We’re very conflicted as we’re considering having a child but we have to hurry because it’s becoming more complicated with age.
We left CH but are debating coming back, going to Luxembourg, or to France.
A big question mark for CH is that while the salaries are higher we have the impression that daycare is extremely expensive and practically forces the mother to stop working.
So we’re looking for testimonies of mustachians who had children: did one of you stop working? Was it the mother or the father? How much did daycare cost you? Any other insights?
Most expensive factor of a baby is that from two persons that work 100% you go down to somewhere around 140-160%
This loss of income is the most important cost of having children no matter what daycare or hobby the kids need.
In our case, we are being subsidized because we live in Zurich city so we are far away from ‘mommy needs to stop working because it’s cheaper’. Also tax goes down a lot if you work less and daycare can be deducted. In the long run, the job opportunities are much better if she was working at least 40% instead of trying to find a job after 7-10 years of childcare. It does depend on the job and on the profile. Teaching is probably easier than programming
The most expensive daycare I’ve found, next to Zürich HB, was around 2’500 CHF/month at 100%.
So even after taxes, financially it should make sense for both to be working, since they are most likely gonna earn more than 3’000 CHF/month at 100%.
I have the gut feeling that the mommy who stops working also likes to do so and wants to spend time with the kinds (which is perfectly fine) but some people then tell me they do so for economic reasons and none of those people seem to have thought about long term effects (see above)
In general you need to find a way that works for you. In my case, I work 80% and my SO 50%
When I tell people, that things get cheaper after 4y, I have heared the argument ‘but clothing! and hobbies!’ However I havent seen people whose children have hobbies that cost > 10k per year
This becomes a different story if there are 2 kids (5k/month). But the arguments with long-term job implications of dropping out for a few years still stand of course.
No kid yet but my wife’s pregnant and we’re on the waiting list for child care. We’re both relatively high earners (around 280k in total) so close to no subsidies for us.
If we find a place in a public child care it will be around 2500.- per month for full time, otherwise 3150.- for private.
We’re considering both reducing our work rate so that we both work 80% and the kid gets 3 days per week of child care, looks like the best compromise all things considered, but we’re not there yet.
Just a qualitative answer from me: I spent 3 years in Luxembourg and noticed very generous conditions for parental leave, free public transport, cheap daycare, tax deductions for children, all while offering relatively competitive salaries and reasonable cost of living (as compared to Switzerland). I made a mental note to go back there in my next life to start a family
Can confirm some 6-7k per year for each regular day as the full price. Until 18 months rather 7k, many have a higher rate for babies.
With kindergarten age, this goes down by more than half and where I live is provided by the community and more modular.
Note that some employers offer subsided child care and where I live, up to 25k are tax deductible, which brings the net amount down a good bit.
We both went part-time. But not to save on child-care, but spent more time with the kids. Yet, I think kids also benefit from some child-care early on, even if there’s a stay-at-home parent or other caretaker around.
Especially with several kids, child-care is the biggest monthly cost, but it’s the opportunity cost from working part-time that hits hardest financially. Since you mention age, I guess you both had already some years to build a career and savings.
A lot of parents with newborns I know (think of millennials with higher qualifications) share some 140% to 160% work pensum between them. Sometimes split evenly, but still skewed between mothers and fathers. Till the baby hits 5-12 months, the mother often takes some form of unpaid vacation to extend maternity leave.
Could be due to personal circumstances and not representative, of course.
We have two kids, and they go full time into childcare, peak costs for both are around 5,5k month for some time, but they will drop to 4,5k after our bigger one stars kindergarten in a few months and drop even further later. For one kid, when one does the math, none of the parents should stop / reduce work time considering financial reasons, as you are still earning / saving better when both parents are working 100%. If you want to spend more time with the kid, then yes, you can reduce as much as you want. For two kids, depends on the salaries and it’s individual.
In canton Berne there is not that big difference between private or public daycare. I think public daycares exist only in the city of berne.
Parents get a reduced rate according their income through the Kibon system. I think the income cap is around 180k, depending on familiy size.
the full fee is often between 130-160 CHF/day incl food (from 12 months on).
I believe many parents do not respect opportunity costs if they come to the conclusion that for financial reason it is better to drop out of the labour market for some years.
I also believe that your decision for children should not depend on how much the first years will cost you.
Given the massive costs of daycare, it can pay to shop around. I know people who moved from Basel Land to Basel Stadt as in BS, I heard they capped kita prices to 1600. That’s about 1000 less than BL.
Financially, I think it can make sense to pay for daycare if it preserves your career.
For us, it was also important to put our kids into daycare as neither of us are native German speakers and so we wanted our kids to pick up the local language.
Now kids are tri-lingual and already speak better German than me at 4 years old!
In purely financial terms, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a situation in which being a homemaker is preferable to working. That is true even for low-paid jobs. Even if that parent’s entire salary goes to covering daycare, the total gain is still generally higher than not working, as there are AHV and pension fund contributions, the ability to use the pillar 3a, and the cost of daycare is tax deductible. Plus many cantons have an extra tax deduction when both parents work.
Of course, finances are just part of it. When my first kids were young, I spent their first years in part-time self-employment, and spent the rest of my time with them. I’d never exchange that time for a few more $$ in the bank.
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