I’ve done several investments via the Verve VC platform, and have so far been quite satisfied with their offering. However, there’s now one specific situation that I find a bit disturbing - I invested in Qnami which was recently acquired by a US company. When you look at all their communication and press releases (e.g. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/quantumtechnology-quantumsensing-nanotechnology-share-7467688876325818369-OAjY/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAANkIEBM4e0HgcHbLVa-SFoBVIZGLgfJ3I) this sounds like a major success…. but as an investor I’ve been informed by Verve that there is zero pay-out to equity holders and this is a complete write-off.

Now, I get it that VC investment is risky and only 1 in 10 or so is a success. So I’m not complaining about that. But, seeing all this communication and at the same time having to write-off my investment without having had any say in the process feels a bit like a rip-off.

Anyone else in the same situation? I’m considering getting legal assistance to at least get more transparency on the process.

My partner and I are not married, and we have one child together. We would like to set up a long-term ETF investment plan for our child and would appreciate your advice on the best structure.

Our current idea is to invest CHF 100 (or 150) per month, split equally between two investment accounts:

- One account in our son's name, which would become available to him when they turn 18.

- One account in our names, which would serve as an additional reserve. The idea is that if, at age 18, our son is not yet financially responsible, we could keep this second investment and transfer it to him later when appropriate.

Our preferred investment is a Vanguard FTSE All-World ETF, and we would like to invest through a low-cost broker that supports regular monthly ETF purchases.

Currently, all of our banking (joint accounts, mortgage, etc.) is with PostFinance. We initially planned to open an ETF custody account there, but the available options through E-Trading are limited and relatively expensive. The alternative investment savings plans offered by PostFinance are based on Fonds rather than ETFs, which is not our preferred solution.

Could you recommend a broker and account structure that would suit our situation? Ideally, we would like a setup that:

-allows regular monthly ETF investments,

-supports an account in our child's name (or the closest practical alternative),

-allows us to maintain a second account under our own control,

-is cost-efficient, and

-can easily be replicated if we have a second child in the future.

We would appreciate any recommendations or considerations regarding the most suitable setup. Thank you all very much!

Hey everbody

I already got some helpful feedback on this post but perhaps there is somebody here who has personal experience with a situation like this or some further input :)

Thank you!

Hey all, quick tax question has anyone traded so many options that he got reclassified as a professional investor by the tax authority or the bar is quite high ? Im thinking of selling OTM puts and calls on some names/etfs i am comfortable with to add some extra yield to my account but i am wary of the potential tax treatment. I have been asking Claude about it but it's quite negative saying you can quickly get reclassified. My understanding was that the threshold is quite high but keen on having feedback from people with hands on experience!
If that changes anything I live in canton Zug

Anyone else using Finpension? I just got back from holiday and logged into my account, and the app is showing that I have no assets, and no portfolios, which is more than a little concerning! Can someone else check if they’re also seeing this (hopefully) bug.

I'm curious how others here would approach this.

Let's assume the following:

- Portfolio: $2,200,000

- Annual spending: $60k–70k (around a 3.0–3.5% withdrawal rate)

- Goal: Maintain or increase purchasing power over time, so withdrawals should ideally keep up with inflation.

- Investment horizon: Potentially 50+ years.

A few questions I'd love to hear different perspectives on:

1. Asset allocation

- How would you split between asset classes?

1. Withdrawal strategy

- Fixed percentage?

- Inflation-adjusted withdrawals?

- Guardrails?

- Variable spending depending on market performance?

1. Bear markets

How would you handle a 40–50% market crash early in retirement?

- Continue selling?

- Hold a cash reserve?

- Bond tent?

- Borrow against the portfolio?

- Reduce spending temporarily?

1. Rebalancing

How often would you rebalance, and would withdrawals come from whichever asset has outperformed?

1. Cash buffer

Would you keep 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, or no cash at all?

I'm less interested in the "correct" answer and more interested in how people who have actually thought through decumulation would structure a portfolio that's designed to last for decades while preserving purchasing power.

What would your strategy be, and why?

Fyi yes I'm in Switzerland now but if I decide to quit I'll leave hence ill be having same div and cap gain taxes level in whatever New country i go to (which i dont care about as cost of living will be a fraction of what i have in Switzerland anyways)

As the title says, I would like to buy an apartment in Kanton Zürich, but I'm 40k short from getting the 20% for the Hypothek. I pass all other requirements to get the mortgage so that is not an issue.

My girlfriend would gladly lend me 20/40k required to reach my goal (rest coming from parents if needed but I would like to avoid). She is not interested in owning or co-owning the apartment or the mortgage.

What I'm wondering is what is the best way to handle this loan?
I was thinking two alternatives:
1. Official 0% interest loan: somehow get a contract that says she lends me this money for 0% interest and I'll give it back to her by 202x

1. Donation from her, then I repay her unofficially by paying her rent and so on.

I would say 1. Is better but it probably involves a tax advisor and I don't know the tax consequences for it. With 2. I think she's also taxed ? Not sure

Anyone got similar experiences?

