Is financing a new single-family house feasible?

To support the OP here once again with a positive example, even if the situations cannot be compared 1:1.

Back then, we presented our project in the forum. Equity even slightly less than you. Household income about 5000 euros net nearly 2 years ago. He was a civil servant at the federal level in the advancement procedure to the higher service. She was relatively newly employed in the public sector E10 (i.e., higher service). She had just returned from parental leave. Working part-time. Loan amount approx. 500k.

Today received payslips. We now have 6900 net. (I am now in the higher service, my wife switched to the federal sector during the construction phase with a higher salary).

Hmm, advancement procedure to the higher service, so you were on A12 BUND, E10 certainly < 3000€ net. There are no jump promotions, so after two years you are now at most at A14. or else A13. The jump from A12 to A14 is about ~1000€ gross – so surely not 1000€ net anymore. Realistically 600€.

This means that the remaining 1300€ was generated by your wife's jump in the public sector. Now the jump from E10 at the federal level to E15 (but that will not be the case here, right?) at the maximum level is <2200€ gross. But that only brings "just" 1000€ more net. Civil servant status wouldn't bring more than 1000€ net either.

Could it not be more that your wife now has a higher part-time factor than 2 years ago? Because when I calculate municipal E10 and A12 BUND full-time, I strangely don’t get 5000€, but (surely depending also on the family factor, 1 or 2 children?) a household income of more than 6000€ (before parental leave or part-time). Your case sounds less fantastic when you do some calculations.

Here we don’t have the info, except that the husband, who is not going part-time, earns less than the wife, who is supposed to go part-time later. Correctly one should give the current part-time income and the maximum income without part-time, if this is achievable if necessary. Only in this way can your case be compared with, for example, DINKS, who really have a maximum of 5000€ net. That is quite a big difference to fixed salaries in the private sector, where maybe there isn’t even a collective agreement.

Since we are both in the public sector, I was also surprised by the salary increase. Did you deduct the [PKV] from all of them?

Starting in September, we will have the A11 and A12 combination. That comes to about €6400. Then almost €600 goes for health insurance, and what's left is "only" €5800 net. But that is for two full-time jobs; once children arrive, it will reduce again. How many hours part-time does your wife work?

In any case, you are right, and sometimes the warnings are unfounded. We are already earning more than when we started building the house, and everything went as planned, with enough money left over. On the other hand, you can't just assume that in 2 years you will earn €1000 net more. It could just as well have been that one of you gets sick and unable to work, and it just doesn't work anymore. The best thing is often to plan with the current situation and not with the optimistic or pessimistic extreme case.

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Hmm, promotion procedures to the higher service level, so you were on A12 BUND, E10 certainly < 3000€ net. There are no jump promotions, so now you are at most at A14 after two years. Or rather A13. The jump from A12 to A14 amounts to about 1000€ gross – so certainly no 1000€ net anymore. Realistically 600€.

That means that the remaining 1300€ were generated by your wife through a jump in the public service. Now the jump from E10 at the federal level to E15 (but this case probably isn’t that, right?) at the highest level is <2200€ gross. That brings only “just” 1000€ more net. Civil servant status would also not bring more than 1000€ net.

Could it be much more that your wife now has a higher part-time factor than 2 years ago? When I calculate municipal E10 and A12 BUND at full-time, I strangely don’t come to 5000€, but (probably also depending on the family factor, 1 or 2 children?) to a household income of more than 6000€ (before parental leave or part-time). Your case sounds less fantastic when you do some calculations.

We don’t have that info here, except that the man, who is not going part-time, earns less than the wife, who is to go part-time later. Correctly, the current part-time income and the maximum income without part-time, if achievable if necessary, should be given. Only in this way can your case be compared, for example, with DINKS, who actually have a maximum of 5000€ net. That is quite a big difference compared to fixed salaries in the private sector, where maybe not even a collective agreement exists.

OK. I didn’t want the whole thread to be about our case. That’s why I didn’t want to clutter it with details about us.

Whether it was exactly 5000€ in total back then I don’t know. It could have been 5100 or 5150 or something like that. The more it was, the more absurd the statements back then would have been.

My jump was from A12 via A13 to now A14. That’s just over 1100€ net more.
There was also a small salary round in between. I’m not sure if I had a step increase as well.

