Hi

Please could you let me know from your experience living in Basel if a gross salary of 115K swiss francs will be enough for renting a decent 2 bedroom flat, pay the health insurance and a full time nursery. I was wondering if we'll have some money left or not.

Thanks for your answers in advance

yes if you did not mention the nursery. If you mean daycare, that probably costs a fortune, so what I mean is that I would say 115k is good to live off before you add those costs.

The daycare in Basel may be substituted. If you choose a public daycare you pay an amount according to your income. Private day cares are available as from 90/100 CHF per day, that means for a month of 22 working days the cost will amount to like up to 2200 francs.

And please consider the tax, it is quite high here, therefore you are well advised to also consider settlement in one of the sourrounding towns of Baselland.

a decent (in my discretion) three-room-flat (two bedrooms) is available between 1300 and 1400 CHF.

Our family (two adults, one toddler) expenses for health insurance are about 700 CHF per month, whereas I might say we are very well insured, it may be cheaper.

But alltogheter an income of 115k a year is above average.

Most people in Switzerland have much less money at their disposal - so generally, you should be ok.

Day care is extremely expensive in Switzerland, though - you'll have to calculate about 2000 Sfr per month for full care. Because the cost of public day care (if you can get access to that, that is) is calculated in accordance with your income, you'll be paying above average. For many families it's cheaper if one of the adults stops working and takes care of the child instead as that will move you down in terms of tax progression and you wouldn't have to pay for day care.
Also, it would be important to know if you two are married or not - if you are, you'll be paying significantly more taxes than if you're not. Basel has extremly high taxes (about 15 to 20% higher than in neighboring communities in Basellandschaft and between 20 and 25% above Swiss average).

Health insurance will be somewhere between 650 and 1000 fr / month for your family, depending on what additional insurance you want/need.

Just to get this clear... Tax is LOWER if you are married UNLESS you both work in which case it ends up more... and for health insurance you should reckon with 150 per adult and 90 per child plus extras you might choose such as homeopathic medicine or choice to stay in any hospital in Switzerland etc...

Basel City is very nice as a city and well connected with trams so that you don't need to stay there. With a small child I would also not recommend it. You can stay in the surrounding suburbs such as Aesch and Binningen which are extremely child friendly But the accomodation costs more. This will mean your tax savings will be burnt up on more expensive living accomodation. Better still if you want to/can split living and work is to live in Rheinfelden. This is in Aargau and cheaper tax wise and living wise than Basel.

115K is a reasonable salary but you will not be rich... If you are coming from abroad to the Basel area ask about the international school. Many companies in Basel pay for that but you need to make sure you get it on your contract at the start as it won't come afterwards...

You'll be fine on 115K a year. That's 9583 a month. Say your tax is 25% then that leaves 7188 a month. Let's say your flat is 1800 a month and your combined health insurance is 500 a month. That leaves 4888 a month. I don't know about the cost of full time nursery so when you find out deduct that. You'll still have money left.

It depends on lifestyle......it takes a similar wage just to support myself and my friends are in the same boat. I would hate to have that kind of money for a wife and kid too!

It definitely depends on lifestyle. I support my husband and myself on quite a bit less than this. Of course, we don't have kids.

Right. It is all a matter of lifestyle and choices.. the three of you can live perfectly well on that amount! Here in Switzerland you'll find people living on much less - and other feeling like paupers on twice as much.

If you are a "keep up with the joneses" type, you are in the worse place: lots of wealthy, wealthy people around. But if you can make up your own mind, life can be pretty sweet around: lots of beatiful nature, taxes are quite low, food is great - perhaps not cheap, but if you like cooking, you'll find great stuff... and in France or Germany, food shopping is cheaper. You don't have to go to the HIPpest places, buy the latest fashion.... but you may see more temption around.

well - as for the taxes: I kinda took for granted that both adults work as they're looking for full day care for the child. Of course, if only one adult works, taxes will be lower.

As for health insurance: could you please let me know what insurance company you're talking about? We're two 30-year-olds, the only additional insurance we have is free shots and we pay 650 for the two of us, no kids and "allgemeinversichert". Private insurance would be around 900 for the two of us. I don't know anyone who's paying less than 300 a month for basic insurance.

Hi Everyone

Thanks a lot for your answers! A variety very helpful.
Don't know what to take really. Salary wise seems ok for a normal lifestyle. Not enough for full time nursery but maybe an aupair.
We'll see... We're already in so ... Only 5 weeks to go and looking forward to.
How feasible is to find a job in IT or schools only speaking English?

Wish you luck

Regards

If you would like to know about tax deductions, do check


http://www.ubs.com/1/e/ubs_ch/privat.../toolpage.html


Very helpful page.

Hi everyone

Quite a while I'm not coming in... very busy at work, at home, looking for nursery, being in the queue, searching for jobs for my husband, having little fun and too much stress... This is the summary of my first three months at Basel... Apart from that, the difficulty of not understanding the mail, the bills, the contract... and the worse not knowing what's all about the money taken in my pay slip...

Could someone let me know what's the meaning of the following? ... I'm afraid they're not taken the taxes monthly and then in one year time having to pay what I won't have...

UI, PF, AHV contribution
Withholding tax 22.8% ... does it mean I'm paying already the taxes? is it normal the %?

Basel is a very nice place to live, expensive but nice. The weather is being ok but not too much time to enjoy life at the minute... I'm desperate for finding an au pair and cooker... Anyone knowing somewhere to go and ask for?

Thanks a lot and good luck