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Post by Eeyorelover22 on Jan 13, 2023 16:37:45 GMT -5
The part about doctors is really huge. Between DH and myself we have to carefully insert our trips between appointments. Would love to take longer trips but he has treatments every 3 weeks and it takes a week feel well enough to do much. Getting old sucks. Our DVC gives us something to look forward to. Indeed it does, but it does beat the alternative when my kids are using all my points! |
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Post by noreen99 on Jan 13, 2023 18:32:45 GMT -5
I didn't jump into DVC until after I retired (early medical) -
And now that it has been a few years, I am really enjoying the whole timeshare thing- don't argue yes it's DVC but it's still a timeshare no ifs and or butts its just got sparkly packaging While I don't have the points ability to stay for extended stays at DVC, I have been taking advantage of "getaway deals/last call" through either RCI & II and getting some decent deals. I had seriously considered adding on especially with the DLHT ( do we have an acronym for the new tower at Disneyland hotel yet? ) but between my current " dis-enchantment w/disney and feeling pretty much priced out from direct purchases, I refuse to go into debt for it and choose to adopted a few strategic low MFs of resorts to give me access to both major exchange companies...Between these low MF resorts, I now have a base of 5 weeks a year of travel covered outside of DVC before I add extra getaways. Looking forward to seeing some National Parks this year along with Disney Parks.
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Post by disneyspaz on Jan 13, 2023 20:21:33 GMT -5
I am too many years away from retiring but my husband is hoping to retire next year. Since I work in education I have a flexible summer schedule so we want to do several weeks in the summer in a 1-bedroom and our quick Christmas trip in a 1-bedroom. One day when I can retire winter for a month would be a dream.
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Post by henrycpa on Jan 14, 2023 7:46:57 GMT -5
Guys, just a heads up. PCP shortage nationwide. The system is really trying to push PCP to a virtual model supported by urgent care. I wish they would adopt the Euro Model where pharmacies have most PCP needs for minor illness. We will see if this is where it is going.
Knock on wood, Dr. have not been a big part of our life although that may be changing as my BP seems to be skyrocketing for no reason. My PCP office closes and it took me 6 months to find one accepting new patients. So finding a Dr. is a nationwide problem right now. Even getting into your established office is an issue.
From a medical standpoint, my biggest worry is medical coverage since if I follow my plan I will be 64 and wife will be 69. Going to have to go to the market for health insurance and I have no idea how to plan for that cost.
My biggest worry is the increasing cost of Annual dues and making it happen annually on the retirement budget.
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Post by jedimom3 on Jan 14, 2023 9:49:27 GMT -5
We probably talk casually about retirement every week or so. and the conversations always include moving to Florida. DH is SOOO ready to retire. He has about 6 years left before he'll have 30 years w federal job..There's a large VA office in St Petersburg he could maybe transfer to for his last years. I'm not sure where I'd find a similar job to mine. there's a large call center in Jacksonville, but that's too far. DS is just a sophomore in high school, so won't be moving before he graduates, and hope not to just up and move while he and DD are in college. I'm pretty sure DS will want to go to college in TN too.
Every discussion about moving to FL also includes talk of weather. We both grew up in VERY hot and humid South Louisiana. We know exactly what the weather is like, and we're not sure we want to live in it year round again. Like where you walk out your front door, and your glasses fog up, and you're drenched in sweat before you get to the car. In November. I keep telling him we could just come back to visit family in TN in August, if kids stay here, or maybe really do the snowbird thing for a while. Middle TN is not bad for weather really. We actually get 4 seasons here, which is nice, never had that in Louisiana. It is nice tho in winter that everything stays green. We also know we'll be paying a whole lot more for home insurance, and property taxes in FL.
We joke often also about being able to stay 1 month in Sept, at our home resort, BWV, in a studio. We have just enough points for that. We never stay in studios tho, so am sure that would get old.
If we do retire in FL, I'm hoping to use our DVC points for short getaways, where we can spend the night on site, not have to drive after enjoying time at festivals, etc. Also hope to use for family when they come to visit.
Good luck w the planning!!!
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Post by Wonderdog on Jan 14, 2023 10:35:52 GMT -5
We live in the part of SC where it gets cold and we retired a couple of years ago. Our plan was to accumulate enough points to "snowbird" and spend several weeks in WDW. The idea was that we could hang out, do the parks and I could play golf. I learned after a couple of years that the golf at WDW isn't great. It is essentially resort golf - difficult tee times, slow rounds, and questionable playing partners. In the meantime the park experience has been downgraded significantly.
Ultimately, we ended up buying a second home in a 55+ community in Florida with loads of activities and great golf. We've sold two-thirds of our points and now visit for short stays mainly to take advantage of the festivals.
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Post by Eli's Nana on Jan 14, 2023 10:53:37 GMT -5
I am really appreciating this discussion! Thanks to the OP for starting the thread!
We are about 3 years away from retiring and will most likely stay in CO since our kids and grandkids are here, but in Jan/Feb are sometimes tired of the winter cold. I think we have enough points for 2-3 weeks with a combination of Studios and 1 Bedrooms. While I still feel a bit grumpy about the various Disney changes, it's still one of our favorite places to relax. Like some we are trying to maintainer FF status, and keep options open for all the places we want to visit while we still can. This thread has so far given me a lot to think about... Thanks to all!
