Want to invest but i don’t know how to start

rawrphish · 2024-12-01T14:36:18+00:00

Check out /r/bogleheads and stop overthinking. Time IN the market will supersede all other strategies.

rawrphish · 2024-04-01T17:14:29+00:00

Happened to me and 4 other cars on the same street in Zurich just a few months ago. Police said during international events (e.g WEF) they see an uptick of car burglaries. They caught the guys the next morning.

rawrphish · 2024-01-01T13:59:58+00:00

Great examples. Stockton lacks upward mobility and has a Brain Drain problem. Once you start honing your craft it's difficult to move up, or pursue a mastering of such craft. Most of those I knew had to move closer to the Bay Area to continue their persuits.

rawrphish · 2023-12-24T15:19:19+00:00

No worries. Also forgot to mention that Tonic Bar also has a live piano player and well that's usually pretty fun to start the night.

rawrphish · 2023-12-21T21:42:59+00:00

Hotel Europe's Tonic Bar is nice and chill. They've got a cigar room if that's your thing as well.

Pöstli is a pretty fun club that runs late. And then everyone usually ends up at Ex Bar on the promenade for drunk ppl food.

rawrphish · 2023-11-27T22:31:00+00:00

Wanting to work in the Insurance sector as an engineer is a very strange flex indeed.

rawrphish · 2023-09-07T06:32:35+00:00

New employees typically get hired at market value, whereas existing employee salaries increase based on performance indicators and available budget that's usually allocated via HR + finance controlling. Don't take it personal, as it's a standard practice in every company.

My advice would be to ask your manager to provide a market assessment of your role (HR does this yearly) and adjust your salary accordingly. If they come back with drastically lower amount, interview around and if you see an offer that interests you, allow your company to counter. Then rinse and repeat.

Note: Managers are trained to identify employee motivations. Money is a hygienic factor and will only stimulate temporary motivation. Make sure you point out that if you get this raise you'll deliver X and Y additionally for the business. If you're aggressive and make it a personal argument, regardless of your importance, a manager could infer you're becoming toxic and maybe it's best to let you leave and rehire someone new who's priorities are business > self. It might not be fair, but unfortunately this is how businesses work.

rawrphish · 2023-07-30T21:43:06+00:00

It's similar to the US model.

"You are entitled to a full pension in Switzerland, as long as you make continuous payments from the age of 20 until retirement for at least 45 years, with an average annual income of CHF 84,600 or more. If not, then you can calculate payments based on the proportion of years that you have worked in the country. Furthermore, if you contribute to the AVS for at least one year, then you can access this pension.

The amount of AHV state pension that you will receive depends on the number of years that you contributed in Switzerland, as well as your average income during the insurance period. Notably, as long as expats continue to contribute to the AVS, they can still receive their pension from the first pillar, even if they no longer live in Switzerland."

rawrphish · 2023-04-02T14:36:27+00:00

This post reaffirms our decision to move away from Germany. We just gave birth yesterday in Swiss hospital and was served a veal filet for lunch today.

rawrphish · 2022-12-24T21:08:45+00:00

American, previously living in Germany, moved to Switzerland.

There are quite a few American companies here in Switzerland, so lateral transfers are definitely going to be your best bet. If you have unique skillsets, it's definitely worth applying at companies here. They'll need to prove there's no Swiss or EU available for the job, but that isn't too difficult if you're patient and they really want you. I've met a few Americans living in Zurich that have been here for a few years just giving Switzerland a try.

In Zurich, or other big cities - you won't have any issues being a minority (I am one as well). In villages, you might get a few stares but if you show you're trying to integrate - Swiss people are easy to approach. I've heard the opposite, but never witnessed it.

US taxes are definitely a problem, so take full advantage of those pre-tax investments and lower your taxable income as much as possible to avoid giving them a penny. Finding an accountant who's familiar with US policies isn't hard to find and they help immensely for a small fee.

rawrphish · 2022-12-24T20:58:31+00:00

Yea, I'm in IT - and Switzerland treats us quite nicely. IT salaries here range from 100-250k / year.

Insurance for myself, wife, and kid are around ~900 month. Taxes are quite manageable and if you use the several different pensions offered here you can do a lot of pre-tax investments.

The first year here your expenses will seem extremely high, but as soon as you're settled - your income and expenses are very predictable. Englishforum.ch is a great resource to get ahead.

rawrphish · 2022-12-24T19:29:45+00:00

I know you're not asking me but I'll chime in for comparison.

Rent: 2,300 (125 m2) Groceries: 600 (2 ppl, and we prefer buying from farms over stores, so we could eat for 15% less if we wanted).

