Smart Money Matters

Seeing how much I was paying in banking fees on three different Swiss bank accounts and two credit cards, I finally got around to looking into these this month. This is something I do yearly, making sure I get the best deal on interest rates and credit cards. I kept three accounts due to the Bank Guarantees of only 100k per account, back when our Swiss Franc cash savings were higher. Postfinance started to charge account keeping fees of 5 CHF a month from January 2019. I opened an account with them back when they offered free banking for account balances over 25k and their eSaver account was paying 1% interest (more than my mortgage interest rate of 0.7%). They also used to have free cash withdrawals within Switzerland at all banks. This seems to have changed, and now free withdrawals are only at Post Offices, Migros, SBB desk, Coop, Denner, and Spar. A 2 CHF charge now applies per withdrawal at other places. Interest rates are also now 0.00%, so no point in keeping this ...

I have lived in Switzerland for the past 16 years, possibly the most expensive country to Earth.  According to the Big Mac Index in January 2019, a comparison of the price of a Big Mac in USD, Switzerland was the most expensive:   https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/199335/umfrage/big-mac-index--weltweiter-preis-fuer-einen-big-mac/ Still, I have managed to save more living here than other places I have lived in. Moving there soon or already living there, you might find my top tips for saving in Switzerland useful: 1.       Don’t spend more than 30% of your gross income on Housing. Earning 120k that is 3k a month. Rents are currently are at their lowest levels in 20 years due to negative interest rates. Most leases factor in interest rate rises, so you’ll be paying more should interest rates increase too. 2.       Food – our biggest expense. I have stopped eating out just because it is more co...