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Aloha, I would like to first thank you all for having me on this forum.
My wife and I have been dreaming of moving to Hawaii for a few years now. From my perspective the hardest part of this move would be the distance between my sister and I. Both our parents are gone so other than her husband and daughter, I am all she has. With that said we are about four hours away from each other as it is and we see each other at most four times a year. Either we go up to Pa to visit for a couple days or they come down to Va for a couple days. On my wife's side, all she really has is her mother. I think her mom would be sad for us to go. But I also think she would like the idea of a cheap vacation. Just curious how others handle being a half a world away from family.
Anyway, I will be retired in a few more years (sounds like I'm putting the carriage before the horse), but that time will come faster than expected. I will be retiring from the NYC police department (yeah I know, my wife lives in Va and I work in NYC. I come home on my days off and stay in NY during the week) and in my line of work it is good to be exposed to an entire different lifestyle and environment for health and psyche reasons when retired. We have never visited Hawaii, but will plan a visit for a duration of a few weeks soon to ensure this is where we want to spend the rest of our lives (won't stay at a resort but rent a vacation house and a car and explore). From reading and researching I have no delusions that Hawaii doesn't have its problems and issues, but tell me a place that doesn't. We are looking to live quietly, peacefully, year round good (warm) weather, beautiful scenery, laid back, rural, with plenty of out door activities like hiking, sight seeing, beaches, gardening, sitting on our lenie drinking a few beers, and skiing (which seems can be possible). We want to downsize our life and keep it simple. The concept of the catchment system for water supply is pretty wild. I have also read that cell service and and electric in some areas is sparse. For TV we have always used directv so that should not be an issue. Most houses I have seen say electric service available. Now not sure if that means electric goes to the house or electric has to be connected to the house. I assume electric goes to the house when it states they have an electric stove, washer and dryer, refrigerator, see lights on, a computer, and a TV. Unless the house is run by solar and generator (which is fine).
We have two daughters, the oldest will be college age and I'm sure she would not mind transferring to a university there and our youngest will be 12. She loves the outdoors and she is not one of those kind of kids who likes to be inside (no matter how cold it is). My wife is a secondary English teacher with a masters and will have about five years experience by the time we move. She would hope to continue her career in teaching. If not, she will just find part time work in the meantime. For me, I would be fine with some part time work doing odds and ends. Maybe be a security officer at the university. I always think it is important to keep working.
So looking in the Puna area I find it to be absolutely beautiful (pictures). I don't mind the rain, but my wife does (her hair curls with humidity, but she is willing to wear a baseball cap). The homes seem to be affordable there and it looks like you can get a decent sized property (1 acre), with a newer 3br 2bth house for under $300K. We would have to have a mortgage because no way will we be able to save enough to pay cash. Though we should have close to 20% to put down, but i know the initial move will be costly so the down payment might have to be less. We would like to leave most our stuff behind (mostly furniture and get the necessities right away over there and the rest over time) (sell it or give it away). I'm not sure if it is worth shipping that stuff from the east coast. Maybe just ship what we will need right away and sentimental things, but we will have plenty of time to figure that out. Will most likely ship one of our cars and buy a beater upper there. I see that Hawaii is not a cheap place to live (grocery order, electric, and maybe lava insurance (yikes). I wil just assume everything you buy that comes from the mainland will be more expensive in Hawaii. That will give us the incentive to not buy a bunch of stuff we don't need and rarely ever use. Like I said, we want to downsize our life and keep it simple.
I do hear schools get a bad rap there, but that is not always soley the fault of the institution IMO. If a student does not have the desire to learn, they are not going to learn. It is not always the fault of the parent either. A parent can only do so much, just as a teacher can only do so much, but a parent must be involved as well. If a teacher is burnt out and just going through the motions, maybe it is time for them to move on to something else. There are many reasons for a school to get a bad rating, but most times the school is not as bad as its rating.
As time goes on I will keep you posted on our status. First order of business is for me to get retired, and then for my wife to hopefully get a teaching position. With that said I know the education system in Hawaii is run by the state for all counties together. So if my wife were to get hired, I am afraid they can place her on any island where she would be most needed. She will try to get her SATEP before applying to help her chances. I would hope it is the Big Island (puna area) because that is where our hearts are set. It is more affordable, seems more diverse with the climates and geography, the more hawaiin flare, and more rural.
Well, come visit (several times rather than once or twice, if you can), stay in a B&B or VRBO in the neighborhood(s) you are most interested. When a property is listed as having elect. available, it usually means the owners have opted not to hook up or the place is not permitted, which means it may be impossible to hook up without starting over. Note that the volcano is still erupting with no sign of slowdown, it's just moved away from populated areas. I would recommend you get rid of most of your stuff, I brought a 20' container of stuff when I came in '99 threw almost all of it away in the first few years. Oh, you'll be sipping that beer on the Lanai.