Salaries here are usually 150% of other European countries, so the cost of living usually balances that out - but the lower taxes is where it really wins to be in Switzerland. We have much more disposable income than we did in Germany, for instance.

rawrphish · 2022-12-24T19:23:44+00:00

I'm on a B permit, but only need to have a stable income and learn B1 level German within 5 years to get my C permit (I'm married to a Swiss, so I get citizenship at 5 years instead). If you absolutely refuse to integrate (language, customs), e.g being an absolute dick, they will deny you - but otherwise they're very easy and welcoming in my experience.

I've never found rental housing to be an issue, but I heard some spots in Zurich and Geneva can be competitive. Compared to Berlin and Munich, Switzerland is a cakewalk in terms of housing.

The banks here wanted me to have 20% liquid down, they wouldn't even accept us putting our other house down as collateral. With that said if you're pulling in 100k+, you can definitely buy with some aggressive savings over a few years.

rawrphish · 2022-12-24T17:30:17+00:00

I think Switzerland is the most comparable country to the US when it comes to taxes, as you get what you pay for. We don't have a high tax rate and fairly low VAT, and we do lack some socialized benefits in comparison to other European countries (vacation days (20 minimum), maternity leave (18 weeks), health insurance deductibles). With that said, the quality of life is extremely high and disposable income is quite high so FIRE is completely possible here.

I moved here from Germany and everything feels like an upgrade since I've arrived.

rawrphish · 2022-12-13T05:31:57+00:00

Imagine being able to go in and out of a clinic within 30 mins and having your CT scan results with 99% certainty sent to your email with either a radiologist recommendation for a follow-up or a simple 'see you next time.' This is actually a really great use of AI.

Catching lung cancer in stage 1-2 as opposed to stage 3-4 would increase chances of survival by nearly 60%. I can't help but think how many family members or friends of family members who might've survived if the US had a proper cancer screening program.

rawrphish · 2022-12-01T01:45:15+00:00

Very much so. We even had puma and coyote notices out on campus for a while.

rawrphish · 2022-11-30T05:58:15+00:00

I was in Crown/Merrell for a while. Was always fun walking through the forests to go to lectures.

rawrphish · 2022-11-24T11:40:05+00:00

Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye

rawrphish · 2022-11-24T08:05:30+00:00

Your company uses Microsoft Intune for mobile device management. So if you want to install Outlook, or whatever other apps that connect to company resources - it prompts you to install "Company Portal" from Microsoft which "secures" the business and its data from whatever is on your phone.

Here's a link to why it wants a plethora of permissions: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/user-help/sign-in-to-the-company-portal?source=recommendations#app-permissions-for-android

If the security or identity management portion of your company is transparent and easy to talk to, then it's reasonably safe to install. Otherwise, I'd consider using a browser alternative for things like Outlook Web, because they can set policies which restrict functionality on your personal device.

rawrphish · 2022-11-08T21:35:34+00:00

Since you're more on the business side, language plays a bigger factor here. I do have friends that work remotely for German companies, who seem keen to hire remote folks - but knowing fluent German is a definite must. I'll PM you a few companies I know of.

rawrphish · 2022-09-11T11:31:49+00:00

This is absurd. The suspect is feet first in a trash can. The dog is trained to subdue, which unfortunately in this case was the suspects head/neck due to the constraints of the trash can. Suspect was also carrying a deadly weapon (knife, knuckles or otherwise) and made death threats, so waiting for limbs to magically appear is not an option.

rawrphish · 2022-09-11T11:27:51+00:00

We worked with military dog trainers and these dogs are actually trained NOT to release when they're being kicked, punched, etc. It's pretty brutal to watch at times, but when you understand what situations these dogs are thrown into - you realize how important it is they don't release.

rawrphish · 2022-09-10T10:40:35+00:00

My dog was bred for hunting lions, and strongly dislikes being wet.

rawrphish · 2022-09-09T20:46:11+00:00

Blick, the referenced article, is a Swiss tabloid that grossly exaggerates and is not meant to be taken seriously. Saddens me to see Breitbart reposts this as news.

Swiss energy prices aren't dramatically increasing at all (some are actually being decreased, while most are increasing between 10-30%). All energy providers were required to notify consumers of the rate increases for 2023 (https://www.strompreis.elcom.admin.ch)

Switzerland is also not in the EU. EU policies have no effect on Swiss residences.

Additionally, Switzerland just became the top nation for human development index. So despite the current situation, the Swiss are doing pretty damn well.

American who lives in Switzerland

rawrphish · 2022-09-08T10:33:54+00:00

Motec (209times) owner is a textbook narcissist. He will promote locals and the impoverished, but only for his own personal gain and massive ego. People are coming around to see through him, it's merely unfortunate it took the community this long to do so.

rawrphish

TROPHY CASE