I hear you. It will be a challenge for us however it will help us to get a killer job. Half of my friends think that this is a killer job and rest of them think it is not. We will see 
You don’t need a sticker to carpool. You need a sticker to get the exemption for the EV to be in the carpool lane. It cost’s 22 bucks, and that is basically it.
To carpool you just need another breathing human being in the car.
What city will you be commuting to and from do you know yet?
Could you live close to work rather than commuting in from a suburb? The average commute time in Los Angeles is actually 30 minutes, and it’s further skewed by the supercommuters who come in from outside the city.
LA is dense enough where you can find everything you need or want to do in a small radius; I find myself visiting the other side of town maybe once a week on weekends.
Did OP ever say SoCal? I think I missed it… Could also be NorCal…
or maybe the oft forgotten (for good reason) MidCal!*
*Not actually a thing
As a SoCal transplant from Ohio, I can second this!
Add a zero on the end of everything in Ohio, and you have OC prices.
If you think double your old salary was adequate, I hope you love Ramen noodles. 
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Reminds me of a acquaintance who got a huge raise to move to NorCal from Minneapolis… After they got here, he said to his wife: “Today, we became poor”…
So sorry for my delayed response. Since I am a new member, the system didnt let me reply after a certain number of replies 
Living close to work would be great however our budget is limited 
To be honest, I like LA better than SF, I am in love with Santa Barbara… Hope we can relocate there some time in the future.
If you were, would you take it with you and get it transferred?
Thanks a lot!
Hope I will not tell the same to my wife…
You still haven’t said where you will live or work. An EV (carpool stickers) might not be as useful as you think.
My apologies. Since I am a new user I couldn’t reply after a certain number of replies. I just got it unblocked.
We have not rented yet. I am hoping to rent by Dec 1 and have two neighborhoods in my mind; Fremont and Santa Clara. Office location: Menlo Park
Well, now we have something to go on… What hours do you expect / think you’ll work? I live in Fremont, technically work at the border of Sunnyvale and Mountain View. I say technically, because I get to work from home a lot - today, at 9:00, it would have taken me over 1 hour to get to work (just under 20 miles). And yeah, the commuter lanes would have helped.
Renting in Santa Clara will be more $$ than Fremont (maybe $500 / month more, just a guess), due to proximity to all the tech companies, but it depends on exactly where you are thinking of living. Fremont would be somewhat ok, since you’ll be commuting against the flow of traffic (at least from Fremont north to the bridge), but as with most cities, there are nicer and not-so-nice areas. On the other hand, 880 north usually isn’t too badly congested, and there are only short commuter lanes on the bridge (from bridge to toll). In other words, you wouldn’t really gain much from being to go in the commuter lane with an EV if you life in Fremont and drive to Menlo Park.
Half the time, the commuter lanes are only somewhat faster than the regular lanes (i.e. they move faster, but not near the speed limit), and I can use some parts of the commuter lanes (aka express lanes) by paying for it. I actually do that - I consider it a “reduced stress fee” 
And they’re putting in more express lanes (sometimes nicknamed “Lexus lanes”) all the time. It all comes down to “time is money”. Paying $2-3 to save 5-10 minutes of aggravating stop-and-go is totally worth it to me. At least it is now. I grew up in Ontario (Canada), and it took a little while to adjust. Not sure how it is in Ohio, but here, half the drivers are clueless about actually “driving”. Driving with high beams in your face, no lights at night, etc. 1/4 to 1/3 of everyone seems to text / watch their phone while driving these days. It’s pretty frustrating. Which is why I’m happy to work from home a lot
Going up from Santa Clara to Menlo Park actually has a lot more commuter lanes, but then you’re also going 100% “prime flow of traffic” (from south bay into “tech area”), so it could actually be even worse. Or it could be better.
Depending on when you arrive, how much stuff you have, etc, you might want to rent a room at Motel6 for a few days close to each location, just to see what traffic will be like. 237->101 (north) exit is always backed up.
Hopefully not too off-topic for this thread, since it’s your “moving” thread. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have. My wife’s from here, so I had an inside connection. If you don’t have anyone, it can be hard to know where to get help.
Incidentally - where in Ohio? My wife has a sister near Sandusky.
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Lots of people would LIKE to move to Santa Barbara… Lots of rich people are able to afford to do so… We do well enough to be able to visit whenever we want. Solvang is a cute little town, San Luis Obispo sidewalk market or whatever it’s called is cool, etc…
The thing to keep in mind about CA - you’re not just competing with the “best and brightest” in your area of Ohio (who stayed). You’re essentially competing with many of the best and brightest from all over the world. $200k/year household income means you’re solidly “middle class” (but NOT “upper middle class”) and can probably afford a 50-year-old 1600 sq ft house (no basements in CA, for the most part) that may need repairs, for around $1-1.2M in a middle-of-the-road location.
nothing beats advice like this…@ali1 can def make some sound decisions based on it 
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What’s the money factor in Menlo Park vs Fremont or Santa Clara?
I did say I wasn’t as familiar with that stretch.
And it depends so much on time-of-day, it’s hard to generalize…
For housing? If Fremont is 1.0, Santa Clara’s probably 1.1 or 1.2, and Menlo Park’s like 5.0.
That sounds brutal. How much extra monthly payment? There’s significant value in a much shorter commute, obviously. Maybe you could work more with some of the time you’d be spending in your car.
Menlo Park / Palo Alto is right by Stanford. It’s where the really rich tech guys like Zuckerberg buy 4 houses and demolish them just to get a bigger building lot + wall = more privacy. And, of course, “old money”.
OTOH, in Fremont you can see MC Hammer’s abandoned “compound” that was like $10-15M back in the day or something
Mind you, Fremont’s not that bad. Same great weather (not being sarcastic), the commute isn’t terrible yet (compared to people who drive 2-3 hours each way from Livermore and beyond), etc…
Actually, depending on your employer and your location, they might actually have a “carpool van / bus” that you can ride, in which case you might be able to get stuff done on the way to / from work.