How long have you been saving equity for your house?

I had a partner for a long time who already owned a house. We lived together there. During that time, I had no reason to save for my own property – however, I occasionally looked at condominiums for rent and, if necessary, for myself. But it never became concrete. I also worked part-time for many years because of the children, and I had to manage financially. It was sometimes quite tight, admittedly also because of a (deliberately chosen) expensive hobby. Then the relationship ended, and I moved out into a cheap rental apartment. But after 10 years in a single-family house with a garden, I didn’t feel comfortable there anymore. So I made the plan to buy my own house. In the meantime, I had gradually been able to increase my working hours in several steps, so I had a steady income, but little savings. I wouldn’t have thought that a suitable property would come my way within six months in my expensive small city. So I took the chance. The house cost about seven net household incomes, I paid the incidental costs myself (about 10% of the total price), and my parents lent me another 10%. I am to repay them as I can. That was 2.5 years ago; I moved in nine months later. Since then, no property within my budget has appeared again (I don’t look daily, but sometimes out of curiosity). The first 5% is paid off (also to my parents); slow and steady wins the race...

No, statistically speaking, you are definitely not average!

I was quite surprised to find out that with my TV-L scientist salary, I am almost within reach of the top 10%... But that's how it is, yes, that doesn't make you average! I am a single parent, so I don't feel rich... But with two such salaries, you could really make some big leaps...

I was already surprised to find out that with my TV-L scientist salary I am almost within sight of the top 10%... But it’s true, yes, that means you are not an average person! I am a single parent, so I don’t feel rich... But with two such salaries you could really make some big leaps...

Unfortunately, you cannot. He already said it is the salary for two people. And with that you don’t make big leaps in the south, especially not when it comes to building a house.

Long story short: No, statistically speaking, you are definitely not normal people!

That is absolutely correct, the average German salary was recently apparently 47,700 euros gross per year. With 95,400 euros gross per year for two people, you do not come to 80,000 euros net, so this is clearly an above-average income. Still, an attempt to "convey" two correct perspectives: we are still above 80,000 euros net per year and of course we know that we have a lot of luck and significantly more opportunities than many others. Nevertheless, we feel like completely normal people. We have normal parents, siblings, friends, colleagues, a completely normal environment in every respect, normal leisure activities, no Ferrari, no yacht, no escapades and we do not fly by helicopter to breakfast in Hamburg or St. Moritz. We are very down-to-earth and find it sad when people define themselves by their money instead of their character. In this respect, we are aware of a financial privilege and nevertheless believe that, completely independently of that, we can be normal people, or "Normalos."

There is currently a huge discussion about what normal actually is, what it means, what it is allowed to mean, and whether one should/is allowed/can even speak of something like normality. Normal certainly does not simply mean average. In this respect, I would say that a net household income of 80 TEUR p.a. is significantly above average, yet the people living in this household can still be "Normalos".

Our available Hamburg equity capital is p.A. 50. So not gross, but available. With that, one can comfortably save 2000 per month here in SH, with a bit of frugality even more.