Poll: How many points do you have?

How many total points do you own?

  • <100

    Votes: 35 4.6%
  • 100-200

    Votes: 217 28.2%
  • 200-300

    Votes: 163 21.2%
  • 300-500

    Votes: 205 26.7%
  • 500-1000

    Votes: 115 15.0%
  • 1000+

    Votes: 34 4.4%

  • Total voters
    769
When we purchased in '08 we bought the minimum, which was 160 and since our Home was unavailable for use they 'gave' us 160 to use at SSR and then a couple months later we hit our UY annv and acquired another 160 - not even getting into the borrowing. Any way the silver lining about that was it gave us a real idea of how much we'd really use. Each year when the annual dues showed I'd start second guessing our 'need' but finally last year I started the monthly payments so I no longer 'see' the big total any more. LOL
 
450 on 4 contracts. Had 520 at one point but sold off our Poly 70 point direct contract.

150 BWV (resale)
300 AKV (30 direct, 160 resale, 110 resale)

We're grandfathered with the Blue Card as we bought our the 30 point AKV so we could sell off out Poly direct contract but still meet or exceed the 25 point Direct purchase minimum for Member Benefits at the time. Planned that out well.
 
My "ideal" number of points keeps changing and I keep surpassing the original estimates. I started with 150, added 25, then 100, then 50 & 40. And I would love to nearly double what I have. I "may" have a problem.
 


250 - SSR - Direct (210 original purchase & 40 addonitis)
Considering another 100-150 if I find the right resale at either SSR or AKV.
SSR is still Best Value $$, but we like AKV, and would like the opportunity to score a Value Studio or Value-1BR.
 
we own 400 pts at BWV that will go on sale at 20 years left on the contracts.
 
We just made our first purchase of 160 points last month. We are lucky that are kids have a fall break the third week of September every year. So we will be travelling almost exclusively during Adventure Season. Right now we can pretty much do 7 nights a year in any studio we choose. I'd like to get up to 250 points sometime in the future so we can book 1 bedrooms instead.
 


DW is out of control and I am an enabler. We started with 200 VGF points and quickly discovered (because we booked so late) that we really like big villas and needed more points to travel that way; add another 204 VGF resale. We did a split stay at BCV and VGF; add 200 BCV resale. A stay in a 1 bd at BLT showed us the double advantage of an extra bathroom and walking to MK; add 280 BLT resale. Now that we are up to 884, DW is mumbling about adding 116 to get to 1000 points (apparently it comes with a key to the DVC 1000 point washroom).

To use all the points DW invited the extended family down for a few days. Our intention was to get a BLT Grand Villa (never stayed in one before). Too many said yes so had to switch to two 2bd villas. Upside: two 2bd villas uses fewer points than grand villa. Downside: don't get to stay in grand villa.
Happy Wife, Happy Life. My husband applies the same philosophy so we are at 1340. Sounds like 116 pts is a perfect XMas present ; )
 
College isn’t actually that expensive if you go to your local state school. Easily cash flowed if your child helps by working summers. Lots of scholarships out there too. But so many people get caught up in private school and end up with debt even with saving.

This got me.

My adopted sister qualified for a Pell Grant and still ended up with $40,000 in loans. State school tuition is still $10,000 here, without room and board, so I disagree with this statement. And my State is cheap! To cash flow that out would require full time work at minimum wage with a full time course load - I worked 2-3 jobs in college, and I missed out on being a college student because of it.

I won’t begin to tell you what my state school law school tuition was.
 
BCV - 252 points @ $84/pt resale

Poly guaranteed week -168 points @ $165/pt direct

AKV - 100 points @ $100/pt resale

520 points @ an average of $113.25 for a decent split of BCV, Poly, and AKV plus blue card qualified on the first two.

So. We are very happy about our home resorts, but also about our price points and timing.

What we really like is that it’s our BCV contract that significantly lowers our overall price point. You couldn’t easily do that today.
 
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To cash flow that out would require full time work at minimum wage with a full time course load - I worked 2-3 jobs in college, and I missed out on being a college student because of it.

I won’t begin to tell you what my state school law school tuition was.

I think working your way through college is more respectable. I missed out on being a college student as well, I didn't go, I went to trade school and worked at the same time instead. I don't think you missed out on much I know I didn't. You are just living a much different life than others so enjoy what you have and how you got there.
 
This got me.

My adopted sister qualified for a Pell Grant and still ended up with $40,000 in loans. State school tuition is still $10,000 here, without room and board, so I disagree with this statement. And my State is cheap! To cash flow that out would require full time work at minimum wage with a full time course load - I worked 2-3 jobs in college, and I missed out on being a college student because of it.

