House purchase and house construction - What can we afford

But never again in that salary range.

Exceptions prove the rule ;)

Could be, but doesn't have to be.

No, of course not. I just wanted to say that it can also go differently, even if it will probably happen less often than more often..

Could be, but doesn't have to be. Severance payments mostly have the problem that the younger ones hardly get anything and for the older ones it doesn't last until retirement. And regardless of the job market situation, you’re rather unlikely to employ a 55-year-old, especially if they have spent their entire career at VW.

That is just your very narrow view of things.
Here in the south, especially in our rapidly growing industry, people aged 50+ are regularly hired on a permanent basis.
Certainly partly due to lack of alternatives because of the shortage of skilled workers. As a rule, people who take the severance and dare to start anew are usually:
a) brave
b) quite good at their profession
c) experienced, something a 25-year-old cannot offer you

The dregs then cling to their previous job to avoid leaving their comfort zone.

Daycare(s) are guaranteed through our employers - I don't see that as an issue now. We both only have a 35 or 37-hour week anyway. A €1400 financing would be way too little for me - that's not even 15% of our monthly net income (bonuses included - excluding rent through my condominium (so conservatively calculated, at least another €600/net would be added on top). We currently have a savings rate of over €5000 (and that's before bonuses). (You can't rent an apartment here for €1400.) Whether we will get that salary range again, I don't know / given that we both have pretty good educations (i.e. both have a master's degree) and come from scientifically very sought-after industries - I don't worry about that neither short nor mid-term - whether we can still expect significant salary increases, I would now - considering the current working conditions - also doubt (at least the annual collective agreements according to the underlying collective agreement also apply to us).

I wouldn’t overthink the topic of job too much. For example, I never would have thought that my current employer would basically be dead, with cash flows from existing customers of almost 1.5 million. But no people, no company ;)

No, a €1400 financing would be far too little for me – that’s not even 15% of our monthly net income (including bonuses – excluding rent from my condominium (so conservatively calculated, at least another €600/net on top would come in there). – We currently have a savings rate of over €5000 (and that’s before bonuses). (You won’t get an apartment rented here for €1400.)

I also consider the calculation with a secure salary and 30% of that too conservative.
The 30% rule especially applies to other income groups as well.
If your partner definitely wants to work again, parental leave/ losses during parental leave should be financed from equity. I would consistently calculate with 1.5 salaries. And the burden limit is at least 40% of that. So 40% of just under €6k is more like a €2,400 annuity. You would still have a very, very comfortable life without having to restrict yourselves financially too much in case of contingencies. You can always deviate upwards from that value to €3,000, meaning 50%. However, I would rather tend towards €2,400 and invest the rest again.
With a €2,400 annuity, you get about a €500k loan. + equity, you can easily get there.

I consider it very unrealistic/unlikely that you can’t get a 50% position with high-office jobs – of course, there could always be something with a child / care case or similar – but you can’t insure against everything.
Moreover, one of you would be throwing away their talent if you gave up the job entirely.

Exactly - we will then see how we do it - but we will definitely both continue working. I would even see our limit of endurance slightly above that, we once played with 4000€/repayment and even then we would have managed with "full" work without problems (rather even more). With 50% at once (which I consider almost too little in a normal situation, but it will be rather tight - this is true).