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Our household salary is 140K. We have 3 kids all aged under 5. No debt, have some saving. Got a faculty housing offer from University of Hawaii, Manoa. Can we get by? What is the expected life style with this amount of salary?
Thanks,
freehorse101
Yes, that is enough, especially since you have housing lined up. I usually encourage people to explore life and "make the move" to Hawaii if they so desire, with a few considerations. One is if there are children of school age (or soon to be). Please thoroughly research the public school system in Hawaii, and the alternatives of private school and home schooling. If you decide to go with private schools, you'll need to do the numbers to see if your salary will be spread too thin.
Good luck. There are many threads on this site about the school situation.
Our household salary is 140K. We have 3 kids all aged under 5. No debt, have some saving. Got a faculty housing offer from University of Hawaii, Manoa. Can we get by? What is the expected life style with this amount of salary?
Thanks,
freehorse101
It would help if you would describe your lifestyle now, or what you would be expecting. Do you dine out at restaurants a lot? Go out to shows? Or are you "outdoorsy" folks who like to hike, bike, and go to the beach. Do you want a lot of "stuff" (fancy car, latest gadgets, designer clothes)? Or are you happy with a used car, kitchen gadgets from Craigslist, and rubber slippahs?
The faculty housing at UH is great, cost-wise. But I hear that there are some sound-proofing issues. (As in, you can hear your neighbors' dinner-table conversation.) This drives some people crazy, and they move out (to a place easily twice as expensive) quickly. Others don't mind. There are *lots* of faculty with kids there, so you would have an instant community, which is nice.
Most UH faculty do send their older kids to private school, although the nearby elementary school (Noelani) is one of the better ones on the island. So with three kids, you might think about sending them there and research options for middle & high school.
The quick answer: with $140K and three kids, you're not going to live lavishly. But you will more than get by. The faculty housing is a deal like no other, and will keep your living expenses will in-line. If the lifestyle and what Hawaii has to offer is appealing, you'll probably be very happy.
As my handle suggests, I'm faculty at UH Manoa. I'm not so new anymore... in my 5th year here. Feel free to DM me if you have more specific questions.
It would be enough for my lifestyle. Enough for your lifestyle? I haven't a clue.
Unless you currently live some place at the upper end of expensive, you will probably have to take a reduction in your lifestyle because the money won't go as far. However, if you have any skills with working a budget, you should be fine.
Although, if you end up with 3 kids in private school, I can see where that budget might end up as a tight pinch.
I am sure that there are those here who might disagree but, even though $140K might be "enough," IMHO you will have a tough time "getting ahead." Not sure if that is a concern of yours, just thought I would bring it up.
If you see Hawaii as a long-time or even permanent home I would suppose that you would want to go beyond faculty housing and move into a single-family home, especially with three kids. The average price for a home on Oahu is now $637K. Sure, the mortgage rates are great but there's that down payment---even a low DP of 5% sees you coming up with over $30K (and from what I see the usual requirement is ten or even twenty per cent DP), with a monthly mortgage/tax payment of nearly $3k. Plus (EXPENSIVE!!!!) utilities, insurance, etc. And as mentioned above, the schools here suck. Home schooling is always an option but sending the kids to private schools would be tough.
On the other hand, if you're just seeking that Hawaii Experience and plan on heading back to the mainland after a few years I would say go for it. Just have the return ticket money tucked neatly away.
I live on around 45K/year, with a wife and kid, and another kid on the way...and living in Japan, and I can live on that. If someone offered me 45K/year to live in Honolulu, I'd be on the plane tomorrow.
But I've routinely gained the impression that if I were to try to live in Honolulu, I'd probably make about 30K/year or less, so it's a 'no go' for me.
If I were making 140K/year, I'd not only be in Honolulu, but I'd probably be putting 70K/year in the bank easily, and still feel like I was spending excessively.
That being said, I've regularly noticed on city-data, that there are a ton of Americans who have never lived under 100K/year, and have absolutely no clue whatsoever how anyone else would.
In short, no one can really answer that question, except the OP himself who knows exactly what kind of expenditures he finds absolutely necessary.
I live on around 45K/year, with a wife and kid, and another kid on the way...and living in Japan, and I can live on that. If someone offered me 45K/year to live in Honolulu, I'd be on the plane tomorrow.
But I've routinely gained the impression that if I were to try to live in Honolulu, I'd probably make about 30K/year or less, so it's a 'no go' for me.
If I were making 140K/year, I'd not only be in Honolulu, but I'd probably be putting 70K/year in the bank easily, and still feel like I was spending excessively.
That being said, I've regularly noticed on city-data, that there are a ton of Americans who have never lived under 100K/year, and have absolutely no clue whatsoever how anyone else would.
In short, no one can really answer that question, except the OP himself who knows exactly what kind of expenditures he finds absolutely necessary.
With all due respect, Tiger Beer, I would venture to say that you truly cannot extrapolate here. AFAIK you neither live in Hawaii now nor have you ever lived in Hawaii.
Of course one can exist on virtually any budget if they are willing and able to lower their standards of living.
But why should they, really, unless the trade-off was worth it?
BTW, I would guess that there are many MANY Americans that have lived and do live "under 100K/year" and certainly would identify with those who do as well, no matter where they are.
Last edited by 7th generation; 10-16-2012 at 03:16 PM..
Reason: please leve the belittling comments out here
If you see Hawaii as a long-time or even permanent home I would suppose that you would want to go beyond faculty housing and move into a single-family home, especially with three kids. The average price for a home on Oahu is now $637K.
Before everyone gets all excited and says, wow - only $637K for an average single family home, anything in that price range that has a reasonable commute to UH (Kailua, Pacific Heights, Hawaii Kai)isn't likely big enough for a family with 3 kids and/or is extremely rough around the edges. For that price range you'd have to head towards Ewa Beach, Kapolei, or Mililani and bumper to bumper traffic of over 60 minutes each direction. More like $800K or higher in the commutable neighborhoods and you still aren't living lavishly.
With all due respect, Tiger Beer, I would venture to say that you truly cannot extrapolate here. AFAIK you neither live in Hawaii now nor have you ever lived in Hawaii.
True, I definitely cannot.
But a gallon of milk in Japan is $11, a ticket at the movie theater matinee is $22 here, just to go one stop on the bus in Japan starts at $3 (and goes up quite a bit the further you go), etc.
While Hawaii is definitely expensive, Japan is probably a bit more expensive. So, I'd imagine that if my pay was exactly the same, I'd probably survive on it in Honolulu.
That being said, I'd imagine I couldn't find a $45K job in Honolulu, which would be the difference.
Anyways, the point is really moot, as it's so dependent on each individual person and what kind of income requirements they have due to their individual experiences, backgrounds, spending habits, etc.
I would say it's a safe assumption that MOST people would certainly be able to live almost anywhere in the world on 140K/year while raising a family. But than again, from having spent the last 6 years on city-data, it appears that in quite a few cities across the U.S., people cannot. We're all different.
While Hawaii is definitely expensive, Japan is probably a bit more expensive.
Tokyo specifically has a consumer price index of about 135 and Honolulu about 103 - where 100 is the base rate, which is New York City - Having lived in Tokyo for 1 year, it is definitely more expensive. That is for goods and services.
The tricky part in the comparison is understanding the wages you'd receive in each area for comparable work.
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