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My friend, you can’t see me right now but I am sitting on my balcony in the sunshine having an ice cold beer. Just want you to know I’m enjoying the **** out of it. It’s a cheap beer, maybe a beer you might consider trash. But hey, good enough for me.
I’ve made my peace with the apartments I’m looking at, nobody is asking for you to call them dumps lmao. They’re what I am looking to pay, period. I could drop 2k on a place in Florida that’s nicer by material standards, but that’s not the same experience.
The way I see it, if I’m living below my means I can better leverage that money in the stock market to give me returns that’ll compound over time in my favor. I think I can deal with a less fancy apartment for a year in return for 100k more in 20 years.
What’s your experience w Hawaii / Florida? Or life in general?
I’ve made my peace with the apartments I’m looking at, nobody is asking for you to call them dumps lmao. They’re what I am looking to pay, period. I could drop 2k on a place in Florida that’s nicer by material standards, but that’s not the same experience.
What’s your experience w Hawaii / Florida? Or life in general?
I lived in Honolulu for roughly 3.5 years from March of 2016 to August of 2019 and plan to move back in mid 2022. I still own a place there; thankfully my tenant is still paying his rent (I rent my two bedroom for $2,300 a month in Makiki and tenant just renewed the lease).
When I first moved to Hawaii, I absolutely loved it. The natural beauty was unparalleled to any other place I've lived with the possible exception of northern Michigan in the summer, and I loved the weather.
But I soon caught a case of island fever and grew tired of the plate lunch concept (a meat, starch, and mac salad) and trips to the beach.
That said, after I started deploying on a submarine, I came to love Hawaii all over again whenever I'd return home. I started to do more outdoors activities (hiking, snorkeling, etc.), made more friends, fell in love with the food scene outside of plate lunches , and just became at peace with myself. Yes, I still wasn't thrilled to be so far away from where I grew up in NYC and the time zone difference sucked if you wanted to chat with friends and family back home, but it was something that I learned to deal with.
I lived in Honolulu for roughly 3.5 years from March of 2016 to August of 2019 and plan to move back in mid 2022. I still own a place there; thankfully my tenant is still paying his rent (I rent my two bedroom for $2,300 a month in Makiki and tenant just renewed the lease).
When I first moved to Hawaii, I absolutely loved it. The natural beauty was unparalleled to any other place I've lived with the possible exception of northern Michigan in the summer, and I loved the weather.
But I soon caught a case of island fever and grew tired of the plate lunch concept (a meat, starch, and mac salad) and trips to the beach.
That said, after I started deploying on a submarine, I came to love Hawaii all over again whenever I'd return home. I started to do more outdoors activities (hiking, snorkeling, etc.), made more friends, fell in love with the food scene outside of plate lunches , and just became at peace with myself. Yes, I still wasn't thrilled to be so far away from where I grew up in NYC and the time zone difference sucked if you wanted to chat with friends and family back home, but it was something that I learned to deal with.
That’s an awesome story! Literally, one of my biggest passions in life is photography, so I completely feel you on natural beauty. It sounds shallow but I really do love me some nature. It’s extremely therapeutic for me. I’d really love to get a nice zoom lens and take tons of wave photos. Check out dantom on instagram to see what I mean. I’m not looking to stay for too long, but while I’m 27, hungry for adventure still, and not quite ready to put a down on a home long term, it sure sounds like a nice way to spend a year working remotely.
One of the hardest things for me I think is going to be the time zone difference for friends. Most of my friends are on the west coast and we do zoom hang outs every week so I’d still be able to make those, but Hawaii - East Coast truly is a brutal time difference. It could work on weekends though!
I actually really don't spend nearly 4k a month. Assuming I spend 1800 max on rent / utilities, I can keep grocery & drinks to under 300-350 a month here, assuming that'll be 25% more expensive on the island, so 400, maybe 500 max. So really, I'd just need around 2300 for bare living, maybe splurge an extra 200 for drinks / eating out per month (even that, is a stretch). I'm definitely not one of those spendy software engineers you might meet. I was unemployed for a year+, I try to stretch my money and try to avoid buying expensive brands. Though surfing lessons, rental cars, ubers, etc may tack on a bit more than I anticipate.
I'm looking at running like a 2.5-3k / month budget, leaving me ~25-30k a year to throw into a roth, my 401k, and my brokerage account. Judging off my expenses for the past few months, it'd be closer to the 2.5k / 30k range though.
Places with rent/utilities at 1800 exist, but probably going to be more. electricity probably 50 - 100, possibly more if you plan on not sweating it out in the dark every day. You'll be working from home, so usage will be higher. Cable/internet packages probably $100. $500probably more standard for groceries, excluding eating out. But yeah, like everyone else that comes here, you have your minimum living standard to adjust to whatever your income is.
