I work in middle management at a major company and spouse stays home with the kids. Depending on bonuses, I make about $180K-200K a year in a relatively low cost of living area (House was under $300K). Travel is our big splurge. We budget our money and save for retirement, no credit card debt, etc, but enjoy nice vacations a few times a year. Life is short! I have a kid with special needs and, sadly, we’ve lost a few kids in the community in the last few years. Travel and memories have always been a big priority for us. We own DVC now, which has been awesome. We love having suites.If we couldn’t afford it, we wouldn’t do it, but we stayed at Fort Wilderness on a bonus trip this year and felt a huge difference from the deluxes.
I’m not sure how old you are, but circumstances change during life. We stayed at AKL on our honeymoon and couldn’t afford Grand Floridian. We remembered looking at DVC and thinking we could never afford it. In fact, we wondered when we would be able to ever go again. 4 years later, we got a great deal at a value with free dining and took our kids, thinking it was our only chance to go. We’ve been back at least once a year since, staying at Deluxe resorts. This year, we are going on our first cruise. We are very lucky and count our blessing each day!