2024 is the first full year we have our son, so the expenses reflect the actual cost for a family of three in Switzerland. Each family is in a unique situation, it is not 100% comparable. But I am sharing with you how much it costs us to live in Switzerland to give you some inspiration; maybe you can find ways to optimize your expenses or suggest better ways to optimize our costs.

Some background information

What is unique about Switzerland is the work arrangement; in our family, my husband works full time, but I do not because we have a young son. So we decided to have one parent to take care of him.  We sent him to daycare two days a week as he was approaching one and a half years old. This will be elaborated more in detail in the category below.

2024 actual expenses

Here is the overview of our yearly expenses:

Category	Yearly Actual
Housing	10,825
Food and Restaurant	13,493
Transportation	3,134
Health Insurance	10,913
Financial Expenses	15,913
Yearly bills	2,699
travel expenses	16,946
Gift+Joy	3,576
Wellness, shopping	6,481
Kid	6,809
Education	22
Total	90,811

 

1. Housing

Housing cost only includes heating, management fee and interest. We use indirect amortization, and that part of the money is not an expense because we are buying back equity. So, the costs only include what are the actual cash outflows.

We bought a rather cheap apartment at a time when the interest rate was around 1%. Therefore, you might be surprised the yearly housing cost is only CHF10,825. Housing is usually one of the biggest expenses, if you can find ways to reduce that, it will hugely impact your monthly expenses.

But this will change in 2024 as we moved to another apartment.

2. Food and Restaurant

This category includes groceries and eating out. We exceeded our budget quite a lot because of the (almost) daily visits to supermarkets. Our apartment is well situated in the heart of the town. There are 4 supermarkets nearby including a migrolino that opens till late and on the weekend. We all know that when we go to the supermarket, we usually buy more than what we planned. That was what happened; we have stocked up so much food at home and exceeded the budget every month. I remember when we used to live in a small village, where we needed to drive to the supermarket; we made weekly meal plans and shopping lists, and we just went to the supermarket and got what we needed, maybe a few items more. But on average, we shopped around two times. I think going to supermarkets every day not only incurs additional costs due to impulsive purchases but also wastes a lot of time. I am not the person who likes to spend time walking around in the supermarket, I see grocery shopping as chore, I just want to get it done fast.

This year, we will definitely change this.

3. Transportation

We exceeded our budget for transportation, even though CHF3,134 does not look like a huge amount. My husband works 3 days a week at home; I work mostly from home. So we don’t have many costs related to commuting to work. However, each train ride to Zürich or to the office costs around CHF25 in return. I take the train whenever I go to Zürich, it is easier for me, and there are no traffic jams.

I guess that is where most of the transportation cost comes from, with some parking fees and charging station costs. We have an EV, but we charge the car almost always at home. We do not count the electricity costs separately; it is combined with the total utility costs for the apartment.

I think in 2025, we will have slightly lower costs because we will now live in a village again, and I will drive more.

4. Health Insurance

There is not much I can comment on. We tried to opt for the cheapest provider with decent service each year (but never ASSURA!). I had a couple of additional insurances; we visited the emergency three times due to some virus. Today, I received the bill for one emergency visit for our son, and it cost CHF3433! I think we only spent a couple of hours there, after the doctor diagnosed him, we received some medications. Then we went home. I am shocked at how expensive it was to visit an emergency. The insurance covered most of the cost, but we still need to pay CHF180 for this visit.

 

Before the cutoff, I canceled one additional insurance that I think I might not need. But there is another one I missed, and the fee has increased by almost 40%!

Fees for basic insurance increased a lot in 2025 as well. With the cancelation of one complimentary insurance and the increased fee, I expect the cost in 2025 will remain more or less the same if we don’t visit the emergency room too frequently.

5. Financial Expenses and Yearly Bills

Those two categories are pretty straightforward; they include the taxes, the fees, and all sorts of payments on a yearly basis that remain unchanged. Our tax is rather low this year because I did not work that much, so our household income is lower.

6. Travel Expenses

We spent almost 17k on travel in 2024; this includes several big trips. We consciously decided not to cut back on travel, that is one thing we both enjoy a lot. In 2024, I spent a month with my son in China; twice, we spent a month living in Porto (my husband was working remotely), we spent 2-weeks traveling with families to Croatia, we went on a ski vacation in St. Moritz, and I had a private ski coach for three days, I went to Paris with a friend, my husband went to Milan with his friends, and many more. I can’t remember all the trips we took, but it is a lot. And I am happy about that.

We have no plan to cut back on travel, but we do have a budget for it. If we plan ahead of time, we can better utilize the budget; if we make spontaneous trips and book during peak season, yes, that means fewer trips and more costs for each one.

7. Gift, Joy, Wellness, Shopping

We put those into Guilt-Free Spending (GFS) in 2025. In 2024, we spent about CHF10k on those, but it is way above our budget. I draw only one conclusion for this: The GFS budget is too low. 😀

We have gifts to buy for friends and families; we sometimes do a day trip with our son, and we now buy quality clothes that might be a bit expensive but last long. So I think CHF1000 per month on GFS is quite reasonable; we can even increase that proportionally when our household income increases.

8. Kids

Most of the costs come from personal care items (diapers, creams, etc.), nanny services, and daycare. This cost will only increase in 2025 because he is now going to Kita every week for two days. We might need more clothes for him for outdoor activities, different shoes etc.

9. Education

I planned a budget for education because I am a keen learner. I read books and take online courses. 2024 got super busy for me, so I did not take any courses and read fewer books. I think in 2025, the situation might be more or less the same.

Conclusion

I think our yearly expenses are rather low compared to many families with one kid and working parents. This is mainly because:

• Our housing expenses are extremely low. Many families with young kids in Switzerland rent, and the rent can be between CHF2000 to CHF4000 in big cities in a 4.5 apartment.
• We don’t have telecommunication costs, which is a benefit of my husband’s company.
• Our son only spent 4 months in daycare, in 2024, so the cost does not represent the full year.
• We are not big shoppers

What I would do differently in 2025 that will be more in line with our lifestyle and life goals:

• We will plan the trips ahead of time to optimize the budget. We made some spontaneous trips, and that cost us more than they should.
• Slightly increase the guilt-free spending budget to make living more enjoyable and more fun. We will have cleaning services and remove some chores from our daily tasks.
• We will do weekly meal planning and make a shopping list before going to supermarkets.
• Increase income moderately by engaging in a bit more work.

I think our expenses will most likely increase in 2025 due to some upcoming changes. But it won’t affect our investment and savings, which is good. I am happy to see that I achieved an 81% accumulative return since I opened an Interactive Brokers account five years ago! This is very motivating, we will keep with the simple, boring, and long-term investment plan.