Finance Single-family house - Feasibility?

I always find it remarkable how some people here hoard their money—and are proud of it. As if living frugally were something heroic.

I'll come clean: we had children young and built a house young. With 110% financing. But we wanted to have the garden when we need it, that is, when the children are small. Teenagers don’t need a swing anymore or a sandbox.

As I said—we were young. Now we are older, the children are no longer small, the house is paid off. We earn a five-figure amount (yes, net) per month and still basically spend almost everything.
Money in the bank doesn’t make us happy. Why should we work so much if all we get from it is an account that is bursting?

I advocate buying everything exactly when you want to have it. Unless you want to be the richest dead person in the graveyard. We do very well with this and lead an all-around happy life. without constantly watching the account.

I really have to be ashamed right now [emoji22]

I always find it remarkable how some people here hoard their money—and are proud of it. As if living frugally were something heroic.

I’ll come clean: we had children young and built a house young. With 110% financing. But we wanted to have the garden when we needed it, that is, when the kids were small. Teenagers don’t need a swing anymore or a sandbox.

As I said—we were young. Now we’re older, the kids are no longer small, the house is paid off. We earn a five-figure amount (yes, net) per month and yet still spend almost everything we get.
Money in the bank doesn’t make us happy. Why should we work so much if all we have to show for it is an account that’s bursting?

I advocate buying everything exactly when you want it. Unless you want to be the richest dead person in the cemetery. We’re doing very well with this approach and lead a completely happy life without constantly watching the account balance.

Hm, yeah… I had to think about what to say on that. So I don’t live frugally either, rather I’ve been lucky. And overall relatively modest.
I bought my first house at 24 (cheap) and renovated it. Lived there a few years and now changed houses because of the family. Also mostly renovated myself again.
Personally, I don’t save an outstanding amount and never have. But I had a certain quality of life. By the way, far from a five-figure income.
We often order food, buy what we want.
But we have low demands on clothes, cars, etc. I find it difficult to compare overall.

There are people who enjoy saving and thereby having a (fictional) security or whatever.
Others live more day to day.

My credo is more like: it somehow works. So far, everything is working out.
What is more important: I hate dependence. That’s why it was arranged from the start so that one salary can pay for everything.

I don’t find you pretentious, nor do I deny your right to join the conversation here. I would NEVER be willing to give up vacations, eating out/ordering food, or other luxuries “just” to be able to pay for a house.

Doing what’s feasible without HAVING to restrict yourself (not wanting to), I consider sensible.

*glucks* with a 5-figure salary (I assume that's the combined amount from both of you) I wouldn't really save much either. I would put aside something for 3 months and from then on just relax and do whatever I want. But seriously, who actually has that??? I don't even earn badly and I'm not even close to 5k net (!). So I assume that neither of you are in a traditional employment relationship and with that I find your statement somewhat out of touch. I can understand that you don't have to save, but I can totally understand that the rest of the world urgently needs to save

I believe my statement was misunderstood. My main focus was that when we were young, in our early 20s, and the combined income was about €2500 - I hadn’t even earned anything then - we bought a house with 110% financing and had children. And it still worked. I cannot understand this obsession with saving. We paid off the house despite the "poor starting position." Without any problems!

Today our financial situation is different. And still, I would never change my consumption behavior - even looking back. Why?

Is that clearer now? I consider saving capital - almost regardless of income levels - to be pointless. From my own experience.

And what kind of rate did you pay back then? I doubt that with the same salary today you would build/buy a house that costs around 400k, where most construction projects are located here.

Back then it was simply possible to finance a house with that salary because the houses were much cheaper. My parents built 13 years ago. A 112sqm single-family house for 120k. Without much personal effort. Try to achieve that today. With 50 sqm more we were already at almost double.

Whoever lets themselves be classified in level 1 of a fair pay group with qualifications and 20 or 30 years of professional experience, cannot be helped anymore. I have zero understanding for that.

And what is the alternative? Hartz 4 or staying in the old job where you earn even less? Around here, people are very happy with an 11/1...