In your opinion would $90,000 be enough money to move to Hawaii? (Particulary Maui?)
We would love to move to that place.

Ummmm....in your opinion is $50 in groceries enough for dinner?

Silly question without any qualifiers.
For how many people?
You mean to put down on a house?
How much annual income?
What type of lifestyle in terms of cost?
For how long?
and on and on.

figure that rent on a 3 bedroom house will run about $2000/mo in non resort areas or about $1000 and up for a 2 bedroom apt. electricity is $100 to $175/mo depending on usage. Groceries are roughly double the cost from LA.
Cars cost about the same as La, but no fault insurance is higher. Gas is currently $2.15 or so a gallon. but...there are no heating bills, no winter clothes and who can beat a pinic supper on the beach in January? People here live on $25,000 a year or $2,500,000 a year. You adjust!

Thanks for the advice.. Sorry this is for a family of 3 (adults).. Is rent really that expensive for an apartment?
We would probably rent a condo or apartment. We currently live in the Midwest region so gas isn't a problem. We would ship our cars down to Hawaii.
We aren't trying to live extravgent, just middle class. We are considering the Maui area. Would Honalulu be cheaper than Maui? Lucy do you live in Hawaii? Me, hubby and mom are looking into this. Mom would get her own place.

Lucy is right about the cost of things, most expenses are at least double. I've lived in Hawaii for 8 years, 4 years on Maui and 4 on Kauai. I moved from Wisconsin. Roughly 95% of the people that move to the islands leave within the first year because of the high cost of living and because of the laid back lifestyle that finally gets to them. I've seen a number of people sell their homes and quit their jobs and move here, then because the cost of living is high and wages are low and jobs not in abundance they spend all their money that they spent years saving and have to move back to the mainland and start all over. It's really sad. Living here does not feel the same as being here on vacation. We also have a slower pace and not the destractions that you have on the mainland, so it will drive you crazy if you can't sit with yourself. There is also the awesome side to being here it's just best to bring your yearly income with you.

Thanks for the great advice Serena. You must be one of the few people who enjoy Hawaii since you've been there for 8 yrs. Actually, we are looking forward to the slower paced lifestyle. Me & hubby are still very young and we really enjoy the peace and quietness. We are not looking for a lot of action and noise. We are quiet, as some may say boring people. I'm a little concerned about the job market? Do you have a pretty decent job in Maui? How are the apartments in Maui?
Thanks again for all your help!!

Ic what do you know about Hawaii at this point?
How much time have you spent there?
What kind of jos) do you/your husband have? Are they universal type positions?
Do you have any money saved?
You sound very young, impulsive, and very much like you'd end up being part of the 95% of mainlanders who leave within a year. Not to be mean spirited or anything. But all the people I've known who have moved to Hawaii couldn't wait to leave after less than 2 years.
Think this through carefully, OK?
Peace and quiet in the central US is very different than peace and quiet and isolation (social, cultural and geographical) on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Before making the decision to move anywhere, one should always spend some time there and get to really know the area, learn all the pros and cons and then weigh them carefully.

If at all possible, try to rent for at least several months- a year would be even better, before selling your current home and making any other major moves.

NR had some good advice for you, altho most people fall in love with the islands and pack up and move here. Yes, I love the islands, but it's far from perfect here and some days I just gotta get off the island! There aren't apartment here like on the mainland, there are condos for rent and homes, and rooms in a house. Rents for the condos and homes have doubled and tripled in most cases over the last 4 years. Two bedroom condos renting for $1200/month 4 years ago are now $2400-3200 and there aren't many and lots of people who want to rent. Hawaii real estate cycles and we're in the high cycle right now. Maui hasn't paid any attention to the infra structure and the traffic can be horrendous. Most Jobs pay less than on the mainland, Health care, if you're a nurse or doctor pay enough, and some chefs,get good salaries. If you own a business on the mainland that you can run from Hawaii,or are a published writer that's good too. There's a book called something like, "If your thinking of living in Hawaii" that's close but not the right title, maybe someone can come up with the title for us. Anyway, that might be good to look through.

PS: You can access the Hawaii newspapers online, the Honolulu Advertiser and the Maui News, the classifieds will give you info on the jobs and rentals.

I just came off of homefair.com, they have this comparison calculator. If I make $90,000 in San Francisco( where I live now) then to maintain the same lifestyle in Honolulu, I would need only $75,000, meaning it costs less to live in Honolulu than in San Francisco, check it out with your hometown.

Thanks for the advice everyone. This is a BIG decision for us. I'm going to try an find that book about living in Hawaii..

Wish us luck!!

Below are the url's for the newspapers as well as a link to some Maui webcams.

I suggest you look at the Usenet group soc.culture.hawaii and then perhaps ask some questions there.

Honolulu Star-Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/

The Honolulu Advertiser
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/

Maui Webcams
http://www.mauigateway.com/~rw/video/video.htm