How quickly should one pay off a house?

That means, mathematically, at just in the mid-30s we are probably actually wealthy, if you put 900k value, 310k remaining debt, 20k securities portfolio into relation. R

Is that self-created value or inherited? You still have 30 years until retirement to pay off the last third.... what more could you want?
If inflation doesn’t exceed salary increases, time even works in your favor.
My wife’s frugality from her student days has also remained. She thinks we spend way too much money, but in the end, there is always enough left every month to still be able to save despite maximum special repayments. That’s exactly why you work, so you don’t have to turn every euro three times over.

Even if a paid-off house in old age is not completely free living, financially you are usually much better off than a renter.

In the end, it depends on what type of person you are. We paid off the rest of our loan in one go when I received the payout from my sister for my share of our parents’ house (it was €60,000). The advisor at the bank said that an investment would bring a higher return, but I really wanted to be debt-free. Since then, I have clearly had more inner peace than I would have from a few hundred euros more per year in the account. My husband would have chosen the investment, but he knew how important being debt-free is to me. In the thread, the original poster keeps asking, "Are we spending too little money?" You can’t really judge that as an outsider; you have to feel good about how you live yourself. We have a household income of about €8,000 net. We like to go on vacation to the Baltic Sea, Normandy, or Denmark (once a year for 8-10 days). Because of the long travel time from southern Germany, we have been making an overnight stop halfway for the past few years. We look for youth hostels where it costs around €35 per person per night. For others, this might cause an outcry, asking why we do this with such an income, since one can easily afford a nice hotel, etc. You can— we could— but we just don’t want to. And it goes on like this: we don’t have a Thermomix (when I first googled how much it costs, I almost fell off my chair; I naively thought €300 would already be too much money for something like that, but back then it cost more than three times that). When I build something for the garden (herb spiral, raised bed), I want to spend as little/no money as possible, take cuttings myself, save my own seeds, ... (I am proud that very few shrubs and perennials in our garden are bought). You hardly find any brand clothes here, just as little as handbag or shoe collections. We both don’t wear jewelry, and I hardly wear makeup, and I don’t use fancy creams for day/night. But all this is not because we are so stingy or obsessively thrifty, but simply because it’s not important to us. For other things we consciously and thoughtfully spend money on high-quality items (for my husband it’s music, and he has several guitars, for me it’s photography), we have three cars because without them you’re completely stranded here in the countryside, and we pay attention to organic and good quality food, even if it costs more. In the garden we had a cistern built, even though it’s not financially worthwhile, but it gives us a good conscience when watering the garden. We finance our daughter’s studies and dorm room because it’s important to us that she can focus her energy on studying and not have to work alongside it. For other writers here it is probably exactly the opposite: expensive vacations, shopping trips, and someone comes regularly to the garden to make everything look nice. But the child is supposed to finance their life themselves because one had to do that too. Overall, everyone must be satisfied with their own way of life. And if that includes saving hard for a few more years and then being done with the loan, then that’s how it should be done. If someone else wants to consume their remaining money instead of repaying it, that’s fine too. A third says they save in their stock portfolio and look forward to the (hopefully) great return. And then there are many other ways in between.

What a funny discussion, almost every extreme viewpoint is represented here. Don’t plan too detailed and too far into the future, it always turns out differently than you think. My buddy is financially more than set for life, also his children, unfortunately he can’t really enjoy the beginning of his retirement now because he has become seriously ill through no fault of his own and will only experience St. Nicholas a very few more times.

Don’t let others tell you how to manage your finances, you have to figure that out for yourself.

Here’s a crazy variant ;-)
We worked like crazy for the house with several jobs and >=70h/week. We went on vacation every year and weren’t overly frugal, but we did watch our expenses. At 4% interest, everything went into the house and the repayment, no other savings accounts or anything (except for the usual emergency fund, of course). We were fortunately done with it well before our 40th birthday. Now there are only debts for non-owner-occupied properties, which will be paid off before the children come of age.
We have only 3 goals in life now:
1) stay healthy
2) stay healthy
3) retire at 58, at the latest at 60

In retirement, of course, we don’t want to laze around all day, I will still do something, but only on a small scale and without obligation, completely free, whenever I want, however I want, and if I want.

So, most will think we are crazy and they are right. We are fine with it and I sleep like a baby, even if we might have built up more wealth in other ways. :-D

??? Who said that?

You wrote: "You justify expenses: You excuse old proven things, you justify expensive things."

If, according to you, we justify expensive things, that means we spend too much according to you. We do not justify completely normal expenses, but expenses which you consider expensive (the second car in the city? the partly brand products in the supermarket? No idea what you actually mean by that).

