move to the big island with three young boys (Hilo: rent, insurance)
Big IslandThe Island of Hawaii
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Hi,
I have been reading these threads for quite some time, and am interested in moving to the big island, with my wife and 5,6,7 year old boys. I am disabled due to a severe brain injury after a 30' fall landing on my head on concrete. I am on Social security disability now, until my workers comp case finally settles.(has been four and a half years so far waiting.) We live in Missouri right now, and are completely debt free, and plan to ship our 8 passenger 4x4, and bring my tools, selling everything else. We intend to live as off grid as possible, raising chickens, goats, rabbits and vegetables. My wife works full time, and plans to find a job within the first year or we are going to open an insurance office, and sell/ rent cars. We have looked all over the country for the last two years trying to determine if this is a viable plan, and everywhere we look around the country for property to live/ build off grid and continue to end up coming back to looking at hawaii. We see how the odds are stacked against us because most people fall flat, or for whatever reason leave in a year or two. I have been to the island several times for vacation back when i made good money, and could work full time. My question is if we have no debt, and no real bills to pay what would make a move to the beautiful islands of hawaii a bad idea? We already live with the ohana spirit helping people anytime we have an abundance and people around us have need, and the house we have now we rebuilt together(my wife and I) in a little less than a month after purchasing it, after it was destroyed by fire. We prefer to pay cash for a fixer, and make it livable to our standards with no real regard for whether it is permitted, as once we make the move do not plan on the need to sell or move again. Obviously the best laid plans always have unforeseen pitfalls, but the thought pattern is....if we live debt free, and do not have bills to pay we could make it anywhere, why not in a place that has a year round growing season, even if we start from just a shipping container on a piece of land and build it into what we want.
Would love for the thoughts of the people on the thread as I have been learning alot about a place i love, and loved to visit from the people on here.
In fact from the first time i visited 20 years ago i always said if there is any place to be homeless it would be hawaii, though we have no intent on moving there without the assets to be debt free and get through at least a year or two without the need to work a job.
Thanks and best regards... future hawaiin.
My first thought is that you COULD live in your converted shipping container in someplace like Ocean View where anything goes, but then your wife would be looking at an hour and a half (one way) commute to work in Kona. I doubt that you'll find anything closer to Kona where you could live off the grid as you've described. Hilo side? I'm sure you've seen the postings about that.
And, since you've been reading these threads for a while, certainly you've seen discussions about the schools on the BI. Don't discount the postings by people who have actually experienced the schools as a parent or even as a student. Especially here in rural Ka'u the level of education is very poor.
Yes, the year-round growing season is nice. If you have enough land and enough water you can do quite nicely, but not sure how well you would be able to feed a family of five. Bartering is big here, so once you get established you would be able to trade and widen your options.
that is the one thing we have thought alot about is the education system. not that most of these public schools aren't just as poor at educating our children, as education definitely starts at home and is reinforced by the schools.
alas I agree I would not want to short change my children.
The public education system here seems to take a nosedive somewhere after elementary school. With help from you parents your boys may be okay initially, giving you a false sense of security, but at some point between elementary school and high school you will probably want to either send them to private school or home school them. I can't imagine three hormonal teenage boys taking well to home schooling.
I agree with whtviper, unless you can afford private school for 3 boys, put your plans off until they are ready for college.
"Hawaiian" is an ethnicity. Whatever ethnicity you are now, you'll still be that down here.
i guess your being cute or funny, but this leads into the discussion on education. Hawaiian is a culture. Polynesian or Samoan are an ethnicity. but thanks for playing wheel of ignorance!
Besides ethnicity is about the culture you associate with, not your race so i will always be the race i am, but i can identify with whatever ethnicity i am comfortable with. So therefore your ethnic background does not change, but your ethnic foreground just depends on where you spend time and identify with, therefore I repeat
FUTURE HAWAIIAN!
Last edited by dochansen69; 09-18-2017 at 09:41 PM..
Race is associated with biology, whereas ethnicity is associated with culture. In biology, races are genetically distinct populations within the same species; they typically have relatively minor morphological and genetic differences. ... To be a member of an ethnic group is to conform to some or all of those practices. ACCORDING TO LIVE SCIENCE
i guess your being cute or funny, but this leads into the discussion on education. Hawaiian is a culture. Polynesian or Samoan are an ethnicity. but thanks for playing wheel of ignorance!
Okay. So explain to me how a culture made it to the race/ethnicity part of the census.
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