Does planning increase your Hawaii Survival Rate? (Hilo, Kihei: rental market, houses)

[hotzcatz]

Aloha Forum Folks,

There seem to be a whole lot of folks moving to and from Hawaii. Some folks just seem to blithely move over to happily "live in paradise" without much planning and other folks plan for every contingency. Do you ever wonder which group has a higher "survival rate" for living in Hawaii? Perhaps the initial attitude folks have when they first move has a lot to do with how long they live in Hawaii?

Hopefully this poll will help us figure out if there is a method which has a higher "survival rate" or if it makes a difference at all.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Aloha Forum Folks,

There seem to be a whole lot of folks moving to and from Hawaii. Some folks just seem to blithely move over to happily "live in paradise" without much planning and other folks plan for every contingency. Do you ever wonder which group has a higher "survival rate" for living in Hawaii? Perhaps the initial attitude folks have when they first move has a lot to do with how long they live in Hawaii?

Hopefully this poll will help us figure out if there is a method which has a higher "survival rate" or if it makes a difference at all.

There are some folks that were born and raised in Hawai'i and still end up moving away. For instance, the new president of the Kamehameha Schools, Earl T. Kim, was born and raised on O'ahu, moved away at the age of 17, and has spent the majority of his life outside of Hawai'i. Planning might help a little initially, but "fate" might have other plans for a person. There are folks that moved to Hawai'i with only $2 in their pockets and managed to thrive, and there are folks that are multimillionaires who sent "advance teams" that purchased houses, cars, etc. and ended up having to move someplace else after living in Hawai'i for just a few weeks. Sometimes, "life" gets in the way of what a person wants to do and what a person has to do...

[whynot?]

We've passed the 10-year mark, but have been back-and-forth to the mainland a lot for family and business reasons. We'll keep a place here, but smaller and simpler than the one we started out in, and we'll be here as long as we're healthy. We're kind of over-planners: plans, alternate plans, contingencies, and back-ups. So it took us a while to settle down and not have east coast expectations about timing, availability, and variety, but now we're used to Maui kine. It definitely feels like home, but it can take a while to slow down, make friends, and find your place here.

[winkosmosis]

I don't need planning, I need more money

[jennypal]

It definitely helps having a plan. If I had a family I wouldn't move here without every single detailed planned, a plan is just KEY for families.
But Im single, when I moved here all I had was $$$ in savings that will support me for at least 6 months,as my back up plan.

-Also,when I booked my air ticket to Hawaii, I thought deeply about it,what if things don't go well and I need to go back, so what I did was to buy the ''flexible'' air fare, you pay more but it also allows you to change your flight dates anytime you want at no extra cost. If you think about it's much cheaper to add a couple of hundreds , than having to buy a new air fare ticket that can cost you up to 1000 depending on where you came from.

So I had a couple of things planned but not everything, coming to Hawaii with savings is very important. I definitely wouldn't the make without money or a job lined up.

[hotzcatz]

So far the "moving with a plan" folks are way ahead of the game, but that's kinda what I figured. Proper planning prevents poor performance, after all.

I figured what with the changed economics, having a timeline on when the move to Hawaii was made might be useful although I think it should have been "over ten years with planning" and "over ten years without planning" just to keep the data the same. Oh well, it's just for curiosity's sake and not a scientific inquiry so precise data isn't demanded.

[winkosmosis]

You can't plan for everything. For example I planned to live in walking distance of my job so I wouldn't have to spend much on gas... Well once I got here the rental market was different and I couldn't afford the rent, so I had to move to the other side of the island and spend $110 on gas per month commuting instead. Now rental prices are going up and up, so it's even more expensive. Gas prices are going up too.

[hotzcatz]

Yeah, usually the housing near the jobs is a lot more expensive than housing away from jobs. Probably because most of the jobs are in hospitality and the tourists like to stay in the nice places which have expensive rent. I'm sure that's typical of all tourist based employment. Are you in tourism or just working for someone who keeps their offices in an expensive part of town?

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Yeah, usually the housing near the jobs is a lot more expensive than housing away from jobs. Probably because most of the jobs are in hospitality and the tourists like to stay in the nice places which have expensive rent. I'm sure that's typical of all tourist based employment. Are you in tourism or just working for someone who keeps their offices in an expensive part of town?

I work in Wailuku and I live in Kihei. I managed to get a good deal here. $850 for an ohana in a quiet neighborhood in North Kihei. In Wailuku I was paying $1150 which I had negotiated down from $1250.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

We did lots of research through various forums, and found that most people who moved back to the mainland after a few years did so because of missing their family or for economic reasons. So we came up with a seven-year plan. The reason for waiting seven years to move was because my husband could retire with a full pension. Thus, we didn't need to worry about finding a job here. This was particularly important because our house is in a very rural area of the Big Island, and it's an hour and a half to get to either Kona or Hilo. And because we knew that we wouldn't be able to find jobs on the BI that would pay nearly as much as we were making on the mainland. When you are nearing retirement, this is really major.

We also were able to keep a house in Colorado, so we go back every summer to see family and friends. It's important to be able to get off the rock for a while, and it's very important to be able to spend quality time with children and grand-children.

My husband and I are both planners so we did lots of reading. Every time we came over during those seven years we spent two weeks in our house getting to know the neighborhood and "living like a local". This made the transition much easier for us.