Our valued sponsor

Is keeping money in CHF a good idea? (alternative to USD)

avalanche

Pro Member
Aug 13, 2019
883
466
63
Due to these uncertain times I'm currently considering shifting my EUR savings into CHF. What are the geopolitical/economical risks associated with Swiss Francs? Is it a safer alternative compared to USD and EUR?
 
  • Like
Reactions: clemens
Due to these uncertain times I'm currently considering shifting my EUR savings into CHF. What are the geopolitical/economical risks associated with Swiss Francs? Is it a safer alternative compared to USD and EUR?
Depends on your reasons for doing so. There is no doubt in my mind that the CHF in some ways is a stronger currency than the EUR, so yes it is probably safer. But, I do not expect that the CHF will increase a lot in value compared to the EUR. This is because the Swiss cantral bank will just print the amount of money necissary to keep the CHF on pair.
 
Depends on your reasons for doing so. There is no doubt in my mind that the CHF in some ways is a stronger currency than the EUR, so yes it is probably safer. But, I do not expect that the CHF will increase a lot in value compared to the EUR. This is because the Swiss cantral bank will just print the amount of money necissary to keep the CHF on pair.
I'm trying to protect my cash from risks associated with potential collapse of European Union in the future.
 
  • Like
Reactions: John Andrews
If you can avoid Swiss -0.75% negative interest rates then its a good speculative option.

I'm trying to protect my cash from risks associated with potential collapse of European Union in the future.

Ok but Switzerland will have no choice but to devalue its currency drastically if EU collapses...lol. Switzerland will need to protect its economy and prevent exports from drying up overnight if E collapses. You see 51% of Swiss exports go to Europe. Switzerland would become noncompetitive and when governments become non-competitive....they devalue their currency....ask China about that.
 
If you can avoid Swiss -0.75% negative interest rates then its a good speculative option.



Ok but Switzerland will have no choice but to devalue its currency drastically if EU collapses...lol. Switzerland will need to protect its economy and prevent exports from drying up overnight if E collapses. You see 51% of Swiss exports go to Europe. Switzerland would become noncompetitive and when governments become non-competitive....they devalue their currency....ask China about that.
I bet if EU collapses, Switzerland will have no market for a while regardless of the price of CHF. Do you really think Switzerland would agree to go down together with Europe? EU citizens simply wont be able to afford anything at all. The problem with EUR is that it can go "puff" and disappear. Thats quite scary possibility.

What would be your best bet in case of a possible doom scenario? Where to hide then if not CHF? USD and EUR can have big issues with their recent QE action, not even talking about insane unemployment spikes..
 
You may look into this simple break down, I don't say it is a plan you should follow, just a suggestion.

Don't put all your money in one of these options but divide it into several of these investment opportunities.

20% in shares and funds
5% in cash
5% Bitcoin
5% Diamonds
5% Foreign currencies
10% Gold
20% real estate
5% Art
10% Land
15% life insurance

It's just something out of my mind, you can mix it different, the figures don't say anything here.

You can also add: Antique Car's , Platinum, raw materials and others to this list.
 
Do you really think Switzerland would agree to go down together with Europe?

Yes. Do you not remember what happened when Switzerland removed the peg against the Euro. Do you remember why they had that peg in the first place? ;)

Swiss bank’s currency U-turn hurts watchmakers, skiers and traders

The problem with EUR is that it can go "puff" and disappear. Thats quite scary possibility.

Then you wake up from your sleep and realise the Euro is still there. That is not gonna happen. That is just fantasy and wishful thinking. To say eurozone currency will disappear and hence all euro denominated debt held around the world in soverign and corporate bonds, loans etc will vanish is simply stupid.

What would be your best bet in case of a possible doom scenario?

I have explained it many times on the forum. Cash and AAA sovereign bonds always. Those sat in cash and AAA sovereign bonds like myself are laughing at the markets right now. The tortoise always wins the race in the end.

If you really want to plan for a serious doom scenario and ultra long term then you want to build a portfolio like the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. You want to build a portfolio now that will last for eternity. In such a case only gold, land and art should be in your portfolio. Those three assets is all I keep in my trust for my future generations to manage. I keep no digital assets such as cash, bonds and shares. I keep only tangible assets that have proven to last and maintain value after 1000's of years. Anything digital has obsolescence risk and gold, land and art does not have this.

USD and EUR can have big issues with their recent QE action, not even talking about insane unemployment spikes..

These currencies are not going away as I mentioned so don't get caught up in that fantasy and stick to reality. Tune out of US media bashing of the Euro currency. Both ECB and Fed are more likely to enter into a battle to devalue their own currencies. Cheap currency makes cheap exports and helps economy. Downside is it creates inflation at home but you can hedge out inflation quite easily as an investor.
 
