I want to live in Hawaii in the winter time and then come back to MN in the Spring or Summer. For those that live in Hawaii and used to live on the mainland, how did you do it? I just hear it s very expensive there, but I want to know how I can manage to live there. If necessary, Hawaii would be my primary home so my little boy can go to school there and we ll just come back to MN in the summer when he has school off.BTW, I am not rich.
I was moved here by my employer 10 years ago. They paid for everything. Most people I know who moved here from the mainland AND aren t struggling just to get by were moved here by their companies. Most people I know who decided to up and move here on their own ARE struggling. Hawaii is VERY expensive. Everything is expensive - gas, food, clothes, rent, everything. Many people fall in love with Hawaii and think they can move here on a whim with no problems. Most of them find out the hard way that this place is no fairytail wonderland. A lot of people here need to work two jobs just to get by. There are many, many homeless people who have jobs! They just don t make enough to pay the rent and bills.Everytime I see someone ask this question I always try to discourage them from moving here. The only people who should consider it are ones who are independently wealthy or whose companies are moving them. I moved here from Seattle 10 years ago and only had a small apartments worth of stuff that a single guy has. It cost $6000, plus my car was another $2000. And that s from Seattle 10 years ago. Minnesota to Hawaii now-a-days???? $1300 - $1600 a month will probably get you an 800 square foot, 30 year old, 2 bedroom condo. Going home to visit family? Plan on spending around $500 - $600 per plane ticket 8 hours flight time to Minnesota. Gas prices are always around the most expensive in the nation. Almost 100% of the food we have is shipped here, so plan on spending a little extra for everything. And if that s not enough consider this: Before taxes, I make exactly $100,000 per year. I have two little kids and a wife who stays home with them - so my income is our only income. At $100,000 we have no savings and live paycheck to paycheck. I own a crappy 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1200 SF townhouse that was built in 1975. My mortgage payments are a little over $2000 per month. My point is that $100,000 ($60,000 after taxes) per year in Hawaii is just enough for a family of four to get by. As soon as my kids are of school age we re out of here.
Money is a huge factor. I did a cost of living comparison on this site:http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliv��I plugged in $40,000 as your base salary and Minneapolis as your home city (just guessing) and Honolulu as the city you re moving to (no other Hawaii towns were listed. Honolulu is the only city in Hawaii). Here are the results I got:Comparable salary inHonolulu, HI$58,684 (in other words, you would need this much to live at the same standard of living you are used to in MN)If you move from Minneapolis, MN to Honolulu, HI...Groceries will cost: 32%moreHousing will cost: 106%moreUtilities will cost: 34%moreTransportation will cost: 17%moreHealthcare will cost: 6%more
Ari Gold is God just gave you the straight deal on Hawaii. The part I ll mention is your son going to school here. Don t even think about it. Hawaii has one of the lowest ranked public schools in the nation. Right now teachers are furloughed on Fridays further cutting the number of days students are in a classroom. This is supposed to be fixed but the governor and the teachers union are in a stand off. The state just doesn t have the money. If you can not afford private school your sons education will suffer here.