Yesterday I scratched my glasses in a pretty stupid way. I bought them last year in Lörrach (Germany) for 200€ (150€ was covered from my complementary insurance) and refused to take the 2 year insurance for 20€. Now I need to replace it and it will cost me 70€. In Switzerland it’s 110 CHF. In hindsight it was pretty stupid to refuse the insurance. I mean the real difference was 50€ or 70€. Next time I buy new glasses, I will def. take it.
Do you have experiences where you regret not spending more?
Since you’re talking about glasses, I go through sunglasses really quickly. The cheap ones for 10-20 CHF are made of shitty plastic that brakes just by itself after a month and the reflective coating of the glasses can be gone on contact with suncream or maybe even rain. More expensive sunglasses are however a no-no for me. I already lost glasses for over 100 CHF in the sea or in the river. Never had real Ray Bans for 250 CHF and would never buy them. Maybe they’re more durable but that won’t help if you just lose them.
Well, but you’re aware that they don’t offer the insurance out of good heart? They make money on it. So statistically speaking, you’re always better off not taking an insurance, unless the one who offers it is bad at statistics .
So there is a trade-off between durability and risk of losing them. How much are you spending on glasses per year?
But you are of course right. I mean I have glasses since 20 years and I always buy new ones after 3-4 years, never needed an insurance till today. That’s why it’s pissing me off lol.
I have glasses for PC which I bought 5 years ago for 350 CHF, but the price were mostly the Porsche Design frames that I liked. I still have them and they are fine.
Sunglasses, hard to tell. I think in the last year I bought sth like 5 pairs for 10-20 CHF. So maybe 70 CHF last year? I had really solid metal sunglasses for 150 CHF but a big wave came when I was at the beach and blew them off my face
Yes I had regrets in the past but for a very specific hobby…fishing. I tried to buy some cheap replica of Mepps and/or stucki thun spinner (the best out there, around 5-6 chf each) but the replica never really worked as well as the brand name. Bad quality, rust, the hook-tip was not as sharp etc. Definitely regretted buying 10 cheap instead of 5 of the brand one.
The same can be said for lines and fishing reels.
only with rods I had good experience with cheap brands.
I am also pretty much of a pech-ist when it comes to those.
In the last 2 years I turned out without 3 of them - 2 lost (really me forgetting them behind me, no 3rd party interference, other than perhaps taking them as they weren’t there when I got back) and 1 stolen.
Problem is I need decent quality ones for (high) mountains, as I do care about my eyes and won’t save 50CHF to turn out with eye damage from sun+snow/glacier combinations.
I just accepted it as a yearly fixed costs and laugh about it.
I wonder if the cheap ones from Ale Hop or Flying Tiger are really that bad? They all state that they’re “Category 3”, which means “8%-18% transmission – strong brightness, light reflected of water or snow”. I even have 10 CHF sunglasses with UV400. You think they’re lying?
Btw I absolutely need sunglasses during a sunny day. I have bright iris and it just hurts to look with a naked eye.
No I don’t, I think those having the “UV400” and “cat.3” marks should be truthful.
I however prefer cat.4 as well as ideally photochromatic (2-4) ones, for when conditions are changing.
And those rarely exist outside of established brands, unfortunately.
Mobile network: Swisscom just because they have the best coverage and customer support.
Health insurance: 300CHF franchise just to not worry about medical bills. I once had a 2500CHF franchise, was sick and didn’t go to the doctor because I didn’t want to pay the bill. This might be dangerous sometimes if you have a more serious illness.
Food: I could save money by buying groceries in Germany or Swiss Lidl/Aldi, but I buy everything at Coop and Migros. Meat always from Switzerland, despite the 2-3x higher price/kg. 3 main reasons: Environment and ethics, higher quality and saving time.
Vacations: My friend is always bragging how cheap his vacations with his wife are, they spend 2.5-3k/year in total. Always looking for good deals in suboptimal seasons (it was raining when he went to the Maledives). Me personally I don’t care about saving money here. Me and my girlfriend spend 12k/year easily on vacations. Great hotels, great places, great activities, just great memories.
Office 365: Google Sheets would be for free, but I really like Office and OneDrive.
I had Swisscom for 2 years and now Salt for 3 years and I can’t complain. Salt 4G works fine and their 4G Mi-Fi for 10 CHF was a great deal. I complained recently about Salt Fiber but I think the fault lies in Wi-Fi and the layout of my flat.
But I agree, especially in the age of home office, a solid internet is worth a lot and you should not cheap out on it.
That is really something worth considering for me. I’m on 2500 CHF and I tend to have some stomach pains but I don’t get it sorted out because I don’t want to pay a few thousand. In retrospect, it would have been worth it, for all the discomfort I went through already…
I too shop at Coop and Migros. I drop by to Lidl sometimes, but the shop just looks sad and many products are missing.
I used to be like your friend, but I guess mostly because of my Polish mindset. Everything outside of Poland is super expensive with a Polish salary. Me and my friends used to hunt for deals. But since I got a Swiss salary and a Swiss gf, I slowly lifted my vacation budget. I can live with spending 200 CHF per night in a hotel or 1000 CHF for an intercontinental flight. I guess I spent 5k in total on flights & accommodation last year, so 10k in total with my gf.
I indulge myself like this because I’m working and travel is my main source of regeneration. Once I’m FIREd, I don’t know how I will handle it. Maybe slow travel (combining cheaper flights, not flying exactly when everyone wants, staying for longer, cooking yourself) will bring the costs down?
What I considered was iCloud storage. I’m using Google Photos, but since all my devices are Apple, I could as well make the switch 3 CHF per month can buy a lot of convenience.
There are few things that are worth paying more for it and it’s really personnal. In my case, these are the thing where I intentionnaly pay more
Crossfit Membership : CHF 1’695.- / year. I don’t like Fitness Gym with incompetent coach (there are some exception, but they are few).
