Dh and I were 46. We could not afford, actually chose not to join when we first heard of DVC.
I quit my teaching job to raise 2 daughters. It never made sense to us for me to continue teaching other children, I was home 16 years doing Mom stuff-PTA, church work, fundraising for the local hospital, and volunteering at the elementary school. I am very happy we lived life this way.- no regrets. We traveled to WDW every 3 years during this time and took less expensive vacations in between.
Now we own a house, have no credit card debt, the kids are in the college tuition years and I'm back to work as a substitute teacher helping to pay for DVC. We are on the waiting list to add-on.