I won’t begin to tell you what my state school law school tuition was.
I am talking about cash flowing it for the parents. Our in state tuition with room and board at our flag ship is about $25000/ year. We could come up with this every year without saving ahead of time. We would be squeezed and have to think about it but we could do it. But I don’t think we will have to because there are merit scholarships out there and our son who is in high school already has 8k in the bank from working summers. He has two summers left before college where he will earn about another 4K each summer. When he gets to college he will continue to work summers but will earn even more. Good internships pay much more than 4k per summer. Once in college, he will also work a small easy job on campus for maybe 10 hours per week. We anticipate paying around 15k for him per year worst case scenario. Our kids will not qualify for any grants because we make “too” much, so we will not even bother with the fasfa. (Any government paperwork that we do not absolutely have to fill out— we stay away from it. Lol ) But there is no way would we let our kids take out student loans at the undergraduate level. It is just not necessary. If we really did not have the money, he could go part time or go to a university closer to our house and live at home which would make it REALLY easy.

I wasn’t talking about law school. We have told our kids that graduate degrees are their problem. Dh and I have 4 graduate degrees between us and we paid for them on our own through scholarships and a variety of jobs. For the really big graduate degree that dh got, I worked full time around the clock while he went to school full time. Then I went back for another graduate degree. But we lived very, very frugally during this period in our lives. Peanut butter and jelly (hell dh and I still bring pb and j to work for lunch). This was in our early 20s. We did not go on any vacation for about 8 years. We had one used car. I get the feeling that today, people don’t want to live frugally. They do not feel like they should have to cut back in order to go to school. Instead they say, we will just take out loans! Or they expect their parents to pay. Stand on your own two feet. Walt Disney did it. We do not spoil our kids. We told him from day one that private schools are off the table. There is just no way we will pay 74k per year for a private school. It simply does not have the value for us. The majority of CEOs in this country went to public universities. There is no link between success and private colleges. I realize these colleges do a great job marketing themselves to students and trying to convince them that they need to go to a plush private college to “follow their dreams.”
It can be done. In an interview once Walt Disney was asked what he attributed his success to and he responded that his parents did not spoil him as a child. A little adversity is good.
 
425
BCV 100/125
Poly 100/50/50
We totally love but DH's all fave is BLT and DD2 (who I travel with a lot) all time fave is BWV and I fell in love with GF the previous week.

PS: The kicker in all this is I couldn't get DD1/DSIL in any DVC for last week's trip and had to put them in a moderate - Coronado Destino Tower. I felt bad that we were staying at BWV/Poly and they were in a moderate. Well, they LOVED it. Absolutely LOVED it! What?! And just when I thought I needed more points.
 
This got me.

My adopted sister qualified for a Pell Grant and still ended up with $40,000 in loans. State school tuition is still $10,000 here, without room and board, so I disagree with this statement. And my State is cheap! To cash flow that out would require full time work at minimum wage with a full time course load - I worked 2-3 jobs in college, and I missed out on being a college student because of it.

I won’t begin to tell you what my state school law school tuition was.

Every situation is different. We homeschooled all three, one earned $37,000 annually in scholarships to a $47,000 year private school. He took out 5k in subsidized loans each year and we paid the rest. Our next two attend a state school, they both earned $5-9,000 a year in scholarships (goes up each year they maintain 3.8 average..and they have- in engineering even!)..they take out about 2k in student loans and we pay about 5k for their housing...you have to plan and research college options...if you know a 32-36 on the ACT will earn you 50% or more on your college fees...you work your butt off to achieve it...too many don't realize the importance of this until their senior year. We knew it in 9th grade and worked hard to make it happen...no courses, just lots of practice tests.
 
We told him from day one that private schools are off the table.

Never say that, our son had the private school offer him $80,000 more than the state school. One of his scholarships was labelled 'diversity'..he was neither a minority or female (although he is 1/4 Cherokee and we have the Indian registration to prove it..but we never pull that card..we just put white down) but he was from the South and this was a Northern school..so they gave hm 5k a year just because he was from the South! They have a lot more discretionary funds to play with...surprised us...but ultimately he/we paid the same for a private school as our daughters pay for state school and they both got top scholarships.
 
Never say that, our son had the private school offer him $80,000 more than the state school. One of his scholarships was labelled 'diversity'..he was neither a minority or female (although he is 1/4 Cherokee and we have the Indian registration to prove it..but we never pull that card..we just put white down) but he was from the South and this was a Northern school..so they gave hm 5k a year just because he was from the South! They have a lot more discretionary funds to play with...surprised us...but ultimately he/we paid the same for a private school as our daughters pay for state school and they both got top scholarships.

