Which credit model - 15 or 20 years?

Then I ask you to look at reality and see what the majority of Germans do. Please exclude all companies (including company cars) and the top and bottom 10% of society, so that the middle 80% remain.

What kind of car is still driven then? Where is shopping done? In what accommodation is vacation taken?

I believe you are very, very, very close with your statement. Exactly what you describe is normal.

So we want both :) extra repayments and maintaining or even increasing our standard of living because the big savings pressure is gone. Even with a loan payment of over 3000 EUR, we wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything and can take 3 big vacations. The problem for us self-employed people: I can look 1-2 years into the future.. then we still have reserves for 1-2 years.. but after that it’s foggy :)

@ : well... that probably depends on the construction area. In ours, there are no small cars... and spending 100,000 on the outdoor facilities is nothing special. For me it is... but I’m probably the exception. If we have 20-25k for the outdoor facilities, I’m satisfied.

And you believe that these "non-compact cars" are private vehicles? I don't know your development area, but I would still bet that 8-9 out of 10 vehicles (C-Class/A4/Mondeo/Omega or larger) are company cars. Those who can afford a private sports car are not to be considered anyway, as they probably belong to the 10% at the top of the salary lists.

This phenomenon occurs especially when you are just outside a big city. The aforementioned vehicles always have the license plates of the company headquarters.

@toxic I don't want to be rude, but we probably don't belong to the same income bracket (although we're still far from steffen80.. ;-)) I wouldn't have been happy with Aldi & camping in the long run. I haven't had to do that for the past 10 years and don't want to do it in the future either. You can only spend money once. And I decided to stretch the financing and have more money available NOW and not have to restrict myself. I know that in the end I'll pay more in interest, but I can live with that. That wasn't what this whole discussion was about for me. But to generally advise everyone to pay as little interest as possible and basically neglect the rest, I personally don't think that's right. But now I'll check out again.

I cannot and do not want to judge that. Therefore, I only recommend you to reread the first sentence in the second paragraph of #2. It basically says nothing different.

I also do not know in which industry you work, but I once learned that you must not neglect the cost side because the greatest profit potential can be tapped there with the least effort. Of course, you must not neglect the ((life-)quality-) standards.

If I need the Queen Mary II three times a year for 14 days, then of course you get something in return. Whether you need that is up to you to decide. But whether I, for example, blow 12-16 thousand euros out the window for nothing... (because the alternative decision and investment is nothing else), I would know something better. For example, the Queen Mary!

The TE’s concern is not to spend the saved money on (joyful) consumption, but to save it.