What do you do with all those points?

[Steelers0854]

DW and I were talking the other day about retirement. We are still a ways off, in our mid 40’s, but were wondering if DVC is a better option in lieu of a permanent vacation home/second residence. I am curious, for those with a lot of points, im curious what you use them for? Is this your plan as well? Do you use all your points yourself each year or do you do a mixture of renting some points and using some? What is your sweet spot for points if using them for a type of true vacation home replacement? I am trying to avoid FL in the summers, the idea is for our home base to be somewhere temperate, or atleast not as miserable int he summer, and then spend some portion of the winter in FL.

I struggle with this because currently since we both work we have defined amount of PTO, so it’s not like we can go for however long we want whenever we want. And DVC isnt like a house in that you build equity over time. But if buying direct you will certainly pay more for the initial contract the longer you wait.

I am trying to plan long term and figure out a good strategy. Should we start investing in a second home or starting changing our DVC strategy? While we do love DVC, we also love to cruise and do some other international travel. So I don’t know that I would use a ton of points each year while we are still working.

I do want to future proof myself atleast a bit in terms of new resort options. So owning direct in some way needs to be a part of the conversation.

We currently own 150 Direct at the Poly and 100 resale at CCV, both resorts we love and want to stay at regularly.

We have never stayed in a 1BR, we traditionally do studios and it works just fine or us at the moment, but if we are doing longer stays I can certainly see the draw for the 1BR with the included laundry.

Sorry this thread is kinda all over the place, I tried to structure my thought in a somewhat logical manner. I appreciate your insights and experiences!

 

[VGCgroupie]

We havent discussed it thoroughly since we have many different ambitions for retirement and not all will pan out. One minute we want to live off grid and be self sufficient with no bills, the next minute we love vacationing and living the fancy life.

I can say we have looked at point charts to see what we could get for what amount of points for an entire month. (CFW was the winner) if only that layout was better.

Edit to add we currently sit at 1156 points.

 

[PoppyJ]

Similar age age and # of points. Interested in responses.

@Steelers0854 How long would you spend at Disney during the winter?

I would like to spend 2-3 months in Florida. Maybe January - March. But I feel like I would have to split it up (some at Disney, then some at Key West or Naples area), because to spend even a month in a 1-bedroom, I would need at least 500 points, which seems unrealistic for me.

 

[Sprinkles&Sprints]

DVC is definitely part of my long-term retirement plan - hopefully.

My goal is to have enough points for the equivalent of ~4 weeks in a studio (with an occasional one-bedroom for splurge) and another set of points to bring family for a week-long stay in a 2-bedroom. Note - I see the 4 weeks spread out over the winter months - not all at once.

I’m fairly close to the total I’d need to accommodate that even though I’m not near retirement. But surprisingly the point total still work for us now for a few reasons 1) Our trips are very dependent on school calendar (Christmas/Spring Break) and point heavy as a result 2) I can work remotely and take longer trips in the summer as a result - part working part vacation - and usually upgrade to 1 bedrooms in those situations 3) We bank points and use to upgrade accommodations for the week we invite family/friends.

I’m also keeping other traveling goals in mind so that it’s not too DVC dependent but for now this is the plan!

 

[RuntheMouse]

I don’t know what your definition of a lot of points is but buying DVC is part of our retirement plan. We know we want to continue visiting and so we used it as a prepayment/inflation protection for our Disney trips.

We are a decade older than you and DH is self employed so we’ve already gotten to test the waters a bit with a month long stay. We have never rented our points out, don’t see that ever happening.

We also like to visit other places so we locked up lifetime status with Marriott and Hilton as well. Travel has always been a huge part of our life and will continue when we retire.

 

[Sandisw]

We went to 900 so that we could…well, mostly me..to Disney from Dec to March for 3 to 4 nights to get our is the Syracuse weather.

We thought about a second home but decided against it because if I am at Disney I want to be AT Disney.

So, that the plan for now!!!

 

[Steelers0854]

Similar age age and # of points. Interested in responses.

@Steelers0854 How long would you spend at Disney during the winter?

I would like to spend 2-3 months in Florida. Maybe January - March. But I feel like I would have to split it up (some at Disney, then some at Key West or Naples area), because to spend even a month in a 1-bedroom, I would need at least 500 points, which seems unrealistic for me.

We havent really mapped this out yet. In an ideal world I would look at staying in January and February and also maybe a week or two in Oct/Nov. So my guess, is in a perfect world somewhere like 8-10 weeks. But I don’t know that it’s financially viable. I do think a portion of that would be tied up with cruising, we could do a few back to backs and thus negate the need for a DVC during that part. The Brightline to me is a nice draw as it brings some convenience to get up to Orlando from Miami where most cruises go out of, although Orlando has a nice amount as well.

I don’t know what your definition of a lot of points is but buying DVC is part of our retirement plan.

I don’t know either. Right now, I think 500+ is a lot, But Ive only owned for 2.5 years and really just did our first stay last month (I banked a lot for my Aulani stay in a couple weeks ina. 1BR oceanview).

 

[Steelers0854]

We went to 900 so that we could…well, mostly me..to Disney from Dec to March for 3 to 4 nights to get our is the Syracuse weather.

We thought about a second home but decided against it because if I am at Disney I want to be AT Disney.

So, that the plan for now!!!

Thanks! Have you found this to meet your needs thus far? I know how much you love the Riviera, but do you also target other resorts to maximize your points?

