10K (assumed CHF) is more than enough. There is about 6% social costs (state pension and unemployment) deducted and with some deft tax form filling you should be able to keep deductions to 25% - including the social deductions. Living out of the town of Zurich where the 'tax foot' is lower will get this down further. Thalwil 82%, Kilchberg 83%, Rüschlikon 83% (2007), Town of Zurich 122%.

See them all for Canton Zurich here:

www.steueramt.zh.ch/html/steuerfuesse/steuerfuesse.htm

I don't know what kind of high quality opium you guys are addicted to but you can live on half that amount in a decent area. I don't have kids so can't calculate how much extra they cost but if challenged I could live comfortably on 4k per month with my partner in a 2.5 room flat. If you wine and dine a lot and blow your $ on beer then obviously things will get tight.

I say between 6k to 8k is good money. I think the average income here is around 5.5-6k.

1ok per month is fine for two adults + 2 kids + car + sending one of kids to private kindergarten. Don't expect to to save much though.

I had a great partment in north of zurich for 2500, this was 120 sqm, probably the minimum for a family with 2 kids, three bedrooms and 2 x garage spaces. Tat was on the high side for the norht of zurich and quite noisy due to the planes. But a great place to live otherwise....

Good luck!!

[quote=smbuzby]I had a great partment in north of zurich for 2500, this was 120 sqm, probably the minimum for a family with 2 kids, three bedrooms and 2 x garage spaces. Tat was on the high side for the norht of zurich and quite noisy due to the planes. But a great place to live otherwise....
quote]
Hey there,
Got great info. Now, I'm more relaxed with the money stuff
Back to the family friendly area... I'd love to hear about family friendly area. Note that we have a 5 years old daughter and we are Not after red windows\ hot lips locations. So, which area would you consider a nice place for kids, good public schools, and reasonable transportation to down town?
Thanks again,
Ariel

part (if not all) of your questions will most likely be answered on this thread.

Personally I am of the mind that there is no substitute for going and checking things out in person, even if it means starting out in temporary housing or making a scouting trip after you have identified a few areas of interest.

Hey there,
I know this thread. The problem is that it's oriented for non kids\ singles. I've seen in this thread that some of the people consider great night life as an issue, which is less significant for families.
Hey, I'm not that lazy... I agree that checking by myself is mandatory, yet I think that this great forum has already saved me a lot of running around. All I'm trying to do is to build for me (and other in the same situation) a better starting point.
So, all of you who have good things (or bad things) to share about family friendly places are welcome.

Thanks,
Ariel

I am moving to a place called Bonstetten in Zurich. I rented a huge 212m2 5.5 room apartment just for 2911 CHF / month including garage. How about that?

Hello by968840,
Sounds great!
Do you know if this is a family friendly area? I mean parks, nice schools, transportation, not too much noisy...
Thanks,
Ariel

Ariel,

My girlfriend (swissie) and I have been hunting for an apartment for 6 months. We are quite picky on where and how we would like to live so we hardly ever liked any flat we have found all around Zurich. We have considerably good income together but after all of our hunting adventure, we found a great place called Bonstten in North West Zurich.

Its right behind the mountain where Uto Kulm is and its only 6km away from Uetliberg. The area is very quite, very green and occupied by mostly Swiss families. Its a perfect place if you want to live outside the city but be as close as 10 minutes driving. The way to Bonstten from ZH is traffic free. There are a lot of local shopping options in the region. There is also a school, kindergarten etc. nearby. The best part is you get all of this at quite reasonable rent costs. Like I said I have a 2 storey, 200~m2 5.5 house for 2911 incl. garage. Most of the flats are above 140m2 and all of them are quite new. So I would highly recommend you to have a look at it.

Baris

Hi Baris,
Sounds too good..
Thank you for this.
Ariel

I would recommend looking outside the city among the towns along the lake. Along the right side, Zollikon, Zumikon, Erlenbach, Küsnacht, and Herriiberg are low tax areas, which would offset any higher rental costs. Meilen, Feldmeilen, Männedorf and Stäfa have slightly higher tax (still lower than Zürich city) but rents should be less expensive. All are very nice, family friendly towns. You could find a house or good sized 2 flat with large garden and still be less than a half hour train ride into the city.

