Is $75,000 per year enough in Honolulu (apartment complex, rent, condo)

[cornelpa]

Question is --what kind of lifestyle can I live if making $75k in Honolulu and will I have much extra money to pay down my student loans or get a savings? I'm considering taking a govt job in Honolulu that would start at $75,000 and after around 15 years would top out at $100,000 (although I may only stay there for several years). I hear of people having to share rooms with roommates to afford Honolulu, but I've also seen that the median income for a person in Honolhulu is around $65k, but I've also read a post from a person who makes over $100k and thinks he's poor there. I'm currently living in Dallas making $50k with no wife and no kids and am 33yr old and white.

I currently live in a very nice apartment complex for $800 month with a 3-mile (12 minute) commute to work. I have around $45k of student loans from masters degree and law school that I'm trying to chip away at. I like outdoors, fitness, swimming (I was a lifeguard in high sch), judo, triathlons, and hiking, so Hawaii sounds perfect, except for the fact I'm white, I'm too old to hang out with college partiers and too young for the older crowd -- Question is what kind of lifestyle can I live and enjoy for my age if making $75k and will I have much extra money to pay down my student loans or get ahead?

[whtviper1]

You can't answer that question until you put together a budget of your income and expenses and see where you stand.

Cost of living calculators suggest a $50,000 income in Dallas should increase to $102,000 if moving to Honolulu if you want to be comparable.

Your biggest cost difference will be housing - $800/month doesn't get you much.

[Mikala43]

I work with someone from Dallas. He makes more here but hates how much less he gets. He said he lived like a king there, and is borderline ghetto now. /lol

BTW, he's leaving back for Dallas in a month.

[jennebediah]

You will have to adjust your budget, you will effectively take a loss moving here. However your interests are very compatible with Hawaii and they're virtually free. I think in your case it depends on how badly you want to live here.

I spent more than I had hoped to on my rent - but I think it's worth it because I love the place, the location, the amenities and I feel very secure there. I don't know what your standard of living is, but I don't think you will find anything you'd consider decent for less than $1400 a month, even out in Ewa. Some people would say that number is 2k, some would say 2500 a month - it varies by the person. For me, I found good places in neighborhoods I liked starting at about 1800 a month.

I did know that in moving here, even though I make a decent salary, it's not as much as what I was making comparatively by my mainland standard of living, so I realized that I may not be able to save as much here. But for me, the opportunity to live in Honolulu with an acceptable living wage was too good to pass up.

And there is no way to sugarcoat the traffic. I was floored by the traffic here. There's always traffic, even on Saturdays! I'm coping by leaving myself plenty of time to commute, got a bunch of audiobooks and listen to a lot of NPR, and try to chill and not let it bother me.

I've also noticed that most people are much less hung up on material goods here. (Not completely, otherwise how would the Ala Moana shopping center survive? Oh yeah, tourists!) Why go shoe shopping when all I ever wear are flip flops?

As for meeting people, I'm in the same 30s boat, and while I haven't been here long enough to make any good solid friends yet, I have found that people are ENORMOUSLY friendly. I don't think I'll have any issues making friends and meeting people.

Good luck with your decision!

PS - Electricity is also very expensive, I read that it's 3x the kilowatt hour price on the mainland (not sure if that's true). Part of why I was willing to pay more than the rent I wanted to pay is because I'm in a condo building where electricity is included.