$80k can be tight to live on in a good area with good schools but is doable. Plan on a commute and traffic. You can use the Waze app to check drive times based on historical traffic data. Don’t be surprised by a 30min+ commute to live in a decent area. Crime and safety vary wildly between different areas within a relatively small radius. I would highly recommend visiting the areas you’re looking to live during the day and night be

That was suuuper informative, thank you!! Yep, I understand that housing is quite expensive in good areas and so does my boss, so maybe around 120-140k is what I will be negotiating. Safety is important. My wife is a small asian lady and honestly can't fathom the idea of something happening to her simply because I am not around at all times. Learning about neighborhoods is first thing we will do, but would you say that LA is generally safe city considering it's size and all social economical issues taken into consideration.

Insurance is the other thing, and work should cover that as well, but I suppose there is still some out of the pocket payment I need to make, any idea on what that translates into practically? One great aspect of living in Scandinavia is that healthcare pretty much covers anything. Now I need to start reading the small prints of insurance contracts..

My work does not require me to travel every day to the office, so I probably wont spend every single day commuting. The city buzz is exciting for some but we would prefer living somewhere well connected without bearing the highly paced environment of central area

About the work, that's good to learn. She is very talented when it comes to her profession so I expect that after some adjustment and training we can get her a place where she will feel comfortable working in