Domestic budget for living in Switzerland

When you relocate to a new location, often, after the so called "honey moon" period, you can't avoid a little down mood period, it's part of the adjustment process and as long as you are well supported during that period, it's soon going to be over and you'll be soon positively focusing again on your setting your Swiss project.

However for some expats, this period gets more difficult when they discover some aspects of the new location they were not prepared for.

Being well prepared, knowing what you can expect will help you greatly to adjust to your new life in Switzerland; that’s the reason why job4U2 offers pre-departure modules for the expat partners.

In the case of dual-career couple, accepting a new assignment in Switzerland for one, also mean resigning from the current job for the other. In a double income family, it may (temporary) be difficult to maintain a comparable standard of living.

Obviously, a job4U2 program will insure that the accompanying partner will quickly be working again but it is also our role to manage expectation:

I'd like here to offer some pre-departure support in the area domestic budgeting.

A domestic budget is something very different from one family to the other one, however there are some costs to be found consistently in each budget (housing, insurance, etc).

Net/Gross Salary:

To estimate your net salary, you need to deduct

1-  the charges, rough estimation 12%, for more details your need to ask your future employer. More info here 

2- the income and fortune taxes: Between 10% and 35% depending on income, location, and family situation. Here after a link to an excellent on line calculator. http://en.comparis.ch/steuern/steuervergleich/default.aspx

Top budget lines:

Sources/information:

1: www.immoscout24.ch

2: make your own estimation with http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living

3: rough estimation based on CHF10 per hour per child

4: http://en.comparis.ch/krankenkassen

5: car cost Switzerland

6: Holidays spent

7: estimated to 20% of the rent

Depending on your spent pattern, this amount varies between 70 to 90% of your total spent.

What is your own experience? 
Did the cost of living in Switzerland came as a surprise or were you sufficiently well informed?

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Sandrine van den Oudenhoven
job4U2, "relocation is a project for both"

Copyright job4U2 2012