Then also this focusing on absolute trivialities like buying private labels vs. branded products, whether he sometimes takes a taxi in the evening, the frequency of the bus to the city, etc. Meanwhile, he leaves out essential things (e.g. the year the house was built). The city is then only roughly between 400k and 800k inhabitants in size. The area is not mentioned at all [...]
With 400-800k, it is narrowed down to 11 cities. I want to have a factual discussion here without revealing too much about my personal place of residence (and if I now name a few more details and the exact city, it would probably be quite precisely narrowed down to specific locations, after all, in these 11 cities (i.e. the 11 cities that follow the 4 million-plus cities in Germany [Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne]) new-build houses don’t grow on trees).
In my opinion, it does not matter for my question, we bought the plot in 2015 (in a process where demand far, far exceeded supply, meaning that even then we paid less than the 2015 market price), built in 2017. Very large (180 sqm + 60 sqm expansion potential), solid and calculated KFW55, lots of large windows, electric venetian blinds, raised ceilings, many extras in the sanitary and electrical areas, underfloor heating 32 degrees, controlled residential ventilation, etc… for 550k including land and all ancillary costs really dirt cheap back then. That public transport here comes every 10 minutes and gets to the city center in 15 to a maximum of 20 minutes is just to emphasize again that the increase in value is realistic in my opinion.
So, mathematically, at just mid-30s, we are probably actually wealthy when you put 900k value, 310k residual debt, 20k depot in relation. In reality, I feel more like on the hamster wheel of debt repayment. We drive two very old cars and only today our children managed to spill a bottle of apple spritzer in the car, luckily only on the footwell, not on the seats. Still, such experiences actually reinforce me not to look for a new car. And yes, probably the car is also the trigger why I am thinking about whether we should now save fixed for 7 years, then pay off everything and then be debt-free or now e.g. get a used car (estate, 6 years old, 70k km, Golf Variant class, automatic, petrol for short distances), which also easily costs 20k, and then I’m already looking forward to when the kids spill apple spritzer there for the first time or climb from the front seats to the back and back again.
The item vacation is out of the question for us. We fly twice a year on vacation. City trips with children are of course no option, we also don’t like skiing/snowboarding at all, so it’s two beach vacations on the Mediterranean (summer, October). We don’t need to fly two weeks to Southeast Asia with a child who can barely walk a few hundred meters to daycare. With a few bridge days and with the obligatory Christmas holidays (family visits...), 30 vacation days are already spent. Otherwise, we naturally try to do a lot of activities like the zoo or other things the city offers for kids. Things like bike tours, playgrounds, or a trip to the city park, of course, cost nothing.
Somehow, at least I read this more often now from , we spend too little money, meaning somehow spending money is equated with living life. Therefore, I try here with concrete examples to show where we save money (branded products, expensive and nearly new cars, taxi instead of bus) and where not (vacations, outings, certainly also a much higher living standard than average). Whether we should perhaps spend a little more money on item X or product Y...