Is Buying into DVC While You're Young a Good Investment?

[gabbyenovak]

Hi All!

My fiance and I just returned from our first Disney vacation together (his first, not mine) and we went on a DVC tour at the Riviera resort. He has since become a "Disney person" and we have been seriously considering buying in to DVC while the points are in a decent price point. We are fairly young, 23 and 22 respectively, and I have a full time job as a human resource specialist and he is returning to school full-time. I do have the ability to take on the cost fully without him but, he will also contribute.

We all know the value of the points will increase and hotel and ticket costs will increase, but is it worth it to make that big of a commitment. We will most likely start with the 100 points and then increase as we have children. My thought is that after its paid off, the maintenance fees will seem insignificant to the overall value we will get.

We are not necessarily long vacationers (4 to 5 days max) and we have a lot of flexibility to travel during slower times of the year. We are definitely coming back to WDW but, does paying more now and accumulating points while we pay it off seem worth it?

I would love to hear more opinions on how long it took for you to make the commitment, what sold you on the membership, how you get the most value out of your members, etc!

Please use this as a thread as an free discussion of all aspects of DVC membership!

 

[Maistre Gracey]

My fiance

For me, that right there is a show stopper. There may be other things in your post that may also be show stoppers, but this is the biggie imo.
Once that changes to “my husband”, it may be a different story.

 

[ColinBlair]

The "after its paid off" part is important. General advice around here is that DVC makes the most sense when you can pay cash. One idea to consider is pretending that you did buy Rivera and start making those payments to yourself in a separate account. In 2022, you would then be more ready to buy at Reflections when it becomes available.

(Hopefully Reflections is still the correct name.)

 

[InBassAngler]

I would strongly watch these two episodes from the DVC Show. I know you’re not necessarily “Millennials” but its a good show for pro’s and cons. I would also say that I listened to all of the episodes before buying. A lot of good information. I personally like to think of DVC as my vacation home. Some years, I “AirBnB” it and rent the points, other years I enjoy going.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Buying any real estate with a fiance is risky, especially if your intent is to both be on the deed. If you break up, be aware you can't just split the points in half. Contracts are indivisible.

 

[a742246]

If there is no way from stopping you from buying, then just buy it under your name only.

I would suggest you get married first and wait until he finishes school, and has a job, and then wait another two years before considering buying a DVC.

 

[MICKIMINI]

I commend you for thinking about the value of purchasing DVC. I have to agree with other poster's though that if you are taking a loan on this purchase, it is much more risky. Why not take it slowly and take the down payment you plan to use on Riviera and buy a really small resale at a less expensive resort? With banking and borrowing it might be a good way to test the waters without straining your budget. You can always add on direct when you have extra cash.

 

[SullyD13]

I can relate to you on this. I’m 29 (so not quite as young as you) and I just bought into Riviera last month. It wasn’t planned so I guess you could say it was definitely more on the impulsive side (which I get may terrify some). My mom and I went to just hear what they had to say, see how it worked, and see the model rooms. I literally never thought I would actually buy but I had thought about it before.

What made me pull the trigger were a few things. First, I will never stop going to Disney World. It’s a priority trip to me and always gives me so much joy. It’s going nowhere for me. Two, on this last trip we stayed at GF for 10 nights. In 2017 we stayed at YC for 12 nights. While we were just there I booked a bounce back offer at BC for 8 nights. Combined all these trips I would have spent over $20k. That’s when I realized that at that point with the amount of money I’ve spent I could have close to paid it off if I had joined at the beginning. Third, I only want to stay at deluxe resorts. Yes I know to some a room is just a room to sleep in, but not to me. The environment, amenities, restaurants, and vibe is just as much a part of my vacation as the parks. And fourth, it will only get more expensive to go.

Disney is only getting more and more expensive and when/if I have kids it will only get MORE expensive. Knowing that I could secure future trips and have it paid off before I’m 40 was a big deal to me. I really feel like I made an investment and I’m not just throwing my money away (because I’d be spending the money anyways).

I will say I heavily weighed the financial factor. I made sure that worst case scenario I could afford all my bills solo and still pay for everything. I also was able to put a good amount down since I had savings. Personally I probably wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t feel so strongly about wanting to stay in deluxe resorts only. Also I loved everything about Riviera and Epcot’s my favorite park so location was ideal for me. Also it was based on the amount of money I do spend on trips to Disney already and the fact that we go at least every other year.

