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

No problem

Well, 1800,- monthly would be a bit too steep for me... Because I can't assume that I will earn x net my whole life. So, I do expect to get salary increases. But what job I'll have at that age and how it will be paid is up in the air. (I work in sales and we all know how "secure" such positions are ). So, I probably won't earn less than x500,-... But that would already be too little for me to still finance the house.

It really looks like I have to save from 2 to 3 years. Although, even then it will be difficult, since in the third year I can only save "half" (child). And this xx800,- doesn't really make a big difference.

Damn! Disappointing. Very disappointing! (But better that way than to end up being the fool...)

Hm, well as a mother of two (children are 2 years and 6 years old) I can at least say that at the beginning, if breastfeeding works, you can get by with the child benefit. At least if all clothes and shoes, stroller and car seat are bought second-hand. But who wants that? I can say that the baby car seat with Isofix alone already costs 300€, stroller (Emmaljunga) from 800€. Possibly a second seat since there are 2 cars, then a small foldable buggy for the car, a pair of leather shoes for early walkers about 80€, at least 2 pairs of those & slippers per size. My son wore out 3 shoe sizes in 5 months.... And it goes on like that. Baby swimming course 50€ per month, then if the child is supposed to go to daycare in Henstedt-Ulzburg about 345€ & meal money.

It always depends on individual ideas and needs.

Since you are already 35 years old, I would especially plan so that the house is paid off in no more than 32 years, that is about 30 years after the start of construction. Because then, according to current standards, one is retired and there is less money.

And I also want to encourage you that if everything goes well and your wife quickly works at least 30 hours again, more money will come in again. One should not always assume the housewife existence.

Hi,

- Loan amount: EUR 400,000 (for house and land)
- Additional costs: EUR 70,000 (kitchen, garden, notary, taxes, etc...)
- Monthly burden: EUR 1,500 (incl. interest, repayment, additional costs, reserves).

Some of my first impressions:
- You have enough money for "a" house
- I wouldn’t save but instead immediately look for land/house, since you don’t know to what extent saving even makes sense if houses or land become more expensive until date X and whether interest rates will rise again
- 1500€ for additional costs, reserves, etc. you can basically forget with 400K, rather expect something like 1.8-2.3k per month
- If you absolutely want to pay 1500 per month, you have to make compromises on the house

I keep reading that you should have at least 20%-40% equity.
"Currently," I only have 13%.

That would certainly be good, but you don’t have to. You will probably get a loan with 13% equity as well.

Moin,
As far as the costs for the children are concerned, there really seem to be immense differences... What amount should/could one expect in the first 2 years?

We had "saved up" capital for parental leave that was not included in the financing, so that parental allowance plus savings almost matched "her" income. This allowed us to bridge the time until the daycare well.

Especially if you want to leave Hamburg, you should note that daycare places can cost from 250 to 500 € in Schleswig-Holstein, depending on the municipality (for 8 am to 2 pm places), as stated on the respective municipal website. Consumption costs come on top of that, but I would say they are more like 100 to 200 € per child per month.
We use about 1 jumbo diaper box per child per month, so almost 35 € alone in the subscription savings.
Strollers and initial equipment can also be bought cheaply/used in part; we bought and resold a twin stroller used for 200 €. New twin buggy for 300 €.

But you won’t manage properly with that. [...]
As you can see, this is probably calculated too optimistically. Of the 1500 euros, 1200 goes to repayment and interest, and that at only 2% interest.
You then pay off over 40 years. Ok, you might plan for special payments. But that might not work out right away with new child(ren) at the start and just having moved into the house. So after 15 years of fixed interest rate, there are still 288,000 euros of loan left.

But after a few years, when the children no longer generate daycare costs, and the woman works full-time again, the rate can be increased.