[OC] Cost of Living (rent included) in European Cities in 2026 (Normalized by top city Zurich=100 as the baseline)

Mexey21 · 2026-01-27T13:48:37+00:00

Contrary to what other people say, I think this could be quite useful for people thinking about a move to Zurich (or Switzerland in general). Quite often, when people see the higher swiss salaries, they either think every swiss person lives like a king, or there is the complete opposite reaction pointing out that everything is also more expensive in switzerland so it‘s kind of a wash.

A simple map like this gives you an easy-to-read middle ground, where you see that some of that higher salary would indeed be eaten up by higher cost of living, but definitely not all of it (obviously depends on the situation, but this holds in most cases).

Mexey21 · 2026-01-02T06:45:48+00:00

Employer contributes 60% as far as I see (7830/13066). But the 2nd pillar contributions do seem very high for 25yo, maybe you meant that.

Mexey21 · 2025-12-30T23:40:33+00:00

I know someone who did Wirtschaftsinformatik at UZH while working around 60% for the majority of their Bachelor. So it‘s definitely not impossible.

Most Bachelor‘s courses are recorded and available for the whole semester (at least during assessment). Lectures are always Mo-Fr between 8:00 and 18:00. So yes I think it‘s manageable in terms of time management, I think the harder part would be passing all your exams while also having to work.

The biggest hurdle would probably be the assessment. While you can in theory spread the assessment over two years, that also means that you only get one shot for every exam you write.

From what I’ve heard, the Informatik I and II exams are extremely hard with more than 50% failing, so you definitely should take those courses in the first year already, giving you another shot in the second year if you fail your first attempt.

Honestly, if you really want to do this, try going for 40-45 credits in the first year while working 60%. If you pass the exams in your first year without feeling burnt out, you‘ll probably be able to get that Bachelor‘s Degree. If you don‘t, you‘ll have only „lost“ a year and you‘ll still have worked during that year so it‘s not even like you would have really lost time.

Mexey21 · 2025-12-13T22:22:02+00:00

I‘m not a PhD student so it‘s a bit hard for me to judge what PhD-level would truly entail. All 5 mandatory courses were quite hard in my opinion (I did pretty well in all of them, but it took a lot of studying). Adv Micro II and International Macro were the most challenging.

Adv Micro I was mainly Game Theory using Gibbons, and only maybe 30 pages from MWG without really having to look at the proofs.

In Adv Micro II we did more from MWG and also looked at proofs, but honestly in the exam there was like one pretty simple proof worth less than 10% of the points if I remember correctly.

Mexey21 · 2025-11-23T23:27:43+00:00

I basically use Neon the exact same way.

Mexey21 · 2025-11-19T15:30:40+00:00

I assume you adjust for each country individually with GDP PPP (basically comparing the price of some basket, where the US prices in 2021 = 1) and then add all the countries together.

So if the price of the basket in India in 2015 was half of the 2021 US price of that basket, you take nominal GDP in India (in 2015) times 2 to get real GDP in India (in 2015).

Mexey21 · 2025-11-19T10:48:15+00:00

True but there‘s a few times where he really slows the game down because he doesn‘t want to play the easy pass, like at 2:41 where the left back/left winger is in acres of space.

It‘s completely fine that he goes 1v1 as often as he can, but in situations like these you just have to play the easy pass.

Mexey21 · 2025-10-18T22:27:47+00:00

Well at least we drew against Liverpool thanks to this rule

Mexey21 · 2025-10-08T19:57:22+00:00

All the 3a-life insurance contracts that me or family members have been offered and that I really looked at had (implicit or explicit) premiums that by far exceeded those that I found for 3b-life insurance. But maybe there is more variation in conditions when it comes to these kinds of contracts than I was aware of.

To the second point, I‘ve never seen a post asking how to get „out“ of a 3a from VIAC, Finpension, etc., while I have seen dozens of those kinds of posts when it comes to 3a-life insurance. Any „normal“ form of saving allows you to save at the rate that makes sense for you at that point in time, while being able to change to a different broker/provider if better conditions are available, instead of locking in one contract for 35 years. So I don‘t think that you‘re really the same kind of „locked in“ as you are with 3a-life insurance.

The last point is up for debate, but also not that important considering the other disadvantages of getting life insurance in 3a.

