some advice needed for oahu

[Dthraco]

Start watching cragislist now for places to live. This will teach you what you can expect to pay, and over time you will see how good places pop up and are gone quickly. You will also see the places that are almost always available, and you will start to be able to see the scams too. This way, when you arrive you will be bale to act much quicker when a good place does come up. There are ALOT of people in that game, so best to learn it before stepping in the ring.

When I moved I had a job before I came over. We had 3 places picked out to look at. Seeing them in person took the one last on the list to the top. The first 3-6 months here are challenging while you adjust. An open mind and positive attitude makes a huge difference. Best of luck.

[ScottStielow]

Stay around the downtown area until you get your feet wet. Everything will be close by, store wise, but expensive. Later after you learn the area and pick up work. Look to relocate near where work is located. Use the bus to get around cheaply enough. I rode the bus the first five years i was here in the Navy. Didn't want to pay car payment/insurance being at sea and the car just sitting there. You can get monthly pass at any satellite city hall or i know that Foodland super market sells monthly bus passes. I am sure the other stores like Times or Safeway Super might also sell them. Its tough but you can make, you got to work for it. Link for the bus:
TheBus - Routes & Timetables

Best of luck.

[TGPILOT]

Viper or OpenD will tell you too that landlords will want a certain amount of your monthly income as a guide to what you can pay before renting to you too. Also, you will have deposits, and a lot more by the time you get first and last months security deposit or whatever they hold. You will need all that and more. Without a roommate, you may find that row hard to hoe!

[davephan]

Originally Posted by smkymntn

I will be moving to oahu from Tennessee soon, i have been planning and saving for a long time, i just have a few questions. first question is, cheap places to stay for a week till i can go find a place to rent. I looked at the YMCA they have weekly rates of 265. Im not looking for super nice places, just a place to leave my stuff and put my head down on a pillow at night till i can find a place to rent. does anyone have any ideas if this is a decent place to stay it is just for a week, my first week i plan on devoting to finding a place to rent and finding a bike to buy to get around in, and enjoying hawaii before most of my time goes to finding a job. so i probably wont be inside all that much time.
second question, i know food and everything is WAY more expensive, but can you find cheap local produce at farmers markets? or is it just as expensive?

How do you know you want to move to Oahu? It sounds like you've never visited from what you've posted. The cost of living is very expensive there, and the population density is very high in Waikiki. Maybe you should think about a vacation to Oahu first.

We stayed at a relatively inexpensive hotel in Waikiki for about $140 a night. It was right across the street from hotels that were 4 or more times the price. I doubt if $300 a month for food for one person would be enough. I think you would be starving all the time.

How much do you think is a lot of money? How much have you saved and how long did it take you to save that amount? What kind of job skills do you have? What kind of life do you live in Tennessee now? Are you able to comfortably or are you living paycheck to paycheck? If you're close to the edge in Tennessee, you'll be below the edge in Oahu.

I'm assuming you are fairly young, since you don't specify how old you are, other than the fact that you are still in your 'working years'. Have you saved anything for retirement yet?

You may think that if you don't move to Oahu soon, you will miss the opportunity in life to try it. I dreamed about moving to Maui in my 20s, but I never did. After visiting Maui for only a week, and the Big Island for a week, I had no desire to move to Maui. It's beautiful, but it wasn't for me, since I preferred the Big Island. Maui was very different in person, on the ground, than it was thousands of miles away on the Internet.

I think it would be a good idea for you to visit Hawaii, if you can afford it. It will help you decided if Hawaii is right for you. If you can't afford to visit Hawaii, you cannot afford to live there. If you are gainfully employed now in Tennessee, you won't have to burn any bridges yet, which is risky. You will need to save some serious money to move to Oahu with no job lined up and perhaps no job skills that translate to a good income. You could easily burn through $20K in less than 6 months. I went through over $5K in about 2 1/2 weeks. Could have easily gone through $20K in the same time period staying at fancy places, living a larger lifestyle.

You could try it and find out how long you will last there. I think it is more important to think about your long term future. Do you ever think if you'll be able to retire comfortably? Usually, young people never think about what they want their life to be like in 10, 20, or 30 years from now.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by davephan

Usually, young people never think about what they want their life to be like in 10, 20, or 30 years from now.

Yep, that's normal. After all, from what you've shared here, you didn't!

That's why giving unrequested advice about retirement planning to 20-somethings is useless. They can't even hear it. You really might as well save the effort. It has no relevance to their lives RIGHT NOW.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by TGPILOT

Viper or OpenD will tell you too that landlords will want a certain amount of your monthly income as a guide to what you can pay before renting to you too. Also, you will have deposits, and a lot more by the time you get first and last months security deposit or whatever they hold. You will need all that and more. Without a roommate, you may find that row hard to hoe!

Even looking for a roommate it's a rough row to hoe. Let's say you find a room with shared bath and kitchen for $800 a month, plus utilities and internet, so let's call it $1,000 a month. Let's say, first month's rent plus security deposit is $2 grand. Up front. Then there's food and stuff.

And then a month later it's another grand. With no guarantee of a job materializing.

At your stage of life that may be an acceptable risk to take, but doing it without a bailout plan is not. You must have a way to retreat from this adventure if what you have planned doesn't work out.

It doesn't sound as if Dad or brother can help if you get over your head... so, who you gonna call?

[davephan]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Yep, that's normal. After all, from what you've shared here, you didn't!

That's why giving unrequested advice about retirement planning to 20-somethings is useless. They can't even hear it. You really might as well save the effort. It has no relevance to their lives RIGHT NOW.

It's not always useless. Sometimes, but rarely, young people learn to avoid repeating the mistakes that I made in my life, and other people made in their lives. Why would anyone purposely give bad advice to a young person to encourage them to make bad choices in their lives?