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Hi everybody!
I have been reading the posts here in this forum with great interest.
My name is Thomas and I am working in the hospitality industry. I have a university degree in international hospitality management from a well known school in Switzerland. I am a 28 years old, blond, male caucasian.
After working a few years in Switzerland, my company is sending me to work for their resort on Kauai. It is a major Hotel Management Company that offers me a better position but a lower salary than what i would get in Switzerland. Nevertheless I decided to take on the challenge.
As my mother is american, I have dual citizenship.
I have a few questions to you experts out there about my relocation to Kauai.
I am moving together with my long term girlfriend. She holds the same degree and is US citizen as well. So far she has not found a job though, but we are quite convinced that she eventually will.
I get to kauai on July 14th, 2011 and my first day of work is on August 1st, 2011.
We bring about 25'000 US dollars with us, that we have saved over the last years.
I will earn about 43000 US dollars per year at the resort I work in. This number is before taxes and other expenses.
How much do I need to live decently?
Will 43'000 be enough? How much do we have to calculate for the rent?
Other expenses? Insurance and dental care is provided by my employer.
Any other tips you might have? I am a little anxious, as I have also read that the island is expensive and there are some forms of racism against caucausians. How bad is it really?
Thank you so much for your help!
Congrats on the job offer. If your GF finds work in a reasonable amount of time, you shouldn't have any worries. 43K isn't a whole lot of money for 2 to live on permently, though.
I would plan on $2000 per month for rent, then utilities on top of that. Will you buy a car? Unless you can live on the property, you need one. Public transportation is kinda sketchy on Kauai.
Racism is pretty subtle here....taking a locals orders first or preferential treatment in hiring. Giving bad directions etc...If you stick with large international companies with professional HR offices, you shouldn't have too much trouble.
Hi! Thank you for your reply.
Things actually start to get better as time progresses. My girlfriend has a job now too and that raises our household income to roughly 90'000$ gross.
So you think we should spend 2000 on our rent? Isn't too much?
Yes, we plan to buy a car and maybe a motorcycle as a second vehicle to get around, as we both have quite ****ty working hours (as usual in hospitality).
Where would you look for housing? Any agencies you'd recommend?
What areas, neighborhoods are rather safe? we don't have children, so no school around needed.
We will leave Switzerland in exactly 3 months and 1 day!
I am ready for the ride
the general opinion is that unless you have spent time working, traveling, or visiting a lot, and know the little differences in areas, you should look for a long-term (a few months) vacation rental near your employment. Once you arrive, you can branch out looking for something else.
Thank you very much for your answer!
The one single cost that worries me the most is the one for housing.
As we are only 2 persons without kids and pets and our gross income is 90'000, how much is reasonable to be spent on renting an appartment/house? We are both working in Poipu but I have read that living there is quite costly, where would you go?
I am able to spend the first two weeks at my future employers hotel free of charge, until we are settled. So that gives me some time to look around and see what's available.
Cheers
Thomas
Try craigslist.org or vrbo.com for furnished rentals to get an idea of prices for that area. I live on Oahu, so can't help much there. But definately don't rent anything sight unseen. There are some scam artist out there, renting homes that aren't theirs our double booking etc...
You can rent a decent place on Kauai for much cheaper than $2,000 per month. You may want to do the VRBO.com thing and figure out if you want to live near towns like Lihue, Wailua, or Kapaa. I personally like the south side more, like Kalaheo, Eleele, etc. Traffic would be a little crappy going into and out of town for work, but yeah Kauai is beautiful, enjoy the experience, you both will do great.
thank you everybody for your help!
With a gross salary of 90'000 how much would you consider to be reasonable to spend on monthly rent? what would you see as the maximum we could spend? As monthly rent represents a fixed cost I don't want to spend more than i can afford in the long run.
thank you very much!
Dude the heat is going to kill you, but good luck. $90000 divided by 12 is 7500, so if you're paying between 800-1500 that's going to take a chunk out of your monthly paycheck, but it's manageable. Food and whatnot will probably be more expensive than the mainland, but between the two of you you should have no problem paying for it and living well.
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things turn better
