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Re: Marriott Vacation Club point system (by Steve F.):

Those are the biggest money makers of all dennish! I LOVE presentations, hundreds of thousands of Marriott rewards points for nothing more than sitting for an hour or so. That is, assuming you do not buy of course! It pays you back for your purchase. At 2 per year, thats 50,000 points per year * current value of .9 cents each (source: https://thepointsguy.com/2017/06/june-2017-monthly-valuations/), that's $450 per year for 2-3 hours of "work". Don't make the mistake of avoiding those, but do learn to resist. In 10 years, that's almost $5,000 at current valuations of "free" money. Combine that with credit cards (you do pay them off monthly I hope) that give you free stuff, it's easy to fund a timeshare purchase (at least at the old prices when they sold timeshares and not points). I finally got me a Starpoints card after the Marriott merger. Thus far, I have earned 50,000 Starpoints. That's just for part of this year and the massive bonus they give you. At current valuation of 2.7 cents per point, that's another $1,350 for basically an hour work to sign up for the card maybe. So, between Marriott presentations and Starwoods points, that's almost 2 grand just this year in Marriott rewards points. Just as cool is my Chase Mileage plus card, for which they have given me 66,457 miles this year including bonuses. At current valuation of 1.5 cents each, that's another $996 for basically free. What's really cool about that card is they have an app. In that app, when you do things like shop or eat somewhere that you would have shopped or eaten at anyway, you buy an electronic gift card for whatever you owe and you get it on the spot real time. That gift card (which pays for your meal or purchase you would have paid anyway) earns you United miles. What funny about it, is you pay with your credit card (Starwood Amex). So, I earn the United miles *and* Starwood points. Stacking is always nice. So, between those 3 things alone (all of the above), I will likely earn close to $4,000 this year alone. It's not really fair to offset a timeshare purchase with this money, the purchase price really was the purchase price, but, it's fair for at least the presentations.

Shocked someone agrees with me! It's a daily pet peeve of mine seeing how money is spent these days. Yes, buying from Marriott is not the greatest money saving idea especially today, but, more money on cars than a house is more absurd in my book. And more house than one can safely pay for is also more absurd. Cars, you use them, sort of enjoy them, but they go to $0 of course. I know a guy who makes close to 500k per year. His house is so expensive, and the money they spend on sofa tables (50K just for ONE), the guy is close to 60, he will be working until he's 90 just to pay debt. It's so ridiculous. He buys a new (more expensive) house every 5-10 years too, sure, go more in debt. That's what I want to do when I retire at year end, keep working and not retire so I can pay off house, cars, etc. And working several jobs slaving away for debt. Sure, sounds appealing. Th guy has no money, nothing, can't even travel. For what!?

I'd much rather spend my time traveling. Been to so many wonderful places. Cabo san Luca, Ko Olina, Vina del Mar, Vegas, Tahoe, Aruba, Cancun, Palm Desert, S Padre in winter, Kona, Vail, Branson, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Busselton, Phoenix, Surfers Paradise, Williamsburg shortly, just to name a few. Its not the greatest logic per se, but honestly, I doubt I would have gone to all those without my timeshare. Looking forward to at least another 10 years of that sort of travel.