I couldn’t be happier though and I’m so excited! I have my first trip “home” planned for this October for Food and Wine! I’m also excited to have this for when I have children. Even now my nephew wants me to take him and I can’t wait!

 

[Sandisw]

I can relate to you on this. I’m 29 (so not quite as young as you) and I just bought into Riviera last month. It wasn’t planned so I guess you could say it was definitely more on the impulsive side (which I get may terrify some). My mom and I went to just hear what they had to say, see how it worked, and see the model rooms. I literally never thought I would actually buy but I had thought about it before.

What made me pull the trigger were a few things. First, I will never stop going to Disney World. It’s a priority trip to me and always gives me so much joy. It’s going nowhere for me. Two, on this last trip we stayed at GF for 10 nights. In 2017 we stayed at YC for 12 nights. While we were just there I booked a bounce back offer at BC for 8 nights. Combined all these trips I would have spent over $20k. That’s when I realized that at that point with the amount of money I’ve spent I could have close to paid it off if I had joined at the beginning. Third, I only want to stay at deluxe resorts. Yes I know to some a room is just a room to sleep in, but not to me. The environment, amenities, restaurants, and vibe is just as much a part of my vacation as the parks. And fourth, it will only get more expensive to go.

Disney is only getting more and more expensive and when/if I have kids it will only get MORE expensive. Knowing that I could secure future trips and have it paid off before I’m 40 was a big deal to me. I really feel like I made an investment and I’m not just throwing my money away (because I’d be spending the money anyways).

I will say I heavily weighed the financial factor. I made sure that worst case scenario I could afford all my bills solo (currently I split everything with boyfriend of 8 years) and still pay for everything. I also was able to put a good amount down since I had savings. I will say I probably wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t feel so strongly about wanting to stay in deluxe resorts only. Also I loved everything about Riviera and Epcot’s my favorite park so location was ideal for me. Also it was based on the amount of money I do spend on trips to Disney already and the fact that we go at least every other year.

I couldn’t be happier though and I’m so excited! I have my first trip “home” planned for this October for Food and Wine! I’m also excited to have this for when I have children. Even now my nephew wants me to take him and I can’t wait!

Congratulations! Everyone has to look at their own situation and make a choice that fits them. There is absolutlely no right way to look t that is the same for them!

You have 50 great years of vacations ahead of you! Welcome Home!

 

[PaintsWindColors]

My advice is going to differ from almost everyone else on this thread - your question is whether it's a good investment for a young person and the answer is YES. It doesn't matter if you're engaged to be married or have been with a spouse for 25 years. I'm a blue card member but currently purchasing an add-on resale contract from a long-married couple going through a divorce. An investment like DVC would be risky at any stage in life if you look at it through that lens. So go on and get those 100 points (great starting investment, btw) and as long as you love Riviera and don't mind it being your home resort then you should be happy with the purchase for many, many, many years to come.

 

[ray3127]

My advice is going to differ from almost everyone else on this thread - your question is whether it's a good investment for a young person and the answer is YES. It doesn't matter if you're engaged to be married or have been with a spouse for 25 years. I'm a blue card member but currently purchasing an add-on resale contract from a long-married couple going through a divorce. An investment like DVC would be risky at any stage in life if you look at it through that lens. So go on and get those 100 points (great starting investment, btw) and as long as you love Riviera and don't mind it being your home resort then you should be happy with the purchase for many, many, many years to come.

I agree with this.

My wife of 8.5 years and I got engaged after 6 months of dating, and two weeks after that we signed the contract on our first house (we were 22 & 21 at the time). We had a 1.5 year engagement because others in the family were already engaged and had their wedding dates planned, and we weren't allowed to jump ahead of them. Does that mean we should have put our life on hold for those 1.5 years? To some, it sounds like it.

I don't know the details of your relationship. In the case of my wife and I, we had zero doubts. Whether or not we were legally married did not matter (and still doesn't, frankly). Age is just a number, and fiance is just a word. We knew who each of us truly was on the inside, and that's all that ever mattered.

To that point, I know married people on much shakier ground than engaged couples I know. So I don't see just being engaged is an automatic problem.

