Repay savings or save? + Secure interest rate

Exactly, and there are all kinds of vacations. And I don't understand your criticism of the media now. You belong, at least when it comes to vacations, to the minority in Germany. I also belong to the minority when it comes to vacations.

You are welcome to sit in my garden during your vacation, which is right in the flight path of Düsseldorf Airport, and count the holiday planes. But I then get on one of those planes myself and experience extraordinary places in Europe with a rental car.

But to each their own, generalizations are wrong on both sides.

How does one define exorbitant amounts as a homeowner/homebuyer/homebuilder? Vacation is a matter of relaxation and experience. One person may like it, another may not. In any case, I will do everything I can to ensure that my children know more than just our house and the surroundings of 5-20 km.

I would like to add to that: We also want to know more than just our house and the surroundings of 5-20 km. Whether "sitting in front of the TV" is a comparatively meaningful leisure activity, I tend to doubt.

But that is indeed a matter of taste. What is important is not to become a slave to your house. Prepayments are fine, but in the end there should still be money left for a few nice things in life, otherwise you have done something wrong. How one defines these nice things? Everyone probably has different ideas.

To return to the original question: Building savings contracts that are being concluded now often make little financial sense, as the contract fee, low interest on the balance, and often not so great loan interest rate usually offer no financial advantage compared to an annuity loan with longer fixed interest. However, this must certainly be calculated individually in each case. Just as important as the calculation is to fully understand such a construct. Only then should one sign a loan agreement, no matter which one.

It wasn’t like we enjoyed sitting around in front of the TV all the time. I did say that trips would have been nice. It was more of a makeshift solution. But there are also affordable interesting offers that can enrich your life; it doesn’t necessarily have to be a weeks-long vacation—several times a year. Regarding the Bausparvertrag: you can pay in the minimum amount to still receive the full housing construction premium. We only took out the Bausparvertrag because of capital-forming benefits. However, at the time, we didn’t know that the employer directs these entirely into the pension fund. If you get some advance notice and already own or plan to own a property, you can use the Bausparvertrag perfectly as a collection pouch for these subsidies. The Bausparvertrag is simply the standard case here (if you don’t want to go into funds), which is also relatively easy to access. But then with the lowest possible Bausparsumme so that the closing fee doesn’t weigh too heavily and the allocation happens faster. And I wouldn’t pay more than the minimum savings rate there for the subsidies. Any savings beyond that, I would either put directly into special repayments or Riester home loans and keep a certain portion available daily, for example, in a daily allowance account. However, I must also say that I am not the classic investor type who aims for a high return; you can certainly invest “better” elsewhere.

Well, if the employer forwards the advance payment to the retirement provision/pension fund and one exceeds the income limits for the [Wohnungsbauprämie], then this arrangement falls away and then it is actually questionable whether the building savings contract is worthwhile.

That's true - or then I would even say: it's not worth it.

Our house was also only built on the premise that at least a two-week vacation per year is possible. I also do not want to forego the previous experiences and events from past vacations. Besides, you always see something at home that still needs to be done. I do not find that relaxing.

Regarding the Wohnungsbauprämie
Don't most users here who buy or build houses exceed the limits for the Wohnungsbauprämie?