Hi,

Firstly hello and congratulations on such an informative forum. This is a rather random post, so sorry in advance...

Currently we live in Coventry, England. My girlfriend has been offered a job in Schaffhausen with a salary of ~85k CHF.

We're not high earners, between us we currently earn around £43k. We have a mortgage of £550/month, other than that the main costs are running our cars (I travel 17k miles a year communiting to work, her around 10k) and food. We have no children.

Hopefully we could get by without a car in Switzerland, but I would be interested to know your opinions on whether we could get by on the above salary living in Schaffhausen.

My girlfriend speaks fluent English, German and French, but I'm afraid I'm your typical ignorant Brit who's barely discovered English. I have a degree in Business Computing and 3 years experience in IT support so I would hope to eventually find a job, but I expect my language problems to be a significant factor and want to plan for the worst.

My question is, could we survive on her income alone if I struggle? I'm finding it quite hard to work out what tax she would pay on her salary.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Matthew

Hi Matthew,

While I don't know the specifics of Schaffhausen I can give you a few interesting data points :

Median household income for Switzerland : CHF 95 k / year
Median household income for UK : GBP 25 k / year

So assuming you earn 0 that would put your household income a bit below average, but should allow you to make it.

Regarding taxes, Credit Suisse has an online tax calculator For your girlfriend, without kids, in Schaffhausen, earning CHF 85k / year she'd pay about CHF 16 k / year taxes. This amount will vary depending on the exact location you choose to live in.

Regards,
Alain

Welcome to the forum, As the tax situation as been explained already i will try, and help you with the rest. The transport system here is fantastic, not at all like in the UK, so you will not need a car, and working in IT you should be able to get a job even if you cannot speak German i know a good few people here who work in IT who cannot speak German. If you like you can send me a pm, and i might be able to help you find a job in IT.

Here's a link which might be helpful:

Good Salary?

If you plan to live on 85k with no immediate plans to get a job forget it.

If you plan to use the single salary as a stop gap until you find a job yourself you should be fine, but you'll need to let out your UK property and expect to watch the rappen.

If I lived in Coventry I would definitely take the risk if I had a chance of living in Schaffhausen.

With 85k you will make it even if you stay without a job for a few months.
You might have to cut on the wine, eating out, vacation etc but guarantee you will make it.

Budget for six months realistic for you to find a job. 85k is not a a huge salary and certainly not for a couple, but I presume you are intent on getting your finger out of your arse and looking for work, its doing.

Oh, and like he said below.

dave

Hi,

Can't stop but a quick thanks for the replies and PM's, I'll answer them later today.

Just to clear a few things up, we'd sell our house in the UK (not interested in the hassle of renting it out) and yes I certainly would be actively seeking employment.

Matthew

its a Nike moment then ....

Do it, it's a great opportunity, moving back to UK is easy if things don't work out.

Understand that you will have to commute at best to Winterthur or more likely to Zürich to work, assuming you decide to live in Schaffhausen. Check out train times at sbb.ch and factor this into it.

Dave suggested 6 months to find a job, I'd prepare for up to a year personally. You will probably end up on a higher salary than your missus.

I agree, you'll be glad you did.

dave

LOL i loved that film thanks for reminding me of it

Hi Matthew

Welcome to the Forum!

Go for it! You and your girlfirend will definitely be able to survive on 85K until you find a job.

If you are going to use public transport, invest in an annual or bi-/tri-annual train travel ticket. This will get you half-price train travel and, as I understand it, it's valid for the whole of Switzerland. If there's a tram/bus service in Schaffhausen, they may offer monthly or yearly travel tickets too. These will save you a lot of money in the long run if you enjoy travelling.

Don't plan on a 4 week holiday in Thailand for 85k a year...lol.

Should be more than enough to scrape by.

Schaffhausen is a nice little city. I know it well and it has good public transportation and the Munot

Hi Matthew
I work and live in Schaffhausen so should be able to answer some of your questions. for a salary 85k every month you will probably get less than chf 5000 in hand(you pay more tax in SH than in zurich). However since the rent is quite cheap here, chf 1000 can give you a 3 room apartement close to the center.For transportation, you dont need a car, the bus connection is quite convenient, at the end Schaffhausen is a small town. CHF 52/month for a monthly bus ticket. There re a lot of english speaking companies here, you should have no big problem of finding a job here. Zurich is 38 mins by train, where there are more career opportunities.