Possible Promotion to Hawaii? (Waipahu: fit in, sales, real estate)

[shadowlp06]

A colleague of mine has an opportunity to interview for a promotion that would take him to Waipahu, Hawaii. After incentives, a rough estimate on salary would be around $92,000. With two kids, a wife, and himself, would he be able to afford to live there? We sat and did some research yesterday and the cost of living increase seems to outweigh any potential move, but with a reduction from income and sales tax compared to where he's at now (Arkansas), may ease some of that pain. Just trying to help my colleague out, any advice would be appreciated!

[rya96797]

not sure what the cost of living is in his home home state, but without further details as to what his current lifestyle and income is, and what he expects it to b 'll be in for a rude awakening cost wise if he tries to find something similar here.

my personal (very) general rule of thumb is that to live a "modest" independent lifestyle on oahu with reasonable amount put aside in savings/retirement, you'd have to make around $60k if single, or 100k if married. If you add 2 kids into the equation, 150k combined income is a lot more comfortable than family of 4 on 92k.

If the wife doesn't work, and all he has is $92k before tax, you'd be living mostly paycheck to paycheck unless you plan on making cuts somewhere such as living in a 2br apartment instead of a house, etc. Another huge consideration is the amount medical will cost you here. Depending on your employer, the family medical plan can be extremely expensive.The less debt such as car payments, loans, etc that you have the better.

married filing joint with 2 kids, state is Hawaii, income $92k

Gross Pay92000.00
Federal9140.00
Fica5704.00
Medicare1334.00
State5749.50
SDI0.00
Net Pay70072.50



You're basically looking at $70k after tax. 30k of that could go towards your housing, not even considering utilities. So say you have 40k remaining to pay ALL other expenses, medical, food, other insurance, clothing, transportation, entertainment, education, savings, rainy day fund for 4 people. That's pretty tough. I think it's a bad idea unless the wife is working and can pull $30-50k or something.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Good analysis, rya.

OP, your friend also has to consider what kind of lifestyle they anticipate. For example, housing is ridiculous expensive on Oahu. He should spend a little time looking at real estate prices. Also, I suggest that you suggest that he spends a lot of time reading through the many fine posts here about living on Oahu, including traffic, schools, and costs of things like groceries and utilities.

[Mikala43]

They definitely don't want to live in Waipahu!

Please remember, ours is not a sales tax, it is a general excise tax. Things are tax every time they are sold (distributor, then the store, then the consumer), also it is on food here AND services.

[oceanus]

A family can spend around $20k just to get their lives here (cars, pets, furniture, hotels, rental deposit, etc.) If the company isn't paying for all moving expenses, that is something to consider.

It just depends on their lifestyle and debt obligations, but having kids really makes life in Hawaii expensive. It's easy to pay $6 for a loaf of bread or head of lettuce, and $7-$8 for a gallon of milk, for example. They also have to consider the school systems. People have moved back to the mainland after being unhappy with the schools. There is private school, but thats another huge cost.

The best way to live on $90k here is as a single person in a 1br apartment.
(But not Waipahu...yikes, Lol.)

[hotzcatz]

I dunno, if they're from Arkansas (and how it's pronounced "Are-can-saw" and spelled "Are-can-suss" makes Hawaiian easy) anyway, if they're from Arkansas, they may fit into Waipahu? Not like they'd be from California or New York city or anything? They'd still be from the mainland, of course, but maybe they'd have a chance of fitting in? It'd probably all depend on the people involved, of course.

Waipahu isn't usually perceived as a very upscale area, Shadowlp06. Kinda gritty around the edges, smallish houses (and Hawaii is renowned for small houses) kinda blue collar, I guess would be the mainland term? It has a lot of plantation history in the area so it's a worker town, not a tourist town. It's not the 'Hawaii' that the Hawaii Tourist Bureau usually depicts in their advertising. It should be a little less expensive there than in some of the other areas of Oahu, though.

I've not lived in Waipahu, but we used to go there for shopping at Arakawa's. Although Arakawa's is closed now.

[Mikala43]

Why would anyone want to try to fit in?


I go to a specific location in Waipahu about 4 times a week. I won't even run errands there! Besides Don Quixote and stuff. Everything is old and bust up. I actually left my basket of food in the Waipahu Times, it was packed, old, the staff was rude.... I used a car wash, I the water was disgusting, I shut off my vents and still had foul water smell in my car..... It's a pretty dumpy area.

Edit: in all fairness there are some good mom & pop restaurants, and adult toy store! Tanioka's is there, and they make up for a lot!