Dear all,
Any ideas about best saving/investment opportunities with 100,000 francs?

Low-risk ideas please + preferably option to withdraw

Use it as a downpayment for residential property?
You mentioned in another thread you may be looking at buying.
With mortgage rates so low you'll save a lot living in your own place compared to renting.

Really?
Is it preferable to buy? What if we leave Switzerland, say, 5 years after buying? We'll lose a lot?

And just for the sake of question, assume our money is currently not enough for the house want.

You don't lose anything if you leave after 5 years as you'd be able to easily rent out the place for a nice profit, especially in the Lausanne area.
If you'd only be buying something more expensive for which 100K is not sufficient as the downpayment then it's a different story.
Still, compare to what you have today and not to what you'd ideally want. Start from where you live currently and how much it costs you and then see if a similar place would fit the budget of 500K (your 100K + 400K mortgage - in Lausanne this would probably be a smallish 2-bedroom apt)

Remember that any debt is real, however the future value of property is unknown, the property could easily be worth significantly less in 5 years time than today. Swiss Banks will ask for an increased deposit if prices fall.

Just wait for Devere to call you, they will help you invest it.

Put it in your pension ? Depending on circumstances you can probably write off the 100k against your income for this year's tax return... probably save a lot in next year's tax bill.

Careful as the tax saving will be quite low, tax rates are very low on the lower slice of income. You will also have lost control of the money. Pension money also performs very badly in CH due to fascination with holding bonds, rather than mainly international equities.

I would put some each year in my 3rd Pillar.

and after only 16 years you would have invested it all

Top up and buy a Ferrari 599 - although you should have done that a year ago

Saving is not investing....first decide which you want to do.

Personally to invest with lowish risk;

50-75% in a solid equity investment fund like Fundsmith
Some in a physical gold ETF
Some in an emerging markets ETF

All of these can be easily liquidated

*edit well these are not low risk compared to cash, but are lowish risk for an investment that can grow nicely over time*

Invest in me, I can guarantee 100% satisfaction (of me, not you). PM with account number sent.

I never liked gold as it does nothing & has a holding cost, less useful than a house which you can live in.

Problem with emerging market ETF's is they hold lots of Banks, I would not want to own a Swiss or European Bank so forget emerging market Banks. Taking a long term view 10 plus years the FEET (fundsmith emerging market trust) will probably pay off big time. The companies owned cost 50% premium to the companies in their main fund, however they are growing 10% faster. It's a much higher risk fund so be careful especially on a less than 5 year view.

Cash is not really low risk as anyone who has owned Euros or £ will know to their cost. There is also the risk of inflation.

A " solid" fund that was funded in 2010? There were tons and tons of funds which were seen as " solid" in the past but are now all dead.

Buy any classic car for 30k, take some bits off and break them, invest the rest in having it restored.

This is a safe investment, as you know that the car will not be on the road until you come up with the other 100k to finish the work.

At the end of the day, you've doubled your investment.

The fund manager has been well known for over 30 years & has been right far to many times.

Please mention 3 funds that you would recommend instead.

Invest in the MCR_Fund comprising Google, Facebook and Amazon.

What's your time horizon?

Ray Dalio (google him) was once asked which would be the portfolio that he would leave for his children and grand-children if they knew shit about investments and his answer was:

30% Stocks : S&P 500 index or/and other US stock indexes
40% Long term bonds: 20 to 25-year US treasuries
15% Intermediate bonds: 7 or 10-year US treasuries
7.5% Gold
7.5% Commodities

If you back test this portfolio for the last 30 years or so, it would give you an average return of around 10% per year, you would have lost money just in 3 years out of 30, and the worst down year would have been -3.93% (in 2008).

Don't be fooled by supposed financial gurus and, most importantly, by impressive short term gains from newly set up investment funds. One, two or even 5 years of good past returns are not proof that an investment manager is indeed skilled or have just been lucky.

It has been solid & remains so for now. Investments should always be re-assessed, but Fundsmith is far from dead and is one of the best equity funds right now.