Although there is already something in the existing stock. Maybe not necessarily nice and as desired, but you can see that beforehand. In new buildings, it’s just a training area, and the material already takes a hit there. Besides, you can also easily make the outdoor facilities look better if you feel like everything is just getting more and more expensive. I confess to that too.
We also had 1000m² (rural) in the outdoor area with the new building, not 300, and when you have mud around the house and you always carry it in with your shoes, you look for ways to somehow squeeze out a bit of money for paving or at least gravel.
And even then, you don’t want to look at the dirt outside the windows forever, so we massively underestimated the outdoor area during the first build.
I see the biggest risks with existing properties rather in the house. Renovations can also be nicely accounted for, what can still be done later. But you are still paying off your loan diligently in 5 years and can’t save huge amounts on the side.
I think so too.
From the beginning (and this is probably our tightest financial time, as we will soon have another parental leave with lower income), we have the loan payment, then we save a monthly amount as "house reserves" – in the first years, it is not that high as long as I’m still on parental leave, and it also has to cover things like car repairs or a new washing machine. A general "maintenance contribution". Then we invest the same amount of money monthly in a broadly diversified ETF as "residual debt buffer" – we hope for a solid long-term return (time in the market) to have as little residual debt as possible after the fixed interest period. And we also save a monthly amount to improve retirement. This one is currently not that high either.
We also save a small monthly amount for the children – nothing world-changing, but just a bit of starting capital for adulthood, for the driver’s license and a small car, it should be enough.
Our incomes still have room to grow, but so do our savings contributions. Both for retirement and for the maintenance of the house, we want to save larger sums in the future. Because the house will not stay new forever, and at some point, bigger expenses will come (new roof, new heating, etc). And then our children will also get older and accordingly need more money from the household net – food, clothing, pocket money, wishes.
So I somehow don’t see the illusion that I could save huge amounts on the side (beyond the things mentioned), and we don’t have such a high rate in relation to household income.