ᐅ Building a House at 21 Years Old... Too Young?

Tassimat schrieb:

Everything MUST be perfect, anything less is a total disaster...? Are you still noticing this?

I completely agree. The only thing I find naive is the expectation of a young person that a house should last "forever."
Build, live, and keep a clear mind: thumbs up.
If you rearrange the letters in the word MISTAKE, you get HELPER. Keeping this in mind helps.
Confidence and avoiding a "risk-averse mindset," too. "Sunk costs" usually resurface somewhere. "Sunk quality of life," however, is gone.

At that age, I was just glad to have two jackets at all; I wore both layered in winter and scrimped to afford my two-room flat on the ground floor. Those were three months of rice and beans.
If someone my age had told me back then that they were building a house, I would have seriously felt depressed.

Tolentino schrieb:

At that age, I was just glad to have two jackets, wore both of them layered during winter, and scrimped on my small two-room apartment on the ground floor. Those were three months of rice and beans.
If a peer had told me back then that he was building a house, I would have seriously felt depressed.

That may all be true, but people at that age can be very different from one another. If the original poster is already thinking about building a house, is very down-to-earth, and has very different life goals and plans, you can’t compare that to yourself. For such a person, house planning might be something completely different than it was for you. For them, this could truly be a lifelong investment, as they may intend to live in the house for their entire life and not look for other options.

Do you understand? Because of this, the planning process naturally requires much more thorough consideration than for someone who says, “Let’s see what we do in five years”...

But of course, none of us know that for sure, so the OP should clarify this in that regard.

I know quite a few people in rural areas near me who are thinking along these lines! These people should definitely engage more deeply with these thoughts and plan for the future.

You misunderstood me. I meant it in a positive way. The fact that he can even build (and plan) a house at all is already so remarkable that there’s no need to overreact here.

Or to put it another way, if I had been able to build a house back then, I wouldn’t have worried at all and would have just fallen asleep with a smile on my face.

Tolentino schrieb:

You misunderstood me. I meant it in a positive way. Just the fact that he is able to build (and plan) a house at all is already remarkable, so there’s no need to be overly critical.
Or to put it another way, if I had been able to build a house back then, I wouldn’t have worried about it at all but would have simply fallen asleep with a smile on my face every night.

Yeah, okay, you’re absolutely right! I had already commented on the floor plan and thought it was quite manageable... It can definitely be improved, but it’s completely livable! I also think that when someone this young plans something like this, it is “probably” a very down-to-earth person who might want to turn this into their dream home and possibly live there for a very long time, since they are likely building somewhere that fits their life (family, friends, clubs, etc.) and where they want to stay. Because of that, they would naturally plan more thoroughly than someone who initially views this as just a primary residence and might consider selling it later.

It’s not about how flexible you are at a certain age or whether you own three or thirty jackets, but in my opinion, it’s about the fact that, no matter how old you are, you are spending a considerable amount of money on a house. At least for me—and I was like this even in my early twenties—I want everything to be as perfect and high quality as possible. A house isn’t like a T-shirt from H&M that I wear twice and then no longer like, so it ends up in the donation pile.

If I had had the opportunity, I probably would have built a house in my early twenties as well—I used to design houses just for fun back then. Whenever I saw a great plot of land, I thought about what kind of dream house I would build on it.

But, in hindsight, it would have been a completely different house than the one I built 30 years later. Whether I would have sold that first house by now—I have no idea. Probably not. I might have renovated or optimized it, but I would likely still own it.

I just find the discussion about being more relaxed and accepting planning mistakes in your early twenties a bit annoying, to be honest. Even in your early twenties, you want and can try to get the best possible outcome.