What is the perfect amount of points to own?

[SAT887]

Yes, it is some kind of sickness. We currently have 460 points, and have just started looking for another add-on of 100 or so more points. I wonder, for the people who say they have enough points, how long since your last add-on? Every time we've done an add-on, we think "Ah, now we have plenty of points". That works for 6 mos. to a year, until our vacationing expands more-more days, larger unit (1 BRs instead of studios more), then we decide that those "pleanty of points" that we reached a year or so ago, now "need" to be increased by 50-100 more. Then this cycle repeats. We've been members since 2002, increasing from 210 points to now 460, which we thought was enough, but now we know we need just a few more. THEN we'll have the perfect amount of points. Or will we?

Haha I'm thinking never! I think as long as dynamics in our lives change so will needs for points.

 

[Debbie H]

We have 2000 points and have used every one of them since 1992. Wouldn't want any less or more.

 

[DizBub]

Yes, it is some kind of sickness. We currently have 460 points, and have just started looking for another add-on of 100 or so more points. I wonder, for the people who say they have enough points, how long since your last add-on? Every time we've done an add-on, we think "Ah, now we have plenty of points". That works for 6 mos. to a year, until our vacationing expands more-more days, larger unit (1 BRs instead of studios more), then we decide that those "pleanty of points" that we reached a year or so ago, now "need" to be increased by 50-100 more. Then this cycle repeats. We've been members since 2002, increasing from 210 points to now 460, which we thought was enough, but now we know we need just a few more. THEN we'll have the perfect amount of points. Or will we?

Exactly!!

Those 1 bedrooms are point eaters. Then we want to sneak in an extra trip here and there and stay longer. Then we want to take guests so we need the 2br...........I fear it will never end.

I have a real mental block about borrowing from the next year, worried that we won't have enough for what we want to do. I feel borrowing is a slippery slope, you spend them like you got them and pretty soon you don't have them any more.

We know we won't outlive our membership. It's just the way I am I guess. DH thinks I'm nuts.

 

[michelleiada]

It really is great, but it took lots of planning and saving. I'm retired military (33 years) so the pension helps but we planned and saved for about 5 years to make it happen.

The best thing is enjoying friends and family like we never did before. About 6 months of the year we are in 2-3 bedroom timeshares and open up the extra room for friends and family to join us (at no cost except for food) and they do! Plus, we cruise twice a year with friends, and a 2 more by ourselves.

I left the Air Force very banged up. I was rated at 90% disabled, following 10 surgeries in the last 2 1/2 years I was in. After 8 months of living like this I've almost totally reverse my physical condition.

I exercise about 2 hours a day and my wife is training for a triathlon and exercises 3-4 hours a day.

My stress level is about zero and we have become very spontaneous. Not something I've been know for in the past.

The best thing is living in all of your favorite vacation spots and moving on when you get the slightest bit boring. We love Hilton Head Island but after a month I get bored with it so we move on to our next favorite spot.

We been at Disneyworld since Jan 9th and we are still enjoying ourselves. We are here until April 25th then we head out to Disneyland for 10 days and Aulani for 5 weeks.

It is great for us because our adult children (25 - 23) aren't married and we don't have any grandchildren yet (hopefully some day) so we have no obligations. We sold our home, put our furniture into storage and are carefree without any bills except for maintenance fees (paid automatically out of savings account put aside for them)

I tell people that we eloped after 34 years of marriage. I feel 10-15 years younger.

I highly recommend it!

WOW! Good for you. You certainly deserve it! You are finally living the good life!

 

[quandrea]

It really is great, but it took lots of planning and saving. I'm retired military (33 years) so the pension helps but we planned and saved for about 5 years to make it happen.

The best thing is enjoying friends and family like we never did before. About 6 months of the year we are in 2-3 bedroom timeshares and open up the extra room for friends and family to join us (at no cost except for food) and they do! Plus, we cruise twice a year with friends, and a 2 more by ourselves.

I left the Air Force very banged up. I was rated at 90% disabled, following 10 surgeries in the last 2 1/2 years I was in. After 8 months of living like this I've almost totally reverse my physical condition.

I exercise about 2 hours a day and my wife is training for a triathlon and exercises 3-4 hours a day.

My stress level is about zero and we have become very spontaneous. Not something I've been know for in the past.

