Dumbest Purchase You’ve Made
- Thread starter gocy444
- Start date
My dumbest purchase is buying into the Steve Prohm hype when Fred left for the Bulls.
because you didn’t have a partner of because you paid 1500% more that the generic?
Not me, but my parents bought a timeshare based out of Branson somewhere around the turn of the millennium. (You could "Exchange" for a fee and go other places, like Florida) - this was after I was already in college. It was decent for the first 5-6 years, and then things went downhill. Paid far more in maintenance fees than we "saved" by not staying in nice hotels. Also became harder and harder to find availability where we wanted to go.
Then, the last 7-10 years, my parents' health went downhill, and couldn't use it. Kept paying for it of course, and couldn't get out of it. Now I am their power of attorney and handle all their finances after they both had major health issues, and I'm the one still having to deal with it almost 20 years later.
Not me, but my parents bought a timeshare based out of Branson somewhere around the turn of the millennium. (You could "Exchange" for a fee and go other places, like Florida) - this was after I was already in college. It was decent for the first 5-6 years, and then things went downhill. Paid far more in maintenance fees than we "saved" by not staying in nice hotels. Also became harder and harder to find availability where we wanted to go.
Then, the last 7-10 years, my parents' health went downhill, and couldn't use it. Kept paying for it of course, and couldn't get out of it. Now I am their power of attorney and handle all their finances after they both had major health issues, and I'm the one still having to deal with it almost 20 years later.
My in-laws bought a timeshare when my wife was little. Their home base is Orlando so they figured great for young kids and Disney. They did like your family and paid a $200 transfer fee to go other places. I’d say they used it every year for about 10 years but almost never at their home base.
They paid like $10k for it and had at least several hundred in maintenance fees every year. They had originally willed it to us but we have since convinced them we don’t want it. Thankfully they changed their will to reflect that.
I think they’ve enjoyed having it but they definitely have not saved money on hotels.
My inlaws have one of them. My wife’s sister and brother said that all three of them should take it over from their mom (when their dad passed). I told my wife I’d divorce her if had anything to do with it. Finally her good friend who has more money than they know what to do with told her they were awful deals and she told her siblings no. Her family doesn’t understand good financial decisions to save their lives.Not me, but my parents bought a timeshare based out of Branson somewhere around the turn of the millennium. (You could "Exchange" for a fee and go other places, like Florida) - this was after I was already in college. It was decent for the first 5-6 years, and then things went downhill. Paid far more in maintenance fees than we "saved" by not staying in nice hotels. Also became harder and harder to find availability where we wanted to go.
Then, the last 7-10 years, my parents' health went downhill, and couldn't use it. Kept paying for it of course, and couldn't get out of it. Now I am their power of attorney and handle all their finances after they both had major health issues, and I'm the one still having to deal with it almost 20 years later.
Somebody on this board has a Chizik coin stashed somewhere. It’s ok to admit it.
Most of the toys I’ve ever bought my kids.
My salvage titled 95 Silverado I bought in college that I spoke about in another thread recently.
Dumbest sale I’ve ever made:
A pretty decently modified Jeep Wrangler and the truck named above for a combined 4500 bucks because I needed to ditch them before I moved 10 years ago. The Jeep was a Sahara and had the 4.0 straight six, 8.8 rear, HP30 front, long arms and 35s. I had done all the work myself on it. Similar wranglers are STILL selling for 10k or more. God damn I miss that Wrangler. I should have known I’d never get one back after having kids.
My salvage titled 95 Silverado I bought in college that I spoke about in another thread recently.
Dumbest sale I’ve ever made:
A pretty decently modified Jeep Wrangler and the truck named above for a combined 4500 bucks because I needed to ditch them before I moved 10 years ago. The Jeep was a Sahara and had the 4.0 straight six, 8.8 rear, HP30 front, long arms and 35s. I had done all the work myself on it. Similar wranglers are STILL selling for 10k or more. God damn I miss that Wrangler. I should have known I’d never get one back after having kids.
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I don't know all the details of those contracts. However, I don't see how anyone with any financial sense would ever buy one. You pay $10,000 plus $500-$1000 per year in "maintenance fees." Then, you have to pay a $250 fee if you don't want to stay at your home base. And all you're really getting is a guaranteed reservation every year. You're definitely not saving money over hotels. Maybe the math works out if you have a large family and compare to multiple hotel rooms. The 99 year contract is enough alone to never buy one.
I have to imagine VRBO and airbnb has all but destroyed new business for that industry.
I don’t know exactly what the costs are for theirs. We did one of those come stay for 3 days and listen to a 30 minute presentation, that takes half a day. It wasn’t a good deal what they offered. I ticked them off royally because they asked if I could afford their offer and I said yes, then I said I did t want it. Their closer even came in and I still said I can afford it but don’t want it. Got yelled at and threatened that I couldn’t stay at a Hilton property again for five years.
I’m guessing yours is more legit, my wife said their talk was they had points and they could go anywhere, they didn’t mention a transfer fee (which I thought was weird) and said maintenance was like 100 bucks and that it was part of the stay fee. Like I said they are awful financial planners. When her mom dies, I’m making sure the sister and brother inherit that damn thing.
My in-laws do ok financially, but they can make some poor long-term decisions. The timeshare is a perfect example. On the positive side, I'm not sure if their contract ensures a certain unit size, but every time we've stayed with them (FL, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Carolina), we got a 3 bedroom unit. Which, to be fair, might be a cost savings over a hotel if you fill the thing up.
They are very generous with theirs, too. They let us have one of their weeks so we could take a low-cost vacation when we were first married ($250 for lodging for a whole week). They also have a tradition that the whole family goes to Disney when a grandkid turns 5.
That being said, I don't want anything to do with that thing. Even if it's only $500/year in maintenance and we wouldn't have to pay any of the $10k balance, it still doesn't pencil out for what we would use it. They bought it 30 years ago, so there's 60+ years left on that contract. They realized their best out was to just let the contract expire when they die and not will it to anyone.
I had heard they pass through, I know you can refuse stuff but was confused how they could be forced inheritance. With it being paid, it was an ok deal to stay somewhere but availability is awful and you have to plan ahead a lot. I mentioned that some years we don’t take one due to kids activities so that kills the deal there. I want the BIL and SIL to take it just so I can laugh about it.
VRBO has probably not put much of a dent in timeshares, it is based on a swindle not sound financial advice.
Bought into a points system in 2009, which is domestic with about 40 locations in the US and 3 off shore. We have exchanged primarily for week long resort stays in Mexico and the Caribbean. Take a week in January and a week in February. The resorts are beach front and all inclusive. Take a number for what a week at a resort all inclusive costs for two people market rate. Divide that into what was paid for the points. Ball park figure, I estimated that after five resort trips that I was even with what I paid for the points. After that, my only annual cost is the annual maintenance fee. In 2009 it was about $600 and now is about $900. So now it is costing me about $450 per week for two people all inclusive at a beach resort. The key is doing due diligence and pulling the trigger at the right time for value when booking. Points per week change as the available slots either fill up or do not fill up as the week approaches. Spending time researching pays huge dividends.
Fair point! Hard to imagine how these timeshares aren't considered predatory.
As I understand this one, they would have to will it to us. If they don't list a beneficiary, the contract expires when my in-laws die.
Most things my wife gets off Amazon. For instance. Storage bags for a queen size mattress and box springs. You slide in mattress in, and have 3’ of plastic to fold over and nothing to keep it closed. Had to use about a half roll of duct tape to wrap around it to keep it closed. The plastic was so slick, you couldn’t even hold it. She gets a lot of useless gadgets from their.
