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What you really need to live on

"I earn 7000 a month, if I don't get that back, it's over." That's the sentence that blocks the most projects. It mixes up two very different things: what you earn today, and what you really need to live on.

The trap of the good Swiss salary

In Switzerland, many people earn a good living, and that's precisely what blocks them. When you take home 7000 or 8000 francs a month, you end up believing you need that amount to exist. In reality, your lifestyle has grown to fill your salary, not the other way around. The amount you need to live on is almost always below what you earn.

As long as you reason in terms of "I need my current salary", every project looks impossible. The day you look at your real need, the gap often surprises you.

Separate what you earn from what you need

Lay out the numbers, simply. List the expenses that come every month, no matter what:

• Rent or mortgage interest.
• Health insurance (LaMal), and your other insurance.
• Groceries, transport, phone, subscriptions.
• Taxes, to set aside.
• A margin for the unexpected and a little pleasure, because a life cut down to zero doesn't hold.

Add it up. That total is your real monthly need. For many people, it's clearly lower than their net salary. That's the figure that matters for deciding, not the payslip you have today.

The figure that changes the decision

Once your need is set, the question becomes concrete and reassuring: how much do you have to bill to cover it. Not to match your old salary, just to live decently while you launch your business. That's exactly what VUED calculates, taking your canton and your freelance costs into account. You see the rate and the volume of work you really need to reach your need.

Work it out before resigning, not after

The worst way to go freelance is to hand in your resignation on impulse and discover the numbers afterwards. Do the opposite. Before you leave, you should know three numbers: your monthly need, the safety cushion you want set aside (aim for 3 to 6 months of costs), and the rate that lets you cover it all. With that in hand, you decide with confidence instead of jumping into the void.

You don't have to drop everything at once

Going freelance isn't always a full leap. Keeping a job at 20 or 40% while you start reduces the pressure and funds part of your life. VUED takes this into account: it deducts what that job already brings you, so your freelance business only has to cover the rest. Testing in parallel, ramping up gradually, is often more solid than quitting everything on the same day.

To put a number on all this: calculate your freelance hourly rate in seconds.