Considering the move

Welcome and Introductions
21
Hi jeverett486,

Hope the move works out for you. My wife an I are in a very similar position, we are currently considering the move from the UK to Switzerland and your questions are exactly the same as we would be asking. My family is my main priority and I need to make sure that everything is covered before we finally decide. I will be purchasing the book that has been recommended.

Salary is then main issue, and I've no idea were to pitxh myself at. I earn around 80k sterling in the UK so was trying to get something that would give me the same lifestyle (if not better) as I have in the UK.

22
Hi madevo72,

Thanks for your reply.

I managed to negotiate a little more out of my boss, but I'm still not in the 140K range that 80k GBP equates to ( www.xe.com ), unless I take into account my bonus.

I am still being told, and have read here on this board, that anything about 120k is a decent salary and adequate for a comfortable lifestyle in the Zurich area; especially if accommodations can be found outside of the city.

I still very interested in the move and getting my "foot in the door" of Switzerland, so I will probably take my offer. Even if the money is tight for awhile, I still feel the opportunities are better in Switzerland than in Sweden.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck in you relocation plans.

James

23
Hey James, I doubt that money will be 'tight' except, perhaps, in the first week or so as you shop around to find the best deals for things (eg, groceries, favourite drinks). Also do some research on phone/internet before you hit the ground - the people at Swisscom, while keen to get me to sign a contract, were not too informative about what deals were available and, strangely to us, did not have a 'package' for home phone, internet and mobile phone ... while home phone & internet could be packaged, the mobile seemed to always be separate ...

So expect to possibly burn a bit of savings in the first couple of weeks as you adjust and set things up, but after that you should be living very comfortably on 120k.

Good luck on the move, and I look forward to catching up with you at various social events (eg, Talacker Bar most second Wednesdays!).

24
A welcome to the forum to you too, madevo72!

25
Nathu, thanks for the welcome.

Thank you for the advice James, I have noticed that the general cost of living is more expensive in Switzerland however a salary of 120+ would be adequate thank to the better tax advantages. We should know in the next week or 2 what our plans are... we are looking at Lausanne at moment.

26
After all the questions (many still not answered), I've decided to take the plunge and move to Switzerland.

I've accepted my company's relocation offer, and I will begin working in Zurich as of 1 November 2009. I'm planning on six months before my family follows, though .

I look forward to hooking up with people from this board...

All I need now is to find someplace to live!

27
That's going to be a hard six months ... but may be required to find a good place for your family to live together! Renting apartments can be hard, especially on arrival ... unless you have a local to sign the contract and then sign you up on a sub-lease ...

As for meeting people, being in Zürich there are heaps of social events - my favourite being the Talacker Drinks (roughly every second Wednesday; nice place, short walk from the HB or an easy tram trip from just about anywhere ...). It's in the Social Events bit, if you want to look ... but I don't think the next one has been booked yet ...

28
Thanks everyone for all the helpful information and advice I've received, but my plans for moving to Zurich has been postponed (maybe even canceled entirely).

I just couldn't comes to terms with leaving my family for any period.

Thankfully my boss was okay with my change of heart;

For the time being, I'll continue to work in Sweden with periodic visits to the corporate headquarters in Zurich.

29
Hi,

Too bad you had a change of heart - but I understand you.

I recently left Sweden (Malmo) myself for Zug. But I didn't have a wife and kid I left behind, so wasn't that hard choice.

I hope you do get the chance again to move down here. I don't think you'd regret it once you're all sorted.

Best of luck!

30
James,

We are also considering a move to Basel from US, and I haven't been able to find an effective tool for salary comparisons between US and Basel so I can decide whether offers are competitive. Did you run across anything other than impressions?

thelollys

31
Dear thelollys,

I've been writing the below response, without actually answering your question.

No, I have no good references for salary comparisons between Switzerland and the US.

What might be most important to is to understand the cost-of-living differences. A good source for this is the UBS Prices and Earnings Report:

http://www.ubs.com/1/e/wealthmanagem..._earnings.html

Other than that, take a look at some very helpful budget and estimating tax tools:

http://www.ubs.com/1/e/ubs_ch/privat.../toolpage.html

I also suggest, if you haven't already done so, pick up a copy of David Hampshire's book: Living and Woking in Swtizerland . It answered a lot of gnawing questions I had regarding Swiss living.

I wish you the best of luck.

Jay

The rest of my original response is below and deals more about salary in particular...

As you will see from the endless posts on this board, salary is much debated topic.

Even after receiving my offer and hearing from many on this site that it was extremely good, I had co-workers tell me that it was too low. So, it is also very industry and individual company specific.

Talk with your company to see if they think the costs that you have estimated are accurate for Basel and where you might live.

I think Basel has the benefit of closeness to France which Zurich does not have; I have heard from several persons that they do their grocery shopping in France to save money.

Finally, the relocation package the company is offering is equally important. The cost of moving a family from the U.S. can be quite high; I know, I did it five years ago when I moved to Sweden.

32
Jay,

Thanks for the links and other guidance.

the lollys

33
I found that comparing prices is fairly useless. Instead compare amount of salary spent on an item.

Take rent as an example. In Sweden I spent just over 25% of income on it. Here the same figure is 16%. So rent is cheaper, even though it is more money.

Of course this comparison is not very easy to do before you leave.

Hope I didn't confuse you too much.

34
James,

Found a really awesome link to check salaries in Swiss vs other locations. It didn't dive me the US comparison, but this seems to be a good tool for checking across sectors and other key info. Check this out.

http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/e.../salarium.html

thelollys

35
In case anyone that was following this thread didn't know, there's been an update to my situation.

See the following thread: Here we go again!