Angeliki19
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2011
Hi all! I am not sure if this should go in the DVC forum, but my main objective is to save money with this decision, so it seemed more appropriate here! This is going to be sort of long, but I truly appreciate anyone who will bear with me and give me advice!!!
I am really struggling with the decision to buy DVC or not. It's something I have wanted to do for a long time but my ex-husband was not on board with it. Now that we are recently divorced, it's weighing heavily on my mind as now I am the one making all the decisions and I'm so tempted to pull the trigger!
However, as a single mom, finances are tight. So as much as there are "emotional" reasons for wanting DVC, my main deciding factor is whether this is a good financial decision for me in the long run. In the past, we have always stayed at DVC resort villas, paying cash and using my cousin's CM discount of 40%. This has been awesome, but there are two reasons I am not looking at this as my future long-term strategy. One is that my cousin mentions from time to time leaving Disney, and two is that our options have been very limited and I am ready to stay at some of my bucket-list hotels like the Poly, on which she can not usually get a discount.
Renting points is a REALLY attractive alternative, as from my calculations, it saves more like 50% and would give us more options than what my cousin can get us. However, the main drawback is that once you lock in a reservation, I don't think you can change it. Plus you don't have total control over your reservation as far as making room requests and stuff. For a control freak like me, this is less than ideal, but checks off the other boxes of getting into a variety of resorts while saving money.
So when I did my cost analysis of buying DVC, I compared it to the cost of renting, as those seem to be my two main options at this point. I would not consider financing, as that math just doesn't work out. I looked at both buying direct from Disney, and a resale contract. I found that compared to renting DVC points:
These are kind of rough estimates b/c there are so many variables as to what resort we would actually rent, what season, etc. But I ran it a few different ways and it came out about the same.
So whether I go resale or direct, eventually it will save me money. However my main hesitation is to put out so much money up front at a time when I am just starting off on my own. I have the money in savings, but it would considerably lower my nest egg. I could just wait and save up a few more years, but my kids are getting older and with every trip I pay out of pocket for, I wonder if I should have been putting that towards DVC. I kind of feel like its now or never.
Does anyone have any advice? I know this is such a personal decision, but I am really stuck. Its exciting and terrifying at the same time to be able to make such a big decision without my ex-DH. There are emotional reasons for me wanting to "secure" Disney vacations for my children and me and also I feel like if I ever get re-married, what if the person doesn't like Disney??? I kind of want to do this on my own so that my children and I always have it, no matter what happens in the future. But it would be a risk and make my finances even more tight for a few years so I don't know if its worth it. Maybe renting is just as good and less of a commitment?
Thank you if you actually read this whole thing!!!
I am really struggling with the decision to buy DVC or not. It's something I have wanted to do for a long time but my ex-husband was not on board with it. Now that we are recently divorced, it's weighing heavily on my mind as now I am the one making all the decisions and I'm so tempted to pull the trigger!
However, as a single mom, finances are tight. So as much as there are "emotional" reasons for wanting DVC, my main deciding factor is whether this is a good financial decision for me in the long run. In the past, we have always stayed at DVC resort villas, paying cash and using my cousin's CM discount of 40%. This has been awesome, but there are two reasons I am not looking at this as my future long-term strategy. One is that my cousin mentions from time to time leaving Disney, and two is that our options have been very limited and I am ready to stay at some of my bucket-list hotels like the Poly, on which she can not usually get a discount.
Renting points is a REALLY attractive alternative, as from my calculations, it saves more like 50% and would give us more options than what my cousin can get us. However, the main drawback is that once you lock in a reservation, I don't think you can change it. Plus you don't have total control over your reservation as far as making room requests and stuff. For a control freak like me, this is less than ideal, but checks off the other boxes of getting into a variety of resorts while saving money.
So when I did my cost analysis of buying DVC, I compared it to the cost of renting, as those seem to be my two main options at this point. I would not consider financing, as that math just doesn't work out. I looked at both buying direct from Disney, and a resale contract. I found that compared to renting DVC points:
- Buying Direct from Disney would start saving me money at year 12, and after 20 years, I would have saved $12,892
- Buying resale would start saving me money at year 8, and after 20 years, I would have saved $17,778
These are kind of rough estimates b/c there are so many variables as to what resort we would actually rent, what season, etc. But I ran it a few different ways and it came out about the same.
So whether I go resale or direct, eventually it will save me money. However my main hesitation is to put out so much money up front at a time when I am just starting off on my own. I have the money in savings, but it would considerably lower my nest egg. I could just wait and save up a few more years, but my kids are getting older and with every trip I pay out of pocket for, I wonder if I should have been putting that towards DVC. I kind of feel like its now or never.
Does anyone have any advice? I know this is such a personal decision, but I am really stuck. Its exciting and terrifying at the same time to be able to make such a big decision without my ex-DH. There are emotional reasons for me wanting to "secure" Disney vacations for my children and me and also I feel like if I ever get re-married, what if the person doesn't like Disney??? I kind of want to do this on my own so that my children and I always have it, no matter what happens in the future. But it would be a risk and make my finances even more tight for a few years so I don't know if its worth it. Maybe renting is just as good and less of a commitment?
Thank you if you actually read this whole thing!!!