From the USA to Switzerland + Germany: Arielle

How what started as "Should I start a brewery?" became "I'm a tax nerd living in Zurich, helping US expats figure out all the financial pieces in play so they can move abroad too."

Back in the day before Harry Potter existed in the world, Arielle was convinced that she would one day move to the UK. A trip with the Latin Club in high school and a semester abroad in college, working as an au pair for a German family left her thinking, I can't wait to go abroad again. How do I do this again?

Her first job out of college was as a travel agent and she and her husband took full advantage of it. But, it wasn’t enough.

How did they end up moving to Zurich? Twice?

This is Arielle’s story about leaving home and finding home.

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How did you end up moving to Zurich?

I graduated college. I got married. And then my husband and I moved to the Boston area. And we just started living life. He had a good job and my first job was as a travel agent, which was great. And I really took advantage of it. But we were settling into life in Boston and I was kind of starting to think about our future and I'm thinking, I don't know if I like where this is headed. We live in a Boston suburb, we have a nice house, we have two cars, 2.5 kids, then we buy our Cape house and we go skiing in New Hampshire. I started to get bored. I was thinking of all the things I was going to have to do because of where I lived and I was just like, I don't like where this is headed. So we started talking.

My husband was brewing beer in our tiny little apartment in Cambridge. And he was kind of like, Should I go and start a brewery or should I do a PhD? That was like the conversation we were having in our apartment at this time. And so we started looking at different PhD programs and what that would look like and the timing and the commitment of everything. And we were looking at some of the top universities in the States and it was going to be 5 to 7 years of time commitment and you were going to make like $40,000 and have to live in some of the most expensive places in the country. And I was like, The math is not math-ing. I am not liking the math on this because I don't see a future where we can maintain our current lifestyle in any capacity.

And so he ended up getting something across his desk for this university in Zurich, which I had never heard of. Turns out it's one of the top universities in the world. And he applied. And he got a grant. And they were gonna pay him like double what they were gonna pay in the US. And on top of that, it only took their students about 5 years to do a PhD. So was like, We're gonna make twice as much money and it's gonna take you less time. I'm liking the math on this. Let's go there and we can have this adventure. And so we moved there in June 2011.

Have you been in Switzerland this whole time since back in 2011?

No. My husband finished his PhD towards the end of 2016. And at that point, I was itching to go back to the US. Our daughter was 4 and I had these like visions of: I want my parents, I want my in-laws, I really want everyone involved in our daughter's life, I wanna be near family. I want to buy a house in the suburbs. I want to have two cars. Like I'm starting to go and dream of this kind of ideal American life. Like all of sudden it's starting to sound really nice.

And the main reason to go back was we really wanted to adopt. And as two Americans living in Switzerland, there was no way we could adopt. And so we were like, Let's go back and have some time in the US so we can adopt.

So we moved back to upstate New York. We bought a house, two cars, all the things. We really went full on into the American lifestyle.

And then I think it became very quickly obvious to both of us that we didn't really fit into suburban life. I think maybe this was especially for me. I was just like, I don't really value the big houses and the big cars and the fancy vacations and all this stuff. The consumerism going back to the US was really jarring for me. People go to Target for fun. I couldn't get into it. And it felt so wasteful. I was like, This is just not in line with what my values are.

I also think culturally, one of the hardest things for me was when we moved back to the US, I felt like I didn't fit in. You try to make new friends and you're in your thirties all of a sudden with kids and everyone's busy. And in our community, most of the parents were 2 working households and they had their family living in the same town and they had their friends from high school living in the same region. And it felt so hard to break in. And we did find a great group of friends, but it just never felt like—I don't know, I really just missed our life.

Like all of a sudden you had to drive everywhere. I just missed being able to walk everywhere.

So you moved back to Switzerland?

No, so then we moved to Berlin. I got an offer to join a tech startup in Berlin. My husband and I flew over to Berlin and we checked it out and I was like, Yeah, I think we could do this. I really, really think we could do this.

So we moved to Berlin and then of course the pandemic happened. And I realized that I really hate Berlin. Berlin was very strict. The COVID restrictions were so ridiculous. They were really, really strict. And I realized I didn't really want to live in Berlin anymore either.

