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Matter of fact, will be arriving on June 9th in Honolulu. Yes, it works out well for us financially. As I mentioned in other posts, each family has a different financial situation/needs/compromises. You take the pros and cons and analyse your particular situation.
We're reducing our major expenses by over $2K a month from LA to HNL, so that is OUR silver lining. Beats staying in LA.
I'm sorry you think reality is "negative". Honestly it sounds like you're most interested in pulling the wool over your eyes and living with your head in the clouds than comprehending reality, because reality is too scary.
I strongly believe that it's important for the OP to understand that schools here are bad enough that people cough up huge sums of money for private school, or move to dreary places like Oregon so their kids can have a good education.
It's also really important for her to understand that her wages won't be enough.
Last edited by 7th generation; 08-12-2011 at 03:47 PM..
Reason: removed unnecessary comments
My husband easily makes over $300,000 and we just get by. We are moving to have a better life. I hope this helps. It's a trade-off living in paradise. Best of luck!
My husband easily makes over $300,000 and we just get by. We are moving to have a better life. I hope this helps. It's a trade-off living in paradise. Best of luck!
You must be into champagne wishes and caviar dreams. I'm pretty sure I could live just fine on $300,000.
My husband easily makes over $300,000 and we just get by. We are moving to have a better life. I hope this helps. It's a trade-off living in paradise. Best of luck!
Honestly, if you make over $300,000 and can't get by, there must be something fundamentally amiss, whether it be too big of house payment, combined with car payments, private schools and so on and so forth. All choices.
FTR, I grew up in the Hawaii public school system, as did my siblings (now a nurse and a dentist and myself an MSW) as well as 100+ friends on FB from my highschool that are all doing juuusssst fine. Kids turn out in the wash. Parent involvement at home perhaps is just as important as what you do sitting behind a desk at school. I would send my kids (I have 4) to a public school in Hawaii, or a public charter. It doesn't scare me, unless perhaps in very remote areas.
Any financial support for your daughter from her father?? I'm in the same boat as you. Single parent, one son, and I make around $15/hr. I'm barely getting by in a small town in Western Wisconsin. I can't imagine that you'll be able to make it in Maui on that.
Wink,
I live about 45 miles east of Portland up by Mt Hood. Sadly, I can say that meth is everywhere in Oregon. What is shocking to me is how much of it is the rural areas like southern and eastern Oregon. My sister used to live in Portland and the schools in her area were awful. Therefore, we sold her our old house so that she could get her kids out of there and into better schools. While the schools are much better where they are at now, I was surprised to learn how much drug use that is there. Mostly marijuana though.
Anyways, I hope your friend is a really good parent and wish them much luck in their new home.
Marijuana has been pretty much everywhere since the 60's. I don't think it's at all comparable to crystal meth.
Thanks again for all the responses.....I was offered the job starting at 18.76 an hour...I have spent the last 24 hours meditating on it and really looking at the numbers. After state income tax it look like that $4 an hour raise in Hawaii would leave me with $300 extra a month that would need to be used for the more expensive cost of rent in Hawaii versus Florida. After bills this leaves me with the same amount of money to live off of in Hawaii or Florida (yest one is way cheaper than the other)
And there is the school issue I know that the schools are bad I have done a lot of research I was looking into a charter school. The position in Hawaii requires me to work four ten hour days which in some ways is great and in some others not so much. I don't know if I want to be getting home at 7:30 every night with a teenage daughter that leaves her unsupervised most of the day and I think that time with her is important.
I want to live in Hawaii I have proven to myself that I can find a job that it is possible, but my heart and brain tell me that maybe this is not the right time. I am not scared of the move I am not scared of faluire but I do want the best for my daughter and I have worked really hard to get to a level where I am not struggling every month and I don't want to have to do that again.
As I said I have been offered a job in Sarasota Florida with good pay and bennies. I know that if we go there we can take our quality of life with us and it would not be such a struggle. I know in Hawaii there would be many more sacrifices!
Maybe I compromise and go to Florida for 5 years until she is done with school and then go to Hawaii.......I am going to think on this at yoga this morning and make a decision.
Thanks again for the advice.......
I support this decision -- Sarasota is also beautiful, and if you move to Hawaii alone in 5 years with some major savings, your experience should be completely different.
(Given the current real estate market, if you can buy something soon near Sarasota, you should be able to get a good deal that will appreciate nicely by 2016. You can then sell it and have enough to buy a decent little place in Hawaii.)
Just to add to the first (very informative) response -- no one really needs air conditioning, internet, or even television. These are luxuries we're accustomed to today, but Hawaii apparently never gets as hot as Florida (or even the midwest) in the summer. Most libraries have internet today, you can stop there whenever you want for an hour or so. And you can also borrow books and DVD's from those places.
Not saying there's anything wrong with enjoying those things -- I certainly do. Just noting that they're all completely discretionary, and are therefore additional factors to be balanced in the decision of where to live.
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