New Single-Family House Construction - Feasibility Assessment

I believe one of the biggest mistakes in financing is the firm belief "In 5 years I will earn 20k EUR/year gross more"...

With 5,000 EUR net and 1,700 EUR loan payment, I find that doable with 2 children... but big leaps will no longer be possible, you need to be aware of that.

Otherwise, it's fine, your interest rate is still okay.

For the next 2 years (2023, 2024), calmly calculate with 5-6% inflation.

How does that work? How long is the course (I have 3 years in mind)? That doesn't count towards the step duration, and parental leave doesn't either?! Should child 1 be born during the studies?

Ok, apparently it is like this (I don't know if there are differences between the federal states) that for civil servants parental leave counts up to 3 years but during parental leave there is no automatic step increase.

I believe one of the biggest mistakes in financing is the fixed belief "In 5 years I will earn 20k EUR/a gross more"...

With 5,000 EUR net and 1,700 EUR loan installment, I find that manageable with 2 children... but big leaps will no longer be possible, you have to be aware of that.

Otherwise it fits, your interest rate is still okay.

For the next 2 years (2023, 2024), you can calmly calculate with 5-6% inflation.

Such salary increases were not planned for the "bad case" scenario anyway. Nevertheless, I expect further career advances, as we are still at the beginning of our careers. Plus, collective wage increases will probably continue in the next years. (regarding your note about inflation in '23 and '24).

Ok, apparently it is like this (I do not know if there are differences between the federal states) that for civil servants parental leave counts up to 3 years but is not upgraded during parental leave.

In A9 entry is at level 2. Whether indeed two children are already there after 5 years or only later is probably not so important. We have not thought that precisely about family planning yet. :)

Entry in A9 takes place at level 2. Whether there are actually two children after 5 years or later is probably not so important. We haven’t really thought about family planning that precisely yet. :)

Ah okay.
Well, it is indeed relevant when the children arrive. For parental allowance, the 12 months before the birth count, after all. So, if a woman has a child during or right after her studies, the parental allowance will be correspondingly lower. If then the second child comes almost immediately after, the parental allowance won’t increase significantly either. So it is relevant whether it’s 3 years of studies followed by full salary or 3 years of studies and then parental leave (with less than during studies) and then parental leave again, etc.
One should consider this; otherwise, after 6-7 years one might find out that nothing could be saved and now a new (e-)car or something similar is needed.

With 5,000 EUR net and 1,700 EUR loan installment, I find it doable with 2 children... but there won’t be any big leaps anymore, you have to be aware of that.

I can confirm that. Let me describe us as an example:

We have two small children (2 and 5 years old) and have been alternating between parental leave/part-time/full-time for 4 years. We also fixed the financing in April, the installment is 1600 euros, repayment 2 percent. I (civil servant), he (public service since Oct.) currently come to 5500 euros net. We are both at 80 percent, which is just the limit. Working more is not possible with the little ones. One child is constantly sick, daycare closed, the household doesn’t take care of itself, some appointments, then the house construction... And of course the costs for daycare, food, leisure are simply much, much higher. Nevertheless, we still put something aside, currently we manage 2000 euros, but by now we are disciplined, do that from the start and put the remaining money in envelopes. It took time to get used to it, but otherwise we would have simply spent everything :)

What I mean is: you can do it, you have a good overview of your finances and don’t sugarcoat anything! We don’t have the reserves like you, so that’s still quite a bit more security for you!

I can confirm that. I’ll describe us as an example:

we have two small children (2 and 5 years old) and have been alternating between parental leave/part-time/full-time for 4 years. We also fixed the financing in April, the monthly payment is 1600 euros, repayment 2 percent. I (civil servant), he (public sector since Oct.) currently earn 5500 euros net. We are both working at 80 percent, which is just the limit. Working more is not possible with the little ones. One child is constantly sick, daycare is closed, the household doesn’t do itself, appointments, then the house construction... And of course, the costs for daycare, food, leisure are simply much, much higher. But we still put some money aside, currently we manage 2000 euros, but by now we are disciplined, do it from the beginning and put the rest of the money in envelopes. It took time to get used to it, but otherwise we would have just spent everything :)

What I mean to say: you can do it, you have a good overview of your finances and don’t sugarcoat anything! We don’t have the reserves like you, so you have a whole lot more security!

With increasing age, the child-related costs make an exponential jump upwards. We have about 500€ per month per child (all in). Additionally, 800€ per month for small/big vacations that you like to take spontaneously before possible travel restrictions come up in these volatile times. Alone the daycare costs have risen by 30-40%, travel by 50% at comparable standards compared to pre-Corona. For reserves, I would assume about 1.5% per annum.