anyone else have a PANIC ATTACK upon receipt of documents kit?

[disneycrazed139]

I promise, WolfpackFan, that I will not hold you responsible for my poor money management sense. I tend to live very in the moment, figuring I have no idea what lies in tomorrow. I sort of have a "no dress rehearsals" approach to life, but it will be a stretch for me. That's for sure.

Anyone else stretching it with DVC?

Maybe I'll post a new thread on that.

 

[bcvillastwo]

This is a very personal decision and no one but no one can really answer the question of "should I" or "shouldn't I" buy into DVC.

We had completely different circumstances so I can't compare our decision making process with yours. I can say this, we did not buy the first time we looked into DVC and frankly I'm glad we took the time to think it over.

With those things said, deciding factors for us were:

1. We really like WDW and everything about it from the way it's managed to the fun we always have when we go.

2. We were going at least 2 times a year, staying in moderates, and we were developing a pattern.

3. We asked ourselves if we liked WDW enough to continue the already established pattern and we said probably at least for the next 5 years or so.

4. We ran the numbers for our personal circumstances.

We concluded that for us it not only made good sense financially but it also made good sense in other ways as well. But, there wasn't any question of being able to afford to make the monthly payments as we paid cash. In the back of my mind I knew that even if we reached a point where we no longer wanted to go back to WDW on a regular basis we could probably sell and at least break even.

I probably wouldn't have done it if I was going to be making monthly payments and there was concern about being able to do so. I'm pretty conservative where financial things are concerned.

Good luck on your decision.

 

[ArRzrbk]

Disneycrazed139,

We too are stretching it...a lot! We haven't signed the contracts in our welcome kit yet (just got it yesterday), but I know we will.

We did not join five years ago, when I really, really wanted to. I even typed up six page proposal to DH back then after touring BWV (we're buying into BCV) and he just wouldn't bite. Said we didn't have the money. But...

Honestly, looking back, if we had joined then, we would have probably had the membership paid off by now, and we wouldn't have gone into the poor house over that decison. We would have been fine, just like we are going to be now.

We always seem to find some way to "throw" away money. This would have been a constructive expenditure each month. And if you are vacationing anyway, despite your finances, this at least makes more "cents." Pun intented

Only you can make this decision, but you have options, should this become a hardship. In my six page proposal to DH five years ago, that was one of the last points I made. If we needed to, we could sell our membership. And now, I know another option...renting points. That would help ease a short term lacking of funds.

Anyway, I am not a risk taker in general. But I am going to risk this. I want to help ensure our family takes the time to spend with each other away from the day-to-day. Up until this point, we manged to say, "We can't take a vacation this year." But no more excuses. We're pre-paying!

But, as should probably be the case with you too, if this becomes a hardship (can't send son to college, pay other bills, etc.), we'll sell in a heartbeat. I'm just "banking" it doesn't come to that. another pun intended. I'm on a roll

Good luck with your decision.

ArRzrbk a.k.a. Char

 

[disneycrazed139]

ArRzrbk-Looks like we are very much in the same boat. I, too, looked a few years ago. The price was so much lower then.

Anyway, glad you got the ball rolling, too.

I think I will decide to join in after all. I have until the middle of next year until my payments begin. Maybe I'll try to get another part-time job to cover it.

You're right--can always sell or rent. Hopefully it won't be a hardship! Good luck with yours! I know I'll keep posting here every step of the way!!

I alternate between excitement and confusion

 

[Lisa F]

We are sort of the opposite case. We bought into DVC when we were living in our first home, very comfortable making the mortgage payments and LOVING the tax break of owning our home. Since then we moved back east and I started graduate school. It took us 15 months to sell our house (this was a few years ago and the housing market was fairly slow in that area) and things were tight with mortgage + very high rent in high cost of living area (DC metro). Still, we steadfastly made our payments and enjoyed our vacation during that time that we could not have had otherwise (we had AP's to use also) and eventually the house sold and we caught up from 15 months of running negative balances every month (that stuff can accummulate!) Now that I am practically done with grad school and working full time, we are also trying to save up for a house in a much more expensive area than we lived before and I've thought "hmm, if we didn't have that DVC payment...." but no, I am NOT willing to give up my DVC.

We bought into BWV when it was only $65/point, took advantage of MB and paid $55/point. Now it's $79/point with MB. We bought into BWV as a long term thing and to give it up now would be shortsighted. The price just seems to keep going up and the cost of selling and rebuying is too great for us to consider selling it, even though it would be nice to have one less payment. We KNOW ourselves and we KNOW that we are going to spend money on vacations anyway, so why not have it controlled and budgeted? I suppose there would be people out there who say we can't really "afford" DVC since we are also trying to save for a house, but the pleasure that we get from DVC is worth putting off buying a home for another few months if that's what the tradeoff ends up being. Life is all about tradeoffs and no one can decide if it is worth it but you.

It sounds like you are going to spend that money on vacations anyway, so why not have it budgeted and fixed? Your son won't be in private school or college forever and when those financial burdens are gone you will be glad when you bought into SSR way back when it was so cheap and not angry at yourself for the missed opportunity of all of those years of vacation memories that you will have with your son in the meantime.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I like to strike a balance. What you can "afford" is relative. Some people would not consider buying into DVC if their house were not already paid off, their kids educations paid for in full etc. Some people value their vacations so highly that they would rather rent housing for their entire life if it means they can own DVC. I'm somewhere in the middle, trying to enjoy as much as I can now, because who knows what tomorrow will bring, but at the same time plan for a happy and bright future.

Lisa

 

[disneycrazed139]

Lisa,

That was very nicely put!