House purchase and house construction - What can we afford

I see it differently. In 5 years, the Boomers will start retiring, then the market will turn even more towards the employee side than it already is. Many positions and high salaries will become available.

At some point, the point is reached where companies simply relocate the positions or are pushed out of the market due to foreign competition because of high costs. I would not show too much optimism there.

The Boomers are mostly already retired. At least in the companies that pay 4-5k net for simple employees (VW, Porsche etc). Nobody walks around at 67 anymore. At the latest, the last ones go into partial retirement at 63.

The "Boomers," meaning the baby boomer cohorts in Germany, include those born up to 1969. They are by no means all already retired. And no one is saying that there are only 1-2 well-paying companies throughout Germany.

Well – because we also want to be debt-free again quickly and lead a fairly frugal life. We have the salary, but never adjusted our standard of living accordingly. We are not specialized or managers, just regular engineers ;-)

And do you seriously believe that an average company in the land of engineers would pay you 4-5k net as a non-manager in a – at worst – deindustrialized country? Keep dreaming. If – for whatever reason – your time at BMW, Daimler, Siemens, whatever ends, you’ll have to start living on a smaller scale very quickly.

You don’t have to paint the devil on the wall, but you should also factor in such cases (+ health bottlenecks, stress, etc). So why want to be debt-free after 20 years, if 30 years would also suffice? And as I said: no one stops you from saving additionally on top of the monthly rate.

The be-all and end-all in business life is liquidity. Liquidity bottlenecks should be avoided at all costs.
Many bankruptcies and distress sales are not the result of insolvency, but merely due to faulty liquidity management.

The "Boomers," meaning the large birth cohorts in Germany, go up to the year of birth 1969. By no means are they all already retired. And nobody is saying that there are only 1-2 well-paying companies in all of Germany.

Yes, according to some definition, the Boomers go up to 1969. But the fact is that every birth year in the 50s was far stronger. The fact is also that the peak was right at the beginning of the 60s and then rapidly! (the pill and so on) declined. The typical employee in larger companies retires at 60-63, sometimes even earlier. There's not much left of the large birth cohorts. The official retirement age is just on paper. Anyone who takes a management position at Mercedes even contractually promises to leave the company by age 60 at the latest. The regular employee manages to jump out through early retirement programs.

And do you seriously believe that a run-of-the-mill company will pay you 4-5k net as a non-manager in the land of engineers in a - at worst - deindustrialized country? Keep dreaming. If - for whatever reason - your time at BMW, Daimler, Siemens, whatever ends, it quickly means downsizing. You don’t have to paint the devil on the wall,

Where does the envy come from? Yes, they will, because the shortage of skilled workers remains. Where does the nightmare scenario of a deindustrialized country come from – with you it sounds like 100% certain. Maybe read fewer images and spread less panic. There are major economic policy challenges, but that doesn’t mean we will be deindustrialized in 10 years. There are also many more well-paying companies than the four or five you know. There are also top sectors outside of automotive and Siemens. Basically, I also recommend not to constrict yourself too tightly with the annuity. With two full salaries it's easy to manage, but children change a lot, including personal priorities. In the end, you might both want to go down to 30 hours – because you can definitely afford / could afford it.

But that does not match reports about programs where retirees are brought back because companies can't get new staff. They may be different companies, but we have a skilled labor shortage.