DVC Chit Chat Thread

[IsDVCForMe?]

And around the Recovery tables, you'll often hear: "Expectations are Resentments waiting to happen."

This is exactly right. We’re going through this now where we live. Have to move on.

Edited - this is not about recovery. More along the lines of living near family without much involvement. Sorry for being confusing.

 

[kilik64]

Not to make Brian feel too old, but he's like the really cool uncle with the great advice of the DVC forums.

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

In the short time I’ve been on here, I’ve learned a lot from you. Have to keep telling myself that money isn’t everything. We can always make more money but we only have so much time.

We were still in our early 30ies when my wife was followed in oncology. Tough times.
We have an uncle in the family in his early 60ies. At Christmas he was fine; now he has cancer with a 6-months-to-1-year prognosis of survival.
You only live once.

 

[IsDVCForMe?]

We were still in our early 30ies when my wife was followed in oncology. Tough times.
We have an uncle in the family in his early 60ies. At Christmas he was fine; now he has cancer with a 6-months-to-1-year prognosis of survival.
You only live once.

Sorry to hear this.

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

Sorry to hear this.

Gladfully our close family is past those times. Now we have 2 wonderful daughters and we're all in great shape!
But yeah, those are hard-earned lessons.
I just wanted to add to the motto there is more to life than money !

 

[Brian Noble]

Not to make Brian feel too old

Well, I am Of A Certain Age.

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

Well, I am Of A Certain Age.

By Wisdom a House is Built

 

[Flash_Sloth]

This is so important. The one thing money can’t buy is time. We only get so much of it so it all needs to count. Learning what enough is was the key to my happiness.

For years, I've joked around with my coworkers discussing retirement saying "first, you need to know when you're going to die so you can plan backwards from that." But joking aside...

For many years, I've wrestled with how much you should save vs. how much should you spend to enjoy life now. If you penny pinch everything, you may miss all the fun you could have in life. But if you spend too much, you may never be able to afford to retire. And as my years roll on, it is a little sobering to see some friends, coworkers, family, etc, pass away earlier than expected. I don't know if I'm going to live to 100+ or die of a heart attack tomorrow.

My current plan is to retire in about 6 months. I almost pulled the trigger a year ago. I'm definitely stepping back from full time work. I've talked with my bosses about maybe switching to part time work; we'll see what happens.

For those of you who are retired, how do you keep your brain mentally sharp? I've heard it is easy to let it become a vegetable once you stop working. After 30+ years in my industry, I need take a break from some of the intensity, but don't want to completely veg out.

 

[GrumpyInPhilly]

For years, I've joked around with my coworkers discussing retirement saying "first, you need to know when you're going to die so you can plan backwards from that." But joking aside...

For many years, I've wrestled with how much you should save vs. how much should you spend to enjoy life now. If you penny pinch everything, you may miss all the fun you could have in life. But if you spend too much, you may never be able to afford to retire. And as my years roll on, it is a little sobering to see some friends, coworkers, family, etc, pass away earlier than expected. I don't know if I'm going to live to 100+ or die of a heart attack tomorrow.

My current plan is to retire in about 6 months. I almost pulled the trigger a year ago. I'm definitely stepping back from full time work. I've talked with my bosses about maybe switching to part time work; we'll see what happens.

For those of you who are retired, how do you keep your brain mentally sharp? I've heard it is easy to let it become a vegetable once you stop working. After 30+ years in my industry, I need take a break from some of the intensity, but don't want to completely veg out.

Planning Disney trips & reading (incl. DISboards ).

 

[ClaraOswald]

For years, I've joked around with my coworkers discussing retirement saying "first, you need to know when you're going to die so you can plan backwards from that." But joking aside...

For many years, I've wrestled with how much you should save vs. how much should you spend to enjoy life now. If you penny pinch everything, you may miss all the fun you could have in life. But if you spend too much, you may never be able to afford to retire. And as my years roll on, it is a little sobering to see some friends, coworkers, family, etc, pass away earlier than expected. I don't know if I'm going to live to 100+ or die of a heart attack tomorrow.

My current plan is to retire in about 6 months. I almost pulled the trigger a year ago. I'm definitely stepping back from full time work. I've talked with my bosses about maybe switching to part time work; we'll see what happens.

For those of you who are retired, how do you keep your brain mentally sharp? I've heard it is easy to let it become a vegetable once you stop working. After 30+ years in my industry, I need take a break from some of the intensity, but don't want to completely veg out.

The not knowing what the future holds is the worst.

