Personal Investment

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) I just finished reading Free by 40 in Switzerland, a book about financial independence, in Switzerland, by fellow blogger Mr. Mustachian Post, alias Marc Pittet. Mr. MP was kind enough to send me a version that I could review before the release date. So I can have this review ready now that the book is available! Free by 40 in Switzerland will go over how to retire by the age of 40 in Switzerland. It covers how to reduce your...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) During your financial life, you will go through several stages of wealth. Maybe you have already crossed several of them, or maybe you are at the first stage of wealth. Regardless of where you are, it is important to know what is ahead and prepare for your future stages of wealth. There are many things you can do to prepare your future financial stages. In this article, I will talk about the 4 main stages of wealth and what you...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) A credit card is a powerful personal finance tool. But it is only a good tool if used correctly. And unfortunately, many people are not using credit cards correctly. The first important thing is to choose a card with no annual fee. You should focus on that first. Contrary to what credit card companies want you to believe, it is often better to get a credit card with no fee and smaller cashback than an expensive card with a lot of...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Beat Bühlmann, the CEO of finpension. I hope you will like this interview as much as the other interviews I have made in the past on this blog. finpension is the company behind the best vested benefits account in Switzerland: valuepension. And they recently launched their third pillar offer: finpension 3a. And finpension 3a looks amazing. All these products are fully digital and are...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) CSX is a new digital bank account by Credit Suisse. They have just started this new offer in 2020. And this account is much cheaper than the standard Credit Suisse accounts. The CSX bank account can even be free if used correctly. Interestingly, even large Swiss banks are jumping on the digital bank account wagon. This is a good trend if that allows people to pay lower fees for their bank accounts. In this article, I will review...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) When you plan on living on your investments, you need to consider the safety of these investments. Some of them will be in your retirement accounts. But the bulk of your investments will be in your broker account. So, what happens if your broker goes bankrupt? Are we going to lose everything? In this article, we will see in detail what happens to our securities if a broker goes bankrupt. Broker Bankruptcy An online broker (or a...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Diversification is often called the only free lunch in investing. It is a great way to reduce the volatility of a portfolio and sometimes increase its returns. You want to avoid having all your eggs in one basket. So, instead, you are going to use many baskets. The idea of diversification is mostly to invest in many companies and many countries. But there are other forms of diversification that we are going to see in this...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) The second wave is now well established in Europe. Several countries are back in lockdown. And several states of Switzerland are now in lockdown as well. Some states are only in semi-lockdown, but new measures are taken daily. I would not be surprised if we went into a nation-wide lockdown very soon. In this context, many people have less to do than usual. So, why not dedicate some of this extra time to improve your finances? In...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) October 2020 was a weird month. The month started well with a return to almost normal in Switzerland. And we had found a new tenant for our apartment. But then, with the cold weather came a new big wave of COVID cases in Switzerland. With this second wave, one of my family members found out he was infected a few days after we saw him. So, we had to do a 10-day quarantine again, and we actually were both infected as well. And we...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) We have talked a lot about Swiss Banks on this blog. But we have not yet talked in detail as to what happens to your money if one Swiss Bank defaults (bankrupts). In that case, there is a special deposit insurance for the customers of the failed bank. Even though Swiss banks are reputed very safe, they are not infallible. It is essential for customers what would happen to their bank account balance if their bank goes bankrupt. In...