We are a couple without children moving to Zug, i have been offered 100k salary but we are confuse about the cost of living.

What insurances do we need and how much are each per month having in mind we want a good health insurance. Do we have to pay double for being a couple?


Please help!

You will need the following:

Health insurance (premiums per person) divided into obligatory and supplementary (by choice)
Personal liability insurance (per family)
Household insurance (per household)

Your health insurance will depend upon your age and the canton you live in and the type of insurance you choose and the deductible. Some insurers have different schemes which lower the price such as choosing a GP from a list, an HMO scheme, etc. Shop around, there can be big differences.

We are a couple without children moving to Zug, i have been offered 100k salary but we are confuse about the cost of living.

What insurances do we need and how much are each per month having in mind we want a good health insurance. Do we have to pay double for being a couple?

Is really the food so expensive, we have been told we need 1500 chf just for supermarket food at least.

Are we missing some costs here for married couple with single income:
- Food & house maintenance stuff, only from supermarket, 1500chf +/-
- Insurances, 1500 +/-
- Taxes, 500chf +/-
- Transportation, just bus and trains around Zug and to Zurich, 150chf +/-
- House, 1 bedroom flat near zug, 1400chf +/-


Is it possible to have around 2000e savings per month with that income?

Please help!

We are a married couple without children moving to Zug, i have been offered 100k salary but we are confuse about the cost of living.

Is that a good salary for an experienced java programmer in finance?

Is it possible to have around 2000e savings per month with that income?


What insurances do we need and how much are each per month having in mind we want a good health insurance. Do we have to pay double for being a couple?

Is really the food so expensive, we have been told we need 1500 chf just for supermarket food at least.

Are we missing some costs here for married couple with single income:
- Food & house maintenance stuff, only from supermarket, 1500chf +/-
- Insurances, 1500 +/-
- Taxes, 500chf +/-
- Transportation, just bus and trains around Zug and to Zurich, 150chf +/-
- House, 1 bedroom flat near zug, 1400chf +/-


Please help!

We have been looking around the forum, but can't get a clear idea.

Comparis is a good site to get an idea of prices for insurances and many other services.

Thank you for the replies.

I forgot to introduce myself, i am a belgium citizen who got an offer to work for a financial company in Zug as programmer, me and my wife are having problems in finding the right answers for this questions.

I think you will get a general idea but exact numbers are difficult trying searching for the following tags I have found a few threads which might help you.

Tags: cost, costs, eating, expenses, family, food, groceries, shopping


I think you have the right idea adding the costs of your fixed bills
Rent use homegate to search and see what the rent in Zug is like.
Insurance lots of threads
Food well we just had an instant 15% decrease in prices what was the mark up before


Public transport is great in Switzerland so you may not need a car.

Hope this helps and good luck

Hello Jandemore22!
We are also a married couple without kids , living in Zürich area and our groceries dont exceed CHF 700 a month.Suppose it depends on where you shop..we shop at Migros.
Regards Welwitschia

You two will be fine. Not to worry.
We're a couple in a similar situation and we haven't starved to death yet. And we do go out to a restaurant about twice a month. Consider a flat just outside Zug, preferably near a train station, and that will save a bit on rent. Cham is a little town 3.5km from Zug city with a beautiful and biggish lake park.

Our supermarket bills per month is about CHF600. How much your apartment rent will be will depend on location and size. See at least five apartments.

There are a lot of options in insurance -- the details are up to you. Ours even pays for more than half of our gym membership fee ('prevention is better than cure' kind of policy!).

If you cant save as a couple on a 100k loan, sorry you must have problem. We live on far less than that with 2 kids and still have savings every month and we have 0 debt. It all comes down to where you can cut corners and budgeting.

Food as a couple should run you no more than 1000 a month- that is if you dont mind stocking up on meat when it's reduced to 50% off on Sat afternoons since that is a big part of the budget. I usually hit up Aldi, Denner, Migros then Coop as last resort. It pays to shop around.

