# Thinking about it!



## caltan82 (Oct 30, 2008)

Hi All,

I had been thinking about working in Dubai for a couple of years, but ended up deciding to go to London. However after 3 months travel i am now settling into London and the timing couldn't be worse with the Credit Crunch i am finding it very hard to secure work.

Dubai has been in the back of my mind all week and today i got a call from an agent about a job in dubai that would be suited to me.

The thing is if i am going to move to Dubai with my wife i want to be sure we have a good standard of living and all though the money sounds great when you convert it back to australian and factor in the no-tax i was hopping you could advise if it really is.

The agent has indicated the base pay to be around 30,000 - 40,000 AED p.m. with the following benefits: discretionary bonus scheme, medical for yourself and family, 27 leave days a year, tickets for yourself and family, gratuity, life insurance, relocation (to be discussed).

Is this going to be enough to rent a nice one bedroom, 2 cars, nice life and be able to travel and save some money? (obviously everyones definition of this is different but say i want an above average life being able to eat out occasionally, travel away some weekends etc)

All constructive comments appreciated...

Also another question, how is the world economy falling apart affecting Dubai?


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## mazdaRX8 (Jul 13, 2008)

caltan82 said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I had been thinking about working in Dubai for a couple of years, but ended up deciding to go to London. However after 3 months travel i am now settling into London and the timing couldn't be worse with the Credit Crunch i am finding it very hard to secure work.
> 
> ...


its called "search"... your question is general enough to be answered by it.


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## caltan82 (Oct 30, 2008)

mazdaRX8 said:


> its called "search"... your question is general enough to be answered by it.


Thanks a lot for your help...

Now if anyone else can help id really appreciate it.

I have actually spent the best part of the day trawling the net to work it out but nothing compares to people who live there.

I came up with:

1 bed 100,000p.a.
Utilities - 1300 per month
groceries an household goods - 1000 per week
car inc petrol and ins - 800 per week
clothes, travel and entertainment were hard to figure out but i allowed 100,000p.a.

is this reasonable?


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## mazdaRX8 (Jul 13, 2008)

have you tried "trawling" the forum?


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## DesertStranded (Oct 9, 2008)

If you're getting 30-40k month and your wife finds work too then you will both live quite nicely.

Rent and transport are the big expenses. You could find a studio or 1BR depending on location for 10k/mnth. To rent a car would set you back about 2k/mnth but you could buy one instead for cheaper monthly payments than that. After that the rest of your salary is for food, entertainment and travel since you don't have kids to worry about yet.


Can I borrow some dirhams?


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## Sam75 (Jul 2, 2008)

Hi, I moved from Australia to Dubai via London as well and can maybe give you some comparisons.

Compared to Australia, I find the lifestyle here more glitzy and more money orientated (at least compared to Melbourne. Sydney could be a different story) so life is good here if you can afford it and miserable if not. Guess the same can be said of living in London.

On what you'll be earning, your lifestyle will be above average compared to Australia. But expat living is quite normal here so so not really above average when compared with how people live in Dubai. But then, who cares what the Jones are doing, as long as you are enjoying yourself.

Your costings above are about right although if you want to live in a nice area, I would say you'll pay about AED150k a year for a 1 bedroom apartment. Also, most apartments are unfurnished here so you'll need to budget in furniture.

Eating out is cheap here compared to London and about the same as Australia. I eat out most days (not very healthy though). You won't get the range of cuisine that you find in London and Australia. 

Weekend travel is not as convenient here as in London but comparable to Australia. In London, there are low cost airlines like easyjet and Ryanair for the weekend trips and plenty of destinations in Europe within a three hour flying radius. It's a bit harder here although there is Airarabia from Shajah and from next year, Fly Dubai. Within a 3-4 hour flying radius, you have the west coast of India, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf States. Definitely interesting places to explore but not as convenient - need to consider visa and security issues more than (say) doing a weekend run to Europe. Funnily enough, it is really cheap to travel to London from here so you can also do the weekend trips to London but it's 7 hours each way.

Hope the above helps. Let me know if you have more questions. In your circumstance, I think you should make the move. No point sitting around in London and not working.


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## sgilli3 (Mar 23, 2008)

Sam75 said:


> Compared to Australia, I find the lifestyle here more glitzy and more money orientated (at least compared to Melbourne. Sydney could be a different story) so life is good here if you can afford it and miserable if not. Guess the same can be said of living in London.he move. .


Not sure which part of Melbourne you are from-to compare Dubai to- but in my eyes- Dubai isnt glitzy- money orientated yes- glitzy-no.


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## Sam75 (Jul 2, 2008)

sgilli3 said:


> Not sure which part of Melbourne you are from-to compare Dubai to- but in my eyes- Dubai isnt glitzy- money orientated yes- glitzy-no.


I'm from suburbia in Melbourne - eastern suburbs. 

I'm surprised you don't find Dubai glitzy. Driving down SZR framed by those amazing buildings still blows me away. Not to mention all the designer clothes, expensive cars (there are probably more Porsches, Ferraris, Lamboughinis etc here than in the whole of Australia), extravagant lifestyle etc. For sure, a lot of it is conspicuous consumption you'll find with the noveau riche in any emerging markets, but I can't help but feel that Dubai is where the beautiful people hang out (ok, maybe not all of Dubai as I have not been to the labour camps)

Coming from Australia, all this glitz and galmour is not really my thing (unless I need to do it for work) but I can't deny that there is a lot of bright lights and beautiful people here.

