To finance or not to borrow

[jarestel]

Everyone's situation is different and since none of us knows anything about anyone else's financial foundations, offering up generalized statements based on zero knowledge of the underlying facts does tend to fall into the category of "internet advice". I don't think anyone is advocating trading the cow sale money for a handful of magic beans and I give folks enough credit to be able to handle their finances and make decisions without consulting me, or the internet first.

I don't argue either side of the great finance or not debate because what I would choose to do could be irrelevant in another's situation. So finance or don't finance as the case may be, but at the end of the day it's all about vacationing at WDW and that's a way more entertaining topic than finances!

 

[rg35]

The different calculations that are used to justify or anti-justify financing DVC seem to me to miss a huge point: If you don't have the cash to buy DVC and you have to finance this purchase, especially if you have to finance it for more than a year or two, then you probably don't have a lot of spare cash. That being the case, if something else that costs money appears in your life--your car has to be replaced, the roof collapses, an unexpected medical or dental expense, etc.--you may not have the money to pay for that. And in the meanwhile, you have a monthly expense paying back the money for your DVC purchase plus the maintenance fees.

This kind of scenario seems pretty common on the Budget Board section of these forums. There's a debt dumpers thread where people can not keep up with regular expenses, have no savings, etc., but are talking about putting money aside for Disney vacations and all kinds of non-essential things. When I was growing up we didn't take vacations because we couldn't really afford them. My mother simply did not use credit to pay for things that we couldn't afford. We weren't poor by any means, but only my dad worked and my mom did a great job of managing the finances and raising four kids. Now they are empty nesters and are able to go on nice vacations and my dad can retire at 65. Easy credit and lack of personal finance knowledge has made it way too easy for folks to get in over their heads.