Health insurance- depends on age and if you want basic/ semi or full private. Comparis.ch is great for shopping around for health insurance and car insurance (if the company doesnt provide it for you)

Taxes figure about a months pay.

Another area where one can save is rent. More rooms, the more expensive, live up on the Berg, pay more- want view of the lake is even more $$.
As a couple a 3.5 room apartment should cost between 1500 and 2500 (again depends on location).

Please note that there will be compulsory deductions from your salary including withholding tax. So if you are on a Type B permit, it would be safe to make your calculations based on the assumption of a net salary of 100k minus apprx 20% (you can check with your HR department for exact % of deductions). Also, 1500chf per month for two persons for health insurance is on the higher end (depends on the type of insurance). The other insurances like for the house is a yearly insurance and from my experience - you should budget apprx 500 chf a year (again depends on the assets etc and the area you live in. I am not sure about the amount of saving, but it is possible to live a decent life with that income.

Answering one of your questions, yes, food is very expensive in Switzerland, especially fruit and vegetables. Over here in France it is much cheaper. However, Aldi [and presumably Lidl] are opening up all over in competition to the Co-Op and Migros. First thing you need to do is buy a Halbtaxabonement [half price card for the railways/post buses etc.] which will cut down on your travelling expenses. Housing in Kanton Zug is extremely expenstive - there are a great many well-to-do folks living there. Might pay you to live outside in one of the villages [Knonau, Mettmenstetten etc. in Kt. Zuerich] and commute. With careful living, you should be able to make ends meet but the quality of life in CH is extremely high so you will love living there. Good luck!

That 20% includes the taxes and insurances minus the ones for my wife and the health insurance?

It's very complicated, i have been in other countries and this is the first time i have so much headache
We have the aim of save at least 3000CHF per month, so we can travel and buy some electronic goods, restaurant dinner, etc.. with that savings.

Earlier you wanted to save 2k a month... now it is 3k.

IMO, you are making it more difficult than it is. Families of four or five live
comfortably on less than your suggested annual income. They may save
only 1.5k a month one month, then 2k the next... depending on how the
bills roll in.

[quote=Is really the food so expensive, we have been told we need 1500 chf just for supermarket food at least.
=[/quote]

For 2 people? Absolutely not. Half of that.

& I would disagree with the statement that fruit & vegetables are expensive here in CH. I suppose it depends where you're moving from, but I think they are both very reasonably priced.

I ment 2000 euros, which is about 3000 Swiss francs

Lettuce here in Lidl yesterday 69 euro cents - last week in Migros 2.50

I would say, it all depends how you can save and on which sections. having the daily stuffs and groceries from Aldi/Denner saves much and even from Migros is Ok when you have Aktion on the items.. I never go to COOP personally..
Also, its just the initial 2 months when you spend more to setup an unfurnished apartment which balances out as you land up on the 3rd/4th month. I just moved in a new apartment very close to Seebach and have to sell out few bucks for the setup.
Insurance, I would say shop around for that. For me I dont need to worry as taken care by my employeer. I would say would be 500/person to have a decent one.
Also, tax plays some role on your salary for the location you are staying and even having a child reduces it a bit .
I personally pay around 9% per month, hope it would get reduced in coming days..
With all into consideration I would say you should be able to save 3K /month on avg provided you play the right cards in right areas.. best of luck.

As someone else already suggested, talk to your HR contact for a gross-net calculation with every deduction they make directly from the salary as well check with them if the salary is paid in 12, 13 or 14 installments throughout the year. That might affect how you wanna spend the monthly pay.

For groceries, go the online shops of migro and coop and pick together a "basket" of your usual shopping and you get the best idea of the costs. Of course it doesn't provide you with any bargains of late Saturday shopping or super cheap campaignes, but the ordinary prices are usually about the same in the normal shop and the online shop.
COOP: www.coop.ch or www.coopathome.ch
Migro: www.leshop.ch