9/30/2011

9/30/2011

It has been decided. 5 years from now, my family and I are moving. We are moving to the Big Island of Hawaii and there is nothing anyone can do to stop us. Living in Hawaii has been a dream of mine ever since my wife and I visited some friends in Maui a few years ago. It was at that very moment that I realized I must get back to the Hawaiian Islands. The whole experience was almost spiritual in a way. Usually when we travel somewhere I am content to just be another tourist and not care about anything but having a good time. It was different in Hawaii though. I felt like one of the locals, I felt like I needed to be there. Well the trip came to an end, and we returned home to our humble apartment smack dab in the middle of the country. We joked around about moving to Hawaii only to be discouraged by finding out just how expensive it is to live there, or people would say, "Hey, you would be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, your family would almost never be able to see you..." It went on for months until finally we were content to stay in boring old Omaha, Nebraska.

Well it has been a good three years and I still think about the beauty of Hawaii on a daily basis. The things I remember about Maui are anything but the "touristy" attractions. I miss the cool wet air that makes everything just slightly damp; I miss the Bamboo forest that we hiked through; I miss the waterfall filled pool so far off the beaten path that only the locals know about it. Believe it or not I think I even miss the unbelievably frequent old naked hippie sightings. I miss just sitting on a rock face feeling the raw power of the ocean as its waves crashed against the rugged coastline. I miss everything Hawaii had to offer those who weren't too busy to notice. So after months of mulling it over, I've decided that five years from now, we are moving to Hawaii. While I am willing to accept that the Big Island of Hawaii is definitely no "Maui", I think the Big Island has its own charm and attraction, plus as interisland travel becomes cheaper, we can visit all of the islands whenver we want. After I made the decision, it was at that point that I realize just how big of a decision I had just made. I started considering all of the factors that could keep us from living our dream. There is the high cost of housing and living in general.


I've heard of so many people moving to Hawaii only to move back because they just couldn't make it out there. Since I have no intention of moving back, I think in order for us to be able to make it out there, housing needs to be one of my biggest concerns very early in the planning stage. I can't just assume something will work out once we get there. I need to make sure that right from the start of our new life in Hawaii that we handle ourselves responsibly. So I started looking at our finances and I realized something. Our finances are a complete mess. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually balanced my checkbook. I regularly bounce checks or debits, not because I don't have the money, but because I just don't keep track of things. I've always had a "meh" attitude to the whole thing because I knew it wasn't going to be an issue come payday. That is going to stop immediately. I feel it's important early on to adopt the true Hawaiian lifestyle. That means there is going to be a lot less going out to eat, fast food and other frills like cable. My wife and I are by no means rich, and I doubt that is going to change by the time we are living in Hawaii so we need to drastically make some changes. A very successful person once told me that you have to run your home like you would run a business. With that in mind I have been pouring over our finances looking for areas to cut spending, and there are quite a few.

I expect spending will continue to be an issue over the next few months because I have some seriously flawed behavior that I need to correct when it comes to finances. Hopefully I can gain the support of a few readers, which will make the whole process easier and maybe even some encouragement from those who actually live in Hawaii. For now I leave you with this Hawaiian proverb, "O ka makapo wale no ka mea hapapa i ka pouli" which means "Only the blind gropes in the darkness". As I continue my updates on this blog about our move to Hawaii, may it come to serve as a guiding light, not only for me, but also for anyone looking to drastically change their situation. Mahalo and Aloha.