Our financial situation - Your opinion?

Thanks for these encouraging and honest words :) What did it take for you to have that 'click' moment? Or did the feeling of having done it right come over time through the development of prices, etc.? My husband believes that as soon as we have built, everything will collapse anyway and our house will lose value. This apocalyptic talk is really annoying... And I don't want to pull him out of this negative swamp of thoughts every time. It still works for now, but maybe I'll eventually get stuck in it too. For me, the house is another gain in quality of life, and it's worth it to me. I find it so sad (also for him) that he can't manage to see it that way. But he doesn't want to downsize (equipment, size, etc.), and neither do I :)

Phew, that came gradually. Nothing will collapse there. If anything, a plateau phase in the market will come eventually. For me, it got mentally tough again when my then employer was doing poorly during the construction phase. That added to those thoughts. The real "click" actually happened from the moment everything was finished. We used to have an apartment in the city center, which was practical but always seen more as a temporary solution. Once the garden was finished, the house completely clean, and the last box unpacked, that relaxation just increased more and more. Sitting on the terrace in the evening, hearing no noise at night with the window open, the beautiful nature all around, the new kitchen, a big garage instead of searching for parking in the city center... these were all the comforts that you gradually learned to appreciate.

Honestly, I definitely wouldn’t downsize. We are already at the point where sometimes we think, "Why didn't we build this or that... would a full basement have been that much more expensive... another indoor unit of the air conditioning here and there would have been better...". Don't do half measures; you will regret those the most in the end, especially when it's things that can’t easily be retrofitted.

Maybe also a sentence about the fear that "everything will collapse": What risk do you have? For us, there are actually two scenarios: Either we stay living in the house until we're no longer there. Then we simply don't care whether the value triples or halves during that time. That would only be interesting for our heirs.

Alternatively: At some point we will build again together with one of the children and move into a granny flat. Either prices have risen massively by then and we compensate for that by selling our then much more valuable house... or the prices are in the cellar and then the new build will be correspondingly cheap.

The only thing that could happen (and I consider that unlikely) is that building becomes significantly cheaper again and you say to yourselves "If only we had waited three years, everything would have been cheaper." But I don't believe that. At the moment prices are rising faster than you can build up equity.

I definitely recognize ourselves in what you write. We never squandered money recklessly. On the contrary: we often struggled with ourselves: do we really want to spend that much money? But then we went ahead and did it. Be it the better car, the higher-quality wedding rings, the fancier hotel, etc., and we did not regret it.

I want the house not to be just my house, but my home, with everything included, just as I imagine it. Having saved 100k in 10 years would annoy me a bit if I had made (unnecessary) compromises on the house for that.

The satisfaction you describe would also not set in to that extent if you had only done things halfway. I believe one would always think: if only we had...

Also an eternal argument of my husband: then we’ll just do it later, the fireplace for example...
We could certainly strip the house down by 50k by painting ourselves or postponing expenses. For that, we save 200 euros in payments every month. What my husband doesn’t quite understand is that this is not a real saving if I’m working towards the fireplace, for example. I say: better to take out 50k more for 200€ in monthly payments and be able to implement everything we want right away, rather than not really saving the 200€ but putting it aside for “we’ll do that later” actions.
To be honest, I would find that stupid if the higher loan is possible without any problem.

My husband believes that as soon as we have built, everything will collapse anyway and our house will lose value. This apocalyptic talk is really annoying...

Just think the apocalypse through: everything collapses and the house loses value. And then? You are independent from inflationary rising rents and have a loan to deal with, which you can increasingly easily service if everything becomes more expensive.
Other risks are life risks (unemployment, illness..., which also cause problems without owning a house.

Pregnant, unvaccinated, Corona hot spot = plenty of time for the forum ;-)

It makes me happy, if I may express myself so "selfishly". ;-) I just really enjoy reading from you.

From the 11th year, a home savings contract with 1.25% applies. Interesting model

The question is only, for whom?
You have to assume a rate of €2230 for the Anu-D, otherwise the comparison is off. And then you end up at 22Y11M (assuming 1% from month 241).
Residual debt after 20 years (without special repayment) a measly €78k.

But people are discussing some kind of "home savings catch-you-home builder products" again :rolleyes:

And then the discussion about the company car(s), oh man...

@TE: You already listed 2 e-cars in your "electricity bill"!