So not judging at all, but I would like to suggest a hypothetical to try to illustrate the risk that Dean is talking about. You made this decision based on a projected series of events and what was probably the most likely outcome. But what if something happened in the interim and that bonus would need to pay for (expenses due to loss of job, medical, whatever)? It's unlikely, but possible, and I think that is one of the many variables that he is referring to. Sure, that something could happen a week after you close as well, but that's a much easier situation to extricate yourself from.
All of the posts here are hinting at something but I don't think they come out and saying it directly.
There's a difference between being able to afford something and being able to make the payments. Car leases are a perfect example of this. I said it before, but I have friends that drive $60,000 cars because they can afford the lease payment. But they don't have the 20% to put down and couldn't afford the monthly purchase payments. To me, that's a false sense of security.
And there's a spectrum of risk associated with this. Those who finance
DVC because they can't afford to purchase outright are taking on the most risk. Those that finance in order to leverage like crisi does with her house take on a certain element of risk but certainly not as much. And those who don't finance but should because they have outlets with better returns are taking on the risk of potentially losing money (or at least not making money where they could have). Leveraging debt is a powerful tool, but only the individual knows if they are truly leveraging debt or if they're kidding themselves. And sometimes, many times perhaps, they don't know the difference, and that is where problems arise.
What level of risk is considered acceptable is a personal decision. At what point it is considered generally reckless or unwise is a personal value judgment. Dean feels very comfortable sharing his thoughts on this and he does so in a very respectful way. I'm not as well spoken so I don't share where I stand. But I agree with him and crisi when I say that the ideas I share on this board are greatly skewed to keeping people out of trouble, so to speak. If it comes off as judgmental I apologize, that's not the intent.
