How do you afford DVC?

[Mouseforward]

We are not in the FIRE mindset, hence the numerous trips to Disney. While DVC saves us money on lodging we tend to spend quite a bit on our trips on everything else so overall we are spending alot more than we normally would.

We used to live somewhere that was somewhat LCOL and allowed us to save some. 2 years ago we moved somewhere that everyday items are less cost but housing is expensive, but the pay here is better.

I started my career in healthcare before going into IT and I have to agree that FIRE ( at least the retire part) is not for me. I will work as long as customers find value in hiring me.

Too many people retire and decline mentally.

I have even considered moving to Florida later on life and working as one of the DVC stand people, not selling so much as answering questions and screening leads for the guides.

 

[KrzyAsian]

DINK in SoCal.

My job is in finance, my partner in healthcare. Since we're travelling without kids, we go during off-season.

Split cost right down the middle. Used a newly opened CC to get the sign-up bonuses and paid it all off before interest accrued (6 months). It basically jump started our mileage accrual on the travel CC, which we've used to purchase flights to Paris, Rome, and next year, Japan.

 

[Robclint734]

We are in our late 40’s, I’m a teacher my wife a physician assistant. We took our 4 kids for the first time in 2022, it was both mine and my wife’s second trip ever, we both went when we were kids.
We then went to Disneyland in 2023, and back to WDW in 2024. It was clear it was something all 6 of us liked to do.
We stayed at Hilton Buena Vista Palace in a suite to accommodate all 6 of us while at WDW. With room rate, parking, taxes, etc it was $4k for 6 nights.
A friend told us about DVC after that trip and we did the math and realized we had already payed in 3 years nearly what a resale contract (that would get us a week at SSR, OKW, or AKL), would have cost. So it was a no brainer.
We know have 75 points at CCV and 150 at SSR all resale. All in for just a tad over 20k or what rack rate at the Hilton would be for 5 years. So in our head after 4 more trips we are ahead of the game moving forward.
Of course stupid FOMO is hitting us and we are strongly considering 150 direct to get our blue card….

 

[mickeymom629]

We bought in 1999 when we were 40 with 4 kids. I had a daycare and DH is a cabinetmaker and we live within our means, as they say. I was also a cast member at the local Disney Store. We took our kids to Disney World a couple of times after saving for a few years and, with a family of 6, we had to get adjoining rooms or stay off-site. In 1999, on our 3rd trip, my aunt saw the DVC sign (I probably never would have noticed) and told me to ask if there was a cm discount and there was! My dad had gifted us some money and we bought 150 HH (direct) points in "cash". It was a "scary" decision at the time. A few years later we added on 50 VB points (direct) that were at a bargain and also got cm discount.

I've loved planning the trips with kids and now grandkids. We all love Disney but it did keep me from planning trips to other places in the world, lol.

 

[nephykupo]

I've been eyeing DVC for a long time, about 10 years. My gf/now spouse and I would go every year till COVID. As part of my budget, I invest into the stock market ( just boring S&P 500 ETF ) that's not meant for retirement. After several years, it grew nicely so I sold some of it and got our first DVC contract. I wish I did it sooner but glad we finally did it.

 

[Tatebeck]

DINKS in our 30s, with good jobs in healthcare, and unfortunately an early inheritance from my parents provided a boost to get us further ahead of the game.

 

[Tumnus]

I am a Statistician, is that close enough

Pretty much the same thing without exams, right?

 

[Tumnus]

I love that you said a dollar figure, thank you. It really out into perspective the financial aspect of it. Id love others to share their figures but I know most aren't comfortable with that.


#goals.

I'll give mine (if you know me in real life, no you don't). I'm in consulting, so my pay can vary year by year. Last year I crossed $500,000, my salary is mid $200,000's though and nothing beyond that is guaranteed. This year I'll be closer to $350,000.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I'll give mine (if you know me in real life, no you don't). I'm in consulting, so my pay can vary year by year. Last year I crossed $500,000, my salary is mid $200,000's though and nothing beyond that is guaranteed. This year I'll be closer to $350,000.

Consulting is so interesting to me. I love that you can make more than your base salary. My husband’s income is somewhat similar in style. Base is plus bonuses. The tax they take on bonuses hurts!
Edited to remove acrual figures so it doesn’t live on the internet forever, I will use airjays way of stating it below. We are also in the 24% tax bracket. I think, I’m not a tax lawyer

 

[airjay75]

Alright. I'm a tax lawyer. My wife is a nurse. In tax lawyer fashion, I'll just say we're solidly in the 24% tax bracket and not too far from the 32% tax bracket in terms of our combined income. I'm 43, wife is 39, 2 kids (no more). Have both been in the same jobs and house for over 8 years, and have reached a pretty comfortable stage of life financially. Retirement is well-funded, kids have a good start in their 529 accounts for college (although probably not enough), lots of home equity, low mortgage rate, and we may well stay with our current employers until retirement.

