How to use the Riester bank savings plan?

Hello everyone,

we are currently at the beginning of planning for our own home.

Could someone maybe explain to me in simple words or have a link on whether and how I can incorporate a Riester bank savings plan (max funding) with ~15K into a possible financing?

Convert it into a Sohn Riester and repay with it? Or use it as a special repayment? Is this amount to be considered as equity? What should be considered here?

Or not touch this Riester? It was actually intended for retirement provision...

Roughly about the plans:
Age 33+31 married, no children.
Project costs 400,000€ (Rhein-Main area).
Equity available 180,000€.
Monthly income 4,800€.
Monthly expenses without cold rent 2,500€.
Leftover: 2,300€

Best regards and many thanks in advance!
:)

P.S.: If there is already a corresponding thread... sorry..

Edit: Current financial plan would be to repay 50,000€ via KfW and the remaining 170,000€ via a 15-20 year bank loan.

With your equity and income, I would probably not touch the bank savings plan and leave it as retirement provision. But that is just my layman's opinion and is not based on banking expertise.

I would also carefully calculate whether a 20-year fixed interest period even makes sense, because I think you should be done after 15 years. Without planned children, a 10-year fixed interest period might even make sense.

I would like to confirm Musketier in the basics.

If it is a Sparkasse (because Banksparpläne are quite common there) there is often the option of a (free) conversion into an LBS Wohnriester. But in your constellation, I also see this rather as a second choice.

Judging by the amount, the contract is already a few years old. You will not get these interest conditions with a new contract anymore. Possibly, the long-term return could even be higher (depending on the age of the contract) than a well-secured loan today.

Hello and thank you for the previous answers

The savings plan was concluded a few years ago (7 afaik) at Sparkasse Günzburg with the ordinary (more or less) interest rate available at that time. Exactly for this reason, as you also wrote, I was reluctant to use this thing for other purposes.

Let's assume I convert this bank savings plan into a Wohnriester (I think that costs €50), what could I use it for sensibly? Would one then simply use the maximum rate of €2100 each year from there for financing, meaning I could already make special repayments for the next 7 years? The Riester would continue to run and I can accordingly declare everything annually on the tax return, or do I stop the payments there?

Sorry if I can't express myself correctly financially, I have nothing to do with finances in real life. The problem is the more I read, the more questions arise :/ (maybe someone has a book tip for me besides ISBN 9783868513295).

THANK YOU and best regards
:)

There is the better contact person. I can do arithmetic and understand something about taxes, but the topic of subsidized/non-subsidized/tax-free/taxable/occupational/private retirement provision is somehow a book with seven seals, which I have been putting off for years.

The whole topic is not clear to me either, especially since I am no longer deeply involved in the consulting topic itself.

But if you want, send me the contract as a private message, especially the pages where the basic interest rate, the final premium, and other percentages are shown.

Usually, the return results from an interplay of all parameters. But if the contract is already 7 years old, it is probably one of the first contracts. You definitely won’t achieve that return anymore. The thing with the LBS is likely a losing proposition in the long run, even if the burden with the Riester contract is somewhat higher now.

If it really doesn’t work out, you can always pause the bank savings plans and revive them later. They don’t hurt.