Retirement Lifestyle

Waikiki Beach

I've had many people ask me how I can live in a 600 square ft. condo.  Here are my short answers:

1. It's in Hawaii and it's paid for.
2. We probably won't live here for the rest of our lives.
3. We want to travel while we're still healthy and a condo is easy to close up and leave at a moments notice.
4. We have a great view of Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial.  I feel lucky and grateful when I look out the window each day.
5. I'm not spending my retirement years cleaning and/or repairing a large square footage home.
6. We refurbished it to our liking and we love the location.

People waiting for Friday night fireworks to start

Another question I'm often asked is how can we afford to retire in Hawaii since it's so expensive.  Let's break it down into the most expensive categories:

1. Housing - Our condo is paid for.
2. Utilities- Hawaii has one of the highest utility rates but once again, living in a smaller space means smaller utility bills.  We run our air conditioner often and our utility bill is about $100.
3. Food- Yes food is expensive since almost everything is shipped to the islands. Luckily we can shop at the military commissaries on the island. We only eat out about once a week and that really helps our food budget go farther.
4. Gas- Gasoline might run $.50-.75 more per gallon, but remember, we are on an island so we don't drive long distances at any one time.
5. Entertainment-Here is an example of our recent Friday night outing.  We had a Mexican dinner at a "mom and pop" restaurant. $27   We then walked along the Waikiki beach and watched the sunset...  Free.  After sunset on Friday night there are fireworks on the beach...Free.  And finally we treated ourselves to ice cream after the fireworks...$3.    After paying our $4 parking fee, our evening out came to $34.00 for an enjoyable night on the town.

Another amazing sunset

There is no perfect place in the world for retiring.  If there was, everyone would move there.  I suggest finding the perfect spot for you. A place where you find yourself smiling a lot and feeling lucky that you found your own paradise.

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