DVC is probably the first thing in my life that I've really splurged on. We drive Toyotas, our house is modest for the area (although we're not in a particularly low COL area), and I do not really spend money on luxury purchases - my wife does a little bit here and there but nothing extravagant. I think @Mouseforward mentioned earlier that he lives in an area where people routinely spend $5k-$8k to rent something down the shore every summer - that has been us the past 3 summers. Plenty of people in this area drive much more expensive cars and either own a house down the shore or go down for one or two trips every summer. We do like Jersey Shore vacations, but they have nothing on Disney vacations. Purchasing DVC has brought a new excitement and focus to our family vacations that we just didn't have previously.

 

[J-Dog]

This is a really interesting/enlightening thread.

I am a veterinarian, my wife works part time at public school. A veterinarian makes decent income compared to the average college grad, but fairly poor income compared to other medical doctors.

The only way we would have ever even considered DVC is because we got a windfall insurance settlement about 6 years ago, and had enough "play" money left over to buy our first contract. We have added-on 3 more contracts since then, but those are small and we saved up. But that never would have happened on our incomes and (I guess) lifestyle without that extra "help".

 

[Skywalker3]

Ok, I totally know this is a thread about how we came about our DVC, but please, if any of you actuaries/statisticians have any advice for a college freshmen (my DS) who is majoring in statistics, please pass along. He's doing this in hopes of being an actuary, but worried about AI, job market, etc....anyone?

 

[J-Dog]

Now I might have more points if I did not love swiss watches, and custom 1911's but some toys are needed when you are not at Disney.

Have you looked into the 2011's? I just bought a Staccato and have my eye on an Atlas.

 

[Mouseforward]

Have you looked into the 2011's? I just bought a Staccato and have my eye on an Atlas.

They look nice, I ran out of room in the safe so I declared my collection "complete" about 10 years ago.

 

[Mouseforward]

poor income compared to other medical doctors

That is funny to me because I work with doctors all day and they all say " I wish i was a vet they get checks at the end of the visit"

 

[tidefan]

Ok, I totally know this is a thread about how we came about our DVC, but please, if any of you actuaries/statisticians have any advice for a college freshmen (my DS) who is majoring in statistics, please pass along. He's doing this in hopes of being an actuary, but worried about AI, job market, etc....anyone?

Statistics is an excellent field to be in. Our world is awash in data and not enough people to turn it into actionable information. AI is great, but as the Statistician George Box so eloquently said "all models are wrong, but some are useful". We deal in probabilistic determination in things that we do every day. For instance, you determine the time you leave your house to go to work based on how likely it is that you will be on time and that time will be different for different people based on their tolerance for variability (i.e., their "risk" tolerance).

Statistics is the study of how to make decisions in the face of uncertainty, which brings the unique perspective that when you make decisions, not only can you be wrong, you expect to be wrong at least a certain percentage of the time.

In a past role, I did healthcare analytics. The way I tried to explain how some of the models worked went as follows:

Boss: This is terrible, only 10% of the items you've identified are problems!

Me: This is great, when you were just looking at things randomly, you were only finding issues 1% of the time. I've increased your ability to detect issues tenfold!

So, it's all perspective, but the main thing is to learn methodologies to let your data tell a story, realizing that you are only as good as the data you have and that it can (and will) change, so you constantly need to be updating your methods. However, that is a good thing for job security

Hope this helps!

 

[atthebeachclub]

A veterinarian makes decent income compared to the average college grad, but fairly poor income compared to other medical doctors.

Not a vet but this is extremely relatable for me.

That is funny to me because I work with doctors all day and they all say " I wish i was a vet they get checks at the end of the visit"

MDs I know mostly haven’t worked other jobs and don’t really realize what an outlier their salary is for many people of similar education levels, in my experience. I’m not making a judgment about worthiness, just stating that the pay is extremely different for different professional doctorates. Pay growth in my field is stagnant/negative; my own job is a unicorn outlier.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We no longer have the number of points we once did, but….

1) Never had kids
2) Live within our means
3) Wife is an occupational therapist, and I’m an airline captan.
(I’m based in MCO, and the odds are good I’ve had a few of you in the back).

 

[TheDailyMoo]

I'll just say we're solidly in the 24% tax bracket and not too far from the 32% tax bracket in terms of our combined income.

I got excited seeing this because I know what the numbers finally equate to as I recently started doing a lot of research into Roth conversions and tax implications lol. Before I would just hand over a stack of papers to my CPA and say here have fun tell me what I owe or am getting back!

Also to all the DINKs...oh man I remember those days and all that disposable income to spend frivolously lol. Did all our real travelling back then and now it's just Disney as many times a year as our schedules and points will allow. One day we'll get back to world travelling again nut for now Disney scratches the itch very well.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I think “DINKS” is a poor descriptor, and that’s why I didn’t use it in my post.

You can be two newly married people, too soon to have kids, and both deliver pizza for Dominos.

Or… you can have six kids, one parent is a SAHM/SAHD, and the other is CEO of a fortune 100 company.

Who has more disposable income?