Hi, i'm thinking in move to Switzerland and my uncle arranged me a job whose salary is 4.000CHF net monthly.
So my question is, with this salary can I pay the rent of a little appartment (800CHF maximum), eat well, water - phone - TV bill, go to some bars at the weekend (i'm only 21)...and still save money? (I was thinking in save 800€ - 1300CHF/month)

I'm portuguese, and the city i'm thinking to move is Lausanne. As far as I know, the cost of living there is lower than cities like Geneve or Zurich.

Give me your opinion please.

P.S - I'm living alone, but I have family there.

I forgot to say that I also have to pay the Health Insuranse...So, that's one more bill...

On CHF 4000 per month with only CHF 800 rent you can live well and are better off here than Portugal. My husband is also from Portugal and believes you can have a much better life in Switzerland. We are still trying to convince his cousin to move here.

We have a Portuguese friend in Geneva that earns around CHF 3500 and he is doing well at saving money to go back home.

I assume "eating well" involves cooking nice things for yourself, rather than eating out all the time? If so those numbers are in the bag.

Quick back-of-the-napkin numbers:
1300 savings
800 rent
900 food (eating whatever you want within reason, but cooking it at home)
300 health insurance
200 travel (local, plus occasional trips inside Switzerland. Not enough if you plan to do a lot of weekends away.)

That leaves you 500CHF/mo. for utilities, shopping and going out. That's doable in Zürich so I can't imagine you wouldn't be able to in Lausanne.

I feed 3 for CHF 800 per month and we eat meat every day. His health insurance will also only be around CHF 151.40 per month in VD for a 21 year old according to comparis.

Thanks you both for your quick answer!
MarieZug, you're totally right, Portugal really sucks, here the minimum salary is about 700CFH (or less).

MathNut, eating well, is eating well! lol, I think you're maths are correct, that was my estimative too!

If someone has something more to say...

Bom dia,

Does your figure of 4000 CHF include or exclude your monthly contributions to the company's pension fund? Obviously, you want to put as much money as you can into the fund because it will probably offer a better return than a simple bank account. Once you leave Switzerland, you can get the money out of the fund.

Well I don´t know that...I have to inform myself!

Hi,

Some companies automatically deduct a percentage of your gross salary to put into the their pension funds. I know the company that I will work for is deducting 8%. In your post, you state that you are planning to save 1300 CHF from your 4000 CHF net salary. I believe this is roughly .325 or let's say 33%. If your company is making a automatic pension deduction of lets say 4-8% per month, then you can either subtract the 4-8% per month from your 1300 CHF goal and save the money for emergencies and travel or you can stick to your original budget and have 4-8% extra savings.

In any case with a pension fund plan similar to mine you will have a monthly savings of 33% + (4-8%).

Of course these are general figures you will need to speak to your company to get exact numbers.