So the best bet because of the lava flow would to look into the neighborhoods north of kilauea, from volcano to Hawaiian Paradise Parks? All those subdivisions look to be in lava zone 3. Will getting a mortage and insurance be difficult to get in lava zone 3?
I don't think I would have the resources to visit a few times within the next few years. There is four of us and airfare alone would be about $4500. It would make it easier to just visit if my wife got an interview. Kinda like a working vacation if that applies. It would be better for our situation financially to just save the money and take a chance. If we don't get a lot of time to decide what area we want to buy in, we can always rent for the time being and figure it out later. Sometimes you just have to Jump in with both feet and there will be no regrets.
Yeah, I agree. Better to leave all the furniture behind. Start fresh and new.
There is a lot of excellent information on here and everyone has been very informative. I think almost every question I had I have been able to find an answer in this forum and other places.
Unless the lava is headed towards an area in lava zone 3, it is no harder or expensive to get insurance than anywhere else in the country. If you carry a mortgage, depending on the lender you may be required to have hurricane insurance even if you're miles away from the ocean. Rates vary widely based on the insurer. Our homeowner's insurance including hurricane is about $35/month. We are in lava zone 3.
You said your wife wanted to get a job as a teacher, the public education system in Hawaii is one of the worst in the developed world and the teachers are not well compensated or appreciated. This has created a revolving door of transplants that can't wait to finish the school year to get a "real" job back on the mainland. The good news is that there are frequent vacancies. The bad news is that your wife may not be happy in that profession here. If she is lucky enough to get a job with a private or charter school it might work out for her.
Hilo does have a university but it will depend on your daughter's major if its the right school for her. They didn't have the programs my daughter needed so she goes to school in Honolulu. You might get sticker shock when you see the out of state tuition. The 12 year old may have problems with the public school system here. You should have a backup plan in case it doesn't work out. Fortunately we didn't need to use our backup plan for our daughter when we moved, however she was older and they essentially graduated her a year and a half early.
Even Hilo itself feels pretty rural and it's the largest population center on the island, so you don't have to look very far for "rural" to find it. There aren't a lot of different routes to get between Hilo and Puna so living close to employment, services, supplies and activities will save you a lot of driving to and from. The "subdivisions" in Puna are only housing areas so frequently you have to drive quite a ways to get to anywhere.
In any case, don't buy a place until you've lived here for half a year or more. There's so much difference between the areas that it would be almost impossible to find the sweet spot that is just perfect for you from half the planet away.
The high school near the University in Hilo has a good reputation although I've forgotten it's name at the moment. There's likely to be a lot less crime in Hilo than in Puna as well. Due to the distance between houses and the amount of them that are empty during the day as well as seasonally, there's loads of theft in Puna. There is a lot less crime as you head out of Hilo towards Waimea, you may want to look in that area.
Teaching English in Hawaii would be a little interesting, I'd expect. We have two official languages: English and Hawaiian and we have a large portion of the population which speaks pidgin, too, although I don't know if that's an official language or not.
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how much teaching experience you wife will have when you move here, all beginning teachers get the same wage, I believe. You can check the state DOE website.
When house advertisements say "electric service available" and there's a house already there, then one would think that meant the house is connected to the grid. When it is a vacant lot and it says "electric service available" one would figure it would be able to be connected. Sometimes they will say something along the line of "SSP" or some such is already paid. When the electric company puts poles along a road, there is a surcharge to pay for the poles and folks who want to connect have to pay that fee. Sometimes that fee will be already paid for a lot or not. If they have an electric stove, they are probably on the grid. Stoves and water heaters use too much electricity unless they have a big solar system.
For utilities; electricity is very expensive per kilowatt hour, something around 44¢ per kilowatt. It adds up quickly until you get used to not using electricity.
There is no natural gas in Hawaii, so folks will frequently use propane for water heating and cooking. Solar water heating and solar electric are popular, although not frequently found on rental houses.
There is limited mail delivery unless you are in town although some of the subs have a bank of P.O.Boxes where folks stop by the side of the road to pick up their mail. Otherwise, folks have a P.O.Box at the post office.
Water in Puna is frequently by catchment where rainfall on the roof is collected into above ground swimming pools. (Once when I was living in Puna, my mainland sister visited. She was surprised that everyone in my neighborhood had a swimming pool, I guess she thought we were more upscale than we were.) If there isn't enough rainfall, then you pay a truck to bring a load of water to your house. There are also roadside spigots where you can fill up containers for drinking water if you don't want to drink the catchment water. There are several small water companies on the island, although usually the choice is between catchment and County water. County water isn't terribly expensive, it runs about $40 - $60 a month for a small family. County water tastes good, too.