Last edited:
Yes. Do you not remember what happened when Switzerland removed the peg against the Euro. Do you remember why they had that peg in the first place? ;)

Swiss bank’s currency U-turn hurts watchmakers, skiers and traders



Then you wake up from your sleep and realise the Euro is still there. That is not gonna happen. That is just fantasy and wishful thinking. To say eurozone currency will disappear and hence all euro denominated debt held around the world in soverign and corporate bonds, loans etc will vanish is simply stupid.



I have explained it many times on the forum. Cash and AAA sovereign bonds always. Those sat in cash and AAA sovereign bonds like myself are laughing at the markets right now. The tortoise always wins the race in the end.

If you really want to plan for a serious doom scenario and ultra long term then you want to build a portfolio like the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. You want to build a portfolio now that will last for eternity. In such a case only gold, land and art should be in your portfolio. Those three assets is all I keep in my trust for my future generations to manage. I keep no digital assets such as cash, bonds and shares. I keep only tangible assets that have proven to last and maintain value after 1000's of years. Anything digital has obsolescence risk and gold, land and art does not have this.



These currencies are not going away as I mentioned so don't get caught up in that fantasy and stick to reality. Tune out of US media bashing of the Euro currency. Both ECB and Fed are more likely to enter into a battle to devalue their own currencies. Cheap currency makes cheap exports and helps economy. Downside is it creates inflation at home but you can hedge out inflation quite easily as an investor.
So you think even if EU gets dissolved (due to member states leaving), EUR will still remain?

Regarding gold I wouldnt be so sure, it can change when humanity finds better ways to search for it and mine it. Especially in 80-100 years who knows... Egyptians had no idea robots and neural networks would exist in 21st century lol.
 
So you think even if EU gets dissolved (due to member states leaving), EUR will still remain?

Please explain which eurozone countries will leave? Leave too what also? The UK still had its own currency so could make a break. Eurozone countries are trapped by Euro currency debt and ECB control of their banks. They could not make a clean break if they wanted too. Lets keep to reality and not media fake news about EU breakup.

Regarding gold I wouldnt be so sure, it can change when humanity finds better ways to search for it and mine it. Especially in 80-100 years who knows...

I will take that risk over holding digital bitcoin and cash that will become obsolete long term....lol thu&¤#

Egyptians had no idea robots and neural networks would exist in 21st century lol.

Egyptians intelligence and technology exceeded ours even today but in a smarter way. We still do not understand how they built the Pyramids. They understood the planet, solar system very well without the equipment we use today to do so - so who is smarter?

Robots will not last 80-100 years even let alone 4000+ years if they created one. So I repeat for long term, land, gold and art. No digital stuff.
 
Last edited:
Please explain which eurozone countries will leave? Leave too what also? The UK still had its own currency so could make a break. Eurozone countries are trapped by Euro currency debt and ECB control of their banks. They could not make a clean break if they wanted too. Lets keep to reality and not media fake news about EU breakup.



I will take that risk over holding digital bitcoin and cash that will become obsolete long term....lol thu&¤#



Egyptians intelligence and technology exceeded ours even today but in a smarter way. We still do not understand how they built the Pyramids. They understood the planet, solar system very well without the equipment we use today to do so - so who is smarter?

Robots will not last 80-100 years even let alone 4000+ years if they created one. So I repeat for long term, land, gold and art. No digital stuff.
I'm not a politics expert but I had the following concern:
Italy might try to leave EU after "pandemic", Spain and Greece might follow. EU economy depends on countries like Spain to grow the food cheaper. Is it a baseless panic or it can truly happen?

Regarding Egyptians: if they were so good at things, more intelligent and thinking long term, why their nation is so poor and underdeveloped today? I'd like to say that I never heard that Egyptians had nuclear power plants or knew anything about electricity, had rockets flying to space or ever had an airplane or helicopter. They would probably think its magic. Yes, they probably had some knowledge that got lost in modern times (which is normal given they had no database a.k.a Internet to store things), but honestly, Egyptians could never probably dream of mining gold on the moon lol. I think you underestimate the modern tech.

Gold is also quite illiquid, it gonna be an issue if you need cash for your business or projects. Try surviving with gold in times when cash collapses.. You can simply be robbed or killed for just trying to sell your gold anywhere not talking about countless gold bans governments were imposing quite frequently.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JohnLocke
Regarding Egyptians: if they were so good at things, more intelligent and thinking long term, why their nation is so poor and underdeveloped today?

well, it's pretty easy... they are not the same Egyptians
I'm too lazy to google for references but I read studies of DNA of ancient Egyptian kings showing that their origin is from Asia (Persia if I remember correctly) and Tutankhamun was "coming" from Causasus

Arabic culture was later destroyed by Islam
 
well, it's pretty easy... they are not the same Egyptians
I'm too lazy to google for references but I read studies of DNA of ancient Egyptian kings showing that their origin is from Asia (Persia if I remember correctly) and Tutankhamun was "coming" from Causasus

Arabic culture was later destroyed by Islam
It means original Egyptians were not smart enough to preserve their nation.
 