What’s your strategy around flights? Do you book your DVC stays around when you can find cheap airfare? Thats my concern on the shorter stays, is the airfare costs will quickly add up compounding the problem, vs staying for longer periods?

 

[Sandisw]

Thanks! Have you found this to meet your needs thus far? I know how much you love the Riviera, but do you also target other resorts to maximize your points?

What’s your strategy around flights? Do you book your DVC stays around when you can find cheap airfare? Thats my concern on the shorter stays, is the airfare costs will quickly add up compounding the problem, vs staying for longer periods?

I stay RIV and VGF for the most part unless there is a reason I need to change.

My points have thus far been plenty because we do weekdays!

I book 4 or 5 nights to start and then flex my flights around that. This way, I cancel what I don’t need once it’s decided.

I primarily use JetBlue because it’s direct from SYR to MCO.

I book the Blue fare which allows me to get credit back if the flights go down or I have to switch to the days!

Yes, the flights add up but we accounted for that when we made plans on what to do for retirement!

 

[patm95]

Dvc is part of our retirement plan. Would love to spend a few weeks in Florida and/or Hawaii every winter. We currently have 350 points but looking to work our way up. 150 of those points will expire by the time we retire.

 

[Steelers0854]

I stay RIV and VGF for the most part unless there is a reason I need to change.

My points have thus far been plenty because we do weekdays!

I book 4 or 5 nights to start and then flex my flights around that. This way, I cancel what I don’t need once it’s decided.

I primarily use JetBlue because it’s direct from SYR to MCO.

I book the Blue fare which allows me to get credit back if the flights go down or I have to switch to the days!

Yes, the flights add up but we accounted for that when we made plans on what to do for retirement!

Thanks so much for sharing, this makes a lot of sense and is really helpful for us!

Appreciate everyone’s insights thus far. Thanks!

 

[Steelers0854]

I stay RIV and VGF for the most part unless there is a reason I need to change.

My points have thus far been plenty because we do weekdays!

I book 4 or 5 nights to start and then flex my flights around that. This way, I cancel what I don’t need once it’s decided.

I primarily use JetBlue because it’s direct from SYR to MCO.

I book the Blue fare which allows me to get credit back if the flights go down or I have to switch to the days!

Yes, the flights add up but we accounted for that when we made plans on what to do for retirement!

Assuming you all do mainly studios, is that fair?

 

[Disney Spaz]

We have 650 with our new add on. Our VGF points are used for a 1bdrm for 10 days every summer. Our PVB and CCV are use alternating years at Thanksgiving, PVB in a 1bdrm and CCV in a 2bdrm. DD is in college and I am a ways away from retirement so here's hoping we have more for longer trips once we hit retirement.

 

[Steelers0854]

SO I like Sandi’s strategy and ran some rough numbers, and its depressing lol.

I think I’m going to need 800 points. Yikes.

So I thought about 2 short trips in November and December each month for 4 nights a piece. In January and February I’m thinking a longer stay of 10 nights each month as well as a 4 night stay each month, that’s 14 nights per month. So I am looking at a total of 44 nights in studios.

I looked at the points charts for CCV, Poly and SSR and OKW as backups given their availability. Based on average points per night I think I will need about 787 points so I rounded up to 800. I like the sound of this conceptually.

Given our current breakdown I think the best approach is to try and increase our Direct to 300, as soon as is practical. This gives me a healthy amount of direct points to have resort flexibility with any future additions but doesn’t get me too far in the hole given the premium.

Ignoring the costs to buy these contracts since those are sunk costs and really all I’m worried about in retirement is what I have to pay each year, my guess is I am going to be on the hook for ballpark $9,200 annually in maintenance fees.

I think it makes the most sense to buy the remaining 400ish resale closer to when we are going to retire, that’s way I’m not drowning in dues. Alternatively I could stalk resale listings and slowly pick up good values and rent out points to offset and work with friends and family.

Thanks for letting me talk through this with you all. And looking forward to your thoughts on this strategy.

 

[davidhr]

Early 40s. DVC is a part of our retirement, but we're still in the process of planning what to do. We like to travel around the world and take cruises, so our current points should be ok for some good weeks there. But who knows how our preferences are going to change. We might be visiting WDW as much as today, but that can change. If it's less, we won't need as many points. If it's more, we'll need to add. We might decide to move to FL. We're active and healthy, but what happens if our health isn't what we expect?

I don't think we'll get a second home there. I'm not a fan of having to take care of another place (even if I can outsource that, it's still "work").

We might even decide to move to a different country. And if that makes traveling more challenging, DVC might not be a viable option anymore.

So yes, at this point it's part of our plans. But our plans will likely change every few years until we get there lol

 

[tx911]

Right now we are using our points for a lot of smaller trips, plus the occasional big trip with extended family groups of 10-14 people.

Once we get to retirement age, I envision taking grandkids and needing more 2BR Villas, so we will go a bit less frequently but stay in larger Villas. If we aren't blessed with any grandkids, I would envision just my wife and I going in a 1BR for however long we can every year.

 

[Zubon]

On and off binge years with Annual Passes. Banking and borrowing means you can use 4 use years in one calendar year, so even a small point buy can give you a lot with several visit with friends and family that year, then you take a year or two off.

Alternately, the standard 150 points is almost exactly half the cost of a Saratoga Springs studio for the entire month of September. You could do that every other year.