A few years ago I wrote up a comparison sheet out of curiosity to see how paying for a contract outright vs financing vs taking the same bag of money and splitting it between low interest savings and a stock index fund and using the proceeds over time to pay for a similar annual vacation as DVC.
Have to dig that sheet up again. Obviously financing really adds on cost. For us, the investing the money and just paying for vacations was far better (the opportunity cost of that money was fairly large over just a 20 year span.) Plus we’d not be locked in.
That’s not saying in years from now when my kids are having kids the balance of what I want emotionally for our family might push me in the other direction. Assuming my retirement planning pans out and there’s some cash to throw around.
My message was so long, convoluted, and data-filled in my DVC geek excitement I’m not surprised it was tough to pull out the point I was trying to make.
That’s interesting. I only did this once in Indiana for work when i was relocating. The only consequence here is they stop charging sales/ occupancy tax after one month.
I did the same and i think the big unknown was how much can you sell the points for when you are done. I was assuming i would only want them until my youngest kid reaches highschool in 12 years.
I seem to recall that Ryan from BoM podcast mentioned that his DVC points were actually worth enough at this point that all of his past trips would essentially have been free if he sold his contract.
Of course, past performance is no indication of future returns.
My last two trips were at the Swolphin on points. $25/nt resort fee. Not sure any deal for dvc will match that. Without kids, that’s definitely my choice.
I totally agree with you on all these points!
I also was seriously considering DVC, but I’m more of a “bang for your buck” kind of person- I’d rather spend a few thousand a year and take several trips at a moderate or value resort than to only get one vacation a year.
I’m going for 7 days in august for $700- at an all star resort. Are they nicer than a deluxe? no, but it will be my 3rd vacation to disney this year, with another planned in 2020!
Just to follow up on this. The reason I say this is because it holds back a LOT of info. For example, it makes it seem there’s only 2 resorts you can buy into right now: Aulani or Riveria. Which is not true. Just about all resorts can be bought into and all have different prices for their points.
The disney site also seems to indicate the minimum you can buy is 100 points, this is also not true. I’m not 100% what the ACTUAL base number is (it’s either 50 or 75) but I know 75 can be purchased. 75 is a good starting number in my opinion. Cheap contract to get your feet wet and get some short stays in, and skipping a year can suddenly give you a nice plethora of options thanks to the banking and borrow abilities.
In theory, if you really wanna go the cheap route and are ok with just scooping up whatever you can at the 7 month mark, buy up 100 points of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort ($100/point) and then you’re good.
