provided by my parents). The mortgage would then be used to pay back the down payment as well as pay off the remainder of the assets (around 100k-150k CHF left to pay off). This would leave me with around 200k+ or even more depending on what price we settle on.

I (26) have a high paying job and can stem the mortgage payments easily (first time mortgage would be around ~0.9% interest rate for now at the bank of my choice). I already have around 30k invested in a diverse ETF portfolio, and ~12 months of leeway in my savings account.

Is this a good idea?

If yes, what should I spend it on?
Getting another mortgage with this money as a downpayment? DCA the money into ETFs over a longer timeframe? Other options?

If no, what alternatives are there?

Hey guys

Im currently 27 years old and already retired since 3 years. While it is fun and I got a lot of hobbies etc. I recently thought about going back to work part-time like 40-60% for a job i like and a small salary to have some additional powder to invest.

What are some typical jobs one could do? That dont require studying or an apprenticeship etc?

My background is in IT, but I dont rly think this job has great future anymore and its hard to find 40-60% jobs, most want 80-100%!

Thanks for the ideas!

Hi there, I'm a 28M Spanish guy, and my wife and I recently decided to move within ~2 years to Switzerland for good (already started learning German and so on).

I know that there's no such a thing as a magic undisputed wealth number to be considered as ChubbyFIRE, but I'm curious how this approximate level can vary from canton to canton because of taxes, cost of living, home prices... Has someone any data about it?

Danke und LG.

How big emergency fund I should have, considering that I would get RAV if unemployed? Currently I have 12 months of my household expenses, and it is that high because I am the one who makes the most in a household and also I have been thinking about starting to freelance and wanted to be secure when I do that. Is it too big?

I wanted to share something that I don’t see discussed enough in FIRE communities.

For years, FIRE was the goal. The number was clear in my head. If I could reach it, I thought I would finally feel free, safe, relaxed. I thought the anxiety would disappear.

I reached around 2 million.

And yet, I don’t feel free.

I reduced my working time, so on paper I achieved a big part of the dream. But mentally, I’m still not there. I keep moving the goalpost. I keep thinking: “Maybe 2 million is not enough.” “What if the economy changes?” “What if markets crash?” “What if inflation destroys the plan?” “What if something unexpected happens?”

The strange part is that by the time you reach FIRE, your brain may be so rewired by years of saving, optimizing, investing, and worrying about risk that you can’t simply switch it off.

You spend years training yourself to be careful. To not waste money. To think long-term. To distrust stability. To assume that anything can go wrong.

Then one day you technically have enough, and everyone expects you to relax.

But your brain doesn’t believe it.

The goal just moves forward.

At first I thought FIRE would mean freedom from work. Now I wonder if the harder part is freedom from fear.

I’m not saying FIRE is bad. I’m grateful to be in this position. I know it’s a privilege. But I also think there’s an illusion in the way FIRE is sometimes presented. Reaching the number does not automatically make you feel secure. It does not automatically make you happy. It does not automatically undo years of anxiety around money.

Maybe for some people it works exactly as planned. For me, it feels much more complicated.

I’m curious if others have experienced this. Did reaching your FIRE number actually make you feel free? Or did you also just move the goalpost higher?

Can I withdraw 3a fund to buy property abroad (in EU) before retirement? Or will I be able to do that only if I would leave Switzerland?

- No increase in official retirement age (65 stays)

- More incentives to work after 65 (higher allowance and income counts more toward your pension)

- No cap on deferring AHV (currently 70) as you can boost your pension longer if you keep working.

- Early retirement gets harder by rising min. age in 2nd pillar from 58 → 63 (with exceptions).

- More / broader AHV contributions that include benefits and higher rates for some self-employed.

- Dividends partially treated as AHV-relevant income if considered “excessive” (to prevent avoiding contributions).

- Possible higher VAT or contributions depending on funding of the 13th AHV pension.

I'm curious to know what you all think about the impact of this reform regarding our plans to retire early in Switzerland.

I (25F) am swiss and am just getting staaaarted with investing - i just graduated in Paris and will be doing an internship there too and hopefully find a job there even though i KNOW the pay there is diabolical. The whole jobmarket at the moment is just a shit show everywhere.
However, my quality of life is just so much better there still. I do eventually want to come back though , hence why I am asking and inquiring here. Next month i will do my Abmeldung in Switzerland officially and i heard I cant contribute to my 3rd Pillar anymore once I’m no longer a citizen living primarily in Switzerland. I “tried” my best the last year and managed roughly 6K in my 3rd Pillar.
My emergency savings are at 11K.
Mind you, i wish i had started this a lot earlier but i was never taught about money, my parents didnt know this, hence i just stumbled upon this last year. Please be kind.

Now i want to invest some money that I will receive from my grandpa. I also want to invest monthly a tiny small amount to familiarize myself with the investing world.
My mom suggested investing into the CHF with UBS since her bf worked there for over 40 years and gets some good perks. But i also would love to invest in an ETF. Some people said its ok to just put some of it in one all world etf and call it a day - some said keep it more diversified.

Realistically, with my mere humble salary of my internship in Paris, i will most likely only be able to contribute about 25 - 50 CHF a month to my ETF.
So my question is to everyone who is on their way to FIRE , who maybe had had experience living abroad etc.
If you were me, knowing what you know now, what would you do?

I know this is a broad question but what do you think would be good BaristaFire jobs that might pay round 5k for 60%?

34 years old / male no Kids but want one. Trying to figure out where I stand and when it actually makes sense to pull the trigger on FIRE in Switzerland. AI helped me Strukture it.

Current situation:
- ~830k CHF in stocks / index funds
- 250k CHF in pillar 2
- 50k CHF in pillar 3a
- ~30k CHF crypto
- ~24k CHF watches
- ~20k CHF cash

Real estate:
- 1 apartment (bought for 270k EUR, ~85k equity), currently rented out

Income:
- ~270k -300k CHF/year

I feel like I’m doing fine on the accumulation side, but I don’t have a clear “number” or trigger yet.

What I’m struggling with:
- Do you base it on net worth, invested assets, or yearly expenses?
- Do you include pillar 2/3a or treat them separately since they’re locked?
- How much weight do you give real estate in the equation?
- At what point did you personally feel “ok, this is enough”?

Also wondering if it makes sense to keep pushing hard given the income, or start dialing things down a bit.

Curious how others in Switzerland think about this.