I've lived in Los Angeles for about 18 years now, since I was 19 years old, and it's been both amazing and fucking god awful.
I still prefer living here than Milwaukee. Milwaukee was a miserable, hateful place. Los Angeles is full of pretentious wannabes, but at least there's the ocean, pretty amazing weather most of the year (with the occasional heat wave or Earthquake to keep it from being perfect), and absolutely gorgeous women. That last one doesn't mean as much to me now that I'm married, but it's still rather nice.
I had to learn the hard way that some people in this city are fucking sharks. I've been lied to, manipulated, robbed, had concepts and ideas stolen, only to have them turn up on the big screen and make millions. It's not a city for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
I didn't even come LA with big dreams or delusions of grandeur. I just wanted to get the fck as far away from Milwaukee as I could, and also find out what it was like in the city of my birth (born in LA, raised in Milwaukee). There have been more ups than down, and I have met some amazing people, and lifelong friends, not to mention my wife, who's also not an LA native. It's an expensive city to live in, but not a difficult one. We're currently living closer to the East Side of LA, near downtown, in a one bedroom apartment paying $769 a month with electricity included. We used to live in Culver City, in a 2 bedroom for $1600, but that was insane, the area was full of snobs, and we eventually just couldn't keep up with the cost of living in that area. There are affordable places to live in Los Angeles, you may just have to make the concession of not living closer to the hot spots or the beach.
I take one bus to work, and I get reimbursed for my monthly bus pass ($100) by my job, so cost of transportation for me is literally $0. Traffic is indeed possibly the worst part of LA, but that's what my Vita and 3DS are for. I just pop in my headphones, and play my games and listen to my music while the bus driver deals with the stress of driving. I used to drive all of the time, but it just got to be too frustrating, and I highly recommend taking public transportation if heading to work will take you 1 or 2 buses, max. Back when I worked at Konami, I had to take three fucking buses to get to work, about 3 hours each way. I had to leave at 4 in the morning. Horrible. Ever since then, I made sure that I never took more than 2 buses, 1 ideally, to get to and from. It's about a 45-60 minute single bus ride during the mornings to work, and an hour and a half ride after. I can live with that. Public transportation and Uber is the only way I roll these days. lol
Eventually, me and my wife will move to a different part of the city, but our current setup is really nice. My advice to anyone planning on living here is to be careful who you trust. More than anything, make sure trust is earned. People will well and truly fuck you over, and with a smile on their face. I keep my friend circle incredibly small, and only trust a handful of people that I have known for damn near 16, 17 years.
On the positive side, I love the food, culture, and diversity here in LA. It's unlike what it was like living in Milwaukee, with a predominantly white, black, and Puerto Rican population. As a young black guy, Los Angeles taught me so much about understanding and shedding so many prejudices I didn't realize I had in my rather sheltered up-bringing. I really can't imagine now living in a city with a non-diverse population. Overall, I love it here. My wife isn't exactly a fan, but when we can, I wouldn't mind moving out of the city, but not too far out. LA is a pain in the ass, but it's actually the first place I've ever really felt like calling home.
EDIT: The East Side of LA is so fucking different than it was when I first moved out here. It was a fucking catastrophe back in '99, but now, it's a different beast entirely. The area is getting cleaned up, and gentrification has definitely made a difference here. It's really quiet, and outside of some obnoxious college students from USC, people are friendly and mostly keep to themselves. We live near a Police Station and a Fire Station, so it's really comfortable here now. There are certainly still some spots further East that I wouldn't be comfortable walking around at night, but Downtown LA has fucking transformed since I first stepped foot in the city.