Right, but it all has to be paid, and. collateral is theoretical. I don’t know if it helps anyone sleep better at night thinking, “Oh, I can sell this house or car if I can’t make the payments”. Which incidentally, is not always true as anyone who experienced the housing crisis can attest.
I’m just not going to pass judgment on anyone for paying for a vacation on credit, if we don’t know the whole story, which we don’t. There’s nothing virtuous in being leveraged to the hilt in other ways, but being able to pay cash for a vacation. On the other hand, someone frugal who has no other debt but wants to splurge on a vacation is all right by me.
I probably should have expressed that I agree with your sentiment there, in general. Got a bit side-tracked. But it is true that in paying cash for a vacation, if it leads to greater debt in some other category or categories, you are not really any better off!
This over and over.
My parents did get us once each to DLR and WDW, but we had oodles of camping and cheapo trips and I wouldn’t wish any of those away.
My now 33 year old son remembers details of the trip we took when he was 2 years old that I had forgotten. And my trip when I was 5 is my personal most powerful and positive childhood memory and the reason why I continue to return to Disney.
I was almost ready to wish one of them away last week, as I lay on a pad with the air coming out of it- in the middle of a hailstorm in an ultra-lite backpacking tent.
I realized years ago that my kids couldn’t even tell you which gifts I purchased for them on Christmas a few weeks later. Granted, Christmas morning includes our immediate family, as well as my mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister, and mother. So my kids open quite a bit. Nonetheless, that was all I needed to pull the plug. Now they each get one memorable gift (LLbean back pack for boys and season passes to local amusement parks for girls in 2018) and perhaps some doodads in their stockings.
Also, perhaps because I have a big family, years ago I realized the last thing any of my children needed was things. We just don’t have room for them. We started by asking the grandparents for experiences as presents instead of things. Grandparents taking them out to lunch, or buying us a family pass to a museum, was a whole lot farther than a new Lego set or Barbies.
I agree with this. My son and I went when he was 9. He is 17 now, as we are planning a trip in October. He remembers very little from the first trip. Some memories might be sparked when we go, but I am actually very surprised at what he doesn’t remember.
I would personally postpone it for a while.
When there’s no additional backup funds and you had an emergency or two come up, it’s not like you have a guaranteed quota on emergencies that will prevent another from happening.
I had a trip planned with my best friend two years ago. I had already paid completely when my car went belly (undercarriage) up. It just felt irresponsible for me to go ahead with the trip when I just had to buy a care. I cancelled and put the money I got back toward paying down the car loan immediately.
It’s taken 2 years, but I’m back on track and leave in 24 days for my trip.
Ultimately, it’s up to you though. If you haven’t told the kiddos yet, it’s not something they will be disappointed to have to miss this year.
That is absolutely the truth. We thought we had everything planned out this year when we had to install an entirely new HVAC system in the old house. I had planned to sell the darn thing before we had to do that, and it didn’t work out that way! There is no limit to things that can go wrong. Sometimes you do have to be light on your feet and ready to make changes if need be.
To my thinking - debt is a snare.
Sometimes it is plain unavoidable (the hospital bill, the both-cars-died and now we need to finance one), but voluntary debt is hard for me to grasp. Esp for something as vapor-like as a one week vacation. WDW will be there later.
It’s only a snare until you get to the point where it’s optional. Then, sometimes, it makes sense.
Also, how much is a WDW vacation going to go up in cost next year? Is that greater than whatever the credit card interest rate is? It might be, at the rate they’re raising prices. I. know for sure it is more than my measly 4% home equity line of credit, which I’m not going to even have for an entire year anyway.
About twenty years ago I decided I wanted to fly on Concorde. I couldn’t afford it, but my credit card could. A friend talked me out of it. “Wait till you’ve got the money. Concorde will always be there.”
OK, maybe WDW will still be there. But will the OP still be able to go? Maybe she’ll be hit by a truck and unable to travel ever again.
Also, I think it’s important to remember that this doesn’t sound like an introduction of a pattern of spending, but rather just a way to make a 1-off experience still happen.
It reminds me largely of when my mom was diagnosed, I immediately put a trip together even though I didn’t have the funds readily available at the time. Over the course of the year, though, I did. It really wasn’t a big deal and pretty much exactly what credit cards/loans are for.
Completely agree. Last year our DD wanted to go back to “that place where I had the watermelon salad”. It took DH and I ages to work out that she was talking about Flame Tree BBQ. She wasn’t even 3 when she had that salad, but she still remembered the meal, and lots of other details about the trip which we had forgotten.