DisneyManFamily4 said:YEARS!
Sadly, we weren't able to vacation for five years after DH and I got married. We weren't actually saving all that time. Even so, we couldn't really afford a Disney Cruise, so we did a 4night on Carnival immediately followed with a 3 night Disney cruise on the Wonder. Needless to say, I was so happy we had the Disney cruise AFTER the carnival cruise because our first DCL experience blew Carnival out of the water.
Don't get me wrong, we still cruise on Carnival because we can't usually do a Disney cruise every year. We average a Disney cruise every two years.
Huh? We really haven't had to save up for any of our cruises.
For our first one, it was a 2 day cruise to nowhere from LA and it became available the day after I received a nice bonus at work and the cruise was only a fraction of the bonus, so we immediately booked it.
For our second, we simply rented some of our DVC points (the cruise we wanted to do wasn't accepting DVC points) and used the cash from that to sail on our second cruise.
Since they both sailed out of Los Angeles, we had no airfare or hotel to book.
I have to say that I LOVE DVC, we have been able to do several major vacations since buying in 2010. We were able to do several before that as well, but they were definitely not as nice of accommodations and our DVC membership cost about the same as 2-3 of those trips and it's paid for 50 years worth of vacations (even factoring in Annual Dues, the break even point is at about 4 vacations). No, it won't work for everyone, but when I see these threads about saving for vacations, it makes me realize how important yearly vacations is to us and how amazing DVC truly is in our case.
Rogillio said:Visa. No waiting.
The amount of debt you carry and your net take home pay are very personal and varies widely. We all have to make decisions about where to put our money. IMO most people live in too much house and so most of their money goes towards their mortgage.
Credit is not a bad thing like many claim. It allows you to do things when you need to. Your children will only be children for a short time.
Our kids are grown now and we are working to get completely debt free. We could have been debt free years ago....but would have missed the opportunity to cruise a dozen times with our kids.
jbshell said:we are completely debt free except for mortage and car payment. . but live on just hubbys income since I am a stay at home mom... I refuse to use credit since its takin us 9 years to become debt free.. my inlaws have a permanent camping site at a jellystone park so thats as far as thy get every year for a vacation our oldest is only 8.. and youngest is 7 months at least when we do cruise the baby will be 3
thanks everyone
starting our research for our first cruise ... I reasearch a ton this momma likes planning and budgeting
Focused on paying off our mortgage, and as such did not go on vacation once.
We don't really have to do much to save up for a cruise now that we don't have to pay mortgage...
Mind you, two of our cruises were 2A @ 11c GTY, so that's not exactly expensive (and one of those was paid entirely in disney Visa rewards dollars).
It's all a matter of priorities.
we are completely debt free except for mortage and car payment. . but live on just hubbys income since I am a stay at home mom... I refuse to use credit since its takin us 9 years to become debt free.. my inlaws have a permanent camping site at a jellystone park so thats as far as thy get every year for a vacation our oldest is only 8.. and youngest is 7 months at least when we do cruise the baby will be 3
thanks everyone
starting our research for our first cruise ... I reasearch a ton this momma likes planning and budgeting
Part of the fun of DCL vacations (or any vacation really) is the planning and anticipation.
I don't know why people think "debt free" means they can still have a mortgage and car payment and call themselves debt free? Credit card debt is higher interest but you can get a home equity loan at like 2.9% interest and use it for anything you want to use it for. Debt is debt. Period. Get a home equity loan (second mortgage) and pay off all your credit cards, car loans, student loans and other loans....are you any less in debt? No. You still owe the same amount of debt.
But again, nothing wrong with debt! Just look at what the debt is costing you and decide if that cost is worth it. IOW, if you own you own home but owe a gazillion dollars on it, you are paying 2 gallion in interest....we we accept this because we want to own our own home. Same with a car. We can drive a clunker for 10 years till we can save enough o pay cash for the car or we can accept the fact that a 20k car will cost of 23k after we pay the interest but we can enjoy the car NOW and not wait for it.
It all comes down to priorities. Is it important for you to live in a 3000 sqft home in the best school district and the nicest neighborhood or would you be happy in a 2000 sqft home out in the county somewhere. I mention houseing because as I've said, that is the biggest money sink in people's lives. Some people spend their entire life a slave to their mortgage. They build a little equity in their home and they sell their house and buy a bigger/nice/more expensive house. We have lived in our modest house for 23 years...we could easily afford a bigger/nicer/more expensive house....but then we'd take less vacations, we'd eat out at restaurants less, we'd have fewer toys and gadgets and electronics, we have older cars, we'd go out to the movies less, etc.
I don't save. I am fortunate to have enough money always sitting in my account that I can just pay for a vacation, cruise or otherwise.
I am also very fortunate to have a fantastic paying job.
My only 'debt', which I don't consider debt, is my mortgage. Other than that, my money is mine.