Last edited:
I'm not a politics expert but I had the following concern:
Italy might try to leave EU after "pandemic", Spain and Greece might follow. EU economy depends on countries like Spain to grow the food cheaper. Is it a baseless panic or it can truly happen?

Baseless panic.

Regarding Egyptians: if they were so good at things, more intelligent and thinking long term, why their nation is so poor and underdeveloped today?

Blame the British empire and colonization. Every developing country the British colonized and left is the same way...lol. When you install a system of government that has no historical routes in the culture of the people it never works out.

I'd like to say that I never heard that Egyptians had nuclear power plants or knew anything about electricity, had rockets flying to space or ever had an airplane or helicopter.

Ever heard of i.e the Baghad battery? Electricity has been around far longer than you think. History is only written by Europeans. It will never really document any discovery made outside of the west with any attribution to a developing country. However its slowly changing. I think there are more efficient means of energy then combusting fossil fuels to launch rockets, power fixed wing aircraft's and splitting atoms. Time will tell. Nothing is ever really invented but only discovered or re-discovered ;).

Yes, they probably had some knowledge that got lost in modern times (which is normal given they had no database a.k.a Internet to store things)

They certainly did have immense knowledge that we are just not capable of deciphering yet. If you look at how we store information today we now encrypt it all in storage and in transport of the data. Anyone looking in at the data just sees gibberish. The ancient Egyptians would have used their own forms of encryption to encrypt their their knowledge. One day when we reach an advanced level of knowledge as the ancient Egyptians we may deciper their knowledge.

Gold is also quite illiquid, it gonna be an issue if you need cash for your business or projects. Try surviving with gold in times when cash collapses.. You can simply be robbed or killed for just trying to sell your gold anywhere not talking about countless gold bans governments were imposing quite frequently.

I am a bond investor. Outside my legacy assets I hold AAA sovereign bonds as you may know that produce large cash interest payments. I was talking about gold as a portfolio assets that I keep and pass down for eternity (or near enough..lol).
 
Baseless panic.
Alright.

Nothing is ever really invented but only discovered or re-discovered ;).
I dont believe that, otherwise we would see epic scientific laboratories colliding atoms like CERN built by ancient civilizations. Such structures are too large to be unnoticed by archeologists. I agree they probably had some ways to do some things better, but they surely didn't have plastic, the Internet with CCTVs with facial recognition back then lol.

Blame the British empire and colonization. Every developing country the British colonized and left is the same way...lol. When you install a system of government that has no historical routes in the culture of the people it never works out.
So you want to say they were so advanced that allowed themselves to be colonised by primitive plebs as you paint them? Dont tell me they were so weak, peaceful or naive to just let that happen while having all this knowledge and tech you described lol. They should have used their plasma guns and flesh eating nano bots to eradicate colonists then.

Regarding batteries, it is likely possible that they had some prototype of such device, but for some reason these pyramids didn't have lamps with electric circuits lol. Where would they plug these batteries and why we still havent discovered the devices?
 
  • Like
Reactions: clemens
Blame the British empire and colonization. Every developing country the British colonized and left is the same way...lol. When you install a system of government that has no historical routes in the culture of the people it never works out.

did you ever visit countries like Mauritius, South Africa, India, Malaysia, even Cuba ;-) - anything that has value and keeps the countries function was brought by the colonizers (British, French, Dutch, Germans)
 
  • Like
Reactions: burden
I dont believe that, otherwise we would see epic scientific laboratories colliding atoms like CERN built by ancient civilizations. Such structures are too large to be unnoticed by archeologists. I agree they probably had some ways to do some things better, but they surely didn't have plastic, the Internet with CCTVs with facial recognition back then lol.

Sorry what was invented here?

So you want to say they were so advanced that allowed themselves to be colonised by primitive plebs as you paint them? Dont tell me they were so weak, peaceful or naive to just let that happen while having all this knowledge and tech you described lol.

No one knows what fell upon ancient Egypt. There is something humanity should learn from falls of great civilizations. One can say the same about US in Afghanistan. If they were so advanced than the simple Taliban why did they lose to them after 18 years of fighting them and had to sign peace deal.

They should have used their plasma guns and flesh eating nano bots to eradicate colonists then.

Ok

Regarding batteries, it is likely possible that they had some prototype of such device, but for some reason these pyramids didn't have lamps with electric circuits lol. Where would they plug these batteries and why we still havent discovered the devices?

lol.

One day it will all make sense. We are discovering more and more about our past each day. The key to our future comes from the past once you understand time ;)