He didn't know what he was on about. He was fictional

Get real ! What you earn and what you can save considering you've got a family sounds fine to most of the people I know here (working in IT, but anyway..)
Not to speak you can infuriate some folks living on a much lower budget..
IMHO.
Cheers!

Since the OP lives in Aargau places like Rheinfelden or Waldshut-Tiengen are probably much closer. Admittedly they're not as attractive for shopping as Konstanz, but as long as one just wants to buy food and household items (cleaning products, toothpaste, etc. are often half the Swiss price or even less!) both places are fine.

I would stick to the full time job as there will be more banking staff cuts in the future so contracting might not be such a great idea.

If you look at the recent bank profits (certainly in the UK); you will see that they were made on investment banking, not the normal banking. These profits were made becuase they basically got the cash from the government that bailed them out (taking their bad debts in exchange) and all used it and hyped the shares back up with it and now paying themselves lovely fat bonuses again.

you can start with healthcare insurance, you shouldn't be paying more than 500 chf/month (check www.comparis.ch for alternatives).

if you have saved some money and a good 2nd pillar, why not buy a house? With the very low interest rates, a house can cost you around 1'500 chf a month, and save more money on tax side.
As many suggested, make a clear monthly budget.
Think about buying 2nd hand stuff or from internet, and check adds here. You can save a lot with that. Shop at Aldi as well. Buy clothes during sales. etc... etc.. etc...If all added up you can save a lot.

I agree with the OP. My husband and I frequently have the discussion about the quality of life we have here v's what we had in Australia for a lot less income. Affording to live here with a large family is difficult.
I not meaning to sound like a snob but we were comfortable and had a nice quality of life. I didn't need to think twice about buying items for the children or the house. We had 2 cars, a mortgage and the children attended daycare while I worked part-time.

In Switzerland hubby earns 150K whereas our income in the land of Oz was under 100K. I have 4 kids under 6 we only have 1 car, hubby does take his lunch to work and the youngest children do go to Krippe. Our reason for Krippe is for them to learn the language so that when they play with others in the Spielplatz and when they start Spielgruppe and Kindergarten they have a grasp of the language and can intergrate better. My husband also travels a lot for his job and can be away for up to 3 weeks at a time. If the children did not go to Krippe, when would I get time to do the housework? Go shopping, and don't suggest taking the children - have you tried with 4 young kids to do a weekly shop? Also I need a few hours of time for me with no-one demanding something from me. No one should judge why parents put their children into Krippe. Sometimes it is the best place for a child as well as the parent.

Yes the OP can make some more cut backs - taking lunch to work, shopping in Germany, doing washing etc at non-peak times etc. But in all relativity living in Switzerland with a family isn't the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

My figures didn't include a thirteenth month payment, which should be entirely 'spare'.

heheh somehow i understand u wanna make more savings (its an other question if it is realistic wish), i just imagine you go to my home country and start bitchin' about you can save only 2k per month to a guy doing the same thing as you... he would do a throat bite on you

what country would that be?

I mean there are chinese farmers who work for 2 bucks a day, and then there are people like my boss who make a 92million CHF bonus

so sure there are differences but I am looking at middle class life in Europe right now.

"Its expensive living in Switzerland".....Hold the front page......

"should" be spare. A lot of folk I know here use that 13th check (their "holiday or Christmas bonus) to pay their income tax!

yeah the farmers would kill you when they see you start to complain...

sure i am aware of the differences...just imagined the situation in my country..

I think Switzerland is fantastic, but realistically you need to be a top notch performing high-flying cocaine addicted business savy creature from hell to make ends meet.

I have to guess somwhere in eastern europe or somalia since you talk a lot about throat bites and killing?

Yes. But the CHF7250 figure I gave was after Quellensteuer.

You save around 20% of your take home pay a month (if I understand the figures above correctly)

You ARE making ends meet and saving a higher percentage than most I think.

What about something that generates some extra income?

Cut your phone/ADSL/TV spending. CHF 200 a month is way too much. DSL 5000 is around 48 a month, so you are paying around chf 50 a month for TV . See if you cen get those channels for free over satellite. Look at how much you spend on actual phone calls. You pay be better off ditching the phone contracts and move to a cheaper carrier without a monthly abo fee. You pay a lot for diesel too. Combine trips out with a supermarket visit on the way home, don't make unecessary trips or walk/cycle take the bus instead.

I've never had trouble saving here. With lower taxes you get to choose where your money goes. Fruit and veg and non-processed foods don't cost much. Cut down on the meat and eat more lentils, chick peas and beans. You'll be healthier too.

Take a picnic and don't eat out on days out with the kids (again, you'll be heathier - the food choice in Swiss badis and take-away is very unhealthy). Eat what's on sale (Coop had pork filet last week for CHF 15 a kilo, 3kgs in our freezer ).

I would look at your health insurance too. We pay CHF < 550 a month for 4 people and i'm on the lowest franchaise and the kids have all the extras.

Start by looking at all your committed monthly payments. You may find that you can't get out of the contract now - but note all the dates you can cancel.

yeah I dream about these things a lot

We all know that - it's last years news

What I was getting at is that everyone says yes it is expensive to live in Switzerland but the tax you pay blah blah blah blah....

For us as a family of six we are definitely better off back in NZ or OZ. We are cutting costs where we can but our whole quality of life, with savings etc is extremely different here and a lot less.
Yes we are a hell of a lot better off than a lot of people here but when you are use to living a particular way, red meat 3x a week, and then having to eat 35cent pasta from Germany 4x a week and red meat once a month, you notice just how different your life is.

Whoa - hold it a moment, mate.
Ozland is pratically flat = much lower land prices / house prices /rent. That is where you get hit here in CH - where land, due to physical constraints, is much more expensive - , and it then cascades onto other costs of living, such as fresh foodstuffs, etc. I live on the border with Italy and I can tell you that the difference is quite important (Mrs. GroOve has all the figures at hand). I grow my own veggies so in the summer we almost eat for free, but should we have to go shopping it would really make a dent in our budget.

But then the OP states that they'd prefer to move back to London. Oh-oh. I remember visiting a bank where the junior in the money market dep't was making something like £40k/year. Guess what? She was dividing a house with other young men and women, in a sort of commune. Couldn't afford to eat a proper lunch and wore the same dress day in, day out.
I mean, London was expensive even for my own privileged standards (i.e. a parent who could afford to have us as guests for 10 days at a clip)... At the end of the day I don't think that moving back would be a great idea.....

As far as the statement that many people choose to retire to CH - well, maybe we could segment by tax brackets..?
If you make the proper arrangements with your cantonal authorities provided you're a high income "immigrant" (LOL), you'll walk away with a nice break on taxes owed. Just ask those in the know... Phil Collins, Schumi, et cetera ;-)

Paul