Although I agree you would have to economise, there are 2 new initiatives in Zug to benefit families on lower income with lower health insurance premia and rental subsidies. There is also a new higher deduction from tax for all children which will reduce your tax. If you are set on Zug you might be able to make it work with the help of these initiatives. The FSM ( link in an earlier message ) should be able to give you a rough calculation of your net income . There are actually plenty of people living in Zug on not very high salaries but in reality I think most live in not very nice apartment blocks and do not have much spare cash.

Just did the sums - a single person might just be able to survive on that provided they are not expecting a social life.

A family - no way.

I hope you did not accept the contract.

Cheers,
Nick

Thanks for all the info.. wow.. my head is spinning!!
But the biggest headache of thenm all isnt the pay or tax or even cost of housing but the shock of what my (just) 11 year old will do about school. He will be entering the school system in August, but what is this idea that he will have to choose a career by the age of 13!!?? What happens to achieving internationally recognised qualifications, ie- GSCE or IB? Does he not study for something similar? If I happen to move out of Switzerland for whatver reason in 2 years time, will he be able to fit into a GCSE based school? This system for secondary school is baffling.. Help?

There are lots of threads on Swiss education here already- have a search and a read. NO the public school system has no GCSE type exams, but of course the Baccalaureat/Abitur is the norm at 18.

Arriving at 11 is very tough- as it is the time to stream kids into the old fashioned UK secondary modern and grammar school (vocational or academic). As a class is taught as an entity, and not as in the UK as a Tutor Group with kids then doing on to specialist subject in different sets- a child who does not have fluent knowledge of the local language is very much disadvantaged- and often ends up in vocational groups aiming for practical apprenticeships, and not academic studies. So your younger child should be fine and has plenty of time to acquire the necessary language level - but not your older one. Which is why most foreigners arriving with children that age will choose to send them to a private international/bi-lingual school. Which you would truly struggle to do on this salary. Fitting back into a GCSE system would be no problem, providing this is not done in Year 11.

So sorry to bring 'bad news' - but hope it helps. Bonne chance.

Thank you Odile!
I have read and read all different posts on this subject.. and I am scared at the responses. I dont want my 11 yr old to suffer, he is shy but very academic.. it is not the future for him to strive for apprenticeships only. I am unsure whether to move to Zug at all, if he will have major problems.

It's tough for you. Is he already bi-lingual with another language? Some kids have the natural ability to learn incredibly fast (I taught languages in a very multicultural town of the UK). If he has the ability, the positive attitude and necessary support - he might well do very well. You'd have to ensure he gets lots of support over the school holidays to catch up. There are ways to switch from vocational to academic at a later stage. Very bright kids always find a way- with the necessary support. I wish I was nearer so I could offer help- but alas I am in the French speaking part. Don't dismiss your move out of hand - you know your child's ability and attitude to challenges more than anybody. You would always have the option to return to UK for A'Levels - or send him back for A'Levels to stay with family or attend one of the State boarding schools (where you only pay for accommodation and support- like the one I taught at before).

I think Odile said it very well, as is said in other threads, it is a very difficult age for entering the swiss public system due to the strict streaming. This is getting better in some places, but typically not enought reform for most people. If he is very linguistically talented, it might take a year to be fluent, but most likely longer. Given the the swiss maturity stream is very selective and only about 15% (depending canton/area) go this route, expecting absolute perfect german is necessary. He will likely be in special classes for a year or more, thus not focusing on learning other subjects but german.

As for the apprenticeship route, I was reading the other day that the gov't was moving to get internationally recognised qualifications for these trades, as they realised they are not very transferrable to other countries at this time. Thus, this should improve in the coming years immensly.

Consider that moving to another country with another culture is tough for everyone (leaving behind family and friends even more),

even if what Sliced has written above is not completely wrong I think the education system in CH (like nearly all over continental Europe) is probably far better than that one in UK or the US, no offense. What however has a really bad reputation in CH is this strange private international school thing.

And I don't see any problem in repeating a year at school, what will not do any harm to anybody.

The problem is the salary, at least if it won't increase in future.