Mandatory Expenses once FIREd

It’s 4’400 CHF, so 0.22% of your assets (like you said). This is a significate expense :open_mouth:

Indeed it is :pensive: it’s like an extra to the wealth tax. :-1:

It can be reduced if you are married and your partner works & pays a certain amount AHV Beitrag (twice minimum). But I’m not married, so haven’t looked into it.

Having, supporting & looking after a child also could get you off the hook, but info hasn’t been totally clear to me on this.

So with 2 million in assets and taking AG as my current canton: 4.4k AHV and 12k in income/wealth taxes. In Zurich it’s 9.1k in taxes. In Luzern it’s 10.2k in taxes, In Zug it’s 6.5k in taxes. So we are looking at 11-16k for AHV and taxes per year. With a 3.5% withdrawal rate ~20% of your 70k/year are gone.

AHV is deductible from the income, so on income tax you might not pay a lot of taxes (I don‘t know where income taxes start, might be canton dependent)

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You’re right, forgot about that. But one you are retired, what are you going to deduct from taxes besides AHV? In canton AG only 2’000 CHF for health care insurance and that’s it.

Your income won‘t be that high, will it? Unless you fatfire… Let‘s say you life on 50k. 25k through dividend.

OP is back!
I have finally reached my 25k CHF x 25 = 625k CHF!!!
yeeeeh party time!
I, of course, will retire tomorrow :rofl: :rofl:

EDIT: I have then noticed my first post cited 28k, so no party :sob: :sob: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
anyway my survival costs (rent, food, insurances, gym) are 23k, so I think I reached the lean FIREd status?

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What about taxes? Teeth? Unexpected costs?

It’s more a mental milestone than a real one :slight_smile:
of course I will continue working, accumulating and investing, but it is great to think a big chunk of my expenses is covered forever. At least it will give me confidence in the next future to try part-time work, or even change to a funnier job (barista FIRE style)

and I really can’t get when you ask about teeth and unexpected costs, I can’t imagine anything so dramatic

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I came up with the formula for the AHV once retired. Assuming you have at least 1.8 million in taxable assets. 3’763 CHF + (Taxable assets - 1.8 million CHF) x 0.00318.

So for example with 2.5 million it’s 5’989 CHF per year.

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I don‘t understand the formula, would be easier in algebra. 🥸

Taxable assets / wealth = x
AHV contributions once retired: 0.00318x - 1961

2nd pillar ‘Freizügigkeitskonto’ products, such as offered by VIAC or ValuePension, might become sufficiently attractive by the time I could get to RE that parking part of assets there would be net-positive. Maybe the lower performance would be offset by the lower wealth tax, AHV contribution based on wealth & the ‘Kapitalauszahlungssteuer’ still working for me.

Scenario 1): 2nd pillar capital * lower VIAC performance - (lower wealth tax + lower AHV contribution)
Scenario 2): (2nd pillar capital - ‘Kapitalauszahlungssteuer’) * better VT@IB performance - (higher wealth tax + higher AHV contribution)
Scenario 1) might win over scenario 2) with all things considered, it depends on how much is lost on relative performance differences due to TER / fees / % invested.

It might also be interesting to rerun the numbers on voluntary 2nd purchase: Move money into 2nd pillar ~2-3 years prior RE, moving it to e.g. VIAC at RE, cash out when required / 65 years old / at least 3 years post RE to not void tax benefits of voluntary purchase.

Something to check on would also need to be if:
a) you can get access to 2nd pillar funds when you need it without a huge hassle. This will take probably some planning, and emigration or setting up a business just to get funds out will come with a cost as well. Note also time limits in case of self-employment, apparently needs to be within 12 months.
b) you can get around the ‘Kapitalauszahlungssteuer’ entirely. Seems that you can claim it back if you become resident in a country with double-tax treaty and declare it there. Depending on that country’s tax regime it might swing favour into cashing out early.

In my case, with the current savings rate (~40%) & family situation (wife not working, 1 kid) I will reach FI around 55 years old… At that time it seems doable to keep a good chunk of assets in a good 2nd pillar product to bridge until 65. Then again maybe we can still do something on that savings rate… :thinking:

You could even keep it there till 70, still avoiding taxes on dividends and wealth.

True, regular pay out can be from earliest 60 to latest 70 years old for men, 59 to 69 for women. How likely that is still true when we get there is a different story though.

Apparently Pensionfunds can also split & pay out cash into 2 different ‘Freizügigkeitskonto’, which can then be cashed in individually. Still, if that makes sense stands or falls with the relative performance of ‘Freizügigkeitskonto’ vs. e.g. simply having VT at IB.

Let’s assume we live in canton Zürich. Let’s assume we stop working at 50 and cash out our pension fund of 500k into 2 seperate vested benefits accounts (for example ValuePension and Viac). Now lets calculate if it makes more sense to cash it out at 60 and invest it at IBKR or leave it there till 70. Factors that we need to consider:

Cons

  • Higher TER with VP/Viac
  • Capital gains taxed with VP/Viac in the end

Pros

  • No wealth and income taxes with VP/Viac
  • Less AHV contributions

Did I forget something?

We could add to the Pros that the starting capital is pre-tax and therefore generates a larger return for a given percentage of market performance. Once cashed out you will benefit from a lower TER, but on a lower post-tax capital. An additional Con would be that vested benefit accounts require some cash position (VIAC 3%, VP 1%?).

A note on the split into 2 separate accounts: Even though this works for 3a accounts, for 2nd pillar vested benefits accounts they seem try to remove any tax benefits from the split. At least they stated that as aim in this 2014 paper (german, page 4/5, second last paragraph).

What about asset allocation? What makes sense at that age? When I‘ll be FI it‘ll be about 80% stocks and 20% bonds (2nd pillar only), so I wouldn‘t invest that additional 20% anyways…

As I understand you will only be able to claim back the WHT if you pay higher taxes in the destination country

Where did you read that?