Buying DVC for retirement

[BWV Dreamin]

I know I may be talking to a small percentage of DVC owners, but I would like to say that I think buying DVC after your kids are grown, is a great way to plan for vacationing during retirement. Yes, maintenance fees will increase, but at a slower pace than room rates. IMO, purchasing DVC doesn't always have to be for the kids. Any thoughts or comments?

 

[ADP]

I fully expect to use my DVC in retirement. Even though my long range plan is to move to Orlando someday I will keep and use our DVC points. If anything else we can use the points for cruises, etc.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I love Disney World more than my Wife and
DD7. Although I would say after going to WDW with them over and over the past 14 years they've grown to love it too. I hope someday we can take or invite our grand children to Disney World using our DVC points!

If I keep thinking this way I may need to add another 100 point contract.

 

[wonka27]

If this is a purchase at retirement, IMHO, I'd have to really consider the benefit.

How much time would you have to use it? Would it justify the purchase price and MF? Will you be able to leave it for someone that wants, or would it be a burden on them?

Those are just some basic things to consider, I believe. My MIL asked me about this, and I really didn't know if it was worth her while to buy something she may be able to enjoy for a limited amount of time. But the bottom line is everyone has to look at their own situation to figure out what is right.

I'm sure it would certainly be nice to have on the retirement things to do list

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Is CarolMN out there? How about your intuitive opinion?

 

[Anthony1971]

we bought our points before we had children and I certianly plan on keeping them into retirement.
One of my family memebers owns and is buying timeshare DVC +++ to be able to vacation 6 months out of the year when he retires and keep his current house rather than buying a second house --he wants to live near his children...

 

[spiceycat]

that is my plan.

no children - just a niece and nephew.

now I can't afford to stay for long time - but in a studio for the first two weeks of Dec, 2 weeks in Sept, 2 weeks in May.

may even sometimes go with a 1-bedroom.

 

[Granny]

While we did not buy DVC primarily for our retirement, the truth of the matter is that we knew that most of my VWL and BWV contract life would be after DW and I are empty-nested and retired. And we have no intention of selling it off at that point (about 6 years from now).

We look forward to trips as a retired couple very much. Taking advantage of low point seasons and studios, etc.

And we look forward to using DVC as the bait to lure our kids back to some vacations with us after they fly the nest.

And hopefully someday as a way to vacation with our grandchildren (maybe invite our kids along too, maybe not!).

So yes, I think it makes all the sense in the world as part of a retirement agenda. Much would depend, of course, on what age someone is when they retire and their health.

 

[rbl291]

Sounds like there are more DISers looking at using DVC in/as/for retirement than you might think!

Its nice to read how others are justifying spending all those bucks to go see a little mouse

We fully plan on using DVC through retirement for ourselves and to bring our grown children & hopefully the grandchildren to experience a little Disney Magic

 

[Merylj]

Disney is for kids! I never knew that
We bought this year, I`m 47 DH is 51 and DD is 19. For us our purchase guarentees our future vacations for all of us. It just seemed like a natural progression, the house is paid for and now the vacations are too.
If we can afford it we may add on more points but we`ll only do that if we feel we can afford it.
So as far as planning for retirement, and as much as we can control it, we`re very happy

 

[snappy]

Although we still have an 11 yo and a 16 yo still emjoy Disney, since we are in our fabulous fifties, we are looking forward to lots of off season trips during cool weather in seven years (not that we are counting or anything)

 

[granmanh603]

Ok we bought in retirement in 2000 BWV, our children are grown and they have children. We go 2 X a year for 2 or three weeks. We go with our children and grandchildren sometimes(our DD had bought DVC first and took us) we enjoy the planning and looking forward to going to Disney. It is like our vacation house that we do not have to worry about keeping up, and all that other stuff. Granted the value is not the same as a house. We will pass it on to our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and if they don't want it they can sell it , I feel I have already gotten enough value out it it in pleasure alone. We were just talking the other night about it being the best thing we have done for ourselves if we didn't have to make plans, we would be sitting here doing nothing, like we did the 10 years before we bought in. This is just my humble opinion.

 

[ransom]

We're going to use it between now and then, of course, but we definitely look forward to using our DVC contract when we're retired (assuming our health, etc. holds out, of course).