To clarify, I am not saying that Dubai is a classier place compared to Melbourne. That's a whole different story ...


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## Andy Capp (Oct 5, 2008)

Dubai's a terrible place, full of over-inflated ego's and fast women, don't do it! Your wife will insist on having a maid to wipe her shoes each morning and seriously think the Lime Tree Cafe is full of intelligent people....

Love it!


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## sgilli3 (Mar 23, 2008)

Sam75 said:


> I'm from suburbia in Melbourne - eastern suburbs.
> 
> I'm surprised you don't find Dubai glitzy. Driving down SZR framed by those amazing buildings still blows me away. Not to mention all the designer clothes, expensive cars (there are probably more Porsches, Ferraris, Lamboughinis etc here than in the whole of Australia), extravagant lifestyle etc. For sure, a lot of it is conspicuous consumption you'll find with the noveau riche in any emerging markets, but I can't help but feel that Dubai is where the beautiful people hang out (ok, maybe not all of Dubai as I have not been to the labour camps)
> 
> ...


Ahhh- that makes more sense- thankyou-
(Im from SE suburbs)


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## Pasanada (Feb 5, 2008)

Andy Capp said:


> Dubai's a terrible place, full of over-inflated ego's and fast women, don't do it! Your wife will insist on having a maid to wipe her shoes each morning and seriously think the Lime Tree Cafe is full of intelligent people....
> 
> Love it!


Whats wrong with fast women? LMAO  Especially those women who drive fast???? Tee hee


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## caltan82 (Oct 30, 2008)

Sam75 said:


> Hi, I moved from Australia to Dubai via London as well and can maybe give you some comparisons.
> 
> Compared to Australia, I find the lifestyle here more glitzy and more money orientated (at least compared to Melbourne. Sydney could be a different story) so life is good here if you can afford it and miserable if not. Guess the same can be said of living in London.
> 
> ...


Thanks Sam for taking the time to post a reply, its all very well researching but hearing from people makes all the difference. I am also from Melbourne i used to live in St Kilda. Your description about travel is really usefull as that is a big reason for us leaving Aus. I suppose if you can get cheap flights to london (although 7 hrs) then you can get cheap fights to anywhere in europe from london but you need a week off. But the shorter trips to India Pakistan Egypt etc are on my list of places to see anyway so i suppose i would target the closer places for a 3 day weekend...

Speaking of 3 day weekends i looked into the dubai public holidays, these are obviously all muslim holidays, do expats get these days off too?


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## Sam75 (Jul 2, 2008)

caltan82 said:


> Thanks Sam for taking the time to post a reply, its all very well researching but hearing from people makes all the difference. I am also from Melbourne i used to live in St Kilda. Your description about travel is really usefull as that is a big reason for us leaving Aus. I suppose if you can get cheap flights to london (although 7 hrs) then you can get cheap fights to anywhere in europe from london but you need a week off. But the shorter trips to India Pakistan Egypt etc are on my list of places to see anyway so i suppose i would target the closer places for a 3 day weekend...
> 
> Speaking of 3 day weekends i looked into the dubai public holidays, these are obviously all muslim holidays, do expats get these days off too?


I know what you mean - most Aussies in London (myself included when I was there) will be off on weekends in Europe. I used to go away once every three weeks. Much more difficult here. I've done some research but have not gone anywhere yet just because I only arrived 3 months ago.

Non-muslims do get all the religious holidays but planning a holiday around these can be hard. The reason for that is that the Muslim calendar follows the moon cycle and the actual date is not announced until close to the day itself.

For example, for Eid Al Fitri (a 3 day holiday after the end of the holy month of Ramadan), the holiday was announced the night before upon the sighting of the new moon. If you are happy to take 2-3 days of leave during the week, then you can book your fare in advance and cancel/adjust your leave as necessary. By the way, there is no replacement days here so if a public holiday falls on a weekend, then it is what it is. 

The other thing about the low cost flights here is that the frequency is not high and the timing is not good. So it may be difficult doing Thursday evening/Sat night run and getting to Shajah airport on a Thursday afternoon can be a nightmare. No Stanstead Express etc here! Also worth considering Emirates or Etihad but you'll be paying more.

Let me know if you have other questions.


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## Sam75 (Jul 2, 2008)

sgilli3 said:


> Ahhh- that makes more sense- thankyou-
> (Im from SE suburbs)


As a famous politician in Australia would say, please explain?


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## caltan82 (Oct 30, 2008)

Sam75 said:


> I know what you mean - most Aussies in London (myself included when I was there) will be off on weekends in Europe. I used to go away once every three weeks. Much more difficult here. I've done some research but have not gone anywhere yet just because I only arrived 3 months ago.
> 
> Non-muslims do get all the religious holidays but planning a holiday around these can be hard. The reason for that is that the Muslim calendar follows the moon cycle and the actual date is not announced until close to the day itself.
> 
> ...


Thanks for that great info.


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