The best thing is living in all of your favorite vacation spots and moving on when you get the slightest bit boring. We love Hilton Head Island but after a month I get bored with it so we move on to our next favorite spot.

We been at Disneyworld since Jan 9th and we are still enjoying ourselves. We are here until April 25th then we head out to Disneyland for 10 days and Aulani for 5 weeks.

It is great for us because our adult children (25 - 23) aren't married and we don't have any grandchildren yet (hopefully some day) so we have no obligations. We sold our home, put our furniture into storage and are carefree without any bills except for maintenance fees (paid automatically out of savings account put aside for them)

I tell people that we eloped after 34 years of marriage. I feel 10-15 years younger.

I highly recommend it!

My dh and I were talking about you last night. He thinks this is brilliant financially. You liquidated your largest asset (tax free if the rules are the same in the US as in Canada), and now you live without any property responsibilities where all your utilities, cable, gym membership, landscaping, etc., etc. responsibilities are taken care of. All you need to do is pay maintance fees, run a car and feed and clothe yourself. I think we'll be looking into this. Do you miss being near family? Anyone have any idea how many points it would take to be in a one bedroom at disney all year?

BTW, we are currently at 700 points. We have a young family of five: myself, dh, dd 9, and twins, 3. We use all 700 points every year, and often borrow a few into the next. I'm so glad we have our DVC as travel with a family of five anywhere else is prohibitively expensive. I just looked into a five day summer holiday and it would run $5000. That's without any air travel. We can head down to Disney for the five days and only put out about $2000, including food and car rental. The annual passes are already paid for. Without DVC we wouldn't be going on many trips together and it's family time we really value.

DH and I plan to spend Jan and Feb in a studio once we retire. We figure 700 pts would do that. But now that I hear of your approach, we may be rethinking that...

 

[AnnaS]

It really is great, but it took lots of planning and saving. I'm retired military (33 years) so the pension helps but we planned and saved for about 5 years to make it happen.

The best thing is enjoying friends and family like we never did before. About 6 months of the year we are in 2-3 bedroom timeshares and open up the extra room for friends and family to join us (at no cost except for food) and they do! Plus, we cruise twice a year with friends, and a 2 more by ourselves.

I left the Air Force very banged up. I was rated at 90% disabled, following 10 surgeries in the last 2 1/2 years I was in. After 8 months of living like this I've almost totally reverse my physical condition.

I exercise about 2 hours a day and my wife is training for a triathlon and exercises 3-4 hours a day.

My stress level is about zero and we have become very spontaneous. Not something I've been know for in the past.

The best thing is living in all of your favorite vacation spots and moving on when you get the slightest bit boring. We love Hilton Head Island but after a month I get bored with it so we move on to our next favorite spot.

We been at Disneyworld since Jan 9th and we are still enjoying ourselves. We are here until April 25th then we head out to Disneyland for 10 days and Aulani for 5 weeks.

It is great for us because our adult children (25 - 23) aren't married and we don't have any grandchildren yet (hopefully some day) so we have no obligations. We sold our home, put our furniture into storage and are carefree without any bills except for maintenance fees (paid automatically out of savings account put aside for them)

I tell people that we eloped after 34 years of marriage. I feel 10-15 years younger.

I highly recommend it!

It sounds like a dream for many of us and I am happy you are living yours. Thank you for your services and thank you for sharing. Sounds like a great plan. You definitely won't be bored!!!! Would love to do something similar to this in a much smaller scale of course

 

[Tamar]

We have 500 points. We've never had to borrow, and haven't paid MF out of pocket for about 7 years. We either rent or transfer ~150 points a year, and that covers our MF. We go 10 days+ during F&W every year, and then 1-2 additional shorter trips on the years we have APs. The F&W trip is always in a std view BWV 1 bd.

Every now and then I get the itch for a small add-on, but have been able to resist since we added on the last 50 pts at BWV about 5 years ago.

 

[OhioDVC]

My dh and I were talking about you last night. He thinks this is brilliant financially. You liquidated your largest asset (tax free if the rules are the same in the US as in Canada), and now you live without any property responsibilities where all your utilities, cable, gym membership, landscaping, etc., etc. responsibilities are taken care of. All you need to do is pay maintance fees, run a car and feed and clothe yourself. I think we'll be looking into this. Do you miss being near family? Anyone have any idea how many points it would take to be in a one bedroom at disney all year?