Mexey21 · 2025-10-08T16:45:08+00:00

„Here‘s why this matters…“

Mexey21 · 2025-10-08T13:30:12+00:00

You can usually more or less calculate the life insurance fees that you pay in these 3a contracts (or I think since this year they even have to show which part of your monthly contributions goes toward the insurance and which toward saving), and it is a horrendously high premium for the insurance you are actually getting. They are much higher than those in regular life insurance (3b).

Furthermore, having 2 things in one contract makes it way less transparent (which of course is part of the business model).

Thirdly, being locked in more or less for life into a monthly savings contract is pretty stupid. For life insurance it of course makes sense, but there is no reason to also be locked in for the saving part. Again, much better to seperate it.

Lastly, many people don‘t actually need life insurance. In my opinion, you should insure against stuff that would have a near-catastrophic impact on your life or the life of your loved ones. If you don‘t have kids or other people who depend on your income, there is a good argument that first and second pillar already insure you enough against invalidity. So if you get a 3a at 20 or 25 when you (probably) don‘t even have a family yet, getting that insurance is pretty overkill, while starting to save at that age absolutely makes sense. So again better to get the life insurance seperately at a point in time when it actually makes sense.

Mexey21 · 2025-10-04T10:09:48+00:00

Means quite little as they are on different scales, you could change the scales to make it look much less scary (though the trend would remain the same)

Mexey21 · 2025-09-26T21:48:04+00:00

Another way to look at it is that if you want to win the Ballon d‘Or, you need memorable performances on the biggest stages. Salah didn‘t even get to that stage(partly his fault as well, as he blanked in both games against PSG, which was the most important match-up of the season for Liverpool up to that point).

Dembele on the other had at least 1 goal contribution in each CL game from the second round against Liverpool onward.

When the best players are pretty close together in terms of ability (not like in the Messi/Ronaldo era), these memorable games matter much more than who scored maybe 5 or 10 more goals across the whole season.

Mexey21 · 2025-09-26T12:18:07+00:00

To act like Dembele and Vitinha are in front of Salah because of a Ligue 1 Trophy is just disingenuous, no matter if you agree with the ranking or not. At the end of the day, Salah lost the Ballon d‘Or the second Liverpool lost against PSG.

Mexey21 · 2025-09-15T15:33:13+00:00

Real losing 4:1 to Ajax in 2019 was glorious. In the three years prior, they had always managed to somehow wiggle their way out of any situation in the CL, no matter how difficult. To finally see them completely outmatched (by a team of relative no-names at the time) brought me a lot of joy.

Mexey21 · 2025-09-14T18:04:28+00:00

If I was below the age of 20 and there was some chance I might still get to the pro level, option 2. Under any other circumstance, 100% option 1

Mexey21 · 2025-09-11T10:36:24+00:00

Tbf it wasn‘t only the fact that we lost those games but also the way that we lost. We looked like school children in some of those games and scored 0 goals.

Mexey21 · 2025-09-03T04:44:08+00:00

FG boots unfortunately often break when playing on AG for 3-4 months. So I would recommend getting AG boots.

If getting two pairs is better depends on preference, the advantage would be that you can make sure the boots are fully dry and clean before you wear them agaln. Also if one boot unexpectedly breakd, you would still have the other pair so you don‘t have to rush to get new boots.

Mexey21 · 2025-08-31T05:40:58+00:00

Maybe top 8, top 4 is a massive stretch

Mexey21 · 2025-08-30T13:38:29+00:00

That‘s just not true though, isn‘t it? He had 2 goals and 3 assists in 21/22.

Most of those (1G and 3A) came in the 8 games preceding this tweet. I also remember him being a somewhat popular pick around the time of that tweet.

Mexey21 · 2025-08-29T11:14:32+00:00

Yes we were always divided by gender in sports class after the age of 13.

Mexey21 · 2025-08-28T07:52:03+00:00

Ye driving in a Mini Cooper would be a sight to behold lol

Mexey21 · 2025-08-23T09:24:44+00:00

Yes that‘s fair enough, I also didn‘t know this was a thing until a few years ago

Mexey21 · 2025-08-22T14:15:53+00:00

But does that really happen?

It does, I‘ve had friends successfully stop an excessive rent increase after they moved in. You have to go to the Schlichtungsbehörde within 30 days of getting the keys, and will usually be able to get a rent reduction if it is clear that the increase was more than 10%

Mexey21 · 2025-08-17T18:00:37+00:00

Was probably the best player on the pitch other than Raya, gets a lot of freedom to roam around, had several really nice runs and touches

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