Oh, once again I have sparked a big discussion here :) Although, there is nothing to discuss about where my child goes to daycare or about the standards/expectations we have lived by so far – that’s not part of the matter and everyone handles it differently. In BB there is no offer of multilingual daycares, therefore Berlin. For this reason, a condo in Berlin would not be wrong either. As I said, in the end it is important to live happily – if you only see yourself happy in a house, then that is definitely the right direction. I have never dreamed of having a house. Although we both grew up in houses, it was never decisive for me. What is decisive for me, however, is proximity to the city (50 km away from Berlin is far too much, max. 25) and enough living space. If we had found a good condo in Berlin with 100-120m2, I would be overjoyed. Anyway, I am not the kind of person who lives just for the house, as can clearly be seen. The problem is just that most condos in Berlin, which cost significantly less than a house, are also significantly smaller / have a bad layout / are very old, etc. The two condos I mentioned are real properties with a purchase price of 250K without incidental purchase costs, but at the Berlin city border and just over 80m2. However, I find that better than continuing to rent. But yes, also less good than a small house in a good location. On the other hand, I don’t have to drastically reduce my standards in a condo, yes we save, yes we pay a mortgage, but according to my calculation we would still have room to “breathe” and could sleep much more peacefully, without thoughts like “how will I pay rent,” “how will I pay for the land,” “will we get loans for construction later,” etc. The biggest stomach ache now is caused by the double burden of rent and land loan. If you build a house right away, this double burden is smaller and much shorter.
So, in the end we will decide on something. I don’t think our starting/financial situation is hopeless.
Regarding self-employment: as I said, I no longer include my NT, the trips of course caused some costs but mostly only travel costs – food and hotels were reimbursed. And the trips were not necessarily needed; they were more my wish. But, as I said, for now it’s over.
My husband has several small ongoing projects over the years and new requests keep coming in, it just depends on how much time he has available to complete them. That’s why I only calculate the three small projects that he does quarterly (1 day effort) and that bring him a total of 6000€ extra per year. It’s not much but better than nothing. There is also a larger project running from which he collects 20-25K, but I don’t include that because it is still unclear when exactly it will be realized. And the spontaneous things he gets during the year are not included either. So, I think if from now on we handle expenses a bit more calculated, something would already be possible.
Regarding the question of joint/separate budget: savings are done together. From my cost breakdown, it is also clear that my husband financially covers most of the bigger things, meaning I have always had more room/opportunities to save. That’s how I’m trying to stick to it now – during the lockdown it’s of course not difficult; later it will be harder, but these are also good months to change habits :) I don’t see a big difference right now whether everyone has their own account or all income is combined, IF we both stick to the saving program :) And if that is not the case, if one of us continues to have an expense surplus, then the house probably wasn’t the right goal after all, and it doesn’t help to make yourself unhappy by saving. (If you don’t follow through with something, then the goal wasn’t big enough).
Let’s see what conditions we get for the variable loan and how the monthly rate fits into our budget. Because regardless of how frugal or not frugal you are, there should definitely be a buffer left for living after deducting all fixed costs, groceries, gas, etc.