 

[ebenmax]

Do the retirees who go for several weeks a year get studios or 1BR? I keep wondering if I could live for 3-4 weeks at a time with only a microwave and in a more "hotel-like" accomodation.

Any thoughts??

TIA

Ellen

 

[OKW Lover]

I don't think you should wait for retirement. Basically, you're talking about saving money on Disney vacations. It doesn't matter if you are working or retired, saving money at any time is a good thing. Do it now, not later.

 

[DVC Grammy]

DH and I didn't buy DVC until our 3 kids were out of the nest! This is OUR time now.

To be a bit more serious..............we happen to have been lucky enough to do quite a bit a traveling in our lives, usually as a family, both here and abroad, including many, many WDW vacations. Once our sons and daughter were on their own, we realized that our favorite place is WDW! (I will say that after 9/11, we truly didn't have as much desire to go to the countries that we hadn't seen)

Now we go 3-4 times a year. DH still works, but his boss is very understanding (he's self-employed ). Sometimes one or more of the kids joins us with their families, but usually it's just us, living the "childhoods" we wish we had!

 

[dianeschlicht]

Since we didn't purchase DVC until our nest was empty, we have looked at it as retirement vacation time. We would LOVE to be able to afford enough points to stay in a 1 bedroom for the months of January and February, but I can't swing that much maintenance. I figure if we use studios, we can probably get by for one of those cold months though! We only have 439 points, so they wont stretch far if we want 1 bedrooms or larger, but by being creative with studios on weekends etc, I think we could do it.

 

[Laurabearz]

My DH and I have often talked about 'snow birding' using our points once we kick the kids out. Too bad we can't do that now.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I think it makes sense as retirees (or at least one party a retiree) to own a DVC because now there is more time for spontaneous trips(well spontaneously planning at 11 months!), and you are not tied to when the kids will be out of school, planning around their sports, college, etc. If they can make it when you plan your trip, great. But for years I would see things the kids wanted, now I see things at WDW that I want!! Maybe Disney could focus on a new market....the active, married without kids at home attractions!

 

[Dean]

We have gone the other way. We are preparing for retirement though it is a few years away. We are now empty nesters. Given that there are many other choices out there that are much cheaper and better for some options, we have downsized our DVC holdings significantly and plan to end up with around 100 pts or so. Rather than keep almost 1000 DVC points we will use more traditional timeshares for the bulk of our travels, even to WDW. I can trade in to DVC in to a 1 BR about half the year. Plus I can stay off site for a week or two then do 5 days at DVC avoiding weekends. We have discussed and looked about a condo or second home looking toward retirement and we keep coming back to the idea that timeshares offer us the cheapest and most flexible alternative with little other commitment.

 

[skylynx]

We are brand new DVC owners this year...I'm 47 and DH is 50. We only just "saw the light" about DVC at the same time we received a modest inheritance from my parents' estate (lost both of them in one year :-( We could not justify the cost of buying DVC with financing, and so hadn't paid much attention to the DVC "secret" before. I can't tell you how warm and comforted it makes me feel inside to know that everytime we go to Disney and stay at a DVC resort, I feel like my mom and dad "treated" us to the stay (as they did many, many times while I was growing up from our first visit before the park was even open and there was just a preview center!) I know my mom and dad would have approved of our using their money to ensure we continued to build Disney memories together and with the kids.

Before we bought, we calculated the DVC value for our personal type of usage based on our using our points for 25 years and it was still a great value...if we hold up longer, all the better, and then when we are too rickety to even take turns pushing each other in wheelbarrows around Epcot, the kids will be able to take their families for quite a few years before the contracts run out. Do I wish we'd had the wherewithall to have bought in sooner? You bet. But we are looking forward to our DVC membership usage adapting to our life changes over the years, just like younger families. We figured when we're all gray and creaky we can still stay nearly a month in an OKW studio if we sneak off to the beach on weekends when the points go up. For now, we are absolutely delighted to try out all the resorts at odd times of year, for long or short stays, planned and last-minute, with and without kids. I guess this sounds like a DVC commercial, but what it has meant for us is that we can stay on property at Disney more nights than we formerly did, for less than we usually spent, and in some truly magical places. OK, so I drank the kool aid.