Construction financing - what can we afford?

A few more points came to my mind: - As a small "trap," I can mention that the second child should come directly after the first parental leave - then the net income before the birth is taken into account.

That is not entirely true. My wife is in her second year of parental leave and received parental allowance for the first 12 months. If we now had a second child immediately after the two years, we would only receive the basic amount of 300 euros in parental allowance.

Correct. If you want to maximize the parental allowance, you have to first "refill" the pot for 12 months.

The parental allowance for the 2nd child is then calculated based on the average net income of the 12 months before the birth of the 2nd child.
What you earned before the birth of the 1st child is not relevant for the calculation of the parental allowance for the 2nd child.

So please do not calculate the maximum amount for both children consecutively.

What you earned before the birth of the 1st child is not relevant for the calculation of parental allowance for the 2nd child.

That is not entirely correct: If the deferral conditions cause periods between the 1st and 2nd child to be excluded (maternity protection, receipt of parental allowance, illness, civilian service, ... and whatever else), this is very much relevant.

In addition, there is a 10% bonus on the parental allowance until the end of the 3rd year of life of the first child.

//EDIT: Just checked: parental allowance plus months only constitute a deferral condition up to the 15th month, not beyond.

Correct. If you want to maximize the parental allowance, you have to basically "refill" the pot for 12 months first.

With maternity leave, the whole thing shifts 2 months before birth, so to be on the safe side, calculate 14+ months.

With maternity protection, the whole thing shifts 2 months before birth, so to be on the safe side, calculate 14+ months.

That's great when the period before the birth of the first child is counted, because you still earn full pay then. See my post ...

Started with the first child. My wife will now work full-time again for at least 14 months and then we will consider whether to have another one.