Or, if your permit does not require you to live in KT ZH, come on out to my neck of the woods in SZ (Bezirk Höfe)... peaceful, quiet, lots of green open spaces, only 40 minutes from Zürich - and the taxes are half of what you are hit for in ZH.

Actually, I specifically asked about safe/family friendly areas because we have a child as well and that was part of what you were asking about on your thread. Good luck with your search then.

No, please DO discuss different areas to live on the thread that Musicmole very kindly (and correctly) pointed you to. If it's orientated towards single people then just list your requirements - it's still a thread which discusses areas to live in Zurich and is therefore more relevant than this one. This thread on the other hand was about the cost of living in Zurich and seems to have gone somewhat off-topic about different areas to live in Zurich...

Hi,
I expect for an offer to relocateto Zurich. My family situation is similar to yours. If you are already in Zurich, I'll be happy to have a feedback from you on cost of living, so I can judge the offer.
Thanks

The average salary for families I've seen quoted is CHF 5400 per month. So you will be able to live VERY comfortably. 25% income tax is nothing really, at least compared to other countries.

If you want a quiet area to live in the city, the Hottingen area (8032) is fairly good...

I've just been offered a job in Switzerland with a salary of around 70k (but possibly more)- not sure if I should take it. I'd be moving with my fiance (who works from home so income is sporadic). We want to travel through Europe and not just be stuck in the house every weekend but having said that we're pretty good at saving money and travelling cheaply. Any thoughts will I be able to live comfortably and travel on that amount??

To anwer the question "what do I need in order to live comfortably" is difficult without knowing what you are accustomed to earning and paying where you live now, your age, and what you do for a living.

Maybe this information will help (it's only in German unfortunately).
It may help you to decide by 1. seeing where Switzerland is overall in living standards compared to other European countries, and then 2. where you would fit in within the Swiss salary distribution. You could then compare this to your situation at home.


1. From the Swiss Federal Statistics Office. Comparing wages for a "typical worker" across countries, adjusting for prices.
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/d...terloehne.html

Machine translation: An international comparision of average yearly earnings for a fulltime employee in industry and services, adjusted for living costs.

Keep in mind that the contractual work week here is 42 hours, with 4 weeks vacation (although some jobs have 5), and 6-9 public holidays per year.



2. From the Swiss Federal Statistics Office. Shows salary distribution across skills sets, gender and age groups. http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/d...ment.80698.pdf

If you can read the German, you can find your age & skill type in the charts to get an idea of where you should be as far as salary ranges are concerned.

Just some more data, for people bringing kids 0-5 years old: they can go to the kindergarten at the age of 5, 4 if they are born january-march. In the meanwhile, the options for childcare are quite expensive:

Private nursery, 5 days per week, whole day, around 2000 - 2200 CHF monthly. There is a cheaper option, spielgruppen, or groups of around 6-10 children that meet to play together under the supervision of a teacher. Usually, your child will be accepted to visit twice or max 4 times in the week the group, 3 hours per day, and the cost is around 9 CHF the hour.

Check in advance these costs when the two parents wish to work and have 2 or more young children.

Cheers

Thats a useful document thanks...builds our intelligence on CH and Zurich that bit more.

We were checking the prices on homegate....crikey not much available or am i wrong? We'd have a budget of 750kCHF but there seems to be little to buy at this price!

Has Switzerland always been expensive? Or was there a sudden rush of prices like in the 80's UK?

My wife and I are considering relocating to Zurich and do not have a good feel for what we can expect on what my salary will be. My offer is for 100,000 EUROS or 165,000 CHF. I am an MBA/CPA with about 9 years of experience (31 years old). Can we live "well" on this/is this a "fair" salary?

Well - 3 bedroom 150+ square meter apartment, a decent enough car to haul around our 2 kids, some travel back to the States, etc. I currently make around $120,000 USD as a reference, CHF converts to 145,000 CHF.

Fair - 9 years of accounting/finance experience. MBA/CPA Job is for Manger of Financial Planning and Analysis.

Thanks in advance for any advice/assistance you can give me. Have a great day!