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Exactly brah depressing, ya ya ya i know it rains to in Hawai'i lol. But its mostly warm rain. Further from what i can remember, very rarely did oahu get consistent downpours for days on end. Usually just showers with breaks. Or a really rainy month(winter)
I moved from Manoa Valley to Los Angeles in 1974 for college and then stayed for a job. Loved Los Angeles during the seventies and eighties...lots to do, nice people, and traffic was light most of the time (except the I-405). You could go across town easily and rapidly. LA was different from Hawaii but still a nice place to enjoy life.
But in the last 15 years, LA became a victim of its own sucess as people poured into the region to enjoy its benefits. Traffic is now the worst in the US and people are getting meaner and more alienated with large areas of LA afflicted with big-city, urban attitude. "Laid-back" LA no longer exists. Almost everyone retiring moves out of LA to the exoburbs to escape the impossible traffic and unfriendliness, but these areas are usually hot (100's) during the summer and cold (30's) during winter.
So as I reach retirement age, I long for the the simple, easier life in Hawaii. Oahu's population has almost doubled since I left and Honolulu has the second worst traffic in the US, so I'm thinking Maui.
The high cost of living has a hidden benefit. It keeps a lot of people away from Hawaii. If the cost of living in Hawaii was close to the mainland, millions of people would have moved there by now.
You know brah that not everything is really so expensive, each island is different. Hands down Oahu is the most expensive. But ive heard that the Big Island is alot more cheaper for housing. The problem is jobs. I really wish u guys luck. I live in portland too. And i have got to ask you guys how do you deal with lack of sun and it being rainy and cloady all the time? Aloha Mahalo
Thanks! Yes, the Big Island is the least expensive island. My wife is from Hilo, so we'll likely move to either Hilo or Kona. Hilo's housing prices are only slightly higher than Portland's (a given price gets you less house but a bigger lot), but during the bubble, Hilo's housing prices increased far more than Portland's, to the extent that we gave up all hope of ever being able to live there. When the bubble burst, though, they dropped far more than Portland's, so now they're back in line to where they were, relatively speaking, before the bubble. As for other expenses, gasoline and electricity are more expensive on the BI, but you don't have to worry about heating, unless you live at the higher elevations. For food, it depends on what you eat. When we visit, we buy produce from the Hilo farmer's market, and we've bought fish and Portuguese sausage from roadside vendors.
I'm fortunate in that I have a well-paying job from which I could telecommute, I work for a company where telecommuting is common, and my boss loves Hawaii and would support my moving there. Unfortunately, my wife has a well-paying job that isn't portable, but since she's just a few years from retirement, it makes sense for her to stick it out, so finding another job is Hawaii won't be an issue. Part of her retirement package includes medical, dental, and vision insurance for life anywhere in the US (and for her spouse, too, if I need it). I'm younger and will have to work for several more years after she retires, so the determining factor will be whether I'm still in a position to telecommute – and, if so, how confident I am that I'll be able to keep that job until I retire. On the other hand, finding a comparable job at age 60 probably would be difficult for me anywhere, which is why I want to come up with some sort of side business that could serve as a cushion if I need it, or gravy if I don't need it.
As for dealing with Portland's weather, I just got used to it. The first couple winters were rough, but since I loved everything else about this place, I asked myself why blue skies and sunshine are objectively better than gray skies and sporadic rain (it doesn't rain here as much as legend has it, but it is gray a lot). Since I don't have clinical SAD, I couldn't come up with an answer. One day, I noticed that our foggy, misty days look like those beautiful Chinese and Japanese watercolor paintings, and I decided that our weather isn't so bad, after all. During my childhood, I had to deal with frigid Upstate New York winters, which I hated. For much of my adult life, I had to deal with brutal Atlanta summers, which I also hated. Portland, in contrast, is very mild: I'm rarely too hot or too cold. As for my wife, she spent her childhood on a 4,000-foot-elevation cattle ranch on the Hamakua Coast, and then spent many years in rainy Hilo, so Oregon's climate wasn't a big shock to her. So most of the time, we don't mind the weather here. That said, when we do get gorgeous, Hawaii-like weather, we both agree that we like it better. The "sitting outdoors and enjoying our deck" season is too short here in Portland. And while Oregon's beaches are as beautiful as Hawaii's, the 50-degree ocean water doesn't lend itself to swimming.
Cant argue h.m. How about just moving back because you miss the colorful oceans, bright flowers, white sands, green grass, clean air? etc
That's the plan. We just need to make sure it's financially feasible. We live a modest lifestyle, but we don't want to have to struggle just to make ends meet. Being poor anywhere isn't fun, even in Hawaii.
That's the plan. We just need to make sure it's financially feasible. We live a modest lifestyle, but we don't want to have to struggle just to make ends meet. Being poor anywhere isn't fun, even in Hawaii.
Is brudda waltah still in Portland? Does he still jam there?
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