Construction financing, failure, and setbacks

All the best from me too and lots of strength!

Thank you for your condolences :)!

I was thinking specifically of people like you. Whoever bears the entire financing alone, of course also bears the full burden. I hope you will never find yourself in this situation; I think you have thought everything through well, at least it seems to me that everything is quite well planned and doable for you.

I think holding back that much capital is a good idea. For us it wasn’t possible back then; the additional purchase costs and part of the renovation ate up our equity. We were still very young when we bought the house and we only had one income at the time because I was still studying.

Cancelling insurances, that’s a good point. True, I hadn’t even thought of that yet (in fact, sometimes the simplest solutions just don’t come to mind at the moment). We still have 1-2 that would get us through a few months if the sickness benefit were to run out eventually, but I’m not expecting that.

Ah yes, I wasn’t familiar with something like that. That would certainly have been good for us. In a family with a medical history... but I wonder if after multiple cancer cases in the family you can even insure cancer? For me, that ship has now sailed. Or are there insurances that can still be taken out? At 32, the probability of a relapse isn’t exactly low.

Hmm yes, we will see. Some tolerate the treatments well, others don’t at all. Unfortunately, even today. I will probably only be really "out of commission" for about a week after the surgery. Possibly another 3 weeks for rehab if I decide to do it. I think during radiation it will still be manageable. What worries me is possible chemo. I used to work in emergency services and so I got to know so many cancer patients in patient transport. Of course, those were exactly the people who were seriously ill/old or tolerated their treatments so badly that they needed patient transport. So I have only seen the negative examples. Whether I need chemo will only be decided by the tumor classification. Although the radiologist said from the MRI it appears to be one that should respond well to chemo. We’ll see.

If your sister had breast cancer, then please take good care of yourself. There are early cancer detection programs, maybe you have a claim to them if such a close relative has been affected. There you can even get, for example, an MRI and also mammography and breast ultrasound annually at a young age. I will have myself included in that as soon as the current illness is over.

Thank you for your honest words. It’s good that you have also beaten cancer in the long term! I also think it simply doesn’t matter what the house looks like then. My kids are 6 and 8. For me, the main thing is that it doesn’t come to the point where they are only dropped off and picked up and nothing else happens. I want them to still go to the playground sometimes or experience something small, even on weekends. I think my husband will take on that more and so will the grandparents. I can also still take vacation time, that’s right.

All in all, my husband and I are in a good position. Although we don’t have money like hay even now, it’s okay. Switching to (better paid) self-employment is now further away. In such cases, I praise employment^^. And generally the German healthcare system. Just think of how much money my health insurance has cost me in the past weeks... mammographies, biopsies, MRI, ultrasound, human genetics (just such a test costs several thousand euros!), consultations. And the therapy hasn’t even started yet.
Imagine living, for example, in the USA, having no health insurance and a financing burden with you and maybe unable to sell your house quickly. And even if you could, you have to live somewhere and survive on something. What my health insurance has paid for me in recent weeks, we wouldn’t have had in savings now.

The conclusion of my previous considerations: insure yourself early and well, even if it seems crazy to deal with such things at 30. At least to the necessary minimum so that in case of emergency you don’t have to throw everything overboard.

I wish you all the best and lots of strength. Two friends of mine had breast cancer. One of them handled everything relatively well, both physically and mentally. It was more difficult for the other. From diagnosis to reintegration, it took about 12 months.

Check with the health insurance, Profamilia, Caritas if you can get household help/support because of the children. I know someone who has been repeatedly looking after families for Caritas for years. Household, children, etc.

Yes, we have built/financed in such a way that we can manage financially with a total or partial loss of income.

Hello Winniefred, I would now like to recommend your most important insurance to you, it is not one that supports you financially, but one that can help you prevent further misfortunes for you and your family: Human genetics! As I said, you are too young for cancer, and when I read that it occurs frequently in your family, you must go there. They will advise you and if you are genetically proven to be affected, you can take preventive action... GD

Regarding your questions: Basically, the insurance companies also ask health questions, as with RiLV, which relate to the current status of the applicant. Whether pre-existing conditions within the family are queried, I cannot answer offhand. It becomes difficult with certain pre-existing conditions. Either there are benefit exclusions or, in the worst case, a rejection.

What I do notice in the answers, however, is the classic situation. The main earner is usually covered, and the second person so-so. Why is that? What happens if the caregiving person dies and the main earner has to reduce their working hours to take care of the young children? Or has to financially cover care because they still have to work 8 hours? The loan installments remain. This always means less money, less time, less strength.... At least a properly calculated RiLV for the non-main earner costs, in relation to what you get in the worst case scenario, almost nothing.

I find it amazing how many people apparently get along so well that despite (new) house construction they can still build up large reserves. Having the installment for several years still on the side? Wow.

For most families (especially) that is certainly not a consideration. You just hope that the stroke of fate does not occur very soon after the construction. I feel the same way. Meanwhile, after two years, I have somewhat "pulled myself together," and there is again a reserve available with which I could cushion the loss due to sick pay for about half a year. It's not the world either. Actually, I haven't thought much about illness. Ultimately, I probably just hope that the chalice will pass by or still take a long time to come.