There is almost no trash pickup, you get to drop it off at a "transfer station". A place where there are big dumpsters which the County empties.
Generally no sewer fees since most folks have cesspools. Which, because of the porosity of the ground (notice I did NOT say "soil"? That's an important omission and relevant to many properties in Puna) anyway, cesspools generally don't need to be pumped often if at all. When buying property in Hawaii, nobody does a "perc" test since frequently they can't keep the water around long enough to measure it's absorption rate.
Cell phone reception in Puna goes pretty much not only area by area, but specific area by area.
Though we should have close to 20% to put down, but i know the initial move will be costly so the down payment might have to be less.
Regardless of any debate of the pros/cons of living in Hawaii, you really need to see a financial planner to make a proper evaluation of how your retirement funds will last considering the challenges of 20% down towards a home at your age in a fairly low cost area.
" I think her mom would be sad for us to go. But I also think she would like the idea of a cheap vacation. Just curious how others handle being a half a world away from family."
"We have two daughters, the oldest will be college age and I'm sure she would not mind transferring to a university there and our youngest will be 12."
The two most common reasons transplants move back are problems with family (who is going to take care of mom if she gets sick?) and problems with kids in the public education system. Cost of living is definitely in the top 10 but it's not #1 or #2.
"Just curious how others handle being a half a world away from family." We get visitors. People ask us when we are going to go home to visit and we're just blunt with them: we're not. Absent emergencies of course. The world is too big, money too scarce, and time is too short to keep visiting the same places over and over again.
Regardless of any debate of the pros/cons of living in Hawaii, you really need to see a financial planner to make a proper evaluation of how your retirement funds will last considering the challenges of 20% down towards a home at your age in a fairly low cost area.
My retirement funds is not a 401K type plan. My pension is a 50% salary of the average of my best three years or 50% of my final year plus a $12,500 check that will get direct deposited to me every December until I die. I can borrow from my pension when I retire which is extra money I add into my pension throughout my career, but most guys choose against that so that their monthly total will be more than a 50% pension. Any money I put down is just money I squirrel away. I just don't want to mess with my pension. This is also considering if I break even with my house when I sell (I'm not counting on any return from that to play it safe). I will also have about a 20K annuity fund that the city pays into that I will recieve when I retire. When all is said and done, I hope to have a pension that will pay out 7K a month. Now if I stay past 20 years, my pension will be worth more, but I only have 20 years in me.
Unless the lava is headed towards an area in lava zone 3, it is no harder or expensive to get insurance than anywhere else in the country. If you carry a mortgage, depending on the lender you may be required to have hurricane insurance even if you're miles away from the ocean. Rates vary widely based on the insurer. Our homeowner's insurance including hurricane is about $35/month. We are in lava zone 3.
You said your wife wanted to get a job as a teacher, the public education system in Hawaii is one of the worst in the developed world and the teachers are not well compensated or appreciated. This has created a revolving door of transplants that can't wait to finish the school year to get a "real" job back on the mainland. The good news is that there are frequent vacancies. The bad news is that your wife may not be happy in that profession here. If she is lucky enough to get a job with a private or charter school it might work out for her.
Hilo does have a university but it will depend on your daughter's major if its the right school for her. They didn't have the programs my daughter needed so she goes to school in Honolulu. You might get sticker shock when you see the out of state tuition. The 12 year old may have problems with the public school system here. You should have a backup plan in case it doesn't work out. Fortunately we didn't need to use our backup plan for our daughter when we moved, however she was older and they essentially graduated her a year and a half early.
Right now my wife is teaching 8th grade at a public school in a rural part of Va. For the cost of living here she is well compensated, but the salaries for teachers in Hawaii from what I have seen for teachers with experience is not bad. Not sure why the education system is so bad there, but like I said previously, parents have an important role in their children's education as well. Where my wife teaches there is extreme socio-economic diversity which has its challenges. What is most important to her as a teacher is administration backing their teachers up, her having full support from them. Where she teaches now that is how it is. When administration has full support of their teachers, all other challenges can be overcome. More affluent schools are as a matter of fact usually less supportive of the teacher and more supportive of the parent. This poses more of a strain on the teacher than dealing with a diverse socio-economic climate. Is the public school system in Hawaii well funded? For instance, where my wife teaches, every class room has the most up to date technology. The resources at her disposal is impeccable. This appears to be across the board at most public schools in Va.
As it is now our oldest just wants to knock out all her gen Eds at a community college to save on tuition and then transfer over to a four year university.
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