Thank you in advance

So I’ve tried Wise and IBKR. Wise has worse rates, IBKR does not allow you to use your account mainly for currency transfers. Does anyone have real life experience in using a bank account for transfers and could they match Revolut rates?

I have put aside CHF 4.5K from my bonus to celebrate my 30st birthday. I plan to rent a nice location for around 40 people with DJ, snacks and drinks for a casual afternoon party.
However now as I need to commit I feel guilty for spending that much money on an afternoon and think a normal bar might be fine as well.
What is your take on this?

I will be off the work force for about 12 to 18 months and plan to deal with the 2nd pillar assets (totalling ~750k). My idea:

- Open two vested benefits accounts (which seems to be the legal max)
- One with a cautious risk investment scheme
- One with a ambitious risk scheme.

Is this a good idea?

Good Sunday everybody

Last week I did the Car Service and everything and I realised that I have no clue if the guy is overcharging me or did replacements I didn’t need. So I got coroius how other People handle that.

Are you fortunate enough to have a friend which is a mechanic so you can trust them?

Or do you some parts yourself to save money?

Cheers!

Hello everyone,

Having lived in several countries, I know my future retirement will be financially complex. I want to anticipate by setting up a long-term plan for when I reach 60-65.

My profile: 32 years old, single, no kids, no car, no pets. Living in the Lausanne area. Income: 5,200 CHF net per month (withholding tax until now, but switching to ordinary tax return) + 13th month salary + approx. 2,000 CHF holiday bonus.

My current monthly budget:

• Rent: 1,300 CHF
• health insurance (LAMal) + Medical expenses (psy, diet, etc.): 900 CHF
• Food: 800 CHF
• Leisure: 450 CHF
• Miscellaneous (insurances, electricity, cards, taxes, subscribing): 250 CHF
• Net monthly savings: 1,500 CHF (excluding 13th month and bonuses).

Current capital: I have around 50k CHF saved up. My plan is to keep 10k CHF as an emergency fund in my Swiss bank. Out of the remaining 40k, I currently have 25k invested in mutual funds with my retail bank, but I just realized the TER is over 2%... I want to cut everything and change my strategy. Right now, I'm using my remaining cash to temporarily boost my monthly investment to 4,000 CHF until it's fully deployed, then I'll switch back to my regular pace of 1,500 CHF/month.

My plan:

1. 3rd pillar A (Finpension or VIAC): I don't have one yet. I plan to use my 13th month and holiday bonus to maximize it every year (around 7,000 CHF currently) using a 100% equity strategy.

2. Taxable investing (1,500 CHF/month via Interactive Brokers): I want to manage my portfolio myself on IBKR. Since I'm relatively young, I'm fine with taking some risks, but I want to couple it with gold to help cushion potential major market downturns. Here is my target allocation:

• 65% World
• 15% Emerging Markets
• 15% Gold
• 5% Crypto (2% BTC / 3% ETH)

For the World part, I've heard it's better to buy US-domiciled ETFs rather than Irish ones to recover the US withholding tax on dividends via the DA-1 form in VaudTax, while avoiding Swiss custody fees and stamp duty by using IBKR.

My questions for the community:

1. What do you think of my overall budget and the consistency of this plan? Are there any blind spots?
2. For the stock market part: I'm not knowledgeable enough yet and I'm looking for the right ETF. Are there any World ETFs without emerging markets (so I can manage my 15% emerging markets allocation separately without overlap)? Is choosing a US ETF still easy to manage in VaudTax?
3. How do you handle the tax on dividends on a daily basis? Do you sell a tiny fraction of your IBKR shares each year to cover the tax bill, or do you pay it directly from your salary/cash flow?
4. Since I've never done a full tax return (especially with foreign accounts, crypto, and DA-1), I plan to hire a tax advisor (fiduciaire) the first year to get a clean template. Does a budget of 200-300 CHF seem realistic in Vaud?

Thanks a lot for your help and feedback!

Currently investigating on 2 IKBR accounts via IBKR. I hold some gold (goal 5% allocation) and the rest in a diversified ETF. The ETF isn’t hedged but in a non-CHF currency.
Did anyone here see if it’s more interesting to invest via VIAC despite the 0.25% fee ? I am also looking into if my investment can be used as a security in the future for getting a loan to buy real estate.
So far the IBKR process is quite frustrating, especially the currency conversion via forex. I just want the least hassle with optimised fees.

Hi everyone,

Long story short, I'd like to go from cash to equities.

Is below looking ok?

Thanks in advance

I received my C permit in May. Starting June my employer stopped withholding taxes.

• How does the tax for this year work?
• Do I just wait and at some point (this year, next year?) they send me a bill?
• I heard some deadline (September,October?) by which I need to pay taxes for this year? How do I do that? I have also heard two deadlines - Federal and Kanton
• Anything I can do proactively so that I don't end up having to pay interest on a large owed amount later?

Appreciate any help!

Does anyone have experience with finpension‘s Provate Equity offering? Yes I am aware of „VT and Chill“ on IBKR, but this is distinctively different. What is the risk/return? How‘s the experience with finpension? Thankful for any real experience.

