I’ve taken a look at Global 100 right now and it does seem to be pretty good. I might just go with that. Thanks for sharing your experience.
2 Likes
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Here’s how my income is divided (I actually forgot my rental income):
60k 9 to 5 job (software engineering)
40k combined dividends from 2 non-public companies that I own a substantial amount of shares from
10k rental income
2 Likes
First of all, thank you very much for your detailed response!
- I haven’t heard of the Swisscard. I’ll definitely check it out! Are there many places accepting AMEX in switzerland? I do already own a Revolut card for foreign currencies.
- Good point, I’m also leaning more towards a simple VT portfolio.
- As already stated, I think I’ll be going for World 100 aswell.
IB+VT
VIAC+Global 100
Who would’ve thought that a solid investment could look this simple 
2 Likes
Simplicity is king for passive investing. People try to complicate it and usually end up hurting their returns.
IB + VT
VIAC + Global 100
Automatic contributions every month and spend your time and energy on studies and career instead of thinking so much about it.
I’ve found AMEX is accepted in most places. Migros & Coop it is definitely accepted which is great because you can also use their loyalty cards. So 1% (loyalty) + 1% (AMEX) = 2% cashback. I’ve also used it for my gym subscription, the cinema, and some meals out in the last month.
4 Likes
Got a few questions here:
Is it a good idea to create 5 VIAC Portfolios for Tax purpose or to aid in Real estate purchase?
If yes, can they all be Global 100?
Also, if one wants to withdraw each year, how should they be financed in the first place?
- split the annual contribution equally or
- max one portfolio per year and move to the next one next year
Thank you !
Yes. As you can only withdraw a 3rd pillar account in full (with current regulations), you should open a new one each year. This allows you to split the withdrawals over several years which can lower your withdrawal taxes.
They can all be Global 100.
I just max one each year and once I have 5 will cycle through them in the same order. Splitting annual contributions sounds like quite a bit of effort but might be possible? I don’t think I would bother given the timeframe.
Funding real estate with a VIAC 3p sounds like a bad move. Its crazy tax efficient (6.8k tax writeoff, no wealth tax, no dividends tax) and I think I would prioritise keeping funds there than in real estate or my taxable investments. Pledging it is a different story if you can find a bank that allows you to pledge it while leaving it in VIAC.
4 Likes
I would think that 3 or maybe 4 should be ideal for most people.
Pillar 2 and 3a can both be withdrawn between 60 and 65 - assuming pillar 2 is in a pension fund (Pensionskasse) and you don’t work after 65. (Freizuegigkeits-accounts can also be withdrawn between 65 and 70). The withdrawals in each year are added up for tax purposes (tax calculation is separate from income).
In most cantons, you want to have about equal withdrawals (again, due to tax). Pillar 2 is quite big and can be split in 2, in some cantons even 3 withdrawals. For this, you would have to be able to reduce your work percentage each time. Whether this is possible, depends also on your employer and the rules of the pension fund. If you quit working before 60, the mandatory and super-mandatory parts of pillar 2 can be split to 2 different Freizuegigkeits-institutions.
So… we have two bigger junks of pillar 2 and, according to my calculation, 6 slots. This leaves 3 or 4 yearly slots for 3a withdrawals.
1 Like
You can use Amex at Coop, Migros, Denner, Manor, Aligro but not at Nestlé Shop, Volg, Aldi, Salt (online), Swisscom (online).
2 Likes
Ah OK, interesting. I’ll be honest, with passive income like that you could probably FIRE right now. But you’d have little flexibility (at least living in Switzerland). And it probably wouldn’t be very fulfilling!
Better is to take risks to move ahead in your career, knowing you’ve got money to fall back onto. That, and you have the freedom to, and should, take year-long “sabbaticals” to backpack the world when between jobs, especially when you’re young… It will widen your perspective on the world, life, and yourself. 
2 Likes
That’s music to my ears. I’d only add - focus on what is truly important in life.
4 Likes
VT has 6.3% small+micro caps.
VTI has 4.8%.
VXUS has 9.9%.
Just to add to the mix for the other combos:
VEA 8.8%.
VWO 14.3%.
(Source etf.com)
With a non-VT-only setup you could possibly compose:
- more of small/micro caps
- knowing which proportion comes from which market (because in VT they don’t tell you if those 6.3% are split same as the overall regional composition of the ETF is; it could as well be that 90% of small caps comes from emerging markets)
- for slightly lower total fees
- reweighting regions as you want
Of course it brings more complexity for questionably different results (possibly none, or worse if you get entangled too much).
Anyway in my eyes it doesn’t matter that much.
Their percentage is so small that it probably won’t have a significant impact on your portfolio no matter what, and if certain small caps companies grow sufficiently “big” with time, I expect the ETF to “reweigh” them and assign to the mid/large caps soon enough.
(My reasoning might easily be wrong → happy to learn if it is)
P.S. @OP really fantastic to see someone that young thinking that seriously about the future. You are very well set for success - rock it!
2 Likes
That’s true, but not my goal. I think with my starting position I might aswell work some years (maybe 80%), take some sabbaticals and try to grow my own business further.
This could provide me with a FatFIRE portfolio in by the time I’m 30-40 years old.
2 Likes
Interesting analysis. I think I’ll just stick to VT for now, I don’t really want to over/underweight any markets.
Thank you
1 Like