We made a bunch of money in the ridiculous real estate market in L.A. (scraped together a few thousand, bought a tiny house in a crappy neighborhood and sold it 2 years later for double what we paid).
I convinced my employers to keep me on as a telecommuter and moved to Colorado (bought a 6 bedroom Victorian for less than we sold the stupid bungalow for and have views to die for).
There are people in the world that are smart & interesting. Get out of L.A.