Why Middle Class Can't Afford Disney

[Cirlonde]

I agree with what one of the previous posters mentioned about the amount of money spent on coffee and lunches by many people. One of my pet peeves is when someone I work with sneers "I sure wish I could afford to go to Disney World/on vacation" with an accompanying eye roll. Why should I feel guilty for choosing to spend my money in a different way than someone else?? But of course, I do...and thanks to comments like this, I have started being very vague about why I'm taking time off when I go on vacation or even that I'm taking a trip at all.

I'm generally very soft-spoken and dislike confrontation, so I rarely respond directly. But I want so badly to ask them how much they spent eating out that week!? Conservatively, most of the people I work with spend ~$10 per day on coffee and/or lunch. That's $50 per week, or $2600 per year!! I drink the free filtered water provided in the office and I bring my lunch from home, which costs me maybe $2 per day. Don't even get me started on the cost of alcohol or eating out on the weekends...all of which we either avoid completely or do rarely. Instead, I go on at least one Disney vacation trip per year.

Okay...sorry...stepping down off my soap box now!

 

[bdiddy]

I agree with what one of the previous posters mentioned about the amount of money spent on coffee and lunches by many people. One of my pet peeves is when someone I work with sneers "I sure wish I could afford to go to Disney World/on vacation" with an accompanying eye roll. Why should I feel guilty for choosing to spend my money in a different way than someone else?? But of course, I do...and thanks to comments like this, I have started being very vague about why I'm taking time off when I go on vacation or even that I'm taking a trip at all.

I'm generally very soft-spoken and dislike confrontation, so I rarely respond directly. But I want so badly to ask them how much they spent eating out that week!? Conservatively, most of the people I work with spend ~$10 per day on coffee and/or lunch. That's $50 per week, or $2600 per year!! I drink the free filtered water provided in the office and I bring my lunch from home, which costs me maybe $2 per day. Don't even get me started on the cost of alcohol or eating out on the weekends...all of which we either avoid completely or do rarely. Instead, I go on at least one Disney vacation trip per year.

Okay...sorry...stepping down off my soap box now!

Oh I completely agree! I know so many people that spend a ridiculous amount of money on coffee. I kind of feel the same about expensive purses and sunglasses and getting your nails and hair done all the time. Like you said whatever you want to spend your money on is your business but some of us choose to not go to the fancy salon or not buy coffee so we can save to go to Disney! So don't make me feel bad for spending ours on vacation. I don't say anything when you walk in with Starbucks every day or are at the salon every 2 wks.

 

[scard192]

I feel like I am a lower middle class single Mom of 2 (Disney Adults). we can still afford to go to WDW, just not every year. Takes me 3 years to save enough to go and we stay at a value resort. I pack my lunch for work every day and only go to Starbucks rarely and use GC's I earned from Bing. I use credit card rewards for some of the extras.

maybe the Middle Class can't afford to go to Disney every year but nothing wrong with only being able to go every few years.

 

[tzolkin]

I do agree that Disney prices have risen much faster than inflation and wage growth.

This is the part that gets me.

I knew our trips had gotten significantly more expensive over the years, but I attributed it to having a fifth person, moving up to moderate and deluxe resorts, nicer restaurants, etc.

But I was recently helping my sister plan a value resort trip for her family of four. The price for 10 day PH tickets is now $2172. I went back and looked at our first trip (2008)-- the tickets AND hotel were only $1760 for the same number of people and days. That's a huge increase.

 

[Cirlonde]

Oh I completely agree! I know so many people that spend a ridiculous amount of money on coffee. I kind of feel the same about expensive purses and sunglasses and getting your nails and hair done all the time. Like you said whatever you want to spend your money on is your business but some of us choose to not go to the fancy salon or not buy coffee so we can save to go to Disney! So don't make me feel bad for spending ours on vacation. I don't say anything when you walk in with Starbucks every day or are at the salon every 2 wks.

Yes, that sort of expense too!! I am very frugal when it comes to buying clothes or shoes, etc., I don't get my nails done and my haircuts are cheap because I go to a family friend. My husband and I drive inexpensive cars that are paid for and we just generally live slightly below our means intentionally. But perspective alters reality...it's hard for a casual observer to realize how much all of those incidentals can add up to. But a vacation automatically seems like a large expense.

