Many of the comments here insist on housing prices. I'm a Zurich local for the 7th year and would like to put this into perspective. Sharing a flat here is som

Many of the comments here insist on housing prices. I'm a Zurich local for the 7th year and would like to put this into perspective. Sharing a flat here is something many younger single people do, but even for the older generation is not a taboo (my friend shared a flat with a single mother and her kid for a couple years). I myself share an enormous modern penthouse-like apartment on a top of a building, at a good and quiet location in Zurich. I wanted to have flatmates (winters are dark and boring here :-) ) and one of the side effects is the cost saving. I never lived in bigger luxury, yet I pay 10% of my monthly income for the rent. Public transportation is affordable, fast, clean, and again, in contrast to the US, not looked down on. A manager in the bank sits next to the paintshop worker on the bus and this is completely fine. I have lived outskirts too, yet never had more than 30min commute. Life might seem inconvenient here (bikes preferred over cars, young people share flats instead of their own kingdom, 2-3x more $$$ for a restaurant dinner, etc), however, all these facts also contribute to better physiological and mental health. It's not for everyone thou, YMMV, etc. On the SWEng side, it's a whole different question. Less competitive environment, less cool bubble projects, no Juicero-like promises to get superrich superfast. (Although this might also one of the factors for a better mental health ;-) )