I agree and do think every case is different. Pretty cool that you did the homeschooling route btw. The private schools we have looked at are in the $75000/ year range. They would have to give him $50000/ year for it to even out. That just isn’t going to happen. And even if it did, we are not really sure it would be a first choice anyway. We are definitely not in any diversity category.

My original comment on this discussion was in response to someone saying something about not being able to do dvc and send the kids to college. I was just trying to say that college does not have to be as expensive as some make it.
 
BCV - 252 points @ $84/pt resale

Poly guaranteed week -168 points @ $165/pt direct

AKV - 100 points @ $100/pt resale

520 points @ an average of $113.25 for a decent split of BCV, Poly, and AKV plus blue card qualified on the first two.

So. We are very happy about our home resorts, but also about our price points and timing.

What we really like us that it’s our BCV contract that significantly lowers our overall price point. You couldn’t easily do that today.
I'm also grateful that I bought when I bought. Of course, I had to wait until I was able.
 
My original comment on this discussion was in response to someone saying something about not being able to do dvc and send the kids to college. I was just trying to say that college does not have to be as expensive as some make it.

I completely agree with this. I can see how buying in at the same time you are writing a check for college would be difficult for most, but doing DVC doesn’t exclude college.

What got me was the implication every family (or student) can come up with $20,000 a year for college if they just plan it right. That’s just not true. I never would have gone to college or law school without loans.

As to the PP talking about scholarships and the ACT, again, the over generalization is too much. Scholarships depend on so much, including your standing at a particular school. You might get a full ride at School A and nothing at B. You can’t imply that you will get plenty of scholarships if you just do better on the ACT. There is simply far more to it than that.
 
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I completely agree with this. I can see how buying in at the same time you are writing a check for college would be difficult for most, but doing DVC doesn’t exclude college.

What got me was the implication every family (or student) can come up with $20,000 a year for college if they just plan it right. That’s just not true. I never would have gone to college or law school without loans.

As to the PP talking about scholarships and the ACT, again, the over generalization is too much. Scholarships depend on so much, including your standing at a particular school. You might get a full ride at School A and nothing at B. You can’t imply that you will get plenty of scholarships if you just do better on the ACT. There is simply far more to it than that.
Most state schools have a set standard for ACT achievement. It’s up to the student to apply to each individual opportunity most schools have listed...and several states have lottery scholarship funds (ours didn’t), you just really need to do your research. If you make a 34 or 1500 on SAT..there are many schools that will cover tuition. Our college charges 9k for living on campus- my girls had their tuition covered with scholarships but we found housing that both can live off campus for 5k for both rather than 18k the school wanted. It is all about discovering options and opportunities.
 
Most state schools have a set standard for ACT achievement. It’s up to the student to apply to each individual opportunity most schools have listed...and several states have lottery scholarship funds (ours didn’t), you just really need to do your research. If you make a 34 or 1500 on SAT..there are many schools that will cover tuition. Our college charges 9k for living on campus- my girls had their tuition covered with scholarships but we found housing that both can live off campus for 5k for both rather than 18k the school wanted. It is all about discovering options and opportunities.

1500!!

<—- This dope got a fraction of that! It’s far too long ago for me to remember the exact, but I’m pretty sure min was only a 3 digit score on the SAT. The result? I got rejected from my state school And many others. Oddly enough, I got a full scholarship offer from a really small school and a partial scholarship offer from a public school at another state, neither of which I really wanted to attend but...a scholarship is a scholarship.

Unfortunately, it didn’t cover housing. So I stayed off campus the first year and worked part time. By the 2nd year I had gotten the hang of working 30-40hrs/week plus 5 classes a semester, and because of it I was able to afford campus housing. Burnt out my 3rd year and lost my scholarship.

Ended up working 60-80 hours a week and 2 jobs to pay for tuition and repeated half of the classes, off campus again. One of those jobs ended up hiring me full time 6 months later, paying me a salary that was 2x what tuition, room and board would cost. It also offered tuition assistance. It would take me 2 more years to graduate as I slowed down to part time at that point and focused on my job.

I got it, but I never used my degree, and I’m glad I didn’t have to take a loan out for something I haven’t used. I also wouldn’t be where I am if I did take a loan. I look back and it’s easy for me to say I should have stayed off campus and focused on my school, kept my scholarship. But then I may not have had jumpstarts my career.

Ultimately I just realize there a lot of different paths in life, and a lot of different ways to go to and pay for school. But I wouldn’t wish my situation on my children and fully intend to make sure that a school of my choosing (state) is covered. If they want more, they’re welcome to go get it. But they’ll have to demonstrate and prove to themselves that they really want it and are willing to put in the work for it. Whether that’s through scholarships, or a job.

Then when they’re through it all, I’ll gift them some DVC points and tell them that the real reason they had to work was because I wanted a blue card and spent their private school tuition on AKL direct.
 

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