All of that being said... Assuming you two are a solid entity, I think the 100-point contract to get started is a reasonable idea. You can always add on as your life and membership needs change. But given what you said, it seems like DVC may be a good fit for you. I'm of a similar mindset, in that once I learned about DVC I couldn't stomach paying cash prices ever again. If you're going to be spending the cash on Disney hotels anyway, then you might as well buy the points and have something to show for it at the end of the day.

I wish we would've bought DVC when we were engaged or newly married. If you're a solid couple, love Disney, and can handle it financially, go for it.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Hi All!

My fiance and I just returned from our first Disney vacation together (his first, not mine) and we went on a DVC tour at the Riviera resort. He has since become a "Disney person" and we have been seriously considering buying in to DVC while the points are in a decent price point. We are fairly young, 23 and 22 respectively, and I have a full time job as a human resource specialist and he is returning to school full-time. I do have the ability to take on the cost fully without him but, he will also contribute.

We all know the value of the points will increase and hotel and ticket costs will increase, but is it worth it to make that big of a commitment. We will most likely start with the 100 points and then increase as we have children. My thought is that after its paid off, the maintenance fees will seem insignificant to the overall value we will get.

We are not necessarily long vacationers (4 to 5 days max) and we have a lot of flexibility to travel during slower times of the year. We are definitely coming back to WDW but, does paying more now and accumulating points while we pay it off seem worth it?

I would love to hear more opinions on how long it took for you to make the commitment, what sold you on the membership, how you get the most value out of your members, etc!

Please use this as a thread as an free discussion of all aspects of DVC membership!

you said you toured Rivera, which is only available direct (mostly) have you considered one of the other Disney resorts which is available on the resale market?

Resale could save you approx 40% compared to direct. However resale won’t qualify you for any perks.

my recommendation is if you decide that DVC is for you now that you read about DVC resale here on DIS.

 

[Spark65]

To that point, I know married people on much shakier ground than engaged couples I know. So I don't see just being engaged is an automatic problem.

Well, the best time in marriage can be the romance period once that's over the real relationship begins. You've heard about the seven year itch no doubt and the earliest years in a marriage I think can be the hardest. Very few engaged couples have spent a lot time, trials, bad times, good times, job loss, children and bad investments together that can destroy marriages overnight. They can also strengthen them it's all on what individuals can handle so your argument isn't seen as a good example.

It sounds like you are saying they should buy while engaged because the marriage may end up on the rocks.

If the OP wants to buy it right now and can afford it on her own she should buy it without her fiance on the deed and after they get married add his name to it later. I have seen engaged couples quit very close to their wedding dates and not saying this would happen but life is complex.

Other than that, I would get my family going before I invested in the fun stuff, responsibilities and needs come first.

 

[Sandisw]

you said you toured Rivera, which is only available direct (mostly) have you considered one of the other Disney resorts which is available on the resale market?

Resale could save you approx 40% compared to direct. However resale won’t qualify you for any perks.

my recommendation is if you decide that DVC is for you now that you read about DVC resale here on DIS.

Just to add for the OP...resale will also not allow you to stay at any of the new resorts, including RIV. RIV also comes with resale restrictions that if you sell, the new buyer will be only allowed to use the points at RIV. No trading out.

While we don't know for sure how this will effect the resale price...and one should never buy expecting any money back...what it will do is limit the people who are going to be interested in those points. A smaller buying pool means you may have to sell for an extreme loss if an emergency happens and you can no longer afford to keep up with the MF's and/or financing.

Pick a resort that you won't mind staying at. Yes, RIV is the one being sold direct, and if you fell in love with it and want that to be your home resort, then that is what you should buy. However, as mentioned, if you are buying it only because it is the current resort being sold but may want to stay a lot of other places, then definitely research more and look into resale because it will save you a lot of upgront costs, if one of those resorts would also make you happy!

 

[ray3127]

It sounds like you are saying they should buy while engaged because the marriage may end up on the rocks.

This is absolutely not what I'm saying. Here's what I said: "If you're a solid couple, love Disney, and can handle it financially, go for it."

Those are 3 pretty big qualifiers. I can't really assess any of these personally on the Internet. It seems like they love Disney, but that's all I know about them.

The point of most of my post was describing that "solid couple" outweighs married, engaged, or whatever. It depends on the relationship and individuals involved. To make any assumptions about anybody because they are "just" engaged doesn't ring true for me. I was not saying "do it while you're still happy"; I was saying that the label of the relationship matters far less than the quality of the people/relationship.

