If you purchased resale, foregoing direct benefits...

[we"reofftoneverland]

I think your numbers don't make any sense. The difference is I had all those years -- 23 -- of DVC vacations. I paid about 1,5


I disagree completely.

I had 23 years of DVC vacations and wasn't spending cash on rooms the whole time, unlike the people who sat on the sidelines, afraid to finance. How quick does $1,500 go when you are trying to pay cash for a 2 bedroom DVC room.

I don't think the numbers work for new buyers. And we always suspected this -- that the price would skyrocket.

So we financed, got direct points with all the benefits, 23 years of DVC and many more years stretching ahead of us.

Unlike people who sat on the sidelines 20 years ago because Dave Ramsey told them to.

Wow. SMH. We love Dave. Not because he tells us how to think, but because he thinks like we do. We are old school. My grandfather told me the same stuff.

We were still in college in 1996, so we were not in the market when you purchased. We also have 20+ years of amazing memories of yearly vacations to wdw, dl, and dcl. We also have a hefty retirement savings. According to Dave's metrics, we could retire. But we still have at least another 25 years in us. And we have 500 dvc points. We bought dvc because we wanted to, not to save money or allow us to take vacations. We have always vacationed anyway. You don't have to finance dvc to go on vacation.

But everyone is different. Lots of people don't agree with DR, or think his advice is too difficult to follow. No big deal. More than one way to skin a cat. But it is not cool to throw shade at people who choose a different path from your own.

 

[Dean]

Unlike people who sat on the sidelines 20 years ago because Dave Ramsey told them to.

I don't think that's his message at all but rather do it in a lower risk way. Buy things you can actually afford based on paying for them. Just being able to pay the payments is not the same as being able to afford something. You did something that had higher risk and it worked out so understandably you're not going to be too worried about it but imagine had you lost a job or had some other major financial hit after you bought while paying payments, a lot of people did including during that timeframe, we've seen such posts over the years. If it's important and one can afford it, it's no a 20 year delay but maybe a 2-3 year delay at the most.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I don't think that's his message at all but rather do it in a lower risk way. Buy things you can actually afford based on paying for them. Just being able to pay the payments is not the same as being able to afford something. You did something that had higher risk and it worked out so understandably you're not going to be too worried about it but imagine had you lost a job or had some other major financial hit after you bought while paying payments, a lot of people did including during that timeframe, we've seen such posts over the years. If it's important and one can afford it, it's no a 20 year delay but maybe a 2-3 year delay at the most.

Yes, it does not have to be a 20 year delay. For us it was a longer than a few years by choice. We were getting great rates on wdw hotels through travel agents and dvc just wasn't a top priority for us. Dvc was not more affordable than going through agents. We looked at it many times. But dvc was something we always wanted, and we knew one day we would jump in. We talked about it every time we went to wdw. But we did not feel deprived or entitled about it. It was just something that we thought would be cool to do one day. Also, for some reason we wanted to buy a lot of points when we did do it. So we waited until we could buy big. When we were first starting out, our first child was born with medical problems and we dealt with that for around the first 8 years of his life. I think that made us more cautious in every way. We just realized early on we never wanted to be overextended if we could avoid it because you just never know. Insurance pays for a lot, but it doesn't pay for everything. And if you have to travel for medical care, it adds up even more quickly.

But... everyone is different. And that's okay. Some people have no problem with debt. About half the people I know feel this way. I think what is most important is to figure out what YOU can live with. For us the wait was worth it.

 

[jodifla]

I don't think that's his message at all but rather do it in a lower risk way. Buy things you can actually afford based on paying for them. Just being able to pay the payments is not the same as being able to afford something. You did something that had higher risk and it worked out so understandably you're not going to be too worried about it but imagine had you lost a job or had some other major financial hit after you bought while paying payments, a lot of people did including during that timeframe, we've seen such posts over the years. If it's important and one can afford it, it's no a 20 year delay but maybe a 2-3 year delay at the most.

We COULD afford it. And we did. That's why we own it now, instead of simply pining away for it for 20 years. Our way was plenty low risk. We could have chosen to pull cash out of savings, but we chose not to. Financing is not evil. It's a tool. We used it, and now reap the rewards. The timing was perfect for us -- two incomes, no kids, close proximity to WDW. For us, it was terrific to buy in before we had kids.

This "you can't afford a luxury in less you pay cash" mantra on these boards gets old. We sometimes finance things. Then we own them. We keep our money in savings, where it belongs. And we've been actually able to do this through job losses, too.

 

[Dean]

We COULD afford it. And we did. That's why we own it now, instead of simply pining away for it for 20 years. Our way was plenty low risk. We could have chosen to pull cash out of savings, but we chose not to. Financing is not evil. It's a tool. We used it, and now reap the rewards. The timing was perfect for us -- two incomes, no kids, close proximity to WDW. For us, it was terrific to buy in before we had kids.

This "you can't afford a luxury in less you pay cash" mantra on these boards gets old. We sometimes finance things. Then we own them. We keep our money in savings, where it belongs. And we've been actually able to do this through job losses, too.

If you chose to finance but could have paid cash, the risk is small. You may want to put me on ignore though.

 

[Wakey]

As an overseas owner benefits are of limited value to me, but I do have them. Last summer I went to Epcot Lounge twice. It's a nice benefit but I'm expecting it to disappear next year. I don't eat that much table service so had 10% off in a couple of restaurants. I used Landry's card instead in 3 of the others I went to. I don't buy merchandise so saved $1.7 on a DVC mug.
I don't usually buy APs as I come once a year at best and the UK tickets are $500 all in to get into every park, waterparks, golf, memory maker etc for 14 days.
I am going Xmas and maybe summer 2020 so I may upgrade my 14 day ticket to a gold AP at the end of my holiday this year, but that isn't certain. If I do, and do come back summer 2020 (I'm only coming for maybe 5 nights summer 2020 so may have bought a US ticket for that not sure/ it maybe will save me $1500 so a good saving there.
So in summary, so far, my benefits have been minimal but the AP Gold can make it a better prospect if you are buying regularly.