My husband has also pointed out how many sports cars cost a similar amount of money as large SUV. If he were to drive to work in a new Corvette, he would be perceived as much more wealthy than someone in a nice SUV even though he would probably have paid less for the Corvette!

 

[mousefan73]

This is a big thing people forget. Even when my parents were growing up they didn't pay for a cell phone, wifi package, satellite tv, amazon prime, hulu, netflix, etc. I just did a budget check on myself and realized how much I spend in a day on things I do not have to spend that much on including my morning coffee/breakfast, lunch during the work week, snacks, etc. I know I'm not an anomaly of the average middle class worker because if I was it wouldn't take 15 minutes at 8:30 to get my breakfast and coffee at Starbucks. So a lot of people are spending 5 or more a day on coffee. I have to think in 1960 my grandfather would have scoffed at the idea of paying someone else to brew his coffee when he was capable of doing it himself before he got in his truck to go to work every morning.

Excately! We cut cable years ago. Now I have netflix and that's it. Kids dont have data plan only prepaid and inherit our old phones. We do our own coffee. Makes a difference

 

[mousefan73]

Though you cannot ignore the significant increase over the past 5 years. I am talking 1500 or so for a standard package. Same resort etc. 2500 for a family one week at a mod. Now around 3500. No food

 

[LilyWDW]

If people want to go to Disney, there are ways to go to Disney. It's called saving and making it a priority instead of other spendings. You may not be able to go every single year, but you will be able to get there sooner or later.

As for kids costing so much to raise... duh. If someone didn't realize that then they shouldn't have kids.

 

[TwoMisfits]

The article says "is it affordable", not "can they save up 20 years to go once"...I mean, anything can be paid for with enough time for savings...like I could save 20 years and buy a Jaguar, but that doesn't mean the Jaguar is affordable for me...

So, you have to identify some standard for the product and its "time to pay for" to make it affordable. Most folks use a standard for vacation that vacations should be in your budget at 5-7%/year. So, since this is the financial adviser rule of thumb, if you are in the middle class and budget these funds, can you afford Disney this year? If you can't, Disney has become unaffordable for you...that does not mean unattainable. It can be done with multi-year savings and sacrifice...just like pretty much any consumer product or service on the planet can be...

Now, the mid 3 tiers of US income (the folks not in the top or bottom 20%) include all people who make between $46K and $140K...using these figures, you can break down that for the lowest tier, their vacation budget would be $2300-$3220 and for the highest tier, it would be $7000-$9800. So, for the highest tier of the middle class, no problem - you still can do Disney just by allocating your rule of thumb. But for the lowest tier, it's no longer "affordable" - it is now in the unaffordable without sacrifice (such as skipping a full year or more of vacation entirely) category...

This is a very simple analysis since there are so many variable on how far incomes go based on locations, family size, family age, etc...

http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/index.html

 

[kymom99]

The article says "is it affordable", not "can they save up 20 years to go once"...I mean, anything can be paid for with enough time for savings...like I could save 20 years and buy a Jaguar, but that doesn't mean the Jaguar is affordable for me...

So, you have to identify some standard for the product and its "time to pay for" to make it affordable. Most folks use a standard for vacation that vacations should be in your budget at 5-7%/year. So, since this is the financial adviser rule of thumb, if you are in the middle class and budget these funds, can you afford Disney this year? If you can't, Disney has become unaffordable for you...that does not mean unattainable. It can be done with multi-year savings and sacrifice...just like pretty much any consumer product or service on the planet can be...

Now, the mid 3 tiers of US income (the folks not in the top or bottom 20%) include all people who make between $46K and $140K...using these figures, you can break down that for the lowest tier, their vacation budget would be $2300-$3220 and for the highest tier, it would be $7000-$9800. So, for the highest tier of the middle class, no problem - you still can do Disney just by allocating your rule of thumb. But for the lowest tier, it's no longer "affordable" - it is now in the unaffordable without sacrifice (such as skipping a full year or more of vacation entirely) category...

This is a very simple analysis since there are so many variable on how far incomes go based on locations, family size, family age, etc...

http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/what-is-middle-class-anyway/index.html

This is a great explanation. And because the rate of income within this group isn't changing as quickly as the cost of a typical Disney vacation, gradually more and more people find the cost to be out of their reach.