And to your point about "responsibilities and needs come first" ... I clearly agree with that. Again, see my quote from above ... "can handle it financially" directly refers to that idea. I could have been more clear with that, but that's what was meant.

The point of everything I said was that "it depends". And in sharing my personal story of the last 11 years, I was trying to show the OP that things can work and I see value in their idea. IF they are solid and can handle it financially.

Also, a good marriage only gets better with time.

 

[SCDVC2000]

For me, that right there is a show stopper. There may be other things in your post that may also be show stoppers, but this is the biggie imo.
Once that changes to “my husband”, it may be a different story.

yep

 

[Deb & Bill]

When are you getting married? You said fiance, so I'm wondering about the wedding date. Work, planning a wedding, figuring out DVC might be a bit much all at the same time. If you haven't set a wedding date yet, wait until you do.

 

[crisi]

It depends - what are your long term prospects regarding children and income. Children are very expensive. Daycare is expensive. They grow out of daycare and activities are expensive. As teens car insurance is expensive. Braces are expensive, college is oh-my-God expensive. (Two young adult children, both of whom I'm currently making tuition payments on.)

If you are looking at a future with your fiance where you will be making plenty of money - enough money to save for retirement, save for college, pay for daycare (or one of you can scrap your income to stay at home - which will cut your retirement savings), handle emergencies, and you will still be able to afford regular multi thousand dollar vacations every year, then DVC can be a good purchase - although there is still the question of if its a good fit. I would ask the older people at your job how they swing all their financial responsibilities - I don't remember HR Specialist being a highly paid field - and your fiance is still in school - which means its a long way from where he is to successfully finishing a degree, getting employed in his field, and earning an income.

Which is the other thing you have to budget for - time. Limited vacation days, kids - and their activities - and family that expect to see you means you only have so many vacation days to spend. DVC will have you spending many of them at WDW. You will do this at the expense of taking other trips - and that works great for a lot of people who love Disney. Often the people with the most money have the least time. Because if you can take multi thousand dollar vacations every year, you may choose to take your kids to see London or on an African safari - rather than Animal Kingdom and the UK pavilion at Epcot.

I would encourage you to wait until the children arrive. If you have to go through infertility treatment or adoption to make that happen - that may be money you wish you hadn't spent. If you end up with twins or triplets, you carefully planned daycare budget could explode. And DVC reservations are not terribly conducive to "oh, I got pregnant and probably shouldn't travel then, lets move that trip forward four months - or back four months."

 

[_auroraborealis_]

"Solid couple" is not a legal status. Marriage is. From a pure legal perspective, buying real estate as a couple without attachment in law can be much more fraught over time than buying when already granted the many legal privileges of marriage, some of which can be duplicated via contract, many of which cannot.

If you buy real estate outside of marriage, you should speak to a qualified real estate lawyer around issues like inheritance, among other things.

I know a lot of people get defensive when the married vs. engaged/cohabiting thing is brought up, but this isn't about questioning your love or commitment. It's about how the law sees it, and that may not seem relevant... until it suddenly becomes relevant.

 

[ray3127]

"Solid couple" is not a legal status. Marriage is. From a pure legal perspective, buying real estate as a couple without attachment in law can be much more fraught over time than buying when already granted the many legal privileges of marriage, some of which can be duplicated via contract, many of which cannot.

If you buy real estate outside of marriage, you should speak to a qualified real estate lawyer around issues like inheritance, among other things.

I know a lot of people get defensive when the married vs. engaged/cohabiting thing is brought up, but this isn't about questioning your love or commitment. It's about how the law sees it, and that may not seem relevant... until it suddenly becomes relevant.

Missing my point.

If they are married and not solid, then it's not a good idea to buy real estate together.

It is more about the relationship than legal status.

If a married couple owns DVC and divorces, what happens to the contract?

How is that different than if they aren't married?

Sounds like a mess either way. If they are really concerned, then just buy it in the one person's name who can afford it now, then add the additional name later. But in my experience, games like that are how marital problems start.

If they are marrying the right person, none of this matters.

"Until it suddenly becomes relevant..." Ok, but I'm simply sharing my point of view, which is not wrong. It's an opinion, just like yours.