Some Negative Things to Consider When Moving to Hawaii:
Costs are Scary High – You have probably heard it said, the costs associated with everything are higher in Hawaii. Not only are they higher, but they are outrageous. When you shop for food plan on spending more than five-dollars for every item you buy. One pound of butter? More than five-dollars. One gallon of milk? More than five-dollars. This shocked me every time I went grocery shopping and I never got over it. Eating out is worse. Plan on spending two to three times what you spend on food currently. Parking, When You Can Find It – Costs Money – Parking is difficult to find especially on Oahu. After moving to Hawaii I routinely drove around for fifteen minutes to find one parking place. Not a close spot, just a place to park. There are many places, the beaches for one, where you will probably have to pay for parking your rental car. To say space is at a premium, especially on Oahu, is the understatement of the decade. And, get this… if you do go to the beach, feed the meter full of coins – the max. You will need to return in as little as two hours because the maximum you can deposit in the meters will expire in just 2 short hours and the meter-reader is writing you a ticket. Parking tickets are big business in Hawaii and they station meter readers in the major parking lots – especially near the beach. Nightlife is the High Life – If you like to spend a lot of time at the Hawaii clubs, you are going to have to withdraw massive amounts of cash from the ATM each month. Seems like every drink is over five-dollars. I am talking about beer too! Any good drink is seven-dollars, or more at the good clubs. Unless you are buying a six-pack and drinking with your buddies on your lanai, you are going to be spending a lot of money on alcohol and going out. Theft is a Problem – Again, a massive understatement. Imagine surfing and watching locals going through your shoes to find the three-dollars you stashed for a bottled water after your session. Yes, it is that bad. Renting a car? Keep the windows rolled down and take everything valuable out of it. Set the alarm and listen for it. Island Fever – Nothing similar to Malaria, but quite a real phenomenon. Oahu is approximately 35 miles wide by 60 miles long. That is all the space you have to play in after moving to Hawaii unless you purchase a plane or boat ticket off the island to another island. Trips back to the mainland or elsewhere cost a lot of cash. You are far from all other civilization. Eventually it gets to most people and they either complain about it a lot, or move back to the mainland after a couple years. Houses Are Out of Reach – For most people buying a house in a safe area of Oahu is out of the question. On Maui, even more so. Big Island has some affordable spots, but you would be living on a live volcano in that case. Some do not mind. I am seriously considering it because that is about the only place I will be able to afford buying a house to move into within the next five years. I could list more negatives about moving to Hawaii of course, this was just meant to give you a taste. Living in Hawaii is one of the most amazing feelings one can experience. If you have not done it, you should try it for a year and see what you have been missing. Hawaii is a paradise and living there, when balanced out with the good – is probably much more positive than not.
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