 

[Twilghtsprkle]

But I also admit it is hard to buy a genuine half gallon of ice cream and the size of the standard package of Oreos and Fig Newtons has gotten smaller, while the shelf price has been increased!........double ouch!

You are just focusing on the sizes. Many times the ingredients in processed food is lower quality than years ago.

For example are you buying actual ice cream or 'frozen dairy dessert?'

And Kraft singles aren't a cheese 'food' but a 'product' since they changed their ingredient mix.

 

[Ava]

This is a big thing people forget. Even when my parents were growing up they didn't pay for a cell phone, wifi package, satellite tv, amazon prime, hulu, netflix, etc. I just did a budget check on myself and realized how much I spend in a day on things I do not have to spend that much on including my morning coffee/breakfast, lunch during the work week, snacks, etc. I know I'm not an anomaly of the average middle class worker because if I was it wouldn't take 15 minutes at 8:30 to get my breakfast and coffee at Starbucks. So a lot of people are spending 5 or more a day on coffee. I have to think in 1960 my grandfather would have scoffed at the idea of paying someone else to brew his coffee when he was capable of doing it himself before he got in his truck to go to work every morning.

This is very true. We pay for many services now that didn't exist 20-30 years ago, and view some of them as essential like cell phones and wifi. I work in midtown Manhattan and you can't get any sort of decent lunch for under $10 in that area. (Which is why I bring my lunch from home almost every day.) My grandparents were born during the Depression and had their first child during WWII; they definitely would have considered it a ridiculous luxury to pay for coffee out on a regular basis when their kids were young.

I agree with what one of the previous posters mentioned about the amount of money spent on coffee and lunches by many people. One of my pet peeves is when someone I work with sneers "I sure wish I could afford to go to Disney World/on vacation" with an accompanying eye roll. Why should I feel guilty for choosing to spend my money in a different way than someone else?? But of course, I do...and thanks to comments like this, I have started being very vague about why I'm taking time off when I go on vacation or even that I'm taking a trip at all.

I'm generally very soft-spoken and dislike confrontation, so I rarely respond directly. But I want so badly to ask them how much they spent eating out that week!? Conservatively, most of the people I work with spend ~$10 per day on coffee and/or lunch. That's $50 per week, or $2600 per year!! I drink the free filtered water provided in the office and I bring my lunch from home, which costs me maybe $2 per day. Don't even get me started on the cost of alcohol or eating out on the weekends...all of which we either avoid completely or do rarely. Instead, I go on at least one Disney vacation trip per year.

Okay...sorry...stepping down off my soap box now!

More than one co-worker, when I said we were going to Disney this year, responded by asking, "Do you go every year?" in an incredulous sort of way. (We last went two years ago, but did go two years in a row prior to that.) Several of my coworkers are a good bit younger than me, are single with no children, and still complain all the time about being broke. Meanwhile I'm supporting my family of 4 on roughly the same salary. Drives me nuts to listen to them so I usually just find an excuse to walk away.

 

[tvguy]

Affordable isn't the issue for many middle class families planning a Disney trip, available credit is.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

I thought this will be an interesting article not directly related but interesting none the less http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/a44086/four-men-four-numbers/.

 

[Shanti]

Though you cannot ignore the significant increase over the past 5 years. I am talking 1500 or so for a standard package. Same resort etc. 2500 for a family one week at a mod. Now around 3500. No food

Yes. The prices are getting a little crazy.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

Yes. The prices are getting a little crazy.

WOW that is crazy I always thought a mod in Florida should be 120-200 a night max

 

[kymom99]

I thought this will be an interesting article not directly related but interesting none the less http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/money/a44086/four-men-four-numbers/.

Interesting read.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

Interesting read.

yes it was 'stole' it from another travel agent

 

[manning]

Assume a very motivated park-goer who was able to go on a ride every 30 minutes for a 10 hour day, or 20 total rides. In 1971, an 11 ride package (including park admission) cost $5.75 for an adult and $4.75 for a child. Nine more ride tickets at an average of 50 cents/ticket would be an additional $4.50, for a grand total of-

$10.25 for an adult and $9.25 for a child.

Here is are the prices by year

http://allears.net/tix/tixpix70.htm
To adjust to today's price equivalent use this site

http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Affordable isn't the issue for many middle class families planning a Disney trip, available credit is.

As in available credit on a credit card?