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A step-by-step personal finance course for English speakers living in Switzerland. Not “what is an ETF”, but what to actually do: get your money out of a 0% account, set up pillar 3a properly, and build a system that runs without you.
Straight answer on timing: I’m building this alongside a full-time job, a couple of hours a week. You deserve a real year rather than another “coming soon”.
Be first in the door
Join the waiting list and you will get early access when it opens, a discount off the launch price, and the curriculum as it takes shape. Nothing sold to you in the meantime.
About one email a month. Unsubscribe in a click.
The problem this solves
You moved to Switzerland, the salary is good, and the money is sitting in a bank account earning nothing. You know that’s wrong. But every guide is in German, every bank wants to sell you something, and the advice online is written for Americans with a 401k.
So it stays in the account. Another year passes. That’s exactly where I was, and the reason this site exists.
What will you be able to do by the end?
Money working, not sitting
Your lump sum invested in something you understand and chose on purpose, with a monthly amount going in automatically.
Pillar 3a done properly
Set up, invested rather than parked in cash, and costing you a fraction of what a bank would charge.
A budget you will keep
Built on real Swiss numbers, not a spreadsheet you’ll abandon after three weeks.
Confidence about why
You’ll be able to explain your own plan to someone else. That’s the difference between following advice and owning a strategy.
What’s inside
Six parts, in the order you should tackle them. This is the working outline, and it keeps evolving. Subscribers see it change as it is built.
Fundamentals: your plan
Why you’re investing at all, your ground rules, and a financial plan that fits on one page. What a Swiss budget really looks like, where your income goes, and goals you’ll still care about next year.
The ground under your feet
Debt worth having, and debt to kill, mortgages, your emergency fund, net worth and your real risk profile. Why a savings account is a losing position, and what to do instead.
Optimisation: finding the money
Raising your savings rate without the misery. Swiss tax optimisation step by step, 25+ real expenses you can cut here specifically, credit cards and travel costs, and how to ask for more at work.
Acceleration: investing
Building a portfolio, what stocks and bonds and funds really are, gold, property, crypto and where it fits. Compound interest, how much to invest, timing versus monthly buying, and your first position on a Swiss platform. Robo-advisors compared and demonstrated.
The long game
Retirement in the Swiss system: state pension, company pension, pillar 3a, social insurances. How much you’ll actually need, plus estate planning, wills and inheritance for people who live here.
Golden rules and bonus material
The rules I follow, the mistakes to dodge, who to ignore online, and the books and channels genuinely worth your time.
Who’s this for (and who isn’t it for)?
This is for you if…
- You live in Switzerland and read English more easily than German
- You earn well, but the money isn’t doing anything
- You want to be told exactly what to do, in order
- You’ve no ambition to become a trader
Give this a miss if…
- You already hold a diversified portfolio and know why you own each part
- You want stock picks, trading signals or crypto calls
- You expect to get rich this year
- You want personalised advice. This is education, not financial advice
Why me?
I’m not a financial advisor, and that’s rather the point. I am a British expat who has lived in Switzerland for over a decade and had to work all of this out the hard way, in a language I didn’t speak, while being sold products I didn’t need.
My introduction to Swiss personal finance was an advisor quietly bundling death and disability insurance into my pillar 3a. It took 20% of every contribution, on a contract meant to run for 35 years.
I found it. I cancelled it. Then I started writing this site so it wouldn’t happen to you.
Since then more than 35,000 readers have used these guides to get started, and the 255K budget guide shows the exact numbers behind one part of this approach. Everything I recommend, I use myself, with my own money.
Get in early, pay less
Join the waiting list for early access, a discount off the launch price, and a look at the curriculum as it comes together.
One email a month at most, and nothing sold to you before launch.
Questions
What will the course cost?
Around CHF 599 at launch, with a discount for early subscribers. That sits between the self-paced Swiss courses at roughly CHF 300 and the coaching programmes at CHF 1,500 and up. You get the depth of the expensive ones without paying for group calls you’d never attend.
When does it open?
2027. I’d rather give you a real year than keep saying “soon”. It’s being built alongside a full-time job, and I’d rather it was right than early.
Is it in English?
Yes, entirely. That’s the whole reason it exists: almost everything useful about Swiss personal finance is written in German.
Do I need to know anything about investing?
No. It starts from a bank account and a salary. If you already run a diversified portfolio and understand why you hold each part, you’ll find much of it familiar.
Is this financial advice?
No, it’s education. I am not a licensed financial advisor and the course won’t recommend specific products for your personal situation. It shows you how the Swiss system works and how I approach it.
How long will it take?
It’s self-paced, with lifetime access. Work through it over a few evenings or a few months, and dip back into the bits you need when your situation changes.
What if I join and change my mind?
Unsubscribe in one click. Joining the list commits you to nothing at all.
Will there be a German version?
Not at launch. The English gap is the one worth filling first.
Last updated August 2026. The price, the opening date and the outline here are kept up to date as the course develops. This page is information, not financial advice.