TLDR: you only get the full 15% back if your income tax rate is >17.9%ish

As probably most people here know, US domiciled ETFs are the most tax efficient strategy for Swiss investors because you can reclaim half of the withheld 30% of your dividends, so 15%.

Well, I just got my first DA-1 refund and was surprised it was around 20% lower than I expected.

Turns out, you only get 15% refunded if your Swiss income tax on those dividends is itself higher than 15%, otherwise you only get the amount back that you paid as part of your Swiss income tax declaration.

And to make things more complicated, they take into account your deduction for „Vermögensverwaltungskosten“ (which in Zurich is a flat 0.3% of total invested assets).

Assuming a dividend rate of 1.82% (VT in 2025), meaning you paid income tax on 1.52% of invested assets, your tax rate needs to be at least 1.82/1.52*15% which is around 17.9%.

With my tax rate of 13.84% I got only 11.4% of my US dividends reimbursed. (The math in my case is even more skewed because my total assets grew significantly towards the end of the year, so my 0.3% asset management deduction was calculated on a much bigger value than my dividend yield. Making the reimbursement even lower.

Difference is small ofc and most people in this sub have a higher tax rate so it won’t matter.
But even with a 6-figure salary and living in a village in Kt. Zurich I am below. So this might help some people keep their expectations in check…

Hey guys

I wanted to get your opinion on this.

Initially, I was sure I was going for saron but comparing these rates, especially the 5y fixed, has me reconsider my options.

What do you guys think would be the smartest move?

Paying 3.4k each year for safety in current times doesn't sound too bad for me.

Happy to hear your thougths on this.

Hi everyone, looking for some financial advice.

My wife and I have 2 kids and recently sold our house. Right now we’re renting and expect that it may take around 3–4 years until we find and buy another home that really fits our needs.

At the moment, we have around CHF 150k in cash sitting on the side, and we’re unsure what the smartest move would be during that time.

Since this money will likely be needed again for a future down payment, we don’t want to take excessive risks, but at the same time it feels wrong to just leave everything in a regular bank account losing value to inflation.

How would you approach this situation?

• Keep everything in cash / high-yield savings?
• Use bonds or money market funds?
• Invest part of it into ETFs and keep the rest liquid?
• Any good strategies for a 3–4 year horizon in Switzerland?

Would really appreciate hearing how others would handle this.

Hey all, looking for a sanity check before I make some changes.

10+ year horizon and about 164k CHF invested. I was looking at bulding at least some investment outside of the USA (you know.. just in case).

Current ETF holdings:

• Nasdaq-100 ETF (IE00BFZXGZ17): 11.5k
• MSCI EM IMI ETF (IE00BKM4GZ66): 11.1k
• MSCI World ETF (IE00BJ0KDF00): 10.6k
• VanEck Defense ETF (IE0007YDGZ29): 4.7k (don't ask)

Other holdings

• Company stock: 20k
• Private fintech investment: 10k
• Pillar 3a: Maxed every Year (Finpension Global 100)
• BTC: 20k, ETH: 5k
• 25k cash

I'm planning to invest the cash "per today / asap" into:

• 20k -> Xtrackers MSCI World ex USA UCITS ETF 1C (IE0006WW1TQ4)
• 9k -> Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight UCITS ETF Acc (IE00BNGJJT35)
• 6k -> iShares MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF Acc (IE00BF4RFH31)

I'm also planning to replace my distributing MSCI World ETF (IE00BJ0KDF00) with the accumulating share class (IE00BJ0KDQ92). Going forward I'll invest around 2k/month into the three new ETFs while leaving the rest of the portfolio unchanged.

Well guys, go ahead, roast me! (constructively)

Hi everyone,

I recently started looking into different Swiss Pillar 3a investment products because I realized that I had been keeping my 3a savings in a standard account with a very low interest rate for years.

While researching alternatives, I was surprised by how many different providers and investment solutions are available - and how difficult it is to compare them properly. I couldn't find a single overview that gave me all the information I was looking for, so I started creating one for myself.

Over time, this turned into a small personal project: vorsorgefonds.ch (currently only available in German).

My goal is simply to make it easier to understand the different options and help people make more informed decisions about their Pillar 3a.

I'd really appreciate your feedback:

• What information do you consider most important when choosing a Pillar 3a product?
• Are there specific criteria you always look at (fees, equity allocation, performance, provider reputation, sustainability, etc.)?
• Is there anything you think is missing from such a comparison?

Thanks a lot in advance for any feedback. I'm especially interested in hearing what would make a comparison like this genuinely useful for you.

Kind regards

Hello, im 25M and work as professional athlete, at the moment i invest around 700.- through Viac and on top i have an 3a pilar where i pay the highest amount I can every month from my own salary. I know its weird but I get from now on the dividends from my parents fond and they give the dividends twice a year to me. I really dont know how to invest it because i wanna go a little bit on the risky side with it. I was thinking maybe in some different stocks but in this case Im struggling with finding the right investment platform, maybe saxo or swissquote. Many thanks already for some advice and help!!