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It was supposed to be a quick win.

In theory: open a pillar 3a account, make the first deposit, check it off the list. After months of reading, listening, and analyzing, after a conversation with my accountant who calmly explained all the tax benefits... I finally told myself: "Alright, I'm doing this – I'm opening a pillar 3a account."

(And no, I'm not telling you where yet – first, because it's irrelevant at this point, and second, because nobody's paying me for advertising 😉).

And that’s when the adventure began.

I had read online that Company X lets you pick your own equities, Company Y lets you design your own strategy… so I clicked away with excitement, selected, confirmed.

Well... Nobody mentioned it wouldn't be exactly intuitive.

By the end of day one, I ended up with the default portfolio set by the provider - a mix of funds I didn’t understand in the slightest. And then… Trump’s tariff waves and his own Liberation Day arrived.

This had to be a spectacular failure! There was no way this could work out!

I looked inside: lots of bonds. I thought: "OK, they'll move forward slowly. I'll give them time until the next deposit, which is at the beginning of the month. In the meantime, I'll figure out how this whole system works."

So… what exactly is Pillar 3a?

In ultra-short form: it’s our future retirement.

The Swiss pension system is based on three pillars:

1️⃣ First pillar (AHV/AVS) - state pension, mandatory for all workers

2️⃣ Second pillar (BVG/LPP) - occupational pension, with funds contributed by both employer and employee

3️⃣ Third pillar (Pillar 3a & 3b) - private retirement savings with tax advantages

And Pillar 3a is the one designed to help us secure our future independently.

Contributions can be deducted from income in the annual tax return, and the limit for 2025 is CHF 7,258 (and it'll be the same in 2026 💡).

The money is locked until retirement age, but there are exceptions: buying property, paying off a mortgage, starting a business, leaving Switzerland, etc.

But in practice, a Pillar 3a account can easily turn into a trap - especially if you pick a provider without understanding the rules, the costs, or the timing that actually makes sense.

What went wrong?

What turned out to be quite a surprise for me:

1. People on forums saying “Just invest in ETFs in your Pillar 3a” either had no idea what they were talking about or meant ETF-like fund structures. Actual ETFs are rarely available (or recommended) in 3a accounts because of their uncertainty and regulatory structure. This honestly shocked me - in Poland we have access to a whole universe of instruments.

2. With a bit of determination, you can recreate what you want. Look for funds with a TER of 0.00% - over 20 years those fees compound into big money. But still.. with a bit of determination - that I didn’t have 😉

3. In the end, the overall strategy mattered more than how I invested. Meaning: I don’t need something like the famous VT ETF to cover the markets I want.

Not knowing these three things cost me a lot of nerves. My portfolio stayed in the red for months, and the only thing I was waiting for was the moment it finally turned positive so I could close that account and move somewhere else.

And suddenly – surprise!

Once it turned positive, it did so spectacularly. It turned out that the weak US situation strengthened the bonds in this portfolio. However, I'll definitely be closing this account because I trust my own strategy more than the mix I got from the 3a provider.

After 10 months of investing in pillar 3a, I have 4 different portfolios open, following the principle that it's better to have the maximum number of portfolios allowed by the canton, so you can withdraw from them appropriately when needed.

How can you manage a 3a account?

Basically, there are 2 management styles:

1. Opening all accounts at once

You open 3, 4, 5 accounts right away – as many as you ultimately want to have – and contribute to all of them evenly.

In my case, I want 5 accounts, but currently I have 4.

This is more challenging because you need to determine the portfolio for all of them right away, which requires thinking through your strategy. Subsequent contributions are divided evenly and topped up to the limit. You can change strategies later – but it's worth having your own plan from the start.

This is the method I use - I still don’t have account number 5 (well, technically I need account 4 and 5, because one is going to be closed and forgotten). But that’s my 2026 goal.

✅ Regular contributions give each account the opportunity to experience a bear market, but also opens it up to steady, longer-term growth – bear markets last significantly shorter than bull markets

✅ If you need to withdraw some funds from your pillar, you can only close one of several accounts – remember, you can't withdraw part of an account, you have to close the whole thing

✅ We can test our strategies under different market conditions and change the strategy if there are problems

❌ I’ll be honest! Sending money into every single account isn’t the fastest task.

2. Opening Your Accounts Gradually

Some people prefer not to open multiple accounts right from the start - and honestly, that approach can make sense if you don’t want to commit to a full long-term strategy on day one.

The idea is simple:

you set a target amount for each account (a common number is around 20k per account - which takes roughly three years to fill).

It works like this:

• first you open one account,
• put the entire annual amount into it,
• and only open the next accounts when the previous ones are full.

I'll admit right away – this didn't sell me.

✅ You can focus fully on just one account and take your time reflecting on whether your risk profile or strategy should change before opening the next one

✅ Each contribution goes to only one account, so it's done quite simply and quickly

❌ Portfolios will grow at very different speeds - because the first and the last account might be opened years apart. One portfolio might completely avoid major downturns, but it could also miss out on spectacular gains

❌ Pure math: not being in the market has a cost. A well-diversified structure protects your money best over time

My Strategy - And Why It Works for Me

When I first started, I was convinced that there must be one “correct” way to do the 3a pillar.

Today I know: there isn’t.

I ended up choosing a hybrid approach.

Because my first portfolio turned out to be a total flop, I slowly opened new accounts with providers that aligned better with how I want to invest.

So my approach sounds like this:

✨ Maximum number of accounts, minimum number of mistakes.

✨ One account - one strategy.

✨ No rush. No randomness. Lots of conscious decisions.

Over time, I also noticed something important:

➡️ Pillar 3a isn't just about investing.

It's about peace of mind.

About the feeling that you're building your future right now – little by little, every month, just like we save small amounts for our dreams.

And speaking of peace...

My Biggest Lesson From Year One of Pillar 3a

This isn't a lesson about bonds, ETFs, or percentages.

It's a lesson about patience.

For several months, my portfolio looked like a joke, and I felt like it was the mistake of my life.

Today I know that investing isn't a sprint – it's a multi-year marathon.

And that even if the first step was a stumble...

the second can be stable, the third more confident, and the tenth completely conscious.

That's what my pillar 3a looks like.

Not perfect. But mine.

With each month, increasingly better tailored to who I am and how I want to build my financial freedom. ✨

Next week, I’ll share more about where and how I ultimately opened my first four accounts - and why.

Now it’s your turn: how do you approach planning for retirement? Do you already have your 3a portfolio? Or are you still thinking about it? Share your thoughts in the comments - I’d love to hear your perspective! 💬

With pride,

– ME, your Freedom Budget guide ✨