OT - mattresses aren't even standardized in this world we inhabit? What a mess...I never knew that...

Thanks heaps mate, amazing info yet again.

Health Insurance is something we had considered but had no idea about the cost. Work will pay for part of it i'm guessing but 3k per couple pm is insane! :eek: That's like an average wage per annum. I thought i saw something on a different forum where an expat had insurance for a couple for about 1k pa, but maybe that was pm. If we are going to have to pay 30k worth of health insurance that will probably be a deal breaker for us.

Car Insurance/Rego; we were planning on spending less than 10k on one used car, similar to what we have here in Aus price wise, but i asusme that will get us somehting slightly better over there. We aren't big car people so as long as it is reliable that all that matters. I'll budget $200 pm for all car costs

Rental insurance - good idea.

Tax - yes i am going to tell work what i need to make after tax and then they can work it out from there.

No kids

Start-up costs - Was hoping to get everything for a basic 2br set-up for 5k. Is that unrealisitc?

Ok, on health insurance, $1500 per person is assuming you have to go get insurance on your own and pay 100% of it (e.g. for self-employed person) and you are getting a comprehensive and low deductible policy. You can get a high deductible insurance (say you pay the first $5000 out of pocket), and your premium may be down to $500 a month.

Usually, your employer will pay for most of your insurance (like 80%), and you are in a large insured group (e.g. all the employees in your company) so the cost will be substantially less than the individual policy. If your employer pays for most of the cost (fairly standard practice), then $100~200 a month for both of you would be about average depending on coverage (e.g. does it include dental? deductible amounts, is it HMO or PPO etc). They will take your portion of the insurance from you paycheck so you won't even have to worry about it. So don't panic... find out if your employer will cover both you and your spouse.


$10k used car is plentiful so don't worry. And yes, car prices are cheaper here so you can probably buy the same car you have in Australia for less money in California.

$5k will get you started with furniture and household items if you shop at IKEA. If you want nicer stuff, it will probably cost a little more.

Thanks mate,

I know work does have an insurance plan, what and how much i'm not sure so will have to find that out. Again i guess that they will have to factor that in when i tell them what i want to receive in my hand each month.

I had a quick look at a couple online calculators and there are a few policies around the 6k pa mark for a couple our age.

Can i ask what you are doing over there and how long you have been there?
Really appreciate your help, if we do go through with the move i owe you a few beers when we get there :)

I moved to LA when I was a teenager with my family so a looooong time ago... lol

Good luck with your move. With the exchange rate being the way it is, you will find most things are cheaper here (except for health insurance!). It wasn't like this 10 years ago when the US$ was bigger than the AUS$. Now I feel poor whenever I visit Australia.

Yeh Aus is now the most expensive country in the World by most standards and experiences. I'm hoping a few years of USD savings followed by an AUD crash will help bump up our assets :)

So work is now saying there may be a strong chance that i would be based out of our Woodland Hills office (Ventura Blvd) :(

Would anyone be able to offer some advice for decent areas around there still within a 20-30 min commute (or public transport preferrably)? Encino maybe?

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Warner Center in Woodland Hills has many upscale apartment complexes. I suggest expanding your search to include Sherman Oaks and Calabasas.

Rents in thewest Valley are considerably lower than in the west side and traffic is much better.

I'll post more when I'm not on my phone.

Here is a map that features many of the apartment complexes in Warner Center. Warner Ranch Park is home of the Valley Cultural Center, which features free concerts on Sunday evenings in the summers.

Here's a visitors' guide to the San Fernando Valley.

Woodland Hills is half an hour to Malibu Beach via Topanga Canyon.

Downtown is easily accessible via the Orange Line connecting to the Red Line in Universal City and the west side is less than 20 miles away via the 101 and 405 freeways.

You'll be very close to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area - National Park.

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Warner Center in Woodland Hills has many upscale apartment complexes. I suggest expanding your search to include Sherman Oaks and Calabasas.

Rents in thewest Valley are considerably lower than in the west side and traffic is much better.

I'll post more when I'm not on my phone.

For your situation being based in Woodland Hills may work out better. A close friend rented a very nice 2 BR apartment near Warner Center for years (I used to stay with him before I moved to LA). He was happy and easily able to get many places for fun during non rush hours. And my brother lived in a very nice refurbished 2 BR in Encino. Only downside might be the 100+ temps in summer. But everything else should be more affordable.

Thanks TWA much appreciated.

Would i be right in saying that Woodland Hills is probably more 'suburbia' and less 'LA' than Beverly Hills/Westwood area? I'm assuming there are less bars/clubs/nightlife etc but i could be way off the mark. How safe are the subways over there? We took one there once and it didnt look too appealing during the middle of the day

Obviously i dont have a choice what office i work due to the nature of the role, but living and working in BH was appealing due to being in the middle of things.

haha obviously we are also going to have to get used to the scale of things. 20 miles here in Melbourne and we would be out of the city and that would be considered a decent drive

Thanks Dbuck,

100 is only 38 celcius which we get at least 2 weeks of here every summer so as long as there is ac that wont bother us.

It's interesting because LA has so many business centers that it's hard to say what is the "city" and what is suburbia. There are definitely places where homes and strip malls outnumber offices/businesses. However, Woodland Hills/Warner Center is a fairly busy business center in the Valley so it'll definitely feel somewhat urban. Not Downtown LA, walkaround urban, but fairly busy. Not sleepy.

If you don't mind the heat and the smog, the Valley will have plenty to do.

If you don't mind driving just a bit more, you can fairly easily come through the canyon and you'd be in Malibu, where it's easily 15F-25F cooler during the day in the summer.

I'm not sure if these links will work but if you use the Google maps street view feature, you can compare how it looks:

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...14902&t=m&z=17

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...m&z=17&iwloc=A

My insurance must be unreasonably low then, because I pay $900 a year for full coverage from Mercury for a eight year old Acura TSX. I've been licensed a decent amount of time but I would think that basic full liability for a $5,000-10,000 car could be done for less than $100 a month, as well as registration for that car. The Vehicle License Fee is 0.65% of the sale price of the car, plus $30-40 in registration. I would suggest getting something basic until you are sure that you are going to stay for a while.