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Post by captjacksfamily on Jan 14, 2023 11:31:08 GMT -5
I retired four years ago (the wife was already retired), we lived in SoCal and relocated to Orlando. We live immediately behind the Magic Kingdom so we consider Disney our backyard. We sold most of our points but kept enough that we can scatter a few days throughout the year for one night stays or give them to friends that are visiting. Part of the motivation to sell was that we had a significant number of VGC points and since we probably wouldn’t be spending much time back in SoCal we went ahead and took the considerable profit and ran (we had bought during the recession when they first opened). Disney was not the main motivation for moving to Orlando but it is a nice perk. The motivation was family (our daughter was already here), easy access to good medical and since travel to Europe was part of our retirement agenda a close international airport.
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Post by grumpyinphilly on Jan 14, 2023 12:59:28 GMT -5
Guys, just a heads up. PCP shortage nationwide. The system is really trying to push PCP to a virtual model supported by urgent care. I wish they would adopt the Euro Model where pharmacies have most PCP needs for minor illness. We will see if this is where it is going. Knock on wood, Dr. have not been a big part of our life although that may be changing as my BP seems to be skyrocketing for no reason. My PCP office closes and it took me 6 months to find one accepting new patients. So finding a Dr. is a nationwide problem right now. Even getting into your established office is an issue. From a medical standpoint, my biggest worry is medical coverage since if I follow my plan I will be 64 and wife will be 69. Going to have to go to the market for health insurance and I have no idea how to plan for that cost.My biggest worry is the increasing cost of Annual dues and making it happen annually on the retirement budget. We been in the Marketplace for years now, always chose high-deductible plans, set up HSAs and just budgeted for the out-of-pocket max. If we end up spending less in a given year, we roll the excess funds into next year's pot. |
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Post by bakerworld on Jan 14, 2023 13:41:48 GMT -5
We like to take long weekends and with my new babysitting duties long weekends fit.
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Post by lephelps on Jan 14, 2023 20:25:47 GMT -5
We just bought into DVC in 2000 and will likely use it only for vacations, short and long, for us and for family/friends. During the pandemic and since then we've talked about moving to somewhere in/near the Orlando area after retirement so we can visit Disney and the other parks whenever we want and spend travel money visiting other places. Also, DH hates the cold and is tired of NY winters (he grew up near Ithaca, myself in the eastern foothills of the Adirondacks, we went to college in even colder northern NY, and we'll have been in Rochester for 35-40 years by the time I retire). So, I figure if he can suffer through the NY winters for so long, I can learn to survive the FL summers during retirement (hopefully, older age means I won't melt as much in the heat and humidity? I can hope, right?  ). We both want/plan/hope to retire in about 10 years and what we end up doing really depends on where our sons and the rest of our family are at when the that time comes. Our older DS (22) plans to stay in the Rochester area and has a full-time job and a serious girlfriend who also has a full-time job and younger DS (18) is just starting college so it's too early to tell where he'll wind up. Mom turns 74 in a couple of weeks and I pray she's still around but at 84-ish I doubt she'll be traveling as much by then. In our ideal world, we'd love to become FL residents, spending 8-9 months there and coming back to western NY during the summer months but we're not sure how we'd do that financially since we'd have to sell our current home to afford a home in FL. I'm guessing our plans will change a dozen or more times between now and retirement but at least we're close enough to start pondering what we want to do and when we want to do it.  |
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Post by mditkof on Jan 15, 2023 7:19:42 GMT -5
We did with my first wife. That is why we collected 1050 or so points. After the divorce and her moving to Florida, the kids and I decided to keep 100 points and cash in the rest for quite a gain.
The idea you are considering, has a lot of value if you want to stay 1 month or two on grounds.
Marty
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Post by crushturtle on Jan 15, 2023 9:05:26 GMT -5
Good thread. Mrs. brp retired about 2 months ago. I'm within a couple of months. Planning based on that, we have weekday-heavy trips booked for DVC in the coming year. Not quite as much as you have in mind (we have too many other places to go to spend that much time at Disney), but somewhat more than weekends. For DVC the weekday/weekend differential is fairly modest. For HGVC, our other timeshare, it's 2:1, so weekday stay have a substantial benefit there. Cheers. How nice that will be to stay there for that long of a duration. |
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Post by ocean702 on Jan 17, 2023 21:06:53 GMT -5
Congrats to all of you who are retired or who are close to retirement!
I’ll be trudging along to work for at least the next 13 years. DH and I do talk about retirement in FL and have chatted a bit about purchasing a condo sooner than later and renting it out until we are ready to use it but right now it’s just a vision for the future.
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Post by henrycpa on Jan 18, 2023 8:55:35 GMT -5
Do you mind sharing which community? Does it have Golf membership included in your monthly dues? What other activities?
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). We both want/plan/hope to retire in about 10 years and what we end up doing really depends on where our sons and the rest of our family are at when the that time comes. Our older DS (22) plans to stay in the Rochester area and has a full-time job and a serious girlfriend who also has a full-time job and younger DS (18) is just starting college so it's too early to tell where he'll wind up. Mom turns 74 in a couple of weeks and I pray she's still around but at 84-ish I doubt she'll be traveling as much by then.
