Same nationwide rates for roadrunner (superfast here....1.5-2.5mb download speed) DSL through verizon 29.99-59.99. 56k many providers...for Big Island I love turquoise.net's 56k service, always reliable. Hawaii is a very well connected island. High speed access is available in most areas.......even in places you would never guess. There may still be free high speed wireless coverage over the west side of the big island as well (kinda a cooperative)
Hawaii's superb -- terrific scenery and year-round golf & beach weather in the high 70s/low 80s. Close to zero smog or pollution of any kind. Gentle tradewinds, aquamarine beaches everywhere you look and swaying palm trees. Not many ties are found in Hawaii... We wear aloha shirts and tommy bahama silks. High cost of living (I pay $2400/mo for a 2BR 1600sft a/c oceanfront condo) and gasoline is still > $2.00/gallon. You can get ok 1BR apts for $800-1K/mo. There's not much of a middle class job base, it's mostly low paying tourism/retail, and the average educational level of locals is very low. Not like a well educated high-tech city. Entrenched public unions/socialistic environment and astronomical taxes. This is not the place for sports fans. Ever try to watch Mon night football at 10am ? lol. We have no local pro sports, just local college games, which are so-so. Getting up at 2-3am daily to prepare for trading each day is very difficult, even after years of doing so. I use roadrunner cablemodem, residential is 40/mo and business 80/mo. No violent crime to speak of, this is great, eg I feel safe everywhere I go, anytime of day/night (unlike anywhere else I've lived, eg Calif, Michigan, Chicago, Colorado) ... but very high property crime, and 91% of major crimes on Oahu went unsolved last year. Underpaid/not enough local police here. And with among the worst public school systems in the country, we have one of the top rates of public school teachers who pay to have their kids go to private schools in the country (since they know firsthand how bad the public school system is, both teachers and cops are underpaid). But everything else is great. The food, the scenery, the local values, the asian lifestyle. Many mainland haoles (local word for caucasian people like me from the US mainland) move here for a couple of years, don't like the fact that they're in a minority group (caucasians are less than 50% of the population here), and end up moving back to the mainland. They don't adjust, don't learn how to use chopsticks, don't like plate lunch, try to change everything to be how it was on the mainland, and give up and go back home lol. Interesting, of all the states I've lived, Hawaii has as a favorite question for non-locals, eg "how long have you been here?" and if it's less than 4 yrs+, they wonder how long you'll stick around, assuming you'll leave (as many do). I've been here 8+ years and like it better than anywhere else. The only problem is, decent houses cost well over 350K (the median price for a small 2BR), good ones are 500K+. That and the taxes. But hey, the view from my condo is : http://www.dtu1.com/condoall.jpg so I'm still here. And my www.dtu1.com/wife.jpg likes it here as well. hope that's useful ... I made it in hawaii, many don't... they don't feel comfortable being in an asian cultural environment, and go back. I'm glad I could fit in. At first it's tough, eg like visiting Singapore, and not seeing many other people that look like you. But in time, some can adapt. Hawaii has the #1 rate of interracial marriages of any state, which is fine with me since I like asian women. Getting a wife from Japan was helpful, and having an open mind and trying to get along with folks from different cultures, is essential. Ken
Was only position trading while there, so didn't work weird hours. Time is almost polar opposite of NYC. 11 or 13 hours, depending on how you look at it. Jay
Everything Ken said is right. Just to highlight one: Mainlanders go to the islands with the expectation that, push come to shove, it is still another part of the US. I've lived all over and can tell you this is their undoing. Hawaii has a unique culture. Newcomers must acculturate just as they must when moving to a new country. Learn the idiom, the diet, the time orientation, the social mores, etc. etc. etc. just as though you had moved to Japan or Saudi Arabia. This isn't like moving from NYC to Hollywood but much more than that. Many never come to terms with this and end up leaving frustrated. The locals have seen this over and over, and will consider you an itinerant visitor until you've been there for several years. Blue aka One Crazy Haole
ANy trading groups in hawaii where we can freely exhange ideas, personal preferences regarding software and issues relating to daytrading? We speak a dialect called pidgin in hawaii, so my typing skills reflect the way I communicate...
there was one local trader, Clyde something? who even had a site, I don't recall the name, or know if they're still meeting, they seemed like a nice group when I gave a talk to their meeting a couple of years ago at Tony Roma's nr kahala mall (one of my favorite restaurants for grilled mahi) ... I think they meet at Campadres' on Fri nites, or aloha tower gordon biersche's... exactly right bluehorseshoe ken
There is a general excise tax (GET)....which is 4.166% applied to almost any transaction. Kinda like sales tax, but broader. Real estate taxes are dirt cheap compared to the rest of the nation. On average around .85-.95% ($850-950 per 100K). If your a resident of the state, then it's close to half that. Income taxes are a bit, not sure on ordinary income, but on cap. gains it's about 7-10% depending on circumstances. This puts it in the top 5 or so for tax on capital gains outta all the states. This is why I live here only a few months outta the year & maintain my primary residence in Texas (no state income tax). This creates a win-win scenario on the state taxation front... as well as federal by having another home to write off for property taxes and insurance. My biggest savings come in R.E. taxes, saving almost 1mm over the life of the mortgage.
right re above on taxes... the 'pyramiding' effect of the excise tax is that, unlike a flat sales tax like most other places have, the tax is a transaction one, so it gets stacked through from wholesale to retail at every step, adding up to something like an equivalent of what a 10-12% sales tax would be (from what I can remember; recent legislation was enacted to try and reduce that over time).. Income tax for singles is: Over $24,000 but not over $32,000.................$ 1,272 plus 7.30% over $24,000 Over $32,000 but not over $40,000.................$ 1,856 plus 7.60% over $32,000 Over $40,000 but not over $60,000.................$ 2,464 plus 7.90% over $40,000 Over $60,000 but not over $80,000.................$ 4,044 plus 8.20% over $60,000 >> Over $80,000...................................................$ 5,684 plus 8.50% over $80,000 And that's a lot, eg 6K + 8.5% >80K ... married filing joint returns is a bit less, example for >80K it's $5356 + 8.25% >80K But hey, somebody's got to pay for all those unionized overpaid civil servants we have! Hawaii has one of the highest rates of civil servants (doing what I don't know lol) to residents of any state in the country. Starting vacation for them is >4 weeks paid/year for gov't workers. But if you're not local w/connections, you can't get a "gubment job". And for everyone else, we have one of the highest rates of people who need to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet, of any place in the country. Ah well life in paradise. Ken
The more locals/family you put on the "gubment" payroll, then the harder it is for forces such as the "sovereignty movement" to get support...JMHO http://www.hawaii-nation.org/ http://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/ A good site for Hawaii tax analyses, with excellent weekly commentaries on what is wrong with the system: Tax Foundation of Hawaii http://www.tfhawaii.org/index.htm