Booking grand villa at 7 months?

[Kim Gillihan]

One of the mistakes I see people make is assuming they'll go from kids who are interested into grandchildren. Unless your kids have their kids young, or your kids are really spread out, there can be a really big gap between your kids having their own lives that makes it hard to schedule vacation around, and grandchildren.

great point.. my son is almost 9 but we are hoping to adopt, about to be foster parents soon, so we still have lots young child years ahead..... I am almost 47, so no spring chicken myself...I want to enjoy my time with my child or children to the fullest while I can!! But, we have LONG time till grand children, I hope I make it to see them!!

 

[Kim Gillihan]

exactly or even better you could potentially find a somewhat to fully loaded contract and have even more points. I don't recall what UY you were looking at but for sake of discussion let's say you buy a March contract with 200 points banked from 2016 plus all current and future year points. You could do 287 points every year during each sequential UY for 2 times without borrowing and the third year you'd only have to borrow 61 points. You could do 4 years every year with borrowing for 287 points and still only be 35 points short for year 5. You drop back to value or standard, one less night or get a 1 BR one year and you haven't missed a single year. The odds you'll do exactly the sam trip each time for 5 years is almost zero. Well before you'd be out of points in this process you'd have enough knowledge and experience to have an idea of where you need to be longer term in terms of home resort and number of points. Unless you go big paying for other people's vacation, I'm betting 200-220 will suffice for your needs. Once kids get older many find they don't or can't go as much or have less (sometimes more) people going.

Dean, thanks so much, you have been so helpful.. my question is, if I have the funds, what benefit aside from saving money is there to buying 200 vs. 300 points? I guess I was thinking more the merrier in points and people! Non drama people that is!! If I use them and enjoy great, if I bank them and use for big trip great or if I rent them at some point in the future to do other things, thats a win too... what is my negative for getting 300 vs. 200?

 

[Dean]

One of the mistakes I see people make is assuming they'll go from kids who are interested into grandchildren. Unless your kids have their kids young, or your kids are really spread out, there can be a really big gap between your kids having their own lives that makes it hard to schedule vacation around, and grandchildren.

We see lots of examples of older kids and young adults not wanting to go or not being able to go. We also see examples of expanding families with spouses and grandchildren all going. There's no reasonable way to plan for the latter too far out but one can plan for the former to a degree by limiting the number of points. In general I think most should buy a full sized contract but not too big in most situations. Occasionally there is someone who's buying that has enough info and experience to make a good guess at their long term needs but it's usually second generation, someone who's been looking at DVC for many years, long term renters or former owners buying back in. More often than not the new buyer overestimates the reasonableness and need for the newer resort and/or number of points. The eyes bigger than the stomach issue.

Dean, thanks so much, you have been so helpful.. my question is, if I have the funds, what benefit aside from saving money is there to buying 200 vs. 300 points? I guess I was thinking more the merrier in points and people! Non drama people that is!! If I use them and enjoy great, if I bank them and use for big trip great or if I rent them at some point in the future to do other things, thats a win too... what is my negative for getting 300 vs. 200?

There may not be in your case, all we can do is speak to the general situation and try to get a feel for what fits best for you based on the info you provide. I'll bat it around a bit, it may or may not help you. First, once you get to around 300 it's time to start considering multiple contracts. 300 to 350 is about the point where it starts to be more important. You don't want the contract too large just in case. If you buy too many, you may end up having to rent at times or just splurging to use them. While that can be nice, it's expensive. Plus as noted, I think there's a good chance you're going to end up wanting a different or additional home resort and/or you really won't need as many as you think. You should be able to get a slightly better deal on a larger contract and you're more likely to find a fully loaded contract in all likelihood but the cost difference for 300 vs 2*150 isn't that much. You may find you need 350 or 400 instead if your family grows and you indeed end up covering family trips. I would strongly suggest against buying expecting others to chip in enough to make that worthwhile.

The advantage to buying less is you have more options and even if you need more points, you can make a better decision in 2-3 years than you would today. Maybe a non DVC timeshare would be a better choice for any fee dollars or cash for other things like cruises. I don't want to know your finances so I'll just make a blanket statement. At what point is it reasonable to throw the extra money on such a luxury purchase with extra point above what you need (as you asked), my vote is no debt, home paid off, appropriate ongoing retirement savings, college covered completely and the like. Anything less and you're effectively financing the extra even if not borrowing directly.