anyone putting off buying in light of

[Blahnde]

On Monday when the Dow dropped over 500 points and all the news media were screaming that the sky was falling I told my husband, "Watch, by the end of the week it will not have gone up or down more than 100 points." Well, as of 4 p.m. today the Dow had lost a whopping 27.93 points on the week. Of course the volume over the past week has been off the charts (over 10 Billion on Thursday alone!), but that just means that only the stockbrokers made money. There was no real change in the overall value of the stockmarket, just a bunch of monkey motion.

And if you know anything at all about the market you will realize that all this activity seems to coincide with the end of Summer. You know the time when everyone (including stockbrokers and company managers) goes back to work after taking Summer vacations at WDW. This same trend happens every year. Since June the volume had only gone over 6 Billion for 2 days in July, yet it has steadily increased every day since Labor Day and every day this week it was over 8 Billion.

Are there people who have been or will be hurt? Yes! Did many of them do it to themselves? Yes! I call it culling the herd, and as others have mentioned it needs to happen every so often in a capitalist society.

And finally, if you think that just because they sit in suits at an anchor desk that the regular news people are any different from Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh you are sorely mistaken. They are all "shock jocks" ... they even let it slip once in a while that they are in the "news business." If they did not have something scandalous to say every night the drug companies would stop shelling out the big bucks for advertising ... and that IS what it is all about in our corporate culture!

So if you want to put your life on hold, that may be necessary for you based upon your own past decisions ... but for me, I'll be buying more DVC points!

Blahnde

 

[jerseygal]

Very scary these economic issues..

I just signed contracts prior to all this dreadful economic news this week..Of course prudently, started to think "should we be doing this now"?? Is this the right time for this now?

Appreciate every moment..Don't want to wake up 20 yrs from now saying "we should have done x"or worse yet not be able to do something due to poor health..If you can, while you're healthy, enjoy and make memorable moments for you and your family with something as wonderful as DVC!

 

[danv3]

We're being cautious, but I still think we'll buy in to DVC in the next 6 months or so.

 

[dizfanz]

some bloggers and watchdog groups are saying our way of life is on the verge of collapse.

I would not be too concerned about the 40 somethings that live in their parents' basement and type their blog entries at 3am with orange Cheetos stained fingers, wearing a Ross Perot 1992 t-shirt, and Jerry Springer blasting in the backround.

It may be a rough economic time but the sky is not falling. Our economy will bounce back.

 

[DisneydaveCT]

Earlier this week when the stock first dropped dramatically, the media reported that the last time it fell this much was right after 9/11. And it occurred to me that since then I have successfully sold my condo, bought a new house, increased the number of DVC points I have, and averaged two trips a year to WDW. As result I am confident that we will come out of this challenging time a little wiser, and stronger as an economy.

The only reason that I may not get another trip to WDW this year has to do with the high cost of airfare, and not the problems on Wall Street or the rest of the financial community. I just refuse pay $500 for a R/T ticket for Hartford to Orlando, when I paid half that last fall for the same airline.

 

[jamstew]

And we still haven't even had a single decline for one quarter much less two and home sales are up double digits in CA.

Purely a media-created "recession", IMO. Will the new definition of a recession be "when the media says so"?

 

[Robert H]

Life is short, way too short. I find that as I get older seems the good part of life is not as often as the tough stuff. I'm a breast cancer survivor, and the greatest lesson I learned is to live for today. I don't want to spend my younger years working toward a retirement I may never see. I used to worry so much about how we'd be able to afford the future, whether it was having the kids (when we were younger I used to think we'd never be able to afford kids - they're 19 now), or how we'd be able to afford the house (living here 24 years), or how we'd be able to send the kids to college (they are going into their 2nd year), or how we'll be able to afford a good life style (we own DVC since 2000 & have belonged to a beach club for 19 years), and how we'll afford "the golden years". Ya know what - what will be will be, we do what we can, borrow if we have to, and work for what we have. Life is good, very good - "hakuna matada" - means no worries!
Not a bad motto

Thanks for the perspective.......very well said!

 

[twinklebug]

I bought at the end of August. If I had put off my decision to buy by 3 weeks, I would still have bought in.

When my kids were younger we could not afford any vacations. We went 10 years without. There's more to it than that, but as others have said, life is too short, kids grow too fast & no one can predict what the future holds. You find your 'happy place' and make sure you've made every attempt to spend some occasional time in it to actually feel and enjoy life while it's happening as well as for your own sanity.

I had done my research and made the decision that DVC was the right choice for my family as a whole as well as myself individually. I *celebrated* my divorce by allowing myself the luxury of DVC. If (and I pray not) I were to find myself out of a job & unable to secure a new one due to the economy, things would be tough, but I'd manage. All the more reason to work hard and play even harder.

 

[soozer52]

If we went broke and belly up tomorrow the LAST thing I'd let go of is my DVC....prying my deed from my cold, cold hands

 

[CarpeDisney]

I'd have to agree with many of the previous posts. Life is just too short to stress about some things that aren't in your control. (Unless you're a CEO of Morgan Stanley, or another financial giant). It's a shame that years of global expansion, U.S. industries' outsourcing of tasks to save a nickel, and a government too concerned about the affairs of other nations rather than our own well-being (not to mention capitalism and the "all about me" mentality that comes with it) has landed us where we are today. (I'll step down off my soap box now....and apologize if I may have offended anyone with those statements)

Needless to say, my wife and I just bought in a few days ago. Like many we were on the fence for quite some time, especially the past month or so. However, with a recent death in the family things were quickly put back into perspective. People always say that "you can't take it with you", and unfortunately you never know when that day is going to arrive. Yes, it's imperative that you plan responsibly for the future of your family, but many people focus so much on money they sometimes forget to plan for the memories that will one day be talked about. That was our deciding factor.

Just my $.02

 

[edk35]

I'll probably be on Splash Mountain or The Jungle Cruise when the floodwaters come anyway, so I'll just float down Main Street USA on my way to the poor house. I try hard not to worry about things that are out of my control and DVC helps me do that.

I like your way of thinking.