We are pretty sure our son will need to live with us for as long as possible. But we don't know how long that will be since it really depends on our health. So we need to not only plan for the rest of our lives but for the rest of his too. It's very stressful. And we have no idea what kind of places he could live when we're gone or how much that would cost.

So we're constantly trying to strike a balance between saving for all of that but also living our lives and giving him fun experiences. At least with DVC, we know that we could always sell it if we decided we needed more money. So that's one reason we felt okay forking over so much cash for our contracts over the last few years.

 

[atthebeachclub]

And around the Recovery tables, you'll often hear: "Expectations are Resentments waiting to happen."

Oof. That’s a good one.

Re: Retirement: Growing up, my goal was to retire early. I was a weird kid I guess. Now I have two kids and decided it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Constantly pinching pennies and saving wasn’t very gratifying. So I let that early retirement dream go. I’ll get there when I get there, at a snail’s pace. At the very least, I am very happy to be vacationing finally. Even if the costs kill me a little!

I do need to come to terms with some overly conservative money choices I made early on, under the influence of older family. They meant well, but I really should have YOLO’d a little harder. It would have meant a better outcome financially, though I’m doing just fine. I knew it mathematically, but it’s hard to stand up to family with strong opinions.

 

[pks_domer]

Now I have two kids and decided it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Yup. My wife and I had kids late, so I'll probably work longer than I would have considered, but having kids late also meant we can give them opportunities we might not have been able to otherwise. And that we take little bits and pieces of fun along the way.

 

[Flash_Sloth]

Planning Disney trips & reading (incl. DISboards ).

DW knows that I've been planning to retire for a while. But when I told her that I'm planning WDW or DLR trips every month for at least the first 6 months after retiring, she was like "WHAT???!!!" She thinks I overdo it a little bit.

 

[Mirabell Rose]

The not knowing what the future holds is the worst.

We are pretty sure our son will need to live with us for as long as possible. But we don't know how long that will be since it really depends on our health. So we need to not only plan for the rest of our lives but for the rest of his too. It's very stressful. And we have no idea what kind of places he could live when we're gone or how much that would cost.

So we're constantly trying to strike a balance between saving for all of that but also living our lives and giving him fun experiences. At least with DVC, we know that we could always sell it if we decided we needed more money. So that's one reason we felt okay forking over so much cash for our contracts over the last few years.

We have the same need to provide care support for an adult child. That’s why I knew I would and did retire in my mid 50’s. Too busy working and raising 4 kids to spend money when I was younger. My financial planner says stop saving, but it’s hard when you aren’t used to spending. Honestly. We did DVC because it meant being sure to step back at least once a year and breathe.

I had a really, really, hard time the first 3 years or so being retired. That intellectual challenge I craved. But I started helping new small minority and women owned businesses learn the economics and finances of businesses. I helped out some non-profits, and ended up getting to the point where I had to slim down those things to actually be retired again. I’m much better now at it. Allow yourself that time to adjust.

 

[KGdreamer]

IMO the last year or two before retirement is wonderful in that you know the worst parts of the job are only temporary.

I absolutely agree with this! I have just over 2 years left and it's given me so much peace. When stupid decisions are made I just remind myself that before too long, I won't care!

 

[Cfabar1]

wondering if we should start a new thread - intersection of DVC lifestyle and retirement!

I feel like we have so much to share on this topic... and I'd love to learn from all of you!

 

[TheThousandthSoul]

wondering if we should start a new thread - intersection of DVC lifestyle and retirement!

I feel like we have so much to share on this topic... and I'd love to learn from all of you!

Is Membership Magic and Beyond required to join in?
All jokes aside, I agree fully!

 

[CarolynFH]

DW knows that I've been planning to retire for a while. But when I told her that I'm planning WDW or DLR trips every month for at least the first 6 months after retiring, she was like "WHAT???!!!" She thinks I overdo it a little bit.

Sort of by accident - planned trips plus unexpected availability of my dad’s timeshare weeks - we went to WDW 5 times the first year I was retired. Then a couple of times a year after that, plus other trips elsewhere, in addition to visits to family. We traveled as much as we could!

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Sort of by accident - planned trips plus unexpected availability of my dad’s timeshare weeks - we went to WDW 5 times the first year I was retired. Then a couple of times a year after that, plus other trips elsewhere, in addition to visits to family. We traveled as much as we could!

I wanted to do that but 2020 was not the year to travel when one first retires.

 

[CarolynFH]

I wanted to do that but 2020 was not the year to travel when one first retires.

Understood. I was fortunate to retire several years before that.