It is great not having the day to day worries of a home and all the little bills that come with it. We put 99% of our purchases on the Disney Visa card and pay one bill a month. MX are paid one a year in January out of an account we set aside with 3 years of MX fees.

We are not missing family because they are always visiting. My daughter (grade school teacher) and son (college student) spent the whole summer with us, Labor day weekend, Tower of terror race weekend, Wine and Dine half marathon weekend, Thanksgiving and Christmas for two weeks. Friends and family pop in and out when we have an extra bedroom of two. We have visitors 4-5 months out of the year. Our son graduated college in Dec and has been with us since Dec 15th. He went on active duty with the Air Force today and starts AF pilot training on Tuesday -Feb 19th. He has been with us for two months. Mother in law has been with us for two weeks. Daughter, sister in law and niece are coming down for the Princess half marathon weekend and then we keep our nephew for a week followed by his whole family for another week.

I am tired of visitors and we are looking forward to some alone time.

If you just stay in a one bedroom I believe it would take somewhere between 9000 to 10,000 points depending on which DVC you stay at, some are more than others. DVC restricts one member to having no more than 8,000 points.

 

[quandrea]

My dh and I were talking about you last night. He thinks this is brilliant financially. You liquidated your largest asset (tax free if the rules are the same in the US as in Canada), and now you live without any property responsibilities where all your utilities, cable, gym membership, landscaping, etc., etc. responsibilities are taken care of. All you need to do is pay maintance fees, run a car and feed and clothe yourself. I think we'll be looking into this. Do you miss being near family? Anyone have any idea how many points it would take to be in a one bedroom at disney all year?

It is great not having the day to day worries of a home and all the little bills that come with it. We put 99% of our purchases on the Disney Visa card and pay one bill a month. MX are paid one a year in January out of an account we set aside with 3 years of MX fees.

We are not missing family because they are always visiting. My daughter (grade school teacher) and son (college student) spent the whole summer with us, Labor day weekend, Tower of terror race weekend, Wine and Dine half marathon weekend, Thanksgiving and Christmas for two weeks. Friends and family pop in and out when we have an extra bedroom of two. We have visitors 4-5 months out of the year. Our son graduated college in Dec and has been with us since Dec 15th. He went on active duty with the Air Force today and starts AF pilot training on Tuesday -Feb 19th. He has been with us for two months. Mother in law has been with us for two weeks. Daughter, sister in law and niece are coming down for the Princess half marathon weekend and then we keep our nephew for a week followed by his whole family for another week.

I am tired of visitors and we are looking forward to some alone time.

If you just stay in a one bedroom I believe it would take somewhere between 9000 to 10,000 points depending on which DVC you stay at, some are more than others. DVC restricts one member to having no more than 8,000 points.

So do you have that many or do you spread your time out at different timeshares? At 700 we are a ways off.

 

[OhioDVC]

We have 9 different timeshares

DVC (7 locations)
Hyatt
HGVC
Marriott
Fiesta Americana - MX
Waterside - Hilton Head
Bluewater Resort/Marina - Hilton Head
Club Intrawest
Sea Watch - Ft Myers Fl

 

[DisneyFans5]

How do most people buy additional points? Do you buy them resale or from DVC?

 

[Kidanifan08]

How do most people buy additional points? Do you buy them resale or from DVC?

All of my additional points have been resale. Had I known about resale at the time I bought direct, all of my points would probably be resale.

 

[disneynutz]

How do most people buy additional points? Do you buy them resale or from DVC?

You have to look at the value, availability of the points, size of contract, UY, and if you can live with the resale restrictions that Disney has made.

Bill

 

[mikron]

When we got into DVC in 2004 we started at SSR with 600 points and quickley added 300 more. All our friends and family wanted to go. In 2005 we added 500 more at OKW on resale and could use more but the dues are a killer on the 1,400. so how many, as many as you can afford and use.

 

[MinnieVanMom]

We started low with a simple contract and then did a small add on. It was never enough for about the first 5 years but now that we have moved to Europe, WDW is so far away.

I have been renting points only to close friends to cover the MF and now I use my very costly points in the worst way, I use them to pay for our hotel room at Disneyland Paris. I know that it is about the worst way to use them but the price difference for point use during the low period is so little that I just rather pay $95 and use the points.

