After living 10 years in Switzerland, I’ve never been in a position to call it home. I am sacrificing my preferences and needs because i know that as a family our life will be overall better here than elsewhere. But I grew up on the beach, and that hurts now.
I thought about buying a small place in Liguria (i’m Italian) but that doesn’t work. I tried it in the past weekend with an AirBNB. 4 hrs on saturday morning to find parking (yes, 4 hours). Two kids screaming in the car for 6 hours. Overall, very stressful. The only solution is to buy there an apartments within walking distance from the beach, but it did not feel right as well for several reasons - I’m picky and apartments cost really a lot for what you get.
The alternative idea is to buy in Puglia, where my wife and I are both from. But that takes away the flexibility of taking the car and going for a weekend. With current flight tickets prices, i don’t think i can get away with less than 600CHF for 4 people in quiet times and probably more around 1200 for summer time.
I can’t find an ideal solution, and at the same time deep inside i just can’t give this up. I will if I have to, but i won’t be happy about it.
I need to consider as well financial consequences of buying an apartment. It’s hard to get a mortgage and only 50%LTV from what i understand. I would need to rent it when we are not there, but it would be managed by a company.
Anybody in the same situation? How did you handle it?
Instead of buying the place by the beach, why not simply rent one? this could give you more flexibility in terms of location as well as variety and for only a few weeks of a year when you’re not working and so unable to go on holiday for longer it probably makes more financial sense too.
Thanks for the suggestion. The idea was more to evade for a long weekend. I can work from wherever i want, my wife can’t and kids have school… The idea behind buying was that if we’re not there it can be rented out and repay some of the mortgage expenses.
Were you thinking of short term rental though Airbnb or Booking? If so, this is quite a lot of work, and you’ll need someone locally. Also, it takes away a bit of your flexibility to stay there yourself.
So, we don’t take much holidays in July and August. I was thinking of letting a local professional manage it, they take 20% of the revenues. Did not do the math though. Flight prices are still an issue, i was checking now for September. It takes 1000 chf for 4 people for 3 days..
Hi, are you me? We’re here for 5+ years, we can’t call CH home and we’re not particularly happy at all. Then whenever we get to remember the school system, the teachers, the style, the safety of our kids taking their bicycles/trottis and going to/returning from school we grit our teeth and say this is too good for them from an educational point of view to take it away from them.
Flipside is that parents, individually and as a couple, need to be happy for the overall wellbeing of the family. Then secondary but importantly, the idea of roots, sense of belonging, relatives.
Let’s face it, this is though. I have to be honest, If i had 1.5M i would probably relocate to Italy. As I grew there and ended up in Switzerland with a decent career, my two boys should be able to do the same. But this is not the reality, so in some sense i feel stuck. My wife is happy, she’s a much more “balanced” person than I am with this respect.
Buying the apartment to escape felt like a temporary solution. Or maybe a psychological trick to make my brain think i am doing something about this.
The more i think about this, the more it seems we have just to cope with the reality. And hope that it will get better given that we are so lucky in so many ways.
I have friends of 25+ years who’re abroad, and I am abroad myself in one way or another for 25 years - we all feel “neither here nor there” and it’s poison for the soul. More importantly, if one doesn’t invest in a place emotionally, in their life there beyond the day to day, who don’t care about building something long-lasting, their dream and aspirations are always somewhere else, that’s also poison.
I feel the same. I’m from the Valais mountains but now living in this concrete jungle called Zurich. I think everyday about buying a second residence in the mountains. I’m naively thinking it will cure my homesickness but the truth is that it probably won’t.
the solution is FIRing. Save as much as you can and then move wherever you want!
except jokes, the above it’s important but hey guys the journey is also important. How to preserve health while you build wealth is as much as important. To like where you live is also very important. If some people live in ZH or Basel and hate it, then maybe think about Ticino or French side like Lausanne. For some southern European feels more home given the look & feel and language.
a second house also can have a big positive factor but it has to be relatively close if you want to use it often. Remember second house comes with lot Of hassle and additional Costs. However even a few hours away makes a difference
“Wherever you want” doesn’t make a lot of sense for most people on the planet, most people aren’t digital nomads, but indeed this is the right forum as there are overlaps of lifestyle/mentality between FIRE and “home is where you hang your hat” vs “home is where the heart is”.
We have this ongoing discussion at home for years already, we’re both very happy with the school and education system and style. One opinion is “a capable kid, properly supported will make it anywhere”, the counter is “yes, but why play life on hard?”.
I didn’t replicate the whole conversation, but yeah that’s the next point down, and it’s beginning to gain weight, particularly since we had a great holiday this year that made us double question what we’re gaining vs what we’re losing.
Switzerland is a pleasant place for kids to grow up, but from a learning perspective, I think they need to see more and experience more.
My fear is the opposite, Switzerland is too easy and I’m concerned that kids will be too soft and spoiled and not be able to deal with life in ‘hard mode’ if required to.
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