Do you live in an expensive city? Do you have any good tips on how to save money?
Zurich and Geneva are among the top ten most expensive cities in the world, with Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong topping the list.
If you live in an expensive city, what experiences good and bad can you share about affording life’s day-to-day necessities as well as the occasional treat? We’d like to hear from you! Login or register here to leave a comment below!
From the article Why is Switzerland so expensive?
From the article Swiss cities become more expensive as Zurich takes top slot
From the article Meet the man trying to make Switzerland less expensive
If you are smart, energetic well educated you get a job, large shareholders in companies are pension funds, and savings from normal people. Shareholdings are also international.
As an ex-pat, people here seem to think I am rich. So, I deliberately do not tell them what work I do, or what car I drive, as that would definitely result in jealousy. But, I tend to attract the wrong type of person. Those who think my money is their money. Even in these days of equality, most women I meet think the man should pay. So, the best way to save money. Pay as expected but wait until you go to an expensive restaurant, say you have forgotten your money, and get your partner to pay. If she is still your partner a few days later, then you are on to a winner. If not, you still win, financially.
That's a rather chauvinistic response!
Switzerland loves to milk its poor and so called middle class and give the money to the rich who buy up everything so the poor are slaves renting everything. What a miserable culture.
What nonsens, the rich pay a lot more taxes, and many are highly educated which benefits the Swiss society.
In no other EU country does people enjoy a better quality of life than in Switzerland.
Totally agree - keep the mirage in front of the low and middle class and tax them and the rich (although they pay taxes) will increase their wealth.
0pinion to full Asylum Places in Switzerland:
' We did not reach this point, because of Corona, but as I predicted quite a while ago, the Places are full because of
Mrs. Sommeruga's generosity with our tax moneys in bringing in uncontrollable numbers of Asylum seakers from all over the world. Besides, she lets in the overflow of her special friend Mrs. Merkel who ships them to England or Switzerland....
Who means with :' wir werden es schaffen...' : Sie müssen es schaffen...!'
I am 20 years old and I was born in Switzerland. It is close to impossible to get a job with the virus restrictions.
I say, bring on communism and confiscate all the money from these rich bolsheviks and oligarch owning all the big companies and banks. Time to give it back to the people and have a reset or redistribution. It makes no sense to live like slaves on the land we were born on.
It also helps not to have almost any cash while the inflation steals its value away. We have several mortgages for houses with land in Austria, Croatia and Portugal. That way we will always have something physical and our families can inherit it.
Switzerland will always be expensive especially if you are not from a neighbor country and live close to your relatives. For us it is fairly cheap as our family lives in Bregenz. We rent a home in St Gallen, so all our shopping is done in Austria and that's also where our children go to school. All our expenses are put on our Austrian company and clinic, so we can get a lot of Austrian tax deductions based on the expenses we incur in St Gallen. This makes our lives substantially cheaper than for most expats in Switzerland who have to buy everything at expensive prices in Switzerland.
Agree - we live in Geneva and shop in Ferney (France). Why contribute to an economy that we cannot vote and influence.
Also buy our medicines in France (our non-Swiss health insurance reimburses). For Swiss Health Insurance, no reimbursement if cheaper medicines bought in France. The first insurance that I have heard which does not allow the cheaper option to be taken.
Health care in Switzerland - an inbred cabal of hospitals, clinics, doctors, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies with the patient on the outside.
As freelancers, the virus killed our finances in Switzerland but it opened up a lot of business in the US where companies are getting rid of classic office employees and are happy to have people work from home while they stop paying office rent.
We're now preparing to move out of Switzerland as we get no income here and it makes no sense to have high Swiss expenses and taxes.
I'm really thankful to the virus. Even though we lost a job, now my husband can work fully from home.
So, we are moving in Appenzell in a really cheap genosenschaft apartment. We'll be able to do all our shopping in Germany, our children can now go to school in Germany and spend time with their grandparents. Also, having all this extra time with my children I decided that I no longer want or need to work, as we'll save more than with my salary between the lower rent, lower taxes, far cheaper shopping, more affordable schooling and even have the possibility to buy a home with some land in Germany as we cannot afford a house in Switzerland.
Also, we bought all our furniture and electronics on RIcardo for less than 1000 CHF. That way we save money and when we move away we can just put it up on auction for 1 CHF and get rid of everything.
It also helps if you have a small company and put most expenses on the company as investments in company technology, work-from-home and that kind of stuff.
We also bought 2 cars for about 1500 CHF each. That's cheap enough that if we recycle them for scrap in Austria we can still get some money back.
Otherwise we don't keep any savings in the bank as bitcoin is more reliable and gives a better return.
Great tip. Other than the 2nd hand furniture we also bough on Ricardo, We don't buy anything in Switzerland. We buy everything from Germany or order it online from Germany. We work for a German company, so we buy only german products. It is a lot cheaper and it helps the economy that is giving us the jobs.
We're about to save a lot of money. My husband's employer already made it official that he can work fully from home and I am waiting for the company I work for.
We already sold our apartment in Zuerich and are moving to a place we'll rent near Zug and with the money we're setting up a business in Austria and we'll buy 2 small home offices for the employees there. Over 5 years with the business investment this will save us a lot.
Also we never eat out, our children are going to school in Austria and each of us is there 5 months a year and we do most of our shopping there as well. Overall it is a good deal. We've got 4 more years till our contracts are over and we won't renew. We'd rather move back to Austria with our savings.
First, DON’T eat out even if it’s fast food. We’re from the US and lived in the U.K. before moving here and found eating out here in Switzerland is prohibitively expensive!!!
Wait for sales at the grocery stores and then buy in bulk. I live in Lausanne so drive down to France once a month to buy things like meats in bulk that are on sale there. You can buy 2 cartloads of food in France for the price of one in Lausanne.
We also cook food in larger quantities and eat left overs. It’s easy to make different sauces in bulk and then freeze the remainder for future use, cooking only the rice, potatoes or pasta fresh as needed.
Invest in a large deep freeze as it will pay for itself in the quantities of cooked items you can freeze for later use.
Eat simple foods. Buy only the needed stuff. Do not look at rich neighbours who have more.
Do not compare with others.
I have just described the typical swiss person mentality.
Save your money, eat coarsely, and dress simply. All the true meaning of life!
省吃俭用，粗茶淡饭，衣着简朴。全是人生真谛啊！
Resist buying (anything) on impulse, no matter where you live.
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