Complete invoice: how much land can we afford?

That is not correct. During the employment ban, each employee continues to receive their regular salary from the employer. But only certain vulnerable professional groups receive an employment ban during pregnancy at all. Otherwise, the same rules apply for a dentist as for all other mothers. After the birth, you still have X weeks (depends on the child/birth) entitlement to net salary minus maternity allowance, after that comes parental allowance up to a certain amount/time.

But how can she still get the full salary for all of 2024? Even if she were just newly pregnant and immediately went on maternity leave, the child would be born by the end of May at the latest, and so the maternity protection would end in August. After that, it should only be 1800€ (unless the joint taxable annual income exceeds 150,000... I haven't calculated it, then there would be no parental allowance at all)?!

But to bring some clarity: My wife is a dentist with a net income of just under 8.5k. She is still receiving that because she is currently under a work ban. This will not change until the end of 24, so until then a net household income of 13k. After that, there will be parental allowance for quite a while until she works part-time again, so then only half the income calculated (will probably be a bit more). It is clear that we will not take out the loan during the low-income period, and also that we have sufficient reserves.

But how can she still receive the full salary for the entire 2024? Even if she was just recently pregnant and immediately went on a work ban, the child would be here by the end of May at the latest, and therefore the maternity protection would end in August. After that, it should only be 1800€ (if the joint taxable annual income does not exceed 150k... I haven’t calculated that now, otherwise there would be no parental allowance at all)?!

But how can she still get the full salary completely in 2024? Even if she were just freshly pregnant and immediately went into maternity protection, the child would be born by the end of May at the latest, and the maternity leave would therefore end in August. After that, it should only be 1800€ (if the joint taxable annual income is not over 150k... I haven’t calculated that now, otherwise there would be no parental allowance at all) ?!

It is different for female dentists. If a female dentist says after giving birth that she wants to work but is still breastfeeding, she continues to receive her full salary. She is then not on parental leave but still under the employment ban. There are only very few professions or professional groups for which this breastfeeding employment ban applies. And female dentists are among them. Therefore, I do believe that the 8.5k until the end of 2024 are correctly stated.