Food : Like you, I could go to Aldi, but I don’t like the quality and I’m more a “migros guys” since I’m living in Vaud and I don’t want to lose 3-4h to go in France.
Internet, TV, Phone : I’m with Sunrise (really happy with and never had problem with them) and got the QoQa Deal for the mobile phone and took the entire set of Sunrise One. so I’m paying CHF 98.50 /month. I’m ok with that since I use a lot of data from my phone (Spotify, YouTube, Netflix) and playing online (~ 500 Mbits).
Cloud storage : I’m with Infomaniak (CHF 65.- / year for 2 To) in order to stock some pictures and other documents in the cloud.
For other thing, I never take other insurance for special purchase since a lot of thing are already included in many insurance (travel, health, household).
Good info, there are a few things that are worth paying more for it and it’s really personal.
Gym Membership : CHF 399.- / year. - Basefit. I get 200 CHF as reimbursement thru health insurance
Food : Mainly Migros. I have Famigros account also which helps with extra points. Go to Germany twice a month for groceries and meat/alcohol.
Internet, TV, Phone : Was with Salt till now. Both me and wife pay CHF 30/- for all inclusive but limited roaming. Shifting to Sunrise mid-Nov for all inclusive roaming in EU and US for CHF 37.5 per month
TV and Internet was with Salt Fiber for CHF 39.95. Now shifting to Sunrise Home Comfort for CHF 45 per month as we are shifting to a new apartment and there is no Salt/fiber connection there.
Vacations: We actively look for discounts and travel deals and also maximise package vacations. For e.g. stayed at a 5 star resort in Portugal last year for an average of CHF 155 per night on a half pension basis inclusive of drinks (this offer was only as a package deal for 7 nights).
Health insurance: 1270 CHF per month. Company pays the same for me, wife and kid. No out of pocket costs.
Always looking to cut costs and optimise wherever possible, without reducing quality of life.
That’s just stupidly irrational. If you’re not chronically ill, you’ll pay way more for the privilege of having 300 CHF deductible than you’ll ever recoup from insurance benefits. Also don’t forget insurance doesn’t cover everything. An ambulance ride, dentist visit, new glasses, etc are all gonna cost $$$ out of pocket, low deductible or not
Switch to 2500 CHF plan and book savings on your insurance premium as your ‘health splurge stash’ or something, you’ll end up richer.
Hey, where did you get that offer? I would gladly pay this price for unlimited roaming! I was already in Austria and Poland this year and both times payed 20 CHF for an extra 1 GB roaming at Salt.
Is it? If you know that you tend to be irrational at times, you will look to have it taken care of in the future. It’s like not keeping sweets at home, so that every time you want something sweet, you need to get dressed and go to the gas station - extra effort. That seems stupidly irrational, but this way you encourage healthy lifestyle.
It is also healthy to get checked if you feel bad, and not just hope that it will go away. One neglected case can cost you thousands, or maybe even your life. It’s rational to assume humans are irrational.
I’m also paying more for my internet connection.
I’m with swisscom for one reason. I don’t really like to spend time waiting on phone, and with swisscom, you can just live chat with them or by whatsapp. Of course, if it’s an urgent matter, you have to phone ^^’
I’ll will also pay for a badminton club membership, just for my own pleasure
and sometime for good restaurants
other than that, I always try to hunt for the minimum
The point is as a healthy adult who’s not a regular at medical institutions you’re nearly guaranteed to save more with 2500 CHF deductible
If the fear of occassionally dropping a couple grand on a doctor’s bill is preventing you from seeing the doctor, use the accounting trick I described above - imagine that these couple grand come from savings on premiums you didn’t have to pay
With 300 CHF deductible you’re pretty much just prepaying most of the difference upfront with some discount from insurance. And you’re only paying for stuff that basic insurance covers, anything else is still out of pocket extra - it could come from those savings too
I don’t think it’s that easy. The money is not gone, it’s still there. I could not fool myself like that. Btw, am I correct with these calculations?
a 2500 CHF franchise costs 250 CHF per month = 3000 CHF per year
a 300 CHF franchise costs 400 CHF per month = 4800 CHF per year
So if you know you want to do some medical checkups once a year plus there is the cold, maybe you need a more costly diagnostic, then you could get pretty close to the difference. I mean, the gastroscopy that I didn’t do was 800 CHF and just the “talk” before it was 200 CHF…
2018: 3’066 CHF in medical bills (577 CHF paid by me)
2019: 2’694 CHF in medical bills (539 CHF paid by me)
2020: 1’704 CHF in medical bills (so far, 440 CHF paid by me)
I’m with Swica now and pay 334 CHF per month with 300 CHF franchise, it would be 227 CHF per month with 2’500 CHF franchise. So I could save 1’284 CHF per year on insurance costs, but in return I would have paid:
Wow your medical bills are really high! You have some chronic health problems? I paid under 1000 for each year for the last 5 years. And I’m in my mid-30s.
Ah the advantage of being young I’m sure I would pay much more. Edit: I checked Comparis, it would cost 354 CHF, so not THAT expensive! Only 100 CHF more than the 2500 one.
By reading and partipating to this forum, you confirm you have read and agree with the disclaimer presented on http://www.mustachianpost.com/
En lisant et participant à ce forum, tu confirmes avoir lu et être d'accord avec l'avis de dégagement de responsabilité présenté sur http://www.mustachianpost.com/fr/
Durch das Lesen und die Teilnahme an diesem Forum bestätigst du, dass du den auf http://www.mustachianpost.com/de/ dargestellten Haftungsausschluss gelesen hast und damit einverstanden bist.
.
and laugh about it.
(there are some exception, but they are few).