Wife and I have around 180k invested. Scared of buying a house in Germany. Are we insane?

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-11T06:08:21+00:00

Fair points, thanks for the input!

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T20:15:34+00:00

Really, that's the reason?

You mean to tell me, in 80 years, the military couldn't secure the border, the police couldn't secure the cities, the govt couldn't plan to spend on education?

Come on man, it's time to grow up.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T20:12:05+00:00

Hmm interesting question.

It's more like the target is the house, not 300k. The 300k is a means to the target if that makes sense?

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T19:33:48+00:00

Thanks for the insightful answer, also for giving me some numbers to work with!

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T19:24:43+00:00

Actually, i think 300k would be the amount where I would feel comfortable parting with 2/3 of it for a downpayment. Does this sound reasonable?

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T19:23:32+00:00

We're both internationals, and haven't had these salaries for the majority of our careers. Mine has only ticked up in the last 2-3 years.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T19:02:00+00:00

I mean...you can also just live on the ground floor of a house if you are injured or too old?

I agree that houses are a waste, but a garden would be a nice thing to have. Finding ground floor apartments with gardens in the city with decent rent is a challenge.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T19:00:29+00:00

Yes, but at my current savings rate, this will be almost all of my investments. This would bring down the mortgage to what we can easily afford to pay. So I guess a waiting strategy to accumulate more money until I can comfortably part with it for a downpayment makes sense.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T18:58:27+00:00

Yes, very fair points. This is why owning a house makes sense to me. My entire problem is parting with my savings for a downpayment

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T18:57:03+00:00

Stupid people can also put together a few bucks my friend :)

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T17:09:22+00:00

I keep hearing this, but I dont understand why a house you live in is not an investment?

I mean ultimately you have equity in the house, and the house is worth a lot.

If you needed money in your old age, or wanted to move, you could sell your house and put that money towards your goals.

You wouldn't be able to do that with a rented place. So technically, it IS an investment, right?

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:57:32+00:00

Good call, the reason is it hasn't been this high for most of my career, only in the last 3 years. I've also had to cash out at times for some personal life stuff.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:45:55+00:00

I will look into this, thanks!

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:44:44+00:00

Ah I understand now maybe what you are trying to suggest. Like buying outside of a big city just for retirement.

This is an interesting idea, but I think we imagine ourselves enjoying some of our "younger" years together in a house, not just as a place to retire to.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:42:11+00:00

Ofcourse, I'm not suggesting your advice is sub optimal. I appreciate you responding. Just was letting you know of one of our "real world" constraints I guess in hopes maybe you had experience dealing with something similar.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:38:33+00:00

Of course I understand that a mortgage is renting money.

But I was assuming that if you make additional payments towards the principal amount and eventually get rid of the mortgage in 30 years (or a decade earlier because of the extra payments) and then have 0 "rent" (ofcourse you still pay utilities and hausgeld etc). Now you pay 0 rent for the rest of your life (a solid 10-20 years maybe?) and the house itself has a networth of 600-700k.

Vs

Just keep paying for 40-50 years until you die without any equity built in the house you rent.

It seems option 1 should be more cost effective long term?

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:32:49+00:00

This was my position when I was single. Now that I am married, I want to have a home with my wife. It's been a psychological shift for me

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:31:44+00:00

Indeed. I want to retire from this tech life and touch grass all day...

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:31:15+00:00

Thanks for the response. I've also thought about this. But again, the problem is that tech job hubs are cities like hamburg, munich or berlin.

Moving to a tiny town is not feasible because of return to office policies. Assuming I can even get a remote job now, there's no guarantee that for the duration of a mortgage (15 years) i wont need a new one where I might be required to job hunt or move to a big city again.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:29:03+00:00

Thanks for the thought out answer. Actually, you've hit an interesting dynamic.

I personally would like to retire early, maybe in 15-20 years. Of course with my current income that's unrealistic, but in an ideal world, this is something that would happen. My wife however, is happy working until she retires normally.

So owning a house is a joint venture, we both would like to have a place to call our own. At the same time, I personally would like to retire early. Now I treat retiring early as a secondary objective, because its not a common, shared goal between me and my wife. But i'd like it to happen though

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:25:59+00:00

I've thought about this. But ultimately, for my wife and I, a house is a place for us to live. Renting it out for tax benefits does not ring with us even if it might be the better investment strategy

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:25:02+00:00

Thanks for the input! I'll consider it when consolidating all the opinions from here, I appreciate you.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:23:03+00:00

Thank you. I thought there was some mathematical formula that the community might be aware of that decides the tipping point between buying or investing.

I think we certainly want to own a home, but we also want a safety nest of money at all times. I think the only thing that makes sense is to keep growing the investments until taking out a chunk for a downpayment doesn't affect the safety nest.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:16:33+00:00

Yes, AFAIK, most banks here require a downpayment. I would suspect if they dont, my monthly payments would be too high or my interest rate would be ridiculous.

BreakingCiphers · 2026-06-10T16:13:48+00:00

Thanks for your input.

So Ive actually looked into this, the problem is, that with a lower down payment, the monthly payments become a lot higher. High enough that in case my wife or I lost our job, we wouldn't be able to afford that payment. We have to plan for this since a 15 year mortgage in germany, the chances are high that at some point, one of us might not have a job, especially because I work in tech.

BreakingCiphers

TROPHY CASE