My home financing 2025 is bursting against reality

If you always have enough money in your account at the end of the month to easily pay off a house financing, you have roughly reached your goal. So far, an additional 10 rents have been burned through. You have not completely financed yourselves solely through your work. I wonder what the banker thought, 1 million. But as long as the hair is still growing—you're only young once—and you probably had a lot of fun doing it. The living situation of 25m2, however, I would change immediately, even if it is only rented. If your first apartment cost 70k, you have kept a lottery win from us secret.

The biggest cost block was / is

Vacations / 4 times a year
Eating out in expensive restaurants
Ordering food via Lieferando and the like
Food and coffee in bakeries

Just tackling these here alone could save a lot.

Then work step by step. Don’t try to do too much at once. Suggestion: reduce vacations by one and halve eating out in restaurants. Leave everything else as is for now. Get used to the new normal. Then see if more is possible. Once you’ve managed a little bit, a feeling of self-efficacy arises and opens up new possibilities.

I can't say

Sell your car No sweets / no cola, etc.

She won't be affected that quickly

Uh, wrong idea. You are not her guardian and should never want to become one. Personally, the words "She won't be affected that quickly" leave a rather bad taste with me. If she eats a portion of Snickers and drinks a bottle of cola every day, then that's her thing. That might then cost about €2 per serving, totaling €60 a month from her personal money. (The health aspect is not considered here.) If it said she spends €100 on her cosmetics, that is still understandable at a certain age and/or job where one has to look well-groomed. You also have an expensive “collecting hobby.” But if I read €1000 for a hairdresser visit, that is naturally not understandable for many. But then it somehow has to work with her salary including the child. Anyway:

The biggest cost blocks were / are

Vacations / 4 times a year Eating out in expensive restaurants Ordering food via Lieferando and others Food and coffee in bakeries

You are probably at least 50% involved in that. Therefore, I don't understand the "black Peter" directed at your wife.

2025 is the year of finding 2026 should be the year of moving

If 2025 is the year of finding the common goals, then 2026/2027 would be the year of searching, because you do not simply take the first house that shows up valued at 1 million in the search.

I can’t follow your fixation on Stuttgart: You want to live in one of the most expensive cities in Germany. Why? Stuttgart is ugly! Yes, there are some nice spots, but people don’t live here because of the city, but because there is work that pays really well. But you don’t belong to that at all?! Your household net income is what someone on the Daimler assembly line earns, times two, those are the people you have to compare yourself to.

The question you have to ask yourselves is: What do you actually want? It reads as if you absolutely want a house. Does your wife want that too? Or do you want to "live"? Vacations, eating out, second car, big apartment, etc. As harsh as it is, you are too poor to have all that in this place. Somewhere you will have to make significant compromises. That is possible somewhere in the countryside, but definitely not within a radius of 20-30 km around Stuttgart. Even if you move significantly out of the S-Bahn and highway area, it will be difficult.

I can’t follow your Stuttgart fixation: You want to live in one of the most expensive cities in Germany. Why? Stuttgart is ugly

Stuttgart is much nicer than Berlin! Seriously: Many like living here because there is simply more going on than in the sticks. And those who can’t afford a hillside location with a garden and/or want to live a bit more “personally” go to the Stuttgart region with good connections to Stuttgart. But that doesn’t come at a bargain price either; for that, you have to go far out to the countryside. And new builds are not cheap there either. Far out in the countryside, old buildings are still affordable, but only if you don’t expect new building standard renovations and have enough liquid equity. You have to like country life and the population there (just like city life and its residents); it’s very individual where and with what kind of people you feel comfortable. If you work directly in Stuttgart, it’s also a question of how far you’re willing to commute or if and how often home office is possible.

but because there is work that is really well paid. But you don’t belong to that group at all?!

100% agreed, you earn really well at the big corporations here, the OP doesn’t fit in there at all. Although I wonder how one wants to pay off 11 apartments within 10-20 years (since 2005?). If each of the 11 apartments cost €70,000, that’s €700,000 acquisition costs. Net rental income of €1200/month at the end doesn’t go far. Especially if you often go on vacation / eat out etc. The net rental income also doesn’t match the value of the apartments: are these dumpy places only bringing in €10 per sqm? Small apartments in Stuttgart, as Nordanney writes (furnished), are real cash cows. A quick sale at top price probably won’t work so fast either; since interest rates have been above 1% again, nice/larger apartments here also stay on the market portals relatively long and often reappear every 3-6 months. Not every investor wants to rent out small apartments; the clientele is quite specific and changes more frequently. With 10 of them, I imagine it’s time-consuming and presumably there are often repairs. I prefer to buy a 2-3 room apartment for renting out (or for own use anyway), it’s more flexible and involves less time and hassle. Owner-occupiers will look more closely at what they buy; everything has to fit.

The question you have to ask yourselves is: What do you actually want. It reads as if you desperately want a house. Does your wife want that too? Or do you want to "live"? Vacations, eating out, second car, big apartment, etc. As harsh as it is, but you’re too poor to have all that at this location. Somewhere you will have to make significant sacrifices. That might be out in the country, but definitely not within 20-30 km around Stuttgart. Even if you move significantly away from the S-Bahn and main road area, it will be difficult.

100% agreed, you have to set priorities if your capital is tied up like that and your income doesn’t match. As some have already written, the story isn’t quite consistent, there’s missing info and some things don’t add up.

Update

Step 1

We have now decided to sell 3 residential units to build up equity.

Goal: 300,000 euros (at least)

Of course, we are hoping for more.

However, currently there is no property for sale because the agent has not yet gotten things moving. I will call this week to find out when the properties will finally appear on IS24 and when the first viewings will take place.

Step 2

Starting February 1, 2025, we will keep a household budget book for 1 month to see where the biggest expenses go and adjust a few levers.

We want to try it together and pull in the same direction.

Everything, really every cost point is up in the air and will be reviewed.

Example Netflix
Vacations, etc.
Restaurants
Travel costs
Club memberships
Insurances
Cars
And so on.

Step 3

Some have indeed written something correct, our earnings are too low for Stuttgart standards, we plan to buy a house in the Stuttgart surrounding area. In Sachsenheim, Vaihingen Enz, Pforzheim or even further south it is significantly cheaper than in expensive Stuttgart.

The advantage is that I am 10 minutes by car to Stuttgart city center, I have here S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram, bus with very good infrastructure.

You don’t have that in Enzweihingen as an example, or in deep Memmingen / Leutkirch.

We have now decided to turn our backs on Stuttgart.