The Poor Swiss blog just turned three years old. It is difficult to believe it has already been three years since I started this blog. I have done a lot of things on this blog in the last year. Some of these things paid off. Some did not. But I think the blog is in a much better place right now than one year ago, which is always a good sign.

Zak and Neon are two good Swiss Digital bank accounts. They are both entirely digital and accessible through mobile applications. The great thing about these bank accounts is that they are significantly cheaper than conventional bank accounts. Their low prices are what make their success. And they have some attractive features.

Depending on which index you are following, the bull market is back! It is now time to reflect on the bear market. If your portfolio is not yet out of the red, it does not hurt to be prepared.We have already discussed the things you should do during a bear market.

Investing is very important if you want to fight inflation and get returns on your saved money. But there are many ways to invest. Some of these ways are very simple, while others are complex.But with simplicity comes higher fees. If you want the lowest price possible, you will need to get more control, and thus complexity.

Update: Fully updated as of August 2020! Plans have become even cheaper than before!We can agree that everybody wants to pay as little as possible for their phone bills. Even though you may think your current phone plan is the cheapest available, there could be new deals since you started using your plan.

There are many ways to budget for personal households. And there is no such thing as the best way to budget that will work for everybody.Many people use many different ways to budget their life. As long as the way you choose works for you, it is enough. You just need to find the best way for yourself.

We are currently in the process of buying a house. Since I shared this fact on the blog, I have been asked several times whether people should buy or rent in Switzerland.So, I wanted to share my thoughts on the buy or rent subject. I am going to go over the different considerations about buying and renting houses in Switzerland.

It is time for another installment in our Frugal Living in Switzerland series of interviews!And today, I was able to interview a non-blogger family for this series. And compared to the other interviewees, we now have a couple of expats that answered together. Mr. and Mrs. DoubleDutch are able to save a large portion of their income in Switzerland and live with a very reasonable amount of money!

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Zak is a free digital Swiss bank account from Bank Cler. It is the first fully digital bank account from Switzerland. It was launched in 2018.Since it is a digital bank account, you can use Zak from anywhere with your smartphone.The main feature of Zak is that it is free! For all your operations in Switzerland, you will not pay anything. Being free makes Zak very attractive.Some people dislike digital banks because they are afraid of not having a big bank behind them. But Zak is a bank account from Bank Cler. You have the advantages of a big bank with the free price of digital banks.In this article, I am going over the details of Zak: what is good with it and what is not great! I should have done this earlier. So now is the

It is time for another monthly update! June 2020 flew by us! Like last month, we had to pay a ton of taxes. I did not pay enough taxes last year, so this year is very high.Fortunately, we had less to pay this month than in May. So, we still managed to save a little amount of money. It is better than last month, where our savings rate was zero.

You have probably heard a lot about Financial Independence. A lot of things on this blog are about my path to Financial Independence (FI). But why would you want to be financially independent? There are many reasons for wanting to be financially independent.

When you are investing, you want to minimize your investing fees. It is something most people already realize. But what most people do not realize is how expensive fees can be in the long-term. In this article, we are going to see precisely how much investing fees are hurting you! Not only will we see that they are more expensive than they seem. We will also see that investing fees have a significant impact on your retirement!

TransferWise and Revolut offer services that are quite similar. They are both offering cheap money transfers in many different currencies. How can you decide between both services? I have both cards. But, I am mostly using my Revolut card. So, many of my readers asked me why I was mainly using my Revolut card, where I could have only used my TransferWise card. Today, I am going to answer the question: Which is better between TransferWise and Revolut?

Having a side hustle is a great thing to increase your income. But you need to be careful about doing it legally. If your side hustle is getting serious, you need to make sure you are respecting the law. If you are just selling a few things you do not need anymore, you probably will not have any problem. But if you have a side hustle that generating a more serious amount of money, you need to do it right.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Many of you have asked me about sustainable investing and how they should invest in Sustainable Instruments. Specifically, many have asked which Robo-Advisor they should use for sustainable investing.The two main Robo-Advisors for sustainable investing in Switzerland are Selma Finance and Yova. So, today, we are going to compare Selma vs Yova for easy investment in sustainable companies.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) These days, most of your personal finances are probably online. You probably have access to your bank through an online banking platform. Also, you are likely to access your broker through your browser or through your phone. If someone is getting access to your online personal finances, he can do a lot of harm! You need to protect yourself! It is very important to protect your Online Personal Finances!

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Many of you asked me about an excellent vested benefits account. Until recently, I did not know any good one. But now, I came across valuepension! valuepension offers an excellent vested benefits account.valuepension is a vested benefits account that relies on index investing! They are using low-cost index funds and allow people to invest heavily in stocks.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) A few months ago, I read Deep Work, by Cal Newport. This book is excellent if you want to improve your efficiency.This book is about the benefits of working deeply. If you practice deep work, you will be able to be much more efficient. It means you can achieve more things for you.But this also means that you can achieve more at your job.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) If you have been investing in Switzerland, you probably have heard about the Swiss Stamp Tax or the Swiss Stamp Duty. This Stamp Tax is a tax that is collected when you do certain transactions on the stock market.Even though this stamp tax is really simple to understand, there is a lot of confusion about it. Therefore, I wanted to cover it in detail to dispel the confusion once and for all.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) Credit Cards are an important part of your personal finances. They are tools that you need to use to your advantage.The problem is that it is easy to misuse credit cards. You need to have a good credit card strategy to take full advantage of credit cards.Since I have started improving my personal finances, I have optimized a lot my usage of credit cards.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) If you want to invest in the stock market, you will need to choose a portfolio. Ideally, you will want to invest in index funds via Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). For, this you will need to decide on an ETF Portfolio for Switzerland.Choosing a good portfolio is an important decision. You need to invest in a portfolio that will have low fees, high diversification, and good returns.

I have talked about several brokers on this blog. But I have not yet answered the question of which one is the best broker in Switzerland!It is now time to answer this important question. There are several Swiss brokers, and most Swiss banks have their broker service.

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links) April 2020 is now over! That was one of the weirdest months of our life. We spent the entire month in our village, mostly at home. We only went out to buy groceries and help some of my relatives.Fortunately, we have a large backyard, so we spent a lot of time outside. And Switzerland is not in full lockdown, so we still went out for walks.

Living in Switzerland is expensive. There is no point denying that. However, it is not as expensive as many people think. There are many ways to save money each month on your budget in Switzerland.

These days, everybody needs an internet connection. And we can agree that we all want to pay as little as possible for our connection to the web. Although your internet plan may have been the cheapest when you started using it, it may not be the case anymore. New deals may have appeared.

The current crisis is not a good thing. However, it is not the end of the world. And it can teach us some things about being socially isolated. Let’s stay positive and try to learn from this unprecedented isolation. During this crisis, we have been learning many things.

I think we can agree that everybody wants to pay as little as possible for their television bills. Even though you may think your current television plan is the cheapest available, there could be new deals since you started using your plan.

We have just reached a new bear market due to the fears of the coronavirus pandemic. The chances are that this is your first bear market. And the chances are that you are freaking out.

Many people think that investing in the United States Exchanged Traded Funds (ETFs) is dangerous. They believe that because of the U.S. Estate Tax. This tax will heavily tax the assets of a decedent. This tax means that your beneficiary will only get a portion of your estate when you decease. Because of that, many people recommend not to invest in American ETFs (or even stocks).