My 30-yo Mustachian Life Crisis

Hey everybody,

I’m 30 years old and discovered the movement and this blog several weeks ago. I have no “financial” background and am quite the noob. My intel acquisition phase is now over and I’m getting to the planning phase.

Like many others, I paid a SwissLife Select agent in 2016 to become my “financial advisor”. My wife and I each signed a pillar 3a life insurance contract with PAX: max deductible for me (now 568ish.-/year), 250.-/year for my wife. As you might have understood by now, I’m thinking about switching to VIAC + getting an independent life insurance asap to avoid losing any more money…

My PAX contracts started on 01.04.16, and for simplicity’s sake, let’s consider it’s 01.04.21 today:

  • I paid on average 566 x 12 x 4 = 27’168.-
  • My wife paid 250 x 12 x 4 = 12’000.-
    On the initial contracts, the “valeurs de rachat” on that date amount to:
  • 18’771.- for me
  • 8’311.- for my wife
    Which means I’d lose 8’397 + 3’689 = 12’086.- if I “buy it back”.

I have the following questions for you guys:

  • The aforementioned “valeurs de rachat” were initially calculated with the guaranteed 0.75% yield. I’m waiting on PAX to give me the actual numbers but as the de facto yields were a little higher than 0.75%, I guess the actual “valeurs de rachat” will be a little higher, am I right?
  • If I get it correctly, it’s not that I would have “lost” the 12k, but that’s what the life insurance part and the other fees would have “cost” me, right?
  • I read on this forum that Vaud only allows 2 3rd pillar contracts per person, can I easily setup 2 different VIAC accounts per person?
  • Let’s assume that 2 years from now, I have a value of X CHF on my VIAC 3a pillars, if I want to use it to buy a new home, will there be any significant fees for terminating the VIAC account?

Thanks in advance for all the useful answers! I hope I’ll be able to get my sh*t straight asap!

Robin

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It is not what I heard. You can open 5 accounts, but make sure you don’t take one on the 23rd december and the next one on the 5th january…

I read on this forum that Vaud only allows 2 3rd pillar contracts per person, can I easily setup 2 different VIAC accounts per person?

You can have 5 accounts in the Canton of Vaud. I’ve asked about that to the “Administration cantonale des impôts” and they said that (in french):

Dans le canton de Vaud les comptes OPP3 ne sont pas limités pour le moment, je ne m’engage donc pas pour le futur sachant que tout change très vite dans le domaine des assurances et de la prévoyance.
Chaque retrait Opp3 donne donc une imposition séparée sur l’année au cours de laquelle il est retiré.
Attention l’art. 49 LI et 38 LIFD précisent bien que tous les retraits (prévoyance 3ème pilier a, 2ème pilier et autres soumis à ce genre d’imposition ) effectués dans la même année fiscale se cumulent qu’il s’agisse du contribuable ou de son conjoint.
Des versements OPP3 et des retraits réitérés peuvent être cependant examinés sous l’angle de l’évasion fiscale

And this:

Le fait de procéder de la sorte par exemple : créer un compte OPP3 en 2021, le racheter en 2022 et recréer un en 2022 et le racheter en 2023 sont des opérations examinées sous l’angle de l’évasion.

Hope it can help all mustachians who are living in the Canton de Vaud.

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Alrighty, thanks for correcting that!

Does it mean that I can have for example 3 accounts in Viac and 2 in Finpension?

Yes I think so. (Filling 20 chars limit).

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Yes, like all other canton you can have 5 accounts for your 3a in 5 differents provider if you want. The problem was more about the withdrawal. I asked for a precision and give them an example but they were not or can not answered if 5 withdrawals over 5 years could be considered as tax evasion.

In my opinion: no because in order to do that you have to not declare something that is part of your income and by withdrawing a 3a account you are taxed so the Tax department will know it in your tax declaration of the year.

I don’t know why this « rumor » exist in the Canton de Vaud…

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You’ve been switzerlanded and unlikely to get it back, accept the loss and move on. Write off as a Lerngeld.

It’s not really a lot of money. If it is a lot to you, you’ve got more urgent problems to worry about

Unless you plan to pass out in swiss there’s little point in doint that. But yes you can have as many accounts as you want, only total contribution per year is capped

Of course. Especially so in french cantons. Oh and in 2 years you’ll have maybe 10k there? That’s literally nothing as far as buying a house goes. Wrong problem you’re worrying about here my friend

Thanks for sharing.

To me it sounds shady to say that they would investigate for tax evasion instead of setting up rules so that you know clearly in advance what is legal and what is not. Do you guys know if legislation in other countries are that vague?

Thanks for the answers.
Regarding the house-buying thing I’m counting on having one day another source of cash (hi, Dad!) for the “fonds propres” and use the 3rd pillar only as “nantissement”, so no worries.