Question about currency loss EUR-CHF

Investing / Funding & Currency conversions
1

Hello, I need advice for this, I will leave out the details and try to be as clear as possible.

a few years ago I changed CHF into EUR because my german ex wife and I had a project in Germany so we needed EUR.

for example, let’s say I changed 200’000 CHF> I got 200’000 EUR.

after some years I divorced my ex wife so this project in Germany is ended and I don’t have any use of EUR, so I need CHF back, but at the current currency rate!

the problem? If I change back right now 200’000 EUR they are worth around 180’000 CHF (loss of 20’000 CHF).

What should I do? Invest the EUR? Change the currency and take the loss? I don’t need cash right now so it’s better to invest directly in EUR?

thank you

2

There is no “if”, your 200k EUR are worth 180k CHF and there is nothing you can do about it. Given that nowadays there are accessible ways to convert currency with low fees, both things are true: you have 200k EUR today and you have 180k CHF today, you can switch between this states with a click of a button.

Thinking about how much you paid for these EUR in the past is a fallacy. Forget about currency, decide how do you want to invest your current cash given your current situation and then if needed, convert your cash to the currency necessary to do that investment

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3

It depends on your overall investment strategy and your future currency needs. If you will need EUR again in the long term (e.g. moving to Germany after retirement), a EUR investment could make sense.
But if you have no such plans, and your investment strategy does not require additional EUR, take this money and invest it according to your investment strategy (i.e. buy more of your usual ETFs). Long-term this will increase your wealth the most. Anything else would be market timing (betting on a short term increase of EUR).

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4

There is only stuff that I can say you should have done in the past (other than what has been said already).

You should have at least invested that money in a money market fund to have gotten interest on it. Than it would maybe still be worth 200K CHF, you’d have gotten 2-4% interest in € over the years.

NEVER EVER just let money lying around. At minimum it needs to sit in a money market fund (to get minimum the ECB interest rate) or equivalent savings vehicle.

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5

thanks for the answer. do you think i should use a product like viac invest? or ask my bank and “park” these 200’000 there?

sorry but I don’t know much about these topics

6

Will you need the 200k in the next 5 years?
If not, then viac invest or finpension invest is a great choice. You choose a strategy and they do the rest. With finpension you have a bit more flexibility if you want to go for a custom portfolio. They are both great robo advisors.

my gut feeling is that your bank will be more expensive and less efficient than viac or finpension.

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7

Depends on how safe against volatility (the fluctuation of the value) you want that to be.

Also the currency question still exists. For CHF there is currentl no interest basically. For € there is about 2%. But CHF is also expected to rise in about that difference. So choose the currency for which you expect the future liability to be in.

Or if you want to take on some risk and invest in more risky assets:

I agree with @gaijin Finpension invest is probably a good adress for you. They will have a questionaire and then recommend you an asset allocation appropriate for your risk tolerance.

You can also post that outcome here and ask for feedback for example.

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8

If you do end up parking a significant amount of cash at a Swiss bank, I would check that the total sum doesn’t significantly exceed 100’000 CHF (or equivalent, deposits in other currencies are also covered) as that is the amount covered by the guarantee by esisuisse that applies in case a Swiss bank goes bankrupt.

For 200 kCHF, if my intent was to keep them in cash, I would use two different banks.

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