I can't see how you're not going to average a spend of $4k a month if you plan to do activities, eat out, etc on the weekends as a quasi tourist. Not to mention furnish your condo, possibly buy a car, etc. Uber is costing you $20 one way, assuming you're staying in town. You want to head out of town to other hiking trails or areas of the island, its going to cost you a lot of money. North shore? Probably cost you over $100 round trip. Kailua? Same thing. Your newfound friends probably aren't going to want to limit themselves to netflix and chill at your house every week. lol
That’s an awesome story! Literally, one of my biggest passions in life is photography, I’d really love to get a nice zoom lens and take tons of wave photos. Check out dantom on instagram to see what I mean. I’m not looking to stay for too long, but while I’m 27, hungry for adventure still, and not quite ready to put a down on a home long term, it sure sounds like a nice way to spend a year working remotely.
I hear you. I want to get my living in Hawaii done while I'm still young and child free; I'm 31 and spent ages 26-29 in Hawaii. I personally don't plan to live in Hawaii if I'm no longer active duty but still working as I don't want to be subject to Hawaii state income taxes, so I'm really trying to get all that I can out of the state for the time being.
And I spent one morning out with my photographer friend at some beach and it was amazing. We left before dawn and were on the beach to capture some great sunrise photos!
I do not have any specific advice about apartments in Honolulu.
I would just comment that this forum does have a lot of knowledgeable people that will give you very helpful information, but also includes some outspoken people that either lack a bit of self awareness, or believe they are something very rare and precious.
They have almost all moved here themselves at some point in time, but are absolutely convinced no one else posting here could possibly have a successful move here.
I have been reading this forum for some time, but never posted about my pending move here because i just did not want to engage with all the negativity. It is a wonder why some of them live here given the impossible place they make it out to be sometimes.
When that negativity is directed at someone who has no job and wants to move here and live off the land, etc. I largely tend to agree with them. But, in a situation of a single person making close to $100k a year wants to come here for a short stay to experience the state while they are young, i just don't understand all the hand-wringing.
By all means do your research and ask a lot of questions. But, please do not be deterred from trying something new. I strongly believe that people more often regret the things they did not do more than the things that they tried and failed. What is the worst that could happen? you have a bad year and blow through a few tens of thousands of dollars. At your age and income, you will have no problem recovering from that.
Places with rent/utilities at 1800 exist, but probably going to be more. electricity probably 50 - 100, possibly more if you plan on not sweating it out in the dark every day. You'll be working from home, so usage will be higher. Cable/internet packages probably $100. $500probably more standard for groceries, excluding eating out. But yeah, like everyone else that comes here, you have your minimum living standard to adjust to whatever your income is.
I can't see how you're not going to average a spend of $4k a month if you plan to do activities, eat out, etc on the weekends as a quasi tourist. Not to mention furnish your condo, possibly buy a car, etc. Uber is costing you $20 one way, assuming you're staying in town. You want to head out of town to other hiking trails or areas of the island, its going to cost you a lot of money. North shore? Probably cost you over $100 round trip. Kailua? Same thing. Your newfound friends probably aren't going to want to limit themselves to netflix and chill at your house every week. lol
500$ for groceries, still is like 2300 for rent / utilities / groceries.
Let's say, maybe I take two weekend trips via car rental (140 ea) a month, and maybe 2 surf lessons (85 ea), that's still only gonna be 450 dollars. Spend 6 nights out at a bar, 50 bucks a piece? Roughly another 300 bucks. That'd be splurging for me already. I can happily cut drinking/eating out and instead just opt for running with some people on a local trail. I can live pretty damn conservatively and still be content. Just because I'm on Hawaii doesn't mean I need to be a tourist every weekend. A run on a local trail to the beach that ends in some sunset photography is ideal for me, and that'd be straight up free.
I also just don't think I'll need to uber around if I live in Waikiki, that's the point of living in Waikiki. I'll get groceries down the street, run somewhere locally, cook at home, and when I do feel like going outside, I'll walk. Sure, I might have to take one every once in a while. Especially if I need to make a Costco run or something, but still, yeah an uber might cost 20 bucks, but if it does, I just will take less of them? Is that not the entire point of living in an urban metro by the beach? You have everything near you so you can stay put.
I mean, this is just my rationale, I'm looking at the numbers and 3k / month is probably closer to what I'd actually spend on the more generous side, but maybe you're still seeing something I'm not seeing or I'm being naive.
By all means do your research and ask a lot of questions. But, please do not be deterred from trying something new. I strongly believe that people more often regret the things they did not do more than the things that they tried and failed. What is the worst that could happen? you have a bad year and blow through a few tens of thousands of dollars. At your age and income, you will have no problem recovering from that.
Here’s the thing. I can’t think of a single thing that would be appealing to move to Honolulu on a shoestring budget especially in an upcoming La Niña year with heavy rain expected all winter. Regret? Regret what? Moving to the most remote place on the planet?
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, and just became at peace with myself. Yes, I still wasn't thrilled to be so far away from where I grew up in NYC and the time zone difference sucked if you wanted to chat with friends and family back home, but it was something that I learned to deal with.
