I agree with this. You should look at DVC as a sunk cost the moment you buy it. If you close on a DVC contract on Wednesday and then on the next day the economy crashes, your contract might be worth half as much by the time you can sell it. If on the following Monday you go to the doctor and are told to expect triplets - surprise! and a month later lose your job in a RIF and are out of work for a year or more - will you regret buying DVC?
As you own for a period of time, all those risks fade. You begin to recoup your costs with your first trip. By the time you have owned ten years, you've pretty much "paid for" DVC in terms of accomodations (even if you've spent more by owning). But if you end up in a series of unfortunate events during the first year of ownership, you could find yourself really regretting the purchase if the money was not truly disposable.
Is this unlikely, yeah. But not terribly. In my life we've had infertility unexpectedly which costs us thousands, then adopted, tens of thousands more, then a surprise pregnancy immediately after adoption - which gave us two infants in childcare. Had we bought DVC when we married assuming that we'd get pregnant the normal way, we would have regretted not having the money for infertility/adoption/ and then the high costs of two little kids in the first five years of our marriage. When my kids were still toddlers, my husband was given 30 days notice that he'd be RIF'd. That would have sent us over a financial edge - fortunately, he was offered another position in the company with no loss of income. A few years after that, my sister had breast cancer and I took unpaid time off to be with her. Then my brother in law had terminal cancer, and a lot of our income went into supporting him when he could no longer work - my husband's coworkers were donating their vacation to him (the company he worked for allowed that in these sorts of cases). Then after my BIL died, I fell ill and have been home for two years - I just started a part time position with a client - during which time my husband has been an independent consultant - including periods of time where he hasn't had a client for three or four months (he's accepted a salaried position in the last six months). My kids BOTH started college this year (although tuition payments for my youngest don't start until next year since she is dual enrollment with high school and the state pays her tuition right now). Fortunately, for us, we've been really financially lucky - our incomes have been good when we have worked, we've saved and invested extensively (I'm OCD when it comes to financial security which started back with that RIF notice), we got lucky with stock options and two inheritances worth six figures, so none of these setbacks have made us regret buying DVC. But most people who face setbacks like this aren't in a financial position to just roll with it.
