What Percentage Of Your Savings Did You Spend?

[UnhealthilyObsessed]

Hi! I'm really sorry if this has been covered in a different post, but man, oh man, did I ever search!

About me: I'm 35, partnered, and have decided that I definitely want in to DVC. After a bit of research I've decided that a resale contract at SSR would be the right choice for us. Most of the resale contracts I've seen for the number of points I want are in the $11,000-$13,000 range. I definitely will want to pay cash and not finance it, as interest cuts so deeply into the total savings. I am completely debt-free, and have landed a lucrative job in my field (hooray!) where I will be able to put away a fair amount of money on a regular basis. My partner may or may not be interested in sharing this cost, as we've only just begun discussing it. But if not, I am totally happy to pay for it all myself. The years of amazing vacations with him will be more than worth the price.

My question is this: for those of you who paid cash for your DVC contracts, did you clear out your savings? Or did you only pull the trigger after you saved twice as much? Or somewhere in between? If it's too personal to disclose dollar amounts, just a ballpark percentage of your savings would be great info too.

Thank you so much in advance for sharing your thoughts with me. I am giddy with anticipation to join the Club, but I don't want my giddiness to lead to foolishness. Y'know?

 

[ToTBellHop]

Hi! I'm really sorry if this has been covered in a different post, but man, oh man, did I ever search!

About me: I'm 35, partnered, and have decided that I definitely want in to DVC. After a bit of research I've decided that a resale contract at SSR would be the right choice for us. Most of the resale contracts I've seen for the number of points I want are in the $11,000-$13,000 range. I definitely will want to pay cash and not finance it, as interest cuts so deeply into the total savings. I am completely debt-free, and have landed a lucrative job in my field (hooray!) where I will be able to put away a fair amount of money on a regular basis. My partner may or may not be interested in sharing this cost, as we've only just begun discussing it. But if not, I am totally happy to pay for it all myself. The years of amazing vacations with him will be more than worth the price.

My question is this: for those of you who paid cash for your DVC contracts, did you clear out your savings? Or did you only pull the trigger after you saved twice as much? Or somewhere in between? If it's too personal to disclose dollar amounts, just a ballpark percentage of your savings would be great info too.

Thank you so much in advance for sharing your thoughts with me. I am giddy with anticipation to join the Club, but I don't want my giddiness to lead to foolishness. Y'know?

I would never clear out my savings for a luxury like DVC. I want savings around for a true emergency. We are purposely buying a resale at VWL that will not drain out our savings. Similarly, I do not touch the savings to book vacations.

Our DVC resale is in the same price range as you are considering and far less than half of our savings.

 

[lostpro9het]

We didn't empty our savings for it but did pull the trigger when we reached our DVC goal. About 18 months ago we set out to save our extra earnings exclusively for DVC. Extra earnings would be the money my DW got for teaching a college course once a semester and my stipend for coaching wrestling but nothing from our 9-5 gigs. We had it planned and were well on our way when the DVC gods shined down on us when the DW was offered an opportunity to teach an eCourse in addition to her other course last Fall. At the same time two CS faculty left the college and they needed folks to help cover courses, I was asked and picked up one in the Fall. Things were looking good for us to reach our 18 month goal in 12 months when we got smacked with more pixie dust, the DW did so well with the eCourse in the Fall they asked her to teach again in the Spring AND be a mentor for other faculty(more$$). Then I was asked to cover TWO courses in the Spring! All this to say what was scheduled to be a 18 month savings plan turned into two semesters of mad DVC savings! We made our offer in March and are 23 days away from our first trip as members. We set out to buy without financing and to not effect our regular finances which I'm happy to say we were successful at doing. Had it taken the 18, or even 24, months we would have waited before financing or tapping into money earned/saved from our regular jobs. DVC is all luxury and, IMO, should be purchased as such and not cause a financial burden.

 

[WWWD]

You have to decide if the benefits of owning DVC now, outweighs any risks. If you think it's too much, then wait. DVC will still be there in a couple years. Obviously, with no debt, you know how to manage your money. So just go with what feels right for you.

We all struggle with how much to save and how much to spend. You need to save for a rainy day, but also have fun on the sunny days as well because none of us know how many of those we get.

 

[JWG]

When we've purchased (we have 3 contracts), each was no more than 5% of our savings and we paid 100% up front no financing. This cannot be considered a financial investment as timeshares do not typically have close to a full return on investment.

We have a "vacation fund" that we put savings into each month. That has been used to pay our DVC purchases each time.

 

[BigTxEars]

Used bonus money from my job to buy both of my contracts, therefore it never went into the bank as savings so I never touched savings....loophole!!!!

Life is life.....I want to live it now as much (if not more) than plan for the future.....both are important but the one sure thing is that you are not getting today back ever.....live it and enjoy it I say. If a DVC helps that (and it does!) then get it.

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Life is life.....I want to live it now as much (if not more) than plan for the future.....both are important but the one sure thing is that you are not getting today back ever.....live it and enjoy it I say. If a DVC helps that (and it does!) then get it.

We keep telling the kids that we are spending their inheritance. We are planning on willing the DVC contracts to them, and they can keep paying the dues or sell it. Their choice. We are loving life and enjoying it!

 

[bubster]

We keep telling the kids that we are spending their inheritance. We are planning on willing the DVC contracts to them, and they can keep paying the dues or sell it. Their choice. We are loving life and enjoying it!

This is us exactly. Our initial investment would come out to about $14,000 each and in the long run it's really not that much, they would rather have the DVC contracts. If their circumstances change they can rent the points or sell.

 

[JAG107]

Oooo I've been very naughty, after paying off our 100 BLT direct pts within 2 yrs I bought us another 200 at SSR @66/pt from savings that was supposed to be for a house. Turns out things worked out well work wise and got we the money we needed for a home down pmt, and being able to rent out the excess pts thru Davids when we needed a little extra cash has worked out great, now we have 300 pts to play with when we go. Very very bad! But a whole lot better than buying everything direct and financed. We learned very quickly after our kool aid direct buy that there is much better to be had resale, now we are set for life with what we need points wise. I think DVC is the only exception for getting value from a timeshare year in year out.