Moving to Maui Summer 2015 (Lahaina: condo, townhouse, private school)

[Hawaiibound2015]

My wife and I plan on moving to Hawaii in summer of 2015 with our 3 year old son from Tacoma, WA.. We have visited Oahu and plan on checking out Maui in April. I am retired military, 40 yrs old, and have a decent pension. I will work full time when we get there, but I don't have a job lined up yet. I figure we will be able to live without a job for about 4 months on our savings if we have to, but I want to avoid that if at all possible. My wife is a licensed cosmetologist and plans on working full time when we put our son in school. I wanted to find out about what schools we should avoid enrolling our son in. We are white, blond haired blue eyed family and understand that we are the minority in Hawaii. we want to embrace the culture, learn the Hawaiin language and not be the typical mainland users that are only using the great things that Hawaii has to offer and not giving anything back to it. We want to live in a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo, townhouse or mother in law house and would be willing to spend as much as $2300 a month for a nice place. Does that sound reasonable? We want to avoid the really rainy parts of Maui and would like to be within 10 minutes of good kid friendly beaches. We don't need all of the nightlife and food that Oahu has to offer, but we do like to enjoy a night out with good food and drinks about twice a month. We have considered moving to Oahu since there are way more available jobs there and all kinds of military benefits that I could take advantage of, but I really want to avoid all of the traffic and congestion. Please be honest and don't sugar coat anything. I am a realist and don't want to think things are better than they really are. Mahalo for your input.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Hawaiibound2015

My wife and I plan on moving to Hawaii in summer of 2015 with our 3 year old son from Tacoma, WA.

Please be honest and don't sugar coat anything.

Wait until your son is 18 so he can get a proper education and life experiences on the mainland.

[ruprick]

Or, do it while your son is young and resilient and flexible. He may look back at those years as some of his best.

[Hawaiibound2015]

I appreciate the honest opinions and look forward to more input. Ruprick I was thinking the same thing. If I grew up in Hawaii I may be more appreciative of the outports a lot more and would not spend so much time trying to keep up with the joneses. As far as education goes I realize that it isn't as good as the mainland, but I don't plan on just letting the public school system teach my son everything he needs to know. We are much more involved in my sons education than our families were.

[WestMaui]

For a reasonably decent education, plan on enrolling your son in private school - the public school system is not the best on either island. Our friends have children that go to Maui Prep in Napili and they are doing really well (one of them just won some national science award). West Maui is a good place to live, to avoid the rain steer clear of anything north of Kahana, plus Lahaina offers great dining options. Your budget of $2800 for a 2br/2ba on Maui is reasonable (not sure about Oahu - probably, since everything there seems a bit cheaper). The best place to check for this is on Craigslist. And unless you are really in love with your furniture, etc., try to get pre-owned stuff here - shipping a household can really kill a budget.

The main thing to be aware of is that everything here is more expensive than the mainland - milk is about $6 for a gallon and a loaf of bread is about $5. When you visit for your next scouting trip, be sure to pay attention to the basic things that you will need (most people on vacation don't tend to pay attention to these things).

Hope this helps - good luck!