My wife from state E10 to federal E11 with agency-specific allowance.
Also increased working hours by 4 hours.
But my wife does not play the decisive role in the salary increase (about 500 euros).
Because: to make it even more complicated: the money she earns more she largely puts into her now purchased horse. So it plays no role at all for the household financing.
And still we have more than enough left after deducting all (house) costs. My wife’s additional income wasn’t there even during the house construction, mine only towards the end, and still we were able to save well.

Even if my wife still earned the same as in 2020, we would get along very well.
My salary jump was 99% certain. But even without it, it would have worked.
You can protect yourself from occupational disability etc. as best as possible with insurance. But at some point it’s enough of painting the worst-case scenarios. Then nobody should build anymore.

What I meant in the post:
The forum back then didn’t just point out pitfalls. It drew conclusions. From “this can’t work for you” to in our case outrageous “you can’t handle money.”
But it’s okay. I wrote it: you take it as a warning and motivation.

I also wrote that our case can’t be transferred 1:1 to the OP.
But salary jumps are still very possible today in the right industry. I just experienced it with a friend who simply applied at a few companies, went to his boss with the salary offers, and now earns much more in the old company (compared to that, my 1100€ jump is measly).

You can relatively easily check your market value. If nothing is possible there in your own industry, then don’t plan a salary jump either.

My example is NOT meant to say that now everyone can build a house without limits. Everyone ultimately has to assess that for themselves personally.

OK. I didn’t want the thread to be completely about our case. That’s why I didn’t want to clutter it with details about us. Whether it was exactly 5000 back then, I don’t know. Could have been 5100 or 5150 or so. The more there were, the more absurd the statements back then would be.

My jump was from A12 over A13 to now A14. That’s just over 1100 euros net more. There was also a small pay raise round. I’m not sure if I also had a step increase.

But salary jumps are still very possible in the right industry today. Just recently experienced with a friend who simply applied at a few companies and went to his boss with the salary offers and now earns far more in the old company (compared to that, my 1100 euro jump is measly).

My example is NOT meant to say that now everyone can build a house without limits. In the end, everyone has to assess that personally for themselves.

The OP is not around anymore anyway. I have no idea what was written in your case back then, but two academics in public service, one as a civil servant, is of course a completely different league than two normal earners with 2* 2500 net, and that calculated correctly. With you, the numbers are all over the place, and have an accuracy of +/- 300€. But that’s the case with many civil servants.. ;)

A jump from A12 to A14 brings 1000€ gross according to the table. The steps and increases through the collective agreement have nothing to do with that. That means you currently earn about ~600€ more than if you had stayed at A12. You can see that quite easily online. With such net statements, it also helps to consider what that probably means gross. So if your friend supposedly earns 2000€ net more, he has received about 4000€ gross more(!). That is roughly the dimension of your wife’s basic salary and already much more than many earn in Germany.

That’s all I want to say about it - calculate exactly and be honest about it. Artificially calculating yourself poor is still okay, but the other way around is dangerous..

A jump from A12 to A14 brings €1000 gross according to the table. The increments and increases through the collective agreement have nothing to do with that.

Think again about whether step increases and pay scale rounds really don’t play a role when comparing A12 in 2020 to A14 in 2022. Maybe you smarty will come to the right result.

Think again about whether, when comparing the A12 in 2020 to the A14 in 2022, step increases and pay raises really don’t play a role. Maybe you smart aleck will come to the right conclusion.

Bingo! I was just about to write that. It takes some nerve to simply compare the current salaries blindly and accuse me of being inaccurate :D I probably know pretty exactly how much I earned and how much I earn now. If you want, I can tell you down to the cent. What I can’t say exactly is how many euros were mentioned back then in that thread. But presumably, we didn’t write it down to the cent back then either. You don’t seem to quite get the tables. That’s not the end of the story. Family allowance, specific agency allowances (which vary depending on the career path). Plus things like step changes. I have no reason to lie here. But exactly the kind of attitude you show here, trying to lecture me on how much my salary was 2 years ago and how much it is now, is the same way we were treated back then in that thread. We had clearly presented and justified our expenses and income, which is why we didn’t have immense reserves. But why we can still calculate well. That was simply denied to us and we were lectured on why we were wrong. And at the same time, Kevin and his Jaqueline were applauded, who had everything shoved up their ass in life and whose entire equity was sponsored by mom and dad. But again: this isn’t primarily about us. I don’t even know what you want to achieve with your discussion.