We moved from America to Switzerland and our apartment costs $2,883 a month

When Mary Brown She met her husband Sebastian, they both lived in Chicago. But on their second date, French-born Sébastien told Brown he didn’t plan to stay in the United States for long — he’s been in the U.S. for 15 years and wants to return to Europe soon.

“He was almost going to go back, but he decided to stay a little longer and he met me, so he was very calm that way,” Braun tells CNBC’s Make It.

In the year In late 2020, the couple moved into a two-bedroom apartment on Chicago’s North Side. At the time, Sebastian worked as the head of business for the German technology manufacturing company ZF Group, while Mary worked as a social media manager for a hair care company.

They both worked remotely, and eventually the apartment was too small for them, so the couple moved across the street into a 3-bedroom, 2-bath unit where they were paying $2,585 each in rent.

“I really miss it. It was a very beautiful building that still had the brick facade and the Chicago character, but gutted and renovated,” Braw says.

Brown and Sebastien lived in the apartment for about a year and went through the Covid-19 pandemic there together. At that time they began to think seriously about going to Europe and which country they would call soon. Switzerland was at the top of their list.

Sebastien is enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. “He chose it because he could do more remotely from America,” says Brown. “The long-term goal was to return to Europe, so it made sense to do the European program.”

Another downside for the couple is that Sébastien won’t be able to see his family in France for a whole year due to pandemic travel restrictions. He began to work actively to move to the European offices of the company.

ZF Group offered Sebastian a transfer to an office in Germany, but Braun accepted the offer. She didn’t speak the language and there were no direct flights to and from Chicago. Sebastian was then offered a transfer to Belgium, but this fell through. He was given one more opportunity to set up a new office in Bern, Switzerland, the capital of the country.

Although commuting to Bern still didn’t appeal to Brown—it also has no direct flights in or out of Chicago—Sebastian found that Zurich was close enough to commute to the office each day.

“He really thought it was the best job opportunity for him, and the company I worked for at the time wanted to let me work remotely from Switzerland,” says Brown. “The stars aligned.”

In the year In December 2021, the couple began the process of moving to Switzerland – which included obtaining a Swiss visa – so they didn’t actually stop moving until September 2022. Brown and Sebastian married in March of that year, sending away most of their possessions. to Switzerland, and came with Brown’s parents, waiting for the paperwork to be cleared.

“We still had a long time to adjust to it and be with my family,” Brown says. “I think it helped ease the transition.”

When Braun and Sebastian finally moved to Zurich, they lived in temporary housing — first paying 3,880 francs, or $4,253, for a furnished 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment, and then renting a 2-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment for 5,090 francs. or $5,580, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

“I remember sitting on the bed with our dog in the temporary shelter and thinking how is this real? How are we in Switzerland? How did our dog make it here? How did everything fall into place?” says Breen.

“This was our real life now and we had to deal with it. It was just confidence.”

That December, the couple found a more permanent living arrangement. A 2-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom apartment in Zurich’s Eng neighborhood rents for 4,120 francs or $4,516.

The couple loved that apartment, but in January 2023, Brown found out she was pregnant. Living on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator became a nightmare. The couple was also told that the rent would increase. They thought it was the right time to find a place with more space.

Five months later, Braun and Sebastien left their old apartment and moved to a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment in Utikon, just outside Zurich, for 3,950 francs, or $4,330 a month. Brown said one of the problems they faced was that their taxes went down because they didn’t live in the city.

In Switzerland, people pay federal income tax rates ranging from 0 to 11.5%, but that doesn’t include local taxes, he says. H&R block. Cantons and municipalities, similar to states in the US, levy taxes.

The downside? Getting around their new city without a car wasn’t that easy. When Brown went on maternity leave after giving birth to the couple’s daughter, she was hired as a social media manager at a remote-work-unfriendly Swiss company. “I started worrying about just balancing life,” she says.

Brown faced the possibility of losing her job if she didn’t return to her office full time when her vacation was over.

“If I was in America, I would want my mother or someone I know well to watch our child. We started thinking about planning financially for the worst.”

When Brown’s boss confirms the worst, Sebastian weighs her options and sets out to find a higher-paying job. “I appreciate that (my boss) is very loyal to me, but it was very difficult because I had to choose between my career and my family,” she said.

“I take the loss, but there are other bonuses to being home with our son. Being a stay-at-home mom is another job.”

Last year, the couple and their daughter moved to a town outside Fribourg, less than two hours from downtown Zurich, where the family still lives. A 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment costs 2,630 francs or $2,883 per month.

“We were able to save a lot of change and Sebastian was making more money. It didn’t exactly close the gap between me losing my income, but it definitely helped financially,” he said.

Also, as French was the first language in the area, Brown was eager to raise her son there, knowing she would learn the language and improve her own.

As a stay-at-home mom, Brown says she appreciates the sense of security that comes with living in Switzerland. She does a lot of nature walks alone with her son and the family dog.

“The level of safety is so different that I honestly feel safer doing things that I would think twice about doing in the United States as a woman,” says Mary. “It feels very safe and secure while being beautiful at the same time.”

Braun and Sebastien have lived in Switzerland for more than two years, and although they miss the excitement of America and the ease of access to things like Amazon delivery and stores that stay open after 6 p.m., they mean the results of the 2024 presidential election. For them, going back is off the table: “There’s too much uncertainty in America.”

“I never want our daughter to feel like she’s not American, and I want her to culturally identify with America, at least the good parts,” Brown said. “It’s also exciting because it will be easy for me to return to the job market with my journalistic background, especially as a freelancer, which is not possible in Switzerland.

But, she says, “I don’t think it makes sense for us in the community right now.”

The couple thinks they will eventually move again to be closer to Sebastian’s family, but that won’t be anytime soon. “It’s amazing to have the ability to get help and to have someone to trust and look up to our child,” Brown says. “I think it would be great for us to have her grow up in one of her cultures.”

Until then, Brown will focus on learning French to expand her job opportunities if and when they move to Sebastien’s home country, and she’s ready to get back to work.

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