Money is the lesson school forgets.
Kuleana Finance teaches it from zero, built in Hawaiʻi, where everyday money decisions carry higher stakes than almost anywhere in the country.
10.7×
The median single-family home in Honolulu costs 10.7 times what the median household earns in a year.
- Median home
- $1,139,000
- Median income
- $106,195
Click an island to fly in and open its landmarks. 2025 single-family medians; income from the Census ACS.
Kalalau Valley, Kauaʻi. Photo: Paxson Woelber, CC BY-SA 3.0
The paradise math
41%
of Hawaiʻi households earn above the poverty line but below what it costs to live here.
2.6×
the U.S. average price for home electricity, because most power still comes from imported oil.
U.S. EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Jul 2026. Compiled from secondary reporting; check the primary source.
53%
of residents under 35 are below the ALICE threshold. Many of them are deciding whether to stay.
Starting with the Class of 2030, Hawaiʻi public schools require a financial literacy experience to graduate. This site is built to be one: free, local, and honest about the numbers. Read the Hawaiʻi Atlas.
Kuleana is responsibility, and the privilege of looking after what you have.
Three ways in, one path through
- 1
Foundation
Budgets, paychecks, compound interest, credit and what a stock actually is. The vocabulary everyone should leave high school with.
- 2
Application
Put paper money to work on real market history, stress-test it against storms that have not happened yet, and read the data behind local companies.
- 3
What $10,000 in island stocks did since 2010
An equal mix of seven companies tied to Hawaiʻi, rebalanced every January with dividends reinvested, against one S&P 500 fund.
- Island stocks
- $64,229
- 11.7% a year, worst fall -31%
- S&P 500
- $96,310
- 14.5% a year, worst fall -24%
A portfolio of only local companies carries the same risk as the islands themselves: tourism, one power grid, one ocean supply line. The simulator lets you test that with any mix.
Build a portfolioBOH, CPF, HE, MATX, ALK, MLP and HST. Monthly dividend-adjusted closes through 2026-10-21. Past results are history, not a forecast.
Saving Paradise
Todd's podcast about finance, business and the economy, made in Hawaiʻi for people who are new to it. Each episode takes one thing happening in the world, looks past the headline, and leaves you with one thing you can do.
- Episode 2. The Second Life of a Dollar: Why Where You Spend Matters
- Episode 1. Stay or Go? Why Young People Leave Hawai'i
The local money toolkit
Calculators built around island prices, island wages and island decisions, with every assumption shown.
See all tools- Island budget builderWhat a paycheck covers on each island, line by line.
- First home plannerThe down payment, the monthly payment, and the income it takes.
- College cost plannerUH Mānoa, WUE and mainland schools, with the loan math.
- Start at 16What starting early is worth, in dollars.
- The second life of a dollarHow far $100 travels when you spend it locally.
- Stay or go?A Honolulu offer against a mainland one, after rent and flights home.
Ask Kuleana
A tutor for any money question, answered in plain language with island examples. It explains; it never tells you what to buy.
Open the full tutor
- Kuleana
- Responsibility, and the privilege that comes with it.
- Understanding your own money, then helping your ʻohana understand theirs.
- Mālama
- To care for, protect and tend.
- Looking after what you already have before chasing more.
- Lōkahi
- Unity, balance and harmony.
- Balancing spending, saving and giving. A diversified portfolio is a kind of lōkahi.
- Pono
- Righteousness, balance, doing what is right.
- Earning and investing in ways you can be proud of.
- Ahupuaʻa
- A traditional land division running from the mountains to the sea.
- A whole-system view: every resource used, shared and replenished within one community.
- Hoʻomau
- To persevere, to keep going.
- Staying invested through hard years. Every market recovery rewarded people who held on.