First you are making an assumption that i don't have 10 grand to spend on travelling so let me correct YOU.
1) i paid cash for my timeshare 15k in 2001. How could you possibly know what some one can or cannot afford
2) yes I am a "dreamer". Dreaming is how I became ER'ed. I had a dream of retiring early and worked toward that "dream". yep I'm living the dream. I'm a happy camper when I'm there
3) I go 2 times a year and have done so for the last 16 year so i hardly think that makes me a "sucker" we've done family reunions, girls only trips with life long friends and a 100th birthday celebration. Next April 4 college roommates are celebrating 35 years of friendship. All thanks to my timeshare
Get a little more information please before casting a wide disparaging comment.
Yep, that was a disparaging comment. As said before, my timeshares (yes I own several) are in my vacation and leisure travel portfolio, but I also pay for expensive cruises, vacation home rentals, and other leisure travel, and in some cases, frequently leveraging my timeshare ownership in other Marriott lodging or affinity products. I've been a Marriott Lifetime Platinum Rewards member for a number of years now, which was primarily derived from my initial ownership in Marriott timeshares, with benefits that were incalculable to me when I traveled during my working stiff days. My timeshare ownership has worked exceedingly well for us when we traveled as a family with three young children over the years, and is working well for us in retirement too. And occasionally I can pass on my benefits to my adult children, such as arranging and obtaining resort lodging for their honeymoons in Thailand and Hawaii, flying 5 of us on FF miles from the East Coast to the West Coast and staying 6 days at nice 2 bedroom resort to attend a military retirement for my son-in-law, and arranging and obtaining resort lodging for my daughter's blended family of two teenagers and one toddler to stay 8 nights in Orlando FL in June 2018. And when we've taken European River Cruises 2 out of the last 3 years, at considerable expense on AmaWaterways, we've been able to use FF miles, and bookend our river cruises with lodging at Marriott Hotels in Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, and a timeshare resort in Mallorca -- all at little expense. My next trip will be an 8 day tour of Costa Rica in April 2018, courtesy of my timeshare ownership -- I'm debating whether I should use my FF miles for my flights, derived from my timeshare ownership, or pay the $2500 in airfare I've been seeing online -- or use my FF miles for business class on a future trip to Europe or Asia.
One can rightfully argue that my travel could have been accomplished cheaper without timeshare ownership -- and there are countless threads in other forums, including at the Timeshares Users Group forum, devoted to such issues, where many use mind-numbing break-even analyses establishing that as a financial proposition, timeshares are poor investments. But this is all beside the point as this pointless debate reminds me of that Oscar Wilde quote about folks knowing "the price of everything and the value of nothing."
I'm sure I overpaid for my timeshare ownership in some instances, but in retrospect, I wouldn't change a thing. And I'm sure when I buy that 740 BMW or that Subzero Refrigerator, I'll be a sucker in the eyes of others as well. It's funny too that during my travels I see lots of similarly situated suckers at some wonderful places.