Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Haha, I'm a big boy, I can take the good with the bad. Fortunately (or mayne unfortunately) for me, it won't change any decisions I've made. Afterall, this is something almost 4 years in the making now. I truly apprectiate ANY input anyone has, good or bad, solicited or unsolicited.
As for the paradise comment, if you've ever spent time in Iowa or Indiana (the two states in which I've lived) you'd understand why even ten minutes on the beach at midnight after an exhausting day is "paradise" compared to what those states have to offer. Sometimes I have to wonder if people who've been fortunate enough to live there the majority of their lives sometimes miss the little thing. Kind of like on first snowfall here, instead of thinking of how beautiful it makes the landscape, all I think is "great, time to dig out the snow shovel and hats and mittens."
My older stepson, whose mom moved them from Hawaii to the Mainland when he was 13, moved back to the Big Island after he graduated from high school. For the first year, he was lucky to get a full-time minimum-wage job at one of the Kona resorts. He made enough money to rent a room in someone's condo, although he needed financial help from his mom and me when his car broke down or some other emergency occurred. However, he had two days off per week to enjoy living in Hawaii, and he was happy (although we weren't so happy when we got the "Mom, I need some money" calls). He lost that job, and then found two part-time minimum-wage jobs in Hilo. They weren't enough to make ends meet, so he took a third part-time job. Again, he was able to rent a room, but he was now working 60-hour, six-day work weeks. "A few hours of paradise" on his one day off after he did his shopping, laundry, and other chores got old very quickly. After barely scraping by for the four years he lived there, he moved back to the Mainland. He'd move back to Hawaii again in a heartbeat if he could work at a normal, full-time job with health benefits and live a modest lifestyle, but he doesn't see that ever happening.
As you said, you've already made up your mind to give Hawaii a shot. That's fine, as long as you understand the good and the bad. Since you've thoroughly researched the archives, then you know how much savings you should bring, and that you should have a return plan if things don't work out, or if "ten minutes on the beach at midnight after an exhausting day" turns out not to be enough in reality. I've never heard anyone say that who has actually been living it for more than a couple years – only from people who are unhappy where they are, and who think that just being in Hawaii (or whatever their version of paradise is) will be great, even if they have to struggle to live there, and have little time to enjoy it. As I'm sure you know, there are plenty of places that, while not offering what Hawaii has, are much cheaper than Hawaii and much nicer than Iowa and Indiana, if what you're looking for are warm weather, beaches, and beautiful scenery, or just a change in general. After 25 years in Georgia, which I was tired of for several reasons, I moved to Oregon, and it was one of the best moves of my life. However, I was fortunate to always have good jobs, and I never had to struggle to make ends meet.
You don't indicate that you've ever visited Hawaii, only that you've conducted research. I seriously recommend that you make an extended visit first. As has been said over and over, Hawaii, although it's a US state, is more like a foreign country, and it's more different from any other place in the US than, say, New York City is different from a small Iowa farm town. If you understand, appreciate, and truly resonate with the Hawaiian culture, then you can deal with the frustrations that go with it. I've been married to a Hawaiian woman for over a decade, I've been to the Islands several times, and I feel at home in Hawaiian culture. My wife would love to return, and I know I'd love living there, but neither of us are willing to "just scrape by" to be able to live there. If you understand the culture but don't appreciate it, then it will drive you crazy, and the locals will dislike you, and you'll develop a "Locals hate all haoles!" attitude and probably leave the Islands. If you don't yet know or understand the culture... well, that's why I recommend an extended visit before you commit to moving. I was obsessed with and researched Hawaii for years before I actually went, and my first trip was as a tourist. It was only after my first trip with my wife-to-be that I experienced the "real" Hawaii and realized that it agreed with me, and vice versa.
Shoots, you're young, educated, and single. May as well move to Hawaii, run through your savings, and wind up working at the Yard House. Journalism? Our newspaper just shed lots of journalists. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO CREATE AN INCOME STREAM? Notice how I typed that all in caps -- because it's really important. One thing is for sure -- you won't be making $75K a year here. Maybe half that, if you're really lucky. I have to wonder about someone who is making $75K in this economy and wants to give up their job.
Haha, I'm a big boy, I can take the good with the bad. Fortunately (or mayne unfortunately) for me, it won't change any decisions I've made. Afterall, this is something almost 4 years in the making now. I truly apprectiate ANY input anyone has, good or bad, solicited or unsolicited.
I do not mean this to be snarky, and it will anyway, but....
For something that has been 4 years in the making you should be educated in all this stuff by now.
You have been given some good advice, but like you said you've made up your mind.
You probably will want to look into renting a room for your price range, and afford at least some quality of life. You will find a lot of people won't rent from you because you are not from here. That's not really as bad as it sounds, it just that most people will rent to locals first - the island of Oahu is more like a small town in the fact that everyone knows everyone else, or someone else who does. So it would be viewed as safer.
Good luck, and don't get stuck on public assistance and drive my taxes any higher.
You will find a lot of people won't rent from you because you are not from here. That's not really as bad as it sounds, it just that most people will rent to locals first - the island of Oahu is more like a small town in the fact that everyone knows everyone else, or someone else who does. So it would be viewed as safer.
The main reason getting a rental is difficult and secure a lease - is that you won't have a job - or, if you have one - don't have the income to support the rental - and there is a long line behind you of people who do live here with a local employment history.
As a landlord - do you want to rent to the off the plane guy with no job and $10,000 in the bank. Or, do you move to the next applicant (and there are many applicants, this is a hot rental market) who is making $30K a year who has had a local job for a few years (assuming both have similar credit). The red flag on the newcomer is - will they bail when they become disenfranchised, move in the middle of the night in the middle of the lease and can't be tracked down - it happens.
I've visited several of the cost of living calculators online. Depending on where you are moving from, you would need to increase your salary by 50-80% in order to maintain your current standard of living if you were to move to Honolulu, HI. The biggest expenditures are of course housing, utilities, healthcare and certain food staples. I think it's definitely doable as long as you realize that you will have to downsize no matter how much you make in take home pay.
Depending on where you are moving from, you would need to increase your salary by 50-80% in order to maintain your current standard of living if you were to move to Honolulu, HI.
And the double whammy is that the same job in Hawai'i probably pays 20% less than it would on the mainland. So you literally would have to work two jobs like the one you had back on the mainland to maintain the same standard of living.
Maui is a little better, neighbor islands slightly better than that, but moving to Honolulu is brutal.
When we were first presented with the opportunity to live in this state back in January, and we could live anywhere in the state for this opportunity, it took very little research for us to realize that Oahu would severely cramp our standard of living. We ended up on affordable Hawai'i where we live extremely well on a middle class income. Is there any particular reason why you must live on Oahu? You can get the same minimum wage jobs here that you are likely to get on Oahu, but the cost of living is a fraction of the cost of living on Oahu. If it's city life you're after though, we don't have that.
With 8% unemployment vs. 5% on Oahu, it isn't exactly a walk in the park on the jobs front on the Big Island.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Go for it?
