House buying - No idea what one can afford

Then everyone loves each other again. I also work at one of the top companies from the FT Global 500 list and have a lot of freedom regarding working hours, home office. I was also present at all doctor’s appointments of our 2-year-old. The main thing is to be happy.

Honestly, I can’t imagine right now how much money I should plan per month for food, miscellaneous, etc. - that’s manageable when you compare a few months, I see, as explained here in the thread at some point, what my fixed and fixed-variable costs are, it’s about the same every month.

But planning ahead what happens with more children, etc., or if and whether my wife will work part-time for 2 years... I find that difficult... Certainly, this speaks even more in favor of financing under 100%, but then realistically, we can start at the earliest in 2 years - someone here had also written summer ’18 as a goal, I believe.

If a child and thus parental leave comes by then, it will of course take even longer. But that also shows that it would be riskier now, or - which I would find much worse - going into a 200k house now, although with a little patience you could go into a 400k house.

My wife would still prefer the former. Moving into a rental house for this interim would of course also be possible, but overall it would lead to additional costs, that’s clear - but maybe a consideration to meet the short-term needs.

What speaks against the proposal to transfer 1000 euros to a separate account at the beginning of every month from now on and only use this money again for a house purchase?

Just as a thought, if you are planning to build yourself, it takes at least 2 years from searching for a plot of land etc. until moving in. Also, a suitable used property is not found quickly. So, save save save and in the meantime start looking. Instead of spending your vacation in a 5* hotel in Dubai for 10 [Scheine], spending it in a 4* hotel in Crete for 2 [Scheine] can also be quite nice. Then the equity will work out.

We had the "dream of our own house" almost from the moment we met. We deliberately waited until the family planning (2 kids) was completed so that we at least had some kind of plan whether we could afford it. Subsequently, quite a few things went differently than planned: According to the plan, my wife was supposed/wanted to work part-time after parental leave – with a view to full-time in the future. As of now, after the part-time attempt with 30 hours failed, she is working on a 450 euro basis. This is primarily on Friday afternoons and Saturdays, when I look after the kids. From my point of view, that is not ideal now and will probably last a while – but it has to be and will be carried through. Thus, we have had to tighten our belts again a bit to compensate for the unplanned loss of income. I currently have to calculate quite well and also occasionally say: That is not possible at the moment.

Start by planning your CURRENT (now) before you move on to a TARGET (now), let alone a TARGET (+1 year) or a TARGET (+3 years and 2 children).

Unfortunately, for a second child, you can no longer simply rely on the knowledge from the first child because the documentation is missing.

But anyway, start with the here and now.

Btw, what is your qualification?

Subsequently, some things also went differently than planned: My wife was supposed/wanted to work part-time after parental leave according to the plan – prospectively full-time. As it stands now, after the part-time attempt with 30 hours failed, she is working on a 450 Euro basis.

This is a fundamental problem that many childless couples have: You often read that they think the partner can go back to full-time work a maximum of one year after birth – yeah, sure .

Sometimes that works, but you also have to ask yourself: At what cost...?

In this respect, I am also very glad that we had our child before the construction – even if he was very hindering during the construction phase . But that is only one year, if you miscalculate otherwise, you are talking about years, possibly more than 10 years...