Switzerland as a place for FIRE?

Life Hacking
61

My philosophical approach to retirement is gently sliding into it.

Using one’s portfolio and/or F-you money (JL Collins anyone) to keep options open, reduce workload if possible depending on the work field, switch to part-time and or consultancy positions, assuming one is happy doing what they’re doing in their current profession.

Or use said money cushion to regroup and take the time to invest in / change to a new career if needed later in life.

People want to be engaged in meaningful activities later in life too and so rather than thinking of retirement of “I stop working and start raking leaves in the garden or sipping enough cocktails on my porch that I can afford out of my 4%” I’d think it’s more a point of where you have amassed enough savings / investments that you can start really choosing what do to with your time, be it working till your 75 in something that you’re passionate about, or taking yearly sabatticals from your consultancy job to travel the world every 3 years.

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62

I have to admit that latest development in the world (inflation, war, heatwave, climate damage) does suggest that in 25+ years, Switzerland may be a good place to be.

Not sure I would like to be anywhere else tbh. It will be more expensive…but inflation is ramping up more everywhere else.

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63

Pick your place well tho. Many parts might still be heavily impacted by drought, forest fire, etc.

Also with a longer time horizon, not sure what happens when glaciers are gone (but that will have a cascading impact on all of Europe).

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Most of the water of the lakes in summer come from the glacier melting.
Not sur what will happen once the Mont Blanc won’t be white anymore.

we will need to retire in Norway

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But Norway has too little sunshine. It has to be a place not too far north, that still has acceptable temperatures. Maybe Ireland? Or just a town in Switzerland with high elevation: Zermatt, St Moritz, Verbier, Davos, Klosters, Crans-Montana. All of these places are expensive as hell, though.

66

Too much rain in Ireland for me

67

If this is an attempt at forecasting what location will be best for the many years to come, I’m not sure this is a solvable problem. Maybe it isn’t even the right problem to solve, at least until you are 70+?

For me, I’m setting the financial targets for FI in Switzerland. At least an FI target that supports a lean RE in Switzerland. After that I have the choice of staying here or moving somewhere with similar or lower cost of living (and / or continue working for a little longer, wherever). Personally I can imagine staying a few years near Prague, then maybe Netherlands / Denmark / Iceland / Norway, to later return to Switzerland again. If we want to keep options open, the problems to solve become more questions of mobility:

  • Tax treatment of high wealth but no to low income in various countries?
  • Will I be able to rent / get a mortgage without income?
  • Do I want to own real estate in CH that is rented out, giving an option to move in myself later on? Or too annoying to deal with tax wise when living in a different country / deal with tenant issues / worse return than stocks / etc…?
  • Cost & effort of moving household multiple times? Do I want to own ‘stuff’ or is my wealth invested and I can travel light?
  • Impact on 1st pillar pension when moving before 65 years old?
  • Am I okay with basic health insurance packages, having to assume that extra stuff will be hard to get into when returning to CH with 60 - 70?
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If I knew I could get a job easily, I would have fired already. For some of us, we are in niche positions with jobs rarely turning up. Or industry where time out is penalised etc.

Quitting my job, I would consider a 1 way trip. For sure, I think I could get another job if I needed, but I’d expect to get paid maybe half of my current salary.