Pros & Cons of Living in Hawaii (Big Island)

So I just tried to film outside and it is too noisy, too many cars, too much stuff going on. So here I am back in my guest room in office talking to you about the pros and cons of living in Hawaii. Before I start this video I want to share with you guys that this comes from my perspective and I grew up in Southern California. So I might say things are more or less expensive but that's in relation to what I have experienced and what is in my life mostly living in Southern California. So the first pro to living in Hawaii is it's absolute paradise. It's exactly the way that you think it will be. There are amazing landscapes, seascapes, animals, jungles, waterfalls, places to explore. It is endless and you could live here for a really long time and still feel like you haven't had your fill of it. What goes hand in hand with that are the people. The aloha spirit is alive and that vibe is gorgeous and amazing here. The servitude, the community, the slow-paced relaxed way of living and how open people are to one another. You couldn't ask for a better community in one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth. It is so easy to fall in love and leave your heart here. Coming from Southern California and for the price, this is really not bad for what you get here. There's lots of space, a variety of different places and environments that you can choose to live in. It's not congested, there's not a crazy amount of traffic. Remember, I'm on the Big Island and it's really not much of a difference price-wise than Southern California. I think there's a give and a take, but I think you really get what you put your money into here and so it's really worth the cost. If you are a fruit eater like me and you love fresh food, Big Island is a place to be. There's lots of rainfall, good soil, you can actually plant a garden, things that'll grow, trees, different varieties of tropical fruits and veggies. The farmers markets are abundant and amazing. There's a lot of free fruit even if you don't have a garden that you can go and fruit hunt for just right through the gulches living off the land. It is seriously a dream come true. Another pro about Hawaii is I love how there's virtually nothing here that can kill you and what I mean by that is if you go and explore South America or Southeast Asia or Australia, especially places that are tropical like Queensland, you're talking about spiders, snakes, poisonous venomous things. I mean I don't even know what's out there because we have so little and so few here. I think the biggest things that you have to worry about here are centipedes on land and sharks in the ocean and I've never seen a shark despite the fact that I've gone snorkeling every single day the first year that I got here. So it's really not that big of a deal and it feels so great to be able to walk through grass, walk through jungles, and not have to worry about venomous snakes or spiders. Now I'm going to get to the downsides and really these are just downsides pertaining to me and what I prefer and they almost hardly outweigh the good sides. The downside is if you are a transplant, no family here. The upside to that is that there's a lot of families that will treat you just like they're your own. They're called Haina families and we have so many here and such good friends that we've made from locals that it's really hard to to leave, not to believe, it's really hard to leave the island. But at the same time if you are really close with your family and they either cannot afford or do not want to move out here that makes it a really tough situation because it is quite expensive to fly in and out of Hawaii. It's a tourist place so of course the prices are very high and while it's still paradise after a while it starts to weigh on your wallet. Also if you don't have a remote job or an established income it can be difficult to find enough work here to be able to support yourself and really live the Hawaii dream and that is something that I don't really know because I haven't experienced. I could be wrong here. This place is growing. There is a lot more work than you would expect and often it's easier to get work when you first get here and also if you're open-minded and minimal it's really easy to find work trade scenarios where you can work on a farm and trade for rent or other things like food etc. So it's very aloha here. People want to help you if you have the aloha spirit and you bring value to the table. Absolutely easy to find work here but you might have to be a little more flexible in your preferences of where you want to live and how you want your lifestyle. The next downside are imported goods. So while Hawaii or the Big Island Hawaii may not be much different to larger cities or Southern California, the biggest thing that I see that is a huge difference in inflated prices are imported foods like specialty items, furniture, and cars. I definitely have noticed it's also difficult to sell things on Craigslist or online. You don't get as much for them here and they don't move as fast. People tend to be flaky on the market. It's Hawaii. You know everybody's on their own time. We call it Hawaii time and so if you do like a lot of imported goods or you utilize a lot of imported stuff that can be difficult to find here. If it's your thing there are places like Target, Walmart, Ross that are here on the Big Island. We do have a Costco and I've heard that Whole Foods is also coming soon. Lastly the downside that is completely subjective is social life. If you like getting out, having a nightlife, going to big concerts, having big events that happen, there are so many events and things that you can participate here but if you're from a big city like California, especially Southern California like me, it feels like it's on the lacking side or things that are being made a big deal out of. It's not as big of a deal or grandiose as what I've experienced in California so like an avocado festival in California was just absolutely amazing. There are so many different options, so many foods that blew your mind and then here it's more just kind of like a potluck like everybody's coming together and bringing their food and it's very chill and low-key so if you like those big extravagant like fancy events or nightlife you're not going to find it here on the Big Island. Also if you're an entrepreneur or business owner like we are, it can be difficult to find people who are a little more like-minded or understand the flow of you know go go go on a daily basis. There's definitely a lot of creators here and a lot of soft startups and a lot of small businesses which is really amazing and awesome but for the entrepreneurial mindset people who like to build business and who like to surround themselves with lots of people, lots of events, lots of conferences, seminars, those kinds of things that's a little bit more difficult to find here and you're going to have to fly out which can be costly over time as well. So those are some of the few pros and cons that we experience for ourselves living in Hawaii. I know there's so many more because these are subjective again depending on the person's preferences or what it is that you're after. If you like the slow pace of life, you love living outdoors, you feel like you have the aloha spirit, you have a chill work schedule and you don't care for like anything extravagant, this is the most amazing place to be and I absolutely love it here. My heart and my home will always be here in Hawaii no matter what happens. I'm sure that we will end up coming back at some point. We'll have more on that later for now. I hope you found a lot of information in this video. If you feel like I've missed anything or you live in Hawaii, have lived in Hawaii, stick them in the comments below so that our community can see and also hit thumbs up if you like this video. I will see you guys next time. Ciao for now!