The Most Difficult Decision You Made Prior To Moving to Hawaii??? (Honolulu: sale, to rent)

[VanHa]

For those of you wanting to move to Hawaii, I thought this might be helpful to share some of the toughest decisions that those who have gone before you had to make.

Moving to a new place, in the middle of the ocean is never easy. Typically you need to make a conscious choice to move Hawaii. For some of us the decision to move was NOT easy and we had to answer allot of tough questions!! Like...will we miss our families, how would we earn a living, will we have enough money, what if we don't like it, will I have the same life style, will my co-workers accept me....etc. etc.


Most of reasons for moving will fall into one of the following category:

1. Personal (I love it in Hawaii...sun, fun, surf...)
2. Family (I need to get away from them on the mainland, or I need to be closer to them in Hawaii....)
3. Work (I found a job, or I am being transfered...)
4. Education (I am going to school at UH, BYU...)
5. Retire (I am going to live out my golden years out there...)
6. I didn't know what to do with my self so I hoped on a plane (I am a lost sole and wanted to find myself)

.....but what is the most difficult decision that you had to make, prior to boarding the plane to get to HAWAII to start your new life !!!

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by VanHa

.....but what is the most difficult decision that you had to make, prior to boarding the plane to get to HAWAII to start your new life

That's simple... whether or not moving so far away from all my friends and family would work.

[sbartist]

For us our move came about in this order:

1. Personal (we love it in Hawaii...sun, fun, surf...)
2. Retire (we want to live out our golden years here...) - so we saved up a rather large down payment with the help of the sale of our townhouse on the mainland and found a condo we loved and close in to the things we like to do
3. Work (husband wound up being transfered on a fluke and I found a job week after arriving)
4. Family (I needed to get away from husband's adult kids (the wickeds) on the mainland, and my father lives in Hawaii most of the year - I do miss being able to see my mom but chat on daily basis through email or talk on the phone)

[HiloDiver]

We're here because spouse was recruited to work here. After doing our due diligence on whether we wanted to relocate to a totally new climate and culture, we learned through research and this forum that it costs less to live here than where we moved from. Most people's mileage will vary on that one.

The decision to move to Hawai'i wasn't all that difficult. Our most difficult decisions entailed our belongings. We moved from the Caribbean and shipping even a half container here was ridiculously expensive. Cars about $6K per (plus having to rent a car here for several weeks). After doing the research, we decided to move via US Mail. We sent a few boxes of things we needed immediately via Priority Mail, and they arrived before we did as we took a week vacation in my old town during the move. The rest was sent parcel post, with the exception of 7 or 8 media mail boxes. The most difficult decisions were what to send ($$$$$, and PITA packing, labeling, Customs forms etc. which we needed because of where we were moving from) and what to sell, donate, gift, toss. It was really agonizing. The most heartbreaking things to leave behind were our kayaks. Shipping them VI-HI was $850 EACH so obviously we sold them. We also hated to sell our cars, but economically it would have been foolish to ship them. Our move was made up of hundreds of difficult decisions. In the end, we erred in favor of shipping a little more than we should have but not that much, maybe 2-3%.

[Koale]

the toughest decisions we had to make were leaving our horse and my piano. The rest was a breeze...it was a concious decision we made and we haven't looked back.
Koale

[anmei100]

Tougest decision is should I stay in Nor Cal or take the job offer in Honolulu? The question is my elementary school age kids. Rumor has it that there is a "beat up white kids" day at the public schools. Will my kids be bullyed? My son is blond but thankfully my daughter has dark hair.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by anmei100

Tougest decision is should I stay in Nor Cal or take the job offer in Honolulu? The question is my elementary school age kids. Rumor has it that there is a "beat up white kids" day at the public schools. Will my kids be bullyed? My son is blond but thankfully my daughter has dark hair.

You also asked the same question in another thread...

My answer is the same... it's an urban myth. It wasn't true when it was started, it isn't true now.

You should far more concerned about the reduction in your lifestyle level if you make that move. Cost of living is higher, salaries are lower, a real double whammy. Use the Search function to pull up recent threads from the archives on this.

[LMMKAT]

Originally Posted by OpenD

You also asked the same question in another thread...

My answer is the same... it's an urban myth. It wasn't true when it was started, it isn't true now.

You should far more concerned about the reduction in your lifestyle level if you make that move. Cost of living is higher, salaries are lower, a real double whammy. Use the Search function to pull up recent threads from the archives on this.

Agree.

My blonde haired, blue eyed kid does just fine. A$$hole kids can get beaten up, no matter the color of their skin.

My most difficult decision was where to find housing/schools/convenience to work.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Not a hard decision for us at all. We retired to the Big Island because it's where we could afford the type of housing we wanted, and because we love the rural lifestyle. Not a hard decision to leave friends and family, because we also spend our summers with them on the mainland. The most difficult decisions were what to bring and what to leave behind, and we still brought too much.