Savings beginner with questions about the plausibility of the "rough" plan

"Calculating yourself poor"

So, according to Nettolohn.de, with tax classes 3+5, one child and 20 hours/week (you), we have a net income of x450,-.

That would be, if you consider my previous cost estimate, a perfect hit.
But, as I said, nothing is planned yet for clothes, vacation, toys, etc. If the child eventually is no longer in kindergarten, it would fit. But living for about 6 years on ultra-savings mode??? Hmm, we still have the bonuses...

Let's see... I have to talk to the lady of the house about it...
(We are not yet at the end of the pay raise scale salary-wise. There is still potential)

Something is not right with your calculations. Your lady is only working part-time now, but you only have 350 euros less in your pocket? Even including the child benefit of 190 euros, that doesn’t really add up.

It would be interesting to know your gross salary, then one could do a "independent" cross-check.

As a curious person, I have determined the following with the help of an online calculator and its settings (tax class 1, statutory health insurance, etc.).
2,850 euros/month net --> 5,077.14 euros gross
1,950 euros/month gross --> 3,150.07 euros gross
If you were married with joint assessment, you would save about 70 euros/month in income tax in my opinion. How it looks now with part-time depends strongly on the income in part-time.

The numbers become more accurate when Mattheu calculates himself (no need to publish) and correctly records his key data (federal state, church tax, health insurance, whatever). In addition, I only calculated with the simple monthly income.

I keep saying: It depends on the gross annual income!

Since net income and payout amount are usually confused, this only helps you to a limited extent, because from net income to payout amount certain things (retirement provision, car usage, etc.) can still be deducted, which probably have not appeared in the expense list so far. In addition, there is the difference between privately insured and statutory insured. The approach is actually correct, but I find it dangerous.

Unfortunately, these "net-net" calculators rarely prove useful. But basically, your main point is probably correct: at the moment, the splitting doesn’t bring much. However, I was also referring to the situation with a child, where she would then only want to work part-time and incur childcare costs. Because in that case, the alternative is "staying at home and looking after the child yourself." If you calculate roughly 1100,- net for a part-time job and subtract the costs for daycare and car of 850,- euros, you’re left with 250,- "profit," then you look at what the husband suddenly has extra through tax class III and you start wondering why you get up in the morning – a lived reality in this country. Even if you assume that a second car is still needed (poor infrastructure on site), mathematically there is no more than 200,- euros net left per month, which is an hourly wage of 2.35 euros. It would be better for her to make the most of the 3 years of parental leave and stay at home with (spread over 3 years) 430,- euros of parental allowance. Even the pension points acquired during this time through child-rearing periods would be higher than those from the part-time job. If she then also realizes that such a baby sleeps half the day and manages to do large parts of the household alongside, both have more time for themselves and the kids, and that is hardly measurable in money anyway.

I have to disagree... with me, they are accurate to the euro. In the other case, you are right - the state promotes an ideal that rarely exists anymore.