When I was single (and manic) I packed up my essentials and hit the road. Within 2 years I had seen 7 countries. As of now I’ve been to a total of 9 different countries and I lived abroad for 2 years. I studied Linguistics in uni and since I was 7 years old, I’ve been teaching myself a number of languages. Language, culture, art, travel, and learning; these are my passions. Thankfully Muffin shares a similar passion and desire to travel and see the world.
The first big purchase we made as a couple was deeded property at a vacation home AKA timeshare. We’ve heard mixed opinions about our decision and this introduction will be explaining our thought process behind the purchase and why we feel it’s a good fit for us and our lifestyle.
We were of course brought in for a tour to a nearby Vacation Villages Resort and given prizes for attending the tour. We ended up with amazing prizes, 2 different 3-day stays and a $200 gift card. The presentation was great and our representative Caitlyn was above and beyond with her enthusiasm and treatment of us. Far from the stereotypical pushing salesman one thinks of when they hear timeshare. They showed us a map of all the places we might be able to trade our week for. They expressed that our trade power would be high and as long as we are vigilant in depositing our weeks, we would have an array of options available for travel.
A lot of timeshare verbiage used here, as this blog continues, I will take time to explain it all to my best knowledge.
Muffin’s family lives on the West Coast of the US and my family lives on the East Coast, where we currently reside. We’ve set Christmases with his family and my mother is adamant about us moving away from her. It’s a cute notion, but may not be realistic. I knew having deeded property near my mother, especially around the holidays, would put her at ease and free my fiancé and me to travel and move away if we choose to without the pressure and guilt.
We considered starting and maintaining family traditions. Going away at least once a year to take a break from mundane life… guaranteed.
We considered the cost of the down payment, mortgage, and maintenance fees. With yearly maintenance fees comes the fear of increases and surcharges. It’s the biggest complaint with timeshare. People get locked into rising maintenance fees for the rest of their lives, an expense they were unaware of or didn’t plan for. The resort assured us that rises were rare, we would always be informed of any increase, and we would have the opportunity to vote on anything done to the property that may increase the annual fee.
I was skeptical at their words. So many people complain about increased fees that they can’t escape. So I broke down the annual fee into monthly installments. The daunting $438 annual maintenance fee looked so much more manageable at $37 a month. I played with the numbers and decided that if the maintenance fee somehow doubled, it would still be well within our budget.
The “cons” were easily manageable for us. And so, we proceeded to sign the paperwork and deed to our vacation property.
This was a long post. I’ll break it up into bite-size pieces as my blog grows and as my understanding grows.
Thank you.
Muffin and Tea 