Moving To Hawaii

Here's some things you should know if you're thinking about moving to Hawaii. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition the average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is $1,509 per month in the state of Hawaii.

If this is less living space than you are used to, self storage is a good option to house your extra stuff.

This is an average of the whole state which includes Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Kauai, and the island of Hawaii. To be able to afford that much rent you need to be making about $30 per hour or $60K per year.

Which island should you move to?

It depends on which island you might prefer. Each has it's own flavor so to speak. Oahu is called the gathering place. They got that right, there's about 1.2 million of them "gathered" over there. If you like the big city, then you may want to consider moving there.

Oahu kind of reminds me of L.A. with water around it, but it's a whole lot safer. Besides all the amenities of a big city, Oahu does have some very cool things about it which would make it a nice place to move to.

Even though the average 2 bedroom rent is $1509 for the whole state you could probably find a pretty cheap apartment down in Waikiki for a lot less than $1500 per month.

Kauai is small and similar to Kona in someways, but has some of the best beaches in Hawaii. Back in 2009 when the vog was really bad, I was looking at possibly moving there.

It's really pretty. It's also really expensive. If I was a serious surfer I'd probably live here because of the great surfing.

Has some great beaches like Kauai. But it also has too many people for my taste and it helps to be rich as it's probably the most expensive of all the islands to live on.

The further away you get from Oahu the further you get from civilization in some ways. It is the major hub of all the islands.

But if you're looking for a more laid back way of life by moving to Hawaii, then one of the outer islands is probably the way to go.

Below I'll share tips for moving to Hawaii. How to ship a car to Hawaii. And other tid bits about living on the island that are important to know about. Like:

• Schools
• Moving Pets
• Medical Care
• Jobs

Should youship your vehicles? Or buy them here?

Pasha only ships vehicles, Matson ships everything. Horizon I'm not sure about.

Shipping Household Stuff

If I was moving to Hawaii again, I'd sell all my stuff on the mainland before moving to Hawaii and just show up with clothes and a tooth brush.

Nice used stuff is cheap to buy here from folks moving back to the mainland. Such as cars furniture and other household items.

There are lots of furnished vacation rentals here that rent for almost the same as unfurnished places so you really don't need to even buy furniture if you don't want to. Now that I think about it, it's a great way to move here short term to see if you even like it.

Matson will rent you various sizes of containers to ship yourstuff to Hawaii if you just can't part with it.

Pets

In the old days moving a pet to Hawaii required quarantine of theanimal for 90 days. And the reason for this is Hawaii is rabies free and the state would like to keep it that way. The state has since removed the requirement for the quarantine if you jump through the hoops correctly. This means if you do the paper work properly you can bring your pet home with you straight from the airport on arrival.

•  Here are some of the requirements.
•  Your dog will require 2 rabies shots 90 days apart and you can't ship fido here till after 90 days has passed since the last rabies shot.
• Dogs and cats will require micro chips
• OIE-FAVN rabies blood test. 

After the OIE-FAVN blood test you have to wait 120 days before moving your pet to Hawaii if you don't want to have them in 90 day quarantine after they arrive here. All the rules and forms are available from the state websitefor complete animal info.

If the paperwork doesn't scare you that the state requires, you can handle it yourself. But if you would rather turn it over to an expert, you might try this pet relocation service to Hawaii if you don't want to deal withthe paperwork.

If you're thinking about moving to Hawaii and then finding a job.Think again. There are none. You need to make $50K per year minimum to afford to live here. If you want to eat too that is.

Better start thinking about what kind of business you can start here if you really want to move to Hawaii. Or figure out a way to telecommute to your current job on the mainland. It's not uncommon for people to hold 2 or 3 jobs here just to make ends meet.

I never said this was easy. As a matter of fact I work harder here than I ever did living on the mainland. The price to stay warm... Above I said you should think about starting your own business, just know that Hawaii requires all employers to provide health insurance for all employees that work over 20 hours per week.

And don't expect the local work force to have the same work ethic you have. Because they don't. It's a cultural thing. You either adapt or go insane. I choose to work alone. (Not anymore, I now have 2 employees) There are some good workers that live here I'm sure. But they're few and far between.

Food

If you shop at Costco you can save a lot of money on your grocery bills. Another tip is if you shop at Safeway or Sack and Save make sure to join their customer discount programs. You'll save a lot of money.

If you don't have your Makai or Safeway card when you go shopping... you'll pay the tourist rates. Ouch!

The good news is eating out seems to be about the same as most places in California. Go to Costco here and buy their rotisserie chicken. You can't buy it at the grocery store and cook it yourself for less money.

Housing Costs

For example, you can rent a nice 2 bedroom condo for around $1000 per month give or take $100. Houses rent starting around $1000 and go as high as you care to spend. For something nice you'll probably pay around $1600 per month.

Electricity cost is the highest in the nation. Last time I looked it's between 25 or 30 cents per kilowatt. That translates into a minimum $300 electric bill for a house like mine that has just 2 adults living there. It's over $400 in the summer when we run the air conditioning. The water bill is over $100 per month. Still want to move to Hawaii?

The upside is property taxes are cheap compared to Ca. for example.

If you have children that you can't afford to put in private school, you should not be moving to Hawaii. The schools here are severely underfunded and right now have the least teaching days annually than any other state in the country.

If you have serious health issues. Don't move Hawaii. If youhave to go to the Kona hospital you just about have to take your own nurse with you. Really.

A lot of doctors have been run out of Hawaii due to the high cost of liability insurance and the low reimbursement from health insurance companies. It's pretty much a revolving door of specialists moving to Hawaii for a year or two and then moving back to the mainland. Doctors don't like being poor. I don't blame them. I don't care for it either. If you're seriously injured here, you need to be able to live long enough to be flown to Honolulu as our local hospital is only equipped to stabilize you enough to move you to another hospital on Oahu that has the equipment and expertise to save your life. Remember hearing about Kelsey Grammer having a heart attack here in Kona in 2009? The Kona hospital stabilized him and then he was flown to Honolulu. Still want to move to Hawaii?

You've moved to Hawaii, now what? Some people get totally into the lifestyle and adjust well and live happily ever after. And... Some folks get "rock fever" after moving to Hawaii and have to move back to where they came from. I just take a trip to the mainland for a week and that usually fixes me for 6 to 8 months. It's good to travel right?

For some people the culture shock of moving to Hawaii is just too much for them and they move on. For others, it's like they've found the place they've been searching for their whole life.

One of the things I've noticed living in perpetual summer is that time passes very fast and there are no markers of the seasons to associate events passing in your life.

If you're still reading at this point you're probably starting to see that living in paradise does have it's challenges.

As I write this on an early February morning it's about 72 degrees with a light balmy breeze. I will say that moving to Hawaii was probably the best thing I ever did. I don't regret it for a minute.

Please feel free to add your insight about moving to Hawaii by posting in the box below. Those of you who've moved here recently are much more qualified to write about this than I am as things change and it's fresh in your mind.

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