Originally Posted by
Ian
Well ... yeah, but here's what you're missing ...
First off, you can't think about operating in this market. This is the worst economy the U.S. has seen in 80 years. The fact is, that for the vast majority of our lifetimes investing in the market would have returned you about 8% on your money.
Secondly, you could still invest your money and yet spend it annually for vacations and the like. It would have to sit somewhere before you sent it to Disney.
Example ... you book a $4,000 trip to Disney World in January for travel in September. By buying DVC, you effectively paid that $4,000 whenever you purchased your membership, so Disney has that $4,000 and they're earning interest on it. You could, instead, put it in an ING account and get 3% on it yourself, pay for your trip when payment is due, and bank the earnings.
Obviously, this is a very simplistic example, but I really just used it to illustrate that investing vs. spending are not mutually exclusive.