Advice Needed: Couple (30) moving to the USA for some years

[Monster]

Hello!

My wife (30-) and me (30+) are moving to the USA with green card early next year. Plan is to move back home in some years to EU (family ties, friends, lifestyle), although we can never know for sure. We are both working as software developers that is interesting as of now, but final goal is FI planned in the next 10 years.

Goal in USA is to find nice jobs, living healthy, have some adventure, exploring new things and doing trips, while also boosting the stash a bit. We are living happily with our ~40% savings rate now - I consider it OK in East-Central Europe but I won't deny there is a potential. Continuing our lifestyle should not be a problem. The only city I have visited so far in USA is Miami, but it already helped explaining a lot of MMM posts. :)

Our savings are in VTI ETFs, account is tax-free, it can stay where it is. No owned properties back home to care about. No job offers from US yet, we are free to go anywhere, although there is some itch for Silicon Valley. Idea is to get some whatever job offers and choose one out of it after background checks. We can support ourselves long enough even if we do not get jobs. We might be able to work in the company's office in CA but it is not granted and might not be wise financially either. No friends or relatives in USA. We like the dry weather, not too cold, not too warm, we don't like megacities, but these are not first priority. We like doing sports. Overall, our way of thinking is really not far from the MMM readers' here I guess, that's why I came here for the first place.

Questions are the following:
- I learned about 401k and saving possibilites recently. Is there anything special to consider given the short (some years) timeframe?
- Cities to live and places to work are countless, makes us lost in planning. I know there are topics about it, but there might be some jolly jokers for short time visitors.
- Starting from scratch looks difficult but it is also a bless because we have no boundaries, so any suggestions are really welcome, just post if anything comes to your mind.

Thanks for reading and all the best to you,
Monster

[CU Tiger]

It is kind of hard to find somewhere in the US that has drier weather with no extremes of hot or cold. Most places have either scorching summers or freezing winters...or both.  If I was moving here from outside the country, I would look into cities with reasonable Cost of Living, some public transportation, access to both cultural events and the great outdoors.

Some places I like that I would recommend, but see above for my comment about the weather.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
Asheville, NC
Denver, CO
Atlanta, GA
Portland, OR
San Antonio, TX or anywhere in the Texas Hill country.

In addition, there are a multitude of smaller cities and large towns that you might like. The only places I would avoid are the huge mega cities like LA, Dallas and Chicago and places like NYC and San Francisco where the COL is just crazy.

It is a big country, there is bound to be a place that suits you!

[CanuckExpat]

It is kind of hard to find somewhere in the US that has drier weather with no extremes of hot or cold.

Northern California might fit that definition. Not usually known for being cheap. Pretty scenic though, if a bit brown at times :)

[meandmyfamily]

Reno, NV

[dougules]

"We like the dry weather, not too cold, not too warm, we don't like megacities, but these are not first priority. "
That just about leaves you with the Central California Coast and Hawaii.  Everywhere else is going to have a hot summer or a cold winter or both if you're lucky.  You can also throw in some high humidity for a lot of places, too. 

There are no end of possibilities if you can get past the weather for everything out of sight of the Pacific.  Yes it's kind of overwhelming but here are some ideas of mid-size cities I think are nice:

- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Eugene, Oregon
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Olympia, Washington
- Columbus, Ohio
- Asheville, North Carolina
- Colorado front range north of Denver
- Urbana, Illinois
- Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Savannah, Georgia
- Athens, Georgia

I hate to overwhelm but there are way more than this.  These are just the parts of the US I'm familiar with, and I don't know about the economy in some of these. Pretty few people really know the whole country, so you'll have to talk to people in several different areas to get the big picture. 

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta is definitely an acquired taste.  Also I think it fits into the "megacities" category. 

[Scotland2016]

Reno, Nevada