Personal Investment

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) There are three main axes of personal finance: your expenses, your income, and investing. These axes are the ones on which you can work to improve your personal finance. In the end, you want to improve your wealth or improve your state of living. Whether you want to retire early or afford an expensive vacation to Hawaii, you can work on these three axes. In this article, we will see what you can do to improve your financial...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) When you want to invest in the stock market, you need a broker account. And many Swiss investors only feel comfortable having a broker from Switzerland, or at least a broker with an office in Switzerland. So, we need to compare these Swiss brokers and see which one is the best to invest in the stock market for a Swiss investor. In this article, I will compare five Swiss brokers with different scenarios and see which one is the...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) When you want to save money on something, buying it second-hand may be a great way to pay less! Over the years, I have bought many things second-hand, and I could save a lot of money by doing so. But the question remains as to where to find second-hand items to buy. In this article, I will go over the best places to buy second-hand items in Switzerland. Some places are online, while other places are brick-and-mortar shops....

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Until COVID-19 started in Europe in 2020, I was going to the gym regularly to work out. But when I started working from home, I completely gave up on working out. This is definitely not ideal for my health. In 2021, I decided to start working out at home. And I found out that this was actually easier than I expected. You can start working out with very little equipment (even zero if you want). And you can actually save a lot of...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) In Switzerland, you can make a voluntary contribution to your second pillar. These contributions come with some tax advantages since you can deduct that from your income. Therefore, you have a return equal to your marginal tax rate. And this return is almost instant. However, the money is then blocked into the second pillar. And the returns on that blocked money have been very low in recent years. Finally, you can only withdraw...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) In Switzerland, contributing to your third pillar is one of the best ways to save on taxes. I recommend everybody to contribute to their third pillar. But contributing to your third pillar is not enough. You should invest the money in your third pillar. That means you have to pick the best third pillar for your money. Since there are many options, it may be difficult to choose the best...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) There are many third pillar providers in Switzerland. Some of them are good, but most of them are too expensive. You do not want to waste your retirement bank on fees. Therefore, you need to choose the best third pillar provider. In 2018, VIAC started on the market of third pillars. VIAC is the first mobile third pillar. And they are really interesting! VIAC has very low fees and lets you...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) One question I get often is how to file taxes with stocks and dividends. And this especially gets popular when we add foreign stocks and foreign dividends into the mix. Many people are afraid of investing because they think it will make it complicated to file your taxes. But in practice, it is not complicated to file your taxes even with a large ETF portfolio. In this article, we will see...

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Overall, February 2021 was not very eventful. We had some dinners with friends in small groups. Other than that, we did some walks around the wife and me. But nothing special. Financially, we had to pay some extra taxes related to the withdrawal of our pension money for the house. And we had a few extra other large expenses this month. In this article, you will find all that happened to us and our money in February 2021....

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) I keep track of all my expenses. And monthly, I publish my expenses on this blog. But once a year, I also a full analysis of my expenses for the past year. It helps me put things in perspective. And it also gives me an idea of where my expenses are going for an entire year. For me, it is an essential part of the way I am managing my money. I do not really budget, but I track all our expenses. And seeing expenses summed for an...