We won't be making it back to WDW anytime soon so I use the points I can after I rent out enough for the MF or extra $.

If we lived in the States I think I would want to add on again but we have found a way to make our short supply of points work.

 

[lilpooh108]

It really is great, but it took lots of planning and saving. I'm retired military (33 years) so the pension helps but we planned and saved for about 5 years to make it happen.

The best thing is enjoying friends and family like we never did before. About 6 months of the year we are in 2-3 bedroom timeshares and open up the extra room for friends and family to join us (at no cost except for food) and they do! Plus, we cruise twice a year with friends, and a 2 more by ourselves.

I left the Air Force very banged up. I was rated at 90% disabled, following 10 surgeries in the last 2 1/2 years I was in. After 8 months of living like this I've almost totally reverse my physical condition.

I exercise about 2 hours a day and my wife is training for a triathlon and exercises 3-4 hours a day.

My stress level is about zero and we have become very spontaneous. Not something I've been know for in the past.

The best thing is living in all of your favorite vacation spots and moving on when you get the slightest bit boring. We love Hilton Head Island but after a month I get bored with it so we move on to our next favorite spot.

We been at Disneyworld since Jan 9th and we are still enjoying ourselves. We are here until April 25th then we head out to Disneyland for 10 days and Aulani for 5 weeks.

It is great for us because our adult children (25 - 23) aren't married and we don't have any grandchildren yet (hopefully some day) so we have no obligations. We sold our home, put our furniture into storage and are carefree without any bills except for maintenance fees (paid automatically out of savings account put aside for them)

I tell people that we eloped after 34 years of marriage. I feel 10-15 years younger.

I highly recommend it!

I really just LOVE this post. And you guys are so amazing for actually going out, and doing what you're doing.

 

[Dean]

I really just LOVE this post. And you guys are so amazing for actually going out, and doing what you're doing.

I know a number of people that go to the same place for 6-12 weeks a year including Aruba, HH and Orlando using timeshares. I know one that lives full time in timeshares in their retirement.

 

[corpcomp]

Have 300 at BVC.


While that is enough for us, as DS 17 goes off to hopefully Georgia Tech, we will have to get more so he can drive down on breaks with friends. He still loves Disney.

 

[kpatches]

We have 2670 points and still do not have enough. I've already borrowed 1000 from next year and rent 580 points from my sister-in-law each year. My wife and I are on a 3-4 year vacation and spend about 4+ months a year at DVC locations. We have 20+ contracts and own at all but 2 DVC locations.

Currently we are on a 3+ month stay at Disneyworld - Jan 9th - April 25th, then off to Disneyland for 10 days and Aulani for 5 weeks.

Right now we are at Bonnet Creek for three weeks- I am not as impressed with Wyndham. DVC is much better. Wyndham is down right obnoxious with the timeshare presentation harassment when you check in. I had to say "NO" four times and ask for the manage before they left me alone. You have to see the timeshare sales people to get your parking pass - downright harassment.

Would love to do this!!!

 

[corpcomp]

We have 2670 points and still do not have enough. I've already borrowed 1000 from next year and rent 580 points from my sister-in-law each year. My wife and I are on a 3-4 year vacation and spend about 4+ months a year at DVC locations. We have 20+ contracts and own at all but 2 DVC locations.

Currently we are on a 3+ month stay at Disneyworld - Jan 9th - April 25th, then off to Disneyland for 10 days and Aulani for 5 weeks.

Right now we are at Bonnet Creek for three weeks- I am not as impressed with Wyndham. DVC is much better. Wyndham is down right obnoxious with the timeshare presentation harassment when you check in. I had to say "NO" four times and ask for the manage before they left me alone. You have to see the timeshare sales people to get your parking pass - downright harassment.

Good for you! What a great life style. Wish we could take a long vacation but DW works in a Hospital in a critical care unit and cannot get off more than 6 days in a row and with DS entering college - first year at $59K and his senior year cost projected to be $70K (and they notified us we get no financial aid since we have a lot of equity in our house), we are cancelling vacations, charity donations, no more car purchases, dinners out for the next 4 years because the total college bill will be about $260,000. Just hope he can actually find a job after all that. Of course if we did not work, he would get full aid at the same college. What a joke.