Another quote from you: "Living does not mean saving [...]". That sets living and saving as diametrically opposed. By the way, I absolutely have the opposite opinion on that, but just as a side note. The best things in life are free. Friends, family, a walk in the park, a bike tour with the wife and children, a barbecue evening with friends, an evening in the city (the expenses in restaurants and the like are completely irrelevant in scale for me – that goes for me as almost free – housing, utilities, mobility, vacation and supermarket/drugstore are for me the relevant categories where one has significant expenses).

We who live in our own or financed houses live very well. The deductions (pension) are also within limits. [...] It may be that the one or other good car is not paid in cash but leased, but we will ignore that. Instead, other consumer goods are purchased or the house is adjusted to x.

It is 100% based on the state pension, because without the state pension it would hardly be possible to live well for another 20-30 years, right? And the state pension is at least uncertain in amount, some say it might not even exist in 2050 and later.

WE are tired of working longer than 40 or rather 45 years, because then it’s simply enough. Healthwise and mentally.

That’s exactly what I’m saying too. Many younger people might not understand it yet, but with age almost everyone gets tired of work. Hardly anyone voluntarily works beyond 60. And it will be no different for my generation. When I am 60, I probably will be happy if I have built reserves to retire around 60 +/- . So an argument for a frugal life. Frugal in the sense of own brands instead of brand products or the city bus in 15 minutes instead of the taxi immediately. Of course, not frugal with regard to outings, adventures, vacation, travel and fun.

Or very concretely: I stick with the old small car for 2x a week office trips with 15 minutes travel time or if it breaks down, I bike or take the bus, depending on the weather. In my opinion, that is an expense that does not improve my happiness level and is only unnecessary comfort/status consumption. And at 60 I will be happy that the money might be enough for early retirement.

With my wife, the tendency toward stinginess also remained from her student days. She thinks we spend way too much money, but in the end every month there is enough left over to still be able to save despite maximum extra repayments. That’s exactly why you work, so you don’t have to turn every euro three times over.

Yes, it’s similar with my wife. Clothing for the children is happily swapped around within the family. The stroller was naturally reused for child number two (I know it differently too), she gets a lot from eBay classifieds (and yes, in the end a used scooter from a good brand is not at all worse than the new device, which looks the same after 3 uses). When she comes home from the city at 1 a.m. (out with friends), I really had to persuade her to take a taxi and not wait 20 minutes for the bus, in the cold and in the middle of the night (and of course I wait the 20 minutes for the bus... :-D). She is also clearly in favor of keeping our cars for a very long time and for the twice-a-week office days, the bike or bus is enough. They get us from A to B and a new car is not one second faster in city traffic. Only for excursions, outings, meetings with friends, vacations, expenses for the children (holiday camps, zoo, instrument, dance lessons, other city offers), i.e., for experiences instead of things, we don’t really watch the price (of course, we don’t want to spend 10,000 euros on 2 weeks vacation). In the end, then 2,500 euros remain and are invested. Sure, just leasing a fancy car with full coverage insurance plus regular maintenance at the authorized dealer easily costs 1,000 euros or more... and every time I lean the shopping cart back on the car, another scratch appears, which then costs 500 euros upon return.

The original poster repeatedly brings up the sentence "Are we spending too little money?". As an outsider, you really can't judge that; it has to feel good to yourself how you live.

I always interpret that into the answers from – at least, that's how I read their responses. I probably misinterpret it as well, but that's just how it reads to me. "Living does not mean saving..." and so on...

We finance our daughter's studies and dorm room because it's important to us that she can focus her energy on her studies and doesn't have to work on the side.

That is even the legal obligation of parents, as long as the parents are not poor. I can't understand how someone could NOT do that. And of course, then you have, for example, 5.5 years x 12 months x 1,200 euros x 2 children + semester abroad = 175,000 euros in costs, for which you might also want to save.

Overall, everyone must be satisfied with their own lifestyle.

Exactly. For me, it's mainly about getting a few suggestions from the outside. We were very early with the land purchase, certainly also with the house construction. Many friends hadn't even thought about such topics yet. Of course, that secured us prices that are almost half of today's prices, plus significantly lower interest rates. None of our friends (many double-income academics among them) are in a similar situation, and for most, even a 4-room apartment from the existing stock as a condominium is currently unaffordable. That means I have no conversation partners in a similar situation. They pay 1,500 euros cold rent and more for 4-room apartments (no new construction) and maybe invest a bit here and there in stocks (as mentioned, they do stock picking, altcoins & co.... and we simply invest in a global ETF) – but rather small amounts (no 1,000 euros per month or more).