And the cost of everything, even on a fairly decent salary, between 150-200k, the cost of longer-term living is considerable. I have read enough to know to not do a "can I survive above 120k" thread. BUT, primarily I am concerned about two things that put me off at the moment. This is not about rent or day to day costs.
1. The pension system: unless I buy back the missing years for when I was not living here, and invest long term into pillar three, I will end up with what is for Switzerland a pretty bad pension. Certainly not something that could afford an okay (I mean, CHF1500 a month) apartment some place and a normal life, near people and not in completely middle of nowhere.
- so it means the potential savings from low tax salary is either in a bank to replace this missing pension, or else it is in a pension itself, which simply does not add up when I look at the cost
- you need say 70k a year pension for two people. That is around e.g., 4.5k a month. Between rent and health insurance and groceries in the year 2040 in Switzerland, I can see CHF4.5k not lasting long.
- Alternatively, you could save a lot. E.g., 3k a month. Over e.g., 30 years it is CHF1.1 million. So, you could use that cash to be a pension of e.g., CHF4.5k/month for 20 years. At the same time as having the regular Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 it would work. You would die with nothing, but probably live okay.
2. Property: the alternative when a pension is not adequate, is to buy property. But, even on a decent salary on the surface, the cost of property that is okay to live long term, is simply not an option. Right now under CHF800k are exactly 8 properties on Comparis, with 3.5 rooms.
So my comment is, I find the city a bit quiet compared to Amsterdam and Dublin, but that said, it is a different place and a different culture which I can accept it with time. The second and more significant and longer term problem for me, is how do people plan for living here long term, as most property in the job region around Zürich is very expensive, and the alternative is putting the "spare" money into pure cash savings or as much into a Pillar 3 as possible. At 65, you must retire, and being non-Swiss, probably would have no ability financially to stay here after retirement and have to leave the country having lived for several decades here.
Any comments on this I would greatly appreciate. Maybe everyone here is on combined incomes of 400k and can afford a 4.5 room property investment as a pension, or have super duper pension schemes. Or, they move out of Zürich after retirement and go home, with a CHF pension that pays a good standard of living in your home country.
Add in kids, and the cost spirals, and the 3k a month savings would be much more difficult to sustain. So, I am wondering, what on earth are people doing, or am I simply too poor to stay, and are all of you the people driving the Lambos around Talackerstrasse on Saturday afternoons and not worried about all of this.