Average age to buy into DVC?

[BillPA]

20k a year is a bit steep . Unless your paying for Ivy League.

I see you haven't looked at college cost in the last 15+ years. You will be in for quite a sticker shock.
http://money.cnn.com/tools/collegecost/collegecost.html

 

[DougEMG]

We bought in when we were 50. We waited to buy till it made financial sense for us. Wish we could have bought in earlier, but couldn't justify it at those earlier dates.

 

[epe105]

People buy for different reasons. I bought because I want to go to Disney World with my kids. I wonder what the average age is with kids vs those without kids.

 

[Dtw002]

Yeah, it is unbelievably crazy how much it costs. Especially when you take a 3yr old and run it out what it will look like 15yrs from now x 5% (modest) increase per year. It is sobering....the figures I was given was for our state school....

 

[GrumpyInPhilly]

Well, of the responses so far it looks like I was the oldest @ 57 (DW - 54). We went to WDW several times with our kids over the years staying mostly on-site & off-site. Since we anticipate taking the grandkids as well as going ourselves (now that we have more free time) we bought in 2013.

 

[BillPA]

I was 47, that was 24 years ago. We have had more than 50 trips so far and everyone was magical. Now that we take the Grandkids we are still going 2 times a year, once in a while we make a just a Pop Pop and Nana trip. Glad we own OKW, since we need a GV now, I have plenty of points.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I was 56, DH was 59....now we're 14 years older! We have taken my mom, our children, my sister, grandchildren and friends. We enjoy our membership very much.

Coming up is an RCI exchange to Maui and a week at Aulani. Retirement is wonderful!

 

[Dean]

Im curious to know what the average age is to buy into DVC because my fiancé & I are wondering if we bought in too soon. I'm 27 & she's 29. Did we jump in to early?

I don't know but you can bet DVD has the info. For timeshares in general I saw a report from a couple of years that said median age 39 which was 10 years younger than a previous survey. Median income almost $100K. About half paid for it outright. There is quite a bit of info on the web on this subject but no good way to verify it.

 

[BillPA]

I was 56, DH was 59....now we're 14 years older! We have taken my mom, our children, my sister, grandchildren and friends. We enjoy our membership very much.

Coming up is an RCI exchange to Maui and a week at Aulani. Retirement is wonderful!

Maui is great, be sure to visit the Maui Ocean Center, go to Haleakalā National Park, the road to Hana is long a lots of curves, worth it if it is rainy season, but if dry, not much to see. Have a great trip.

 

[DLgal]

I see you haven't looked at college cost in the last 15+ years. You will be in for quite a sticker shock.
http://money.cnn.com/tools/collegecost/collegecost.html

Not sure this site is a great resource. They don't list public state schools...

We have been saving $100/month into each of our two kids 529s since birth. They are 10 and 12 and currently have enough in their accounts for two years at any University of California or Cal State school, tuition, fees, books, and housing included.

Putting $20k/year into 529 plans is just about the craziest thing I have heard. Unless you waited until your kids were teenagers to start contributing...

 

[Dtw002]

Penn State is $35k per year now. In 10 yrs it will easily be $50k if not a lot more. 3 kids x 4 years x $50k = $600k. Even with great compounded interest you still need to save a ton - $20k per year is actually less than needed. I've had the numbers crunched twice because it didn't seem correct.

 

[Mmw37]

We just bought, at 37/47. We started late on both kids and Disney though, and have two boys 5 and under. Once we knew we would be going every year, it made sense to buy (not finance) a resale contract. We aren't completely debt free, but don't have any bad debt like CCs. Vacation and making memories is high on our priority list, and I have a good job with quite a bit of time off. I'd like to have more points, but we bought what we could afford now and will add once I put more aside for it in a year or two.

 

[longboard55]

wow you guys are young. We were 61, trying to set up for retirement. House paid for, solar panels, DVC membership, Hawaii condo, trying to have fun in the future and not worry about money

 

[crisi]

We were in our 30s and had two kids.

Had we bought before kids, we would have had to sell. Our kids did not come easy for us, and we had tens of thousands in infertility treatments and adoption expenses.

Then we had kids - now, my kids are a Junior and Senior in high school - but for years our daycare monthly bill was $1600 a month. We put that money to college, and I have two kids with enough college savings. But we also had two six figure a year career jobs from about the time we bought DVC - when they were 2 and 3.

College is very expensive unless you are a state resident where you have affordable state options. UC Berkley is only $35k a year, tuition room and board IN STATE. If California has funding issues, that tuition will rise faster than inflation (tuition always does even without funding issues). It also only has a 17% acceptance rate. You can send your kid to USSC - it has a 58% acceptance rate - so its still turning down a lot of kids, for $31k a year. You can go to community college cheaper, but be aware that the VAST majority of kids who start in community college do not end up completing a four year degree. My kids cheapest option for a well regarded four year school is NDSU (I'm a Minnesota resident and they offer reciprocity) at $17k a year (room board tuition), but you are in North Dakota.

