Question about Adonitis

[CaoilinnsMom]

I have seen this mentioned over and over in discussions here. I have even felt the tug of it myself. Sure, I could take friends and family, stay for longer, or get better more spacious rooms, but I cannot realistically afford more than I am looking at right now. When I say this, I mean I am thinking short term and long term. Like how much the yearly dues have gone up over the past decade, thinking about a gradual continued rise in the cost of dues, airfare, and everything else involved. I would also like my daughter to know that vacations can be somthing other than a visit to Disney.
So my question is this: are there a lot of people who are in over their heads here, or they just don't worry about money like I do? Or is it that most of the posters just have more disposable income than I? I'm not poor, but I do need to pay attention to my finances. Just wanted to hear what people think.

 

[ELMC]

I have seen this mentioned over and over in discussions here. I have even felt the tug of it myself. Sure, I could take friends and family, stay for longer, or get better more spacious rooms, but I cannot realistically afford more than I am looking at right now.

You could do this, but it would be the equivalent of walking up to them and handing them a thousand dollars. I always find it interesting when people give away their DVC points...I suppose they are more generous than I am. I think you are wise to not let your DVC purchase be the reason to stay for longer or in larger accommodations than you originally planned for.

So my question is this: are there a lot of people who are in over their heads here, or they just don't worry about money like I do? Or is it that most of the posters just have more disposable income than I? I'm not poor, but I do need to pay attention to my finances. Just wanted to hear what people think.

Good question, and nobody really knows the answer. My guess would be that the answer could be "yes" to all of the questions above, because there is probably representation from all of the groups you mention. In the end, be happy for others, but do what's best for you.

 

[DougEMG]

I've been trying to buy a number of resale contracts over the last few months so have made a lot of offers and I'd say about 20-25% of the sellers that I've dealt with have loans on their contracts and need to get their asking price. That's a lot of people that got in over their heads.

 

[cvjw]

We were all set to buy more points a few months ago. We already own at 4 resorts, but I really wanted to add about 150 points at BWV. We can afford the maintenance fees on the points we already own, and could cover the added fees on the BWV contract without straining our budget. Then my DH had an accident on his mountain bike. It really made me realize just how quickly your circumstances can change, and decided against buying any more points. I had never given much thought to DH getting injured and not being able to work - what an eye-opener. We are just going to enjoy the points we already have!

 

[princessaloha]

I have seen this mentioned over and over in discussions here. I have even felt the tug of it myself. Sure, I could take friends and family, stay for longer, or get better more spacious rooms, but I cannot realistically afford more than I am looking at right now. When I say this, I mean I am thinking short term and long term. Like how much the yearly dues have gone up over the past decade, thinking about a gradual continued rise in the cost of dues, airfare, and everything else involved. I would also like my daughter to know that vacations can be somthing other than a visit to Disney.
So my question is this: are there a lot of people who are in over their heads here, or they just don't worry about money like I do? Or is it that most of the posters just have more disposable income than I? I'm not poor, but I do need to pay attention to my finances. Just wanted to hear what people think.

I think everyone's situation is different so the easiest answer to all your questions would be yes. Some people are in over their heads, some people don't worry about money, some people have more disposable income, etc etc.

The first time I read about Add-on-itis some one shared their story, which was a bit uncommon. They lived on the North East Coast and vacationed for a couple of months every winter in Florida. They decided to add-on-itis because after working the numbers, it worked out better to have enough points to stay for the same amount of time through DVC than to rent an entire house somewhere else in Florida, plus they spent a good amount of time driving to WDW anyways.

So in their case, they were already spending that amount of money and time. They just decided to reallocate the money and time to WDW.

 

[Caren]

We prefer more spacious quarters and, yes, we do sometimes take friends and family. Fortunately we could afford to buy the points (and then add on) without financing. However, the rest of our family members aren't all in the same position, so we subsidize them for our family trips through our DVC membership. We happen to be very fond of our family and using our points for them sure beats no family trips. The kids are only young once.

 

[ELMC]

We prefer more spacious quarters and, yes, we do sometimes take friends and family. Fortunately we could afford to buy the points (and then add on) without financing. However, the rest of our family members aren't all in the same position, so we subsidize them for our family trips through our DVC membership. We happen to be very fond of our family and using our points for them sure beats no family trips. The kids are only young once.

That is very generous of you. It's nice to be able to use your prosperity to do nice things like this for your family.

 

[cz4ever]

We prefer more spacious quarters and, yes, we do sometimes take friends and family. Fortunately we could afford to buy the points (and then add on) without financing. However, the rest of our family members aren't all in the same position, so we subsidize them for our family trips through our DVC membership. We happen to be very fond of our family and using our points for them sure beats no family trips. The kids are only young once.

That's a wonderful way to spread the love and create more opportunities to spend time with the extended family. We're in similar circumstances as you, by which I mean we are fortunate to be in a much better financial situation than most of our extended family. Our parents (fixed income) are stubborn old coots (who we love very much!) don't like to "accepting charity", even when I explain that they'd be doing us a favor by helping our kids have great memories with their grandparents. I've found it easier to slip the financial help past them by secretly subsidizing some of the big travel expenses. So far that has worked out great all around -- we get to spend more time with them (there's only so many years our kids will get to enjoy their grandparents) and they don't spend more than they can afford or feel guilty that they're a burden (which they are not).

That's one of the reasons I'm seriously considering DVC. So far our extended vacations have trended towards cruises, which we've found to be a very convenient way to have three-generation trips w/o everybody going nuts since there are plenty of chances to get away from each other before getting overwhelmed by "too much family togetherness". WDW seems like another interesting possibility...