Existing property or construction financeable?

I will gladly keep you updated.

We ask for it!

That sounds better already. I believe that in the important area of "brainstorming" everything (except insults etc.) MUST be allowed, otherwise you might reduce the chance of achieving a maximum result. Of course, it bothers me if someone says something different than what I think. But if I manage to endure that and still keep an open mind about it despite inner rejection, I can only gain from it, because no one can impose their will on me. Whether the past life was right or wrong doesn’t really matter, because everyone lived it that way AND now must simply accept the consequences as they are, without complaining. Whether someone experiences an earlier, later, or no "midlife crisis" at all will probably depend on other factors and not necessarily on how they lived their earlier life. I find the thinking too uniform or stereotyped when I sometimes read that someone who used to live lavishly had a great life and someone else was a silly couch potato with a miserable life. I can drive along the Côte d’Azur in the open S-Class and feel and behave inside like a poor soul, but just as well I can sit in front of my self-built flowerbed in a third-floor apartment building and endlessly enjoy my life. An object, like a house, CHANGES NOTHING about that! That wonderful feeling passes very quickly and the real essence soon reappears. describes nicely how it has apparently led to a healthy level of satisfaction for him/her personally, which for someone else might mean total chaos. Take these things with you here and as I read, you are doing that too. All the best!

That sounds better already. Whether the earlier life was right or wrong doesn’t matter, because everyone lived it that way AND now has to accept the consequences as they are, without complaining. Whether someone therefore experiences a "midlife crisis" earlier, later, or not at all will probably depend on other things and not necessarily on how that person lived their earlier life. To me, the thinking is too uniform or put into boxes when I sometimes read that the one who lived large earlier had a great life and the other is a silly couch potato with a miserable life.

Very well summarized. I wrote about the midlife crisis and deliberately formulated it somewhat controversially. Simply to offer a different perspective on the "No fortune by the end of your 30s? They can’t handle money!" It can also mean exactly the opposite: having had a wild time and now having enough money every month for a house. At least there is a good chance that all of this is on a more solid footing than the classic average earner who suddenly gets a lump sum of money and spends it faster than they can count to three...

Update:

Last September, we obtained a €500,000 loan from Deutsche Bank with €40,000 of our own equity.
We bought a 725 sqm plot of land in a prime location on the outskirts of a large city (30 km from Düsseldorf) for €180,000.

Since we invested our own equity in September 2020, an additional €21,000 of savings through our own efforts (no gifts/inheritance) have been added to date.

So, our household budget has been working for almost two years now (to the people who accused us of not being able to handle money).

BAM! Congratulations! I also assume that the financing was a bit more solid than the structure with the existing property.

The 21k savings during the construction phase clearly shows to me that you know how to handle money. Before that, you also managed to gather the 40k relatively quickly, if I remember correctly. Your income and expenses fit together anyway. Your husband is supposed to switch to the higher civil service, right? Did that work out?

"It is only a question of what we can afford now.": Definitely no new house in your area.

Well...fail.

Yes, my husband has been in the senior service since December and I will also start a higher-paying position from 1.8., so that we will then have a household net income of €6000. Currently, we have savings of about €2000 per month, so by the end of the year we expect to have just under €30,000, which we would like to use for the kitchen and outdoor area.