Now, tech school is a bargain. Have your kids be plumbers or electricians. Better employment prospects, good incomes, and their student loan load won't be crushing.

 

[lexybear]

i bought poly this past summer at 26. i like to go twice a year and it was just costing way too much compared to dvc. it will be paid off when im 30, so its not gonna cost me too much in interest.

 

[mco65]

I don't think you can be TOO young to buy in.. i would also think the younger, the better.. because you will have MORE years to enjoy it. At 51, i think i am a bit too old to buy in.. Probably not.. i know we looked at it hard some 10 years ago, my wife was ready to bite but i talked her out of it thinking Disney would not be a regular (yearly) vacation for us but it has become that.. she kicks me now every time we pass by one of those DVC info booths stating, we would have that PAID for by now!!! Looking back, i wish i had bought in 10 years ago because we have gone every year since then.. of course we have stayed at moderates vs Luxury so i don't think that decision cost us any more money.. but it sure would be nice to stay at a lux every once in a while!

 

[crisi]

We have been saving $100/month into each of our two kids 529s since birth. They are 10 and 12 and currently have enough in their accounts for two years at any University of California or Cal State school, tuition, fees, books, and housing included.

So I did the math. If you put in $100 a month and made 12% a year in returns - which would be an awesome return on a college account - your ten year old should have $23,000 for college. That isn't even close to room/board/tuition at a University of California school in state for a year. The cheapest Cal State school would be Stanislaus or Fresno, at just under $20k room board and tuition. So you have a year - in 2016 tuition rates. Granted, its a lot better than most people, but I think you'll find yourself short.

Or maybe you'll end up like me. I saved for two and my son is going to trade school - $6000 for his first year, then the Union pays for his school.

 

[DLgal]

So I did the math. If you put in $100 a month and made 12% a year in returns - which would be an awesome return on a college account - your ten year old should have $23,000 for college. That isn't even close to room/board/tuition at a University of California school in state for a year. The cheapest Cal State school would be Stanislaus or Fresno, at just under $20k room board and tuition. So you have a year - in 2016 tuition rates. Granted, its a lot better than most people, but I think you'll find yourself short.

Or maybe you'll end up like me. I saved for two and my son is going to trade school - $6000 for his first year, then the Union pays for his school.

My bad...my calculations did not include room and board.

Still, we have more than that right now. Our 529s have averaged around 19% returns...we benefited mightily from the market downturn in 2008...we have the 529s both in aggressive earning profiles. And we started each account with $5k and have added birthday and Christmas money as well. Point is, we have contributed nowhere near $20k per year nor de we plan to fully fund college anyway (they can do community college first, or live at home, or get jobs and loans like we both did.) We currently live in a city with a UC, another UC 45 min away, another two 90 min away, a Cal State nearby, and 3 community colleges in commuter distance (one only 2 miles away). Lots of options.

Regardless, neither is even currently on the HS Diploma track (both have autism) so these accounts might be used for trade school or certificate programs, or converted to 529 Able accounts. Or, we'll cash them out and buy a larger house since they'll have to live with us forever.

 

[Dean]

So I did the math. If you put in $100 a month and made 12% a year in returns - which would be an awesome return on a college account - your ten year old should have $23,000 for college. That isn't even close to room/board/tuition at a University of California school in state for a year. The cheapest Cal State school would be Stanislaus or Fresno, at just under $20k room board and tuition. So you have a year - in 2016 tuition rates. Granted, its a lot better than most people, but I think you'll find yourself short.

Or maybe you'll end up like me. I saved for two and my son is going to trade school - $6000 for his first year, then the Union pays for his school.

I've been working on this for the grand kids the last few months. Started at birth with UGMA accounts $100/month (we're well versed in the risks here), added in ESA's for each a little later at the $2K max each, later added a small amount monthly in 529's and I still don't think I'll hit enough. According to a couple of calculators I've looked at lately, I'll likely only cover 2 years of a state school with that approach. They're grand kids so it wasn't my intent to cover all of their college but I did want to give them real choices. On the current ones we'll fund the UGMA accounts until they hit the full tax rate of the parents then shift those yearly investment dollars to the 529's extra (leaving the UGMA account intact). We have another on the way, I've decided to go at it a little differently this time and more aggressively partly because the current approach likely isn't going to be enough and partly because I can likely help cash flow at least one of the 2 grandkids we have now but the next one we certainly won't be able to. My current plan is as soon as we have the SSN to load up the UGMA accounts early so we reach a tax limitation much earlier and start immediately with the max on the ESA's then go ahead and start the 529 then once we feel we've reached the tax ceiling on the UGMA accounts, switch those yearly dollars to the 529. I suspect we'll see an increase in the ESA limits in a few years, that's my preference over a 529.

 

[Dean]

Regardless, neither is even currently on the HS Diploma track (both have autism) so these accounts might be used for trade school or certificate programs, or converted to 529 Able accounts. Or, we'll cash them out and buy a larger house since they'll have to live with us forever.

Ouch, 10% penalty plus taxes.