So I just literally Googled,”Best place to live in Germany.” And this town in Southern Germany just outside of Munich pops up. And I was like, “Let's drive down there for a long weekend and we can see if we like it.” And so we went down and we found this gorgeous town by the Alps and this giant lake. And we all just had such a relaxing weekend that I was like, “Let's move out of this massive city of 5 million people into this little small Bavarian town with 50,000 people and let's try this.” And so we did.

I mean, it's so picture perfect. It just was a really wonderful place to raise a family. We would go on long bike rides around the lake and there were all these little ice cream places. I think our family still kind of mourns for this place because we were there for a year and then my husband got a job in Zurich. He actually commuted for a year between Germany and Switzerland for a year just so we could stay because we just all loved this place so much.

After that year, we all moved to Zurich.

What are you doing in Switzerland? Are you both working?

Yeah, so my husband is in academia and I have a spousal visa.

And then I'm self-employed. I am a cross-border financial planner. And so I specialize in serving US citizens and their families moving to and living in Europe or even sometimes Swiss and German families who are moving to the US. I help them figure out all the financial pieces. What happens when you now have forward pensions and US retirement accounts? Where are the kids going to college? How are we paying for that? Thinking about aging parents. All of that.

What advice would you give someone who wants to move to Switzerland?

I think the easiest way to do it is if you are working for a large international employer in the US that has offices in Switzerland, having the conversation that you would be interested in moving to the Swiss office or doing a secondment there or spending 30 days there or something. If you can really leverage the relationship that you have with your employer and what's already happening, I think that's the easiest way. It's kind of like a clear path.

And if you're like, “Okay, I have no money and I don't have a job that has an office in Switzerland,” I would say that the other option is to look at educational opportunities. I think if you wanna do a master's or a PhD, Switzerland has a lot of the top universities, technical universities and the hospitality industry. So I think there's opportunities there to come as well.

What advice would you give someone who is just thinking of moving abroad in general and they don't know where.

What's your favorite thing about living in another country?

I think this answer has changed, but right now it's the freedom that my kids have as children. Like, my daughter can walk into town, hang in the town park and drink bubble tea with one of her friends. And I never have to worry about someone calling the police and being like, “Why are these children unaccompanied?” It feels like that to me, that is like the ultimate sign of wealth is the luxury to just be in a community that's so safe. Not that bad things don't happen here, but it's a safe place for them to just kind of grow and explore the world.

What’s the hardest thing about living in another country?

So my parents are my best friends. Like hands down. I talk to my parents every other day. I love them to death. They are like the most amazing grandparents. They show up so much for their grandkids regardless of where they live. It does break my heart not to be able to live in the same town as them or live in the same state or the same continent as them.

If somebody wants to reach out to you, one, how do they reach out to you? And who should reach out to you?

Got a question for Arielle? Did something in our conversation resonate with you?

Join in the conversation in the comments. Ask questions, share experiences, get ideas, get inspired, get clarity.

Because leaving home is hard. Talking to people who've done it makes it feel less overwhelming. And more fun.

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We also talked about:

• The thing she was unbelievably worried about before moving overseas as a newlywed and how a book, a thermometer, and a nun solved her problem. Except they didn’t.

• How Switzerland and the US are very similar in some ways and very different in others.

• The financial differences between living in Switzerland and Germany and the impact of salaries and taxes and regular expenses on her family’s day to day living and lifestyle.

• How easy (or hard) it is for an American to work in Zurich. And how possible it is to build wealth while living there.

• What she always says to people who tell her, “I want to move to Europe.”

• Whether she prefers Germany or Switzerland for work, food, education for her children, and the ability to find products she likes.

• Her observation of childhood in Switzerland and Germany vs. growing up in the US.

• Why it was so important to her that they pack up and move everything in their 4 bedroom house in the US with them to Berlin and then to Munich and then to Switzerland.

• Why she doesn’t think her family will make another move (at least not a move further than across town).

And how expensive Zurich really is when you live there.

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Watch the entire interview by clicking play on the video below. Or listen to the podcast.

Good news!

If you want to connect with Arielle:

• You can reach out to her on her website at: connectedfinancialplanning.com

• She also talks about tax planning and cross-border financial and tax considerations every day on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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