EnfieldExpat

...with a travel allowance of 50% of one month base per year

And with an education allowance of 50% of monthly base per child, per year

To move to Abu Dhabi

We have two children and would need to go for a British curriculum school (they seem expensive and places are rare), one set of school fees as much as AED 5k/month

I feel that we would need a minimum 3-bed, 1500 sqft apartment close to the school which the two children will ultimately go to as my wife will be driving around, and she will not be particularly confident. In addition, the heat and traffic and dangerous driving is not good for long commutes which would make like miserable

This might set us back AED 20k/month from what I can see

Financing a large, necessary 4x4 car would cost at least AED 10k/month

So with school fees + car + accommodation, I work this out at roughly AED 40k/month going out already without accounting for cost of utilities, entertainment and food/clothes etc.

Does not appear compelling enough for a move from London to AD which is supposed to enable a family to save substantially

Keen to hear any thoughts from people on this forum, many thanks for you help

Appreciate other members comments previously on another post regarding schools I made some time ago

Cheers

archie159

So - 55k plus education allowance of high-20k...
You put the word "base" in front of salary, which normally implies you have further allowances - do they give you anything more for accommodation?
Even if the answer is no, then you can still save on that package.
You are correct school places are difficult - sometimes very difficult, it depends upon the ages of your children.
You certainly do not need to spend 240k annually on rent - unless you wish to live in the more expensive areas. We have a large, 4 bed villa in a nice but small compound fairly centrally located on the island, and pay 210k. For a 3BR place you should be paying much less, especially if you live off-island in KCA, for instance.
Nor do you need to spend 10k per month on a car - you can buy a perfectly reasonable second hand japanese 4x4 for 60-70k. And if your wife is going to be doing most of the driving, maybe get her a sturdy saloon, rather than a 4x4 - cheaper again, and easier to drive around town.

You don't say what you are earning/saving in the UK to make it easy to compare, but based just on the above I'd be surprised if you could not do some saving over here.

Sorry - missed the comment about a travel allowance... is that then the only extra allowance they pay, plus education?

norsk

I have a large 4x4. Not a shitty rice cooker either, but a nice one. Costs me approx 2,500 per month. Of course it isn't new, but even if it was I would expect to pay no more than 5K per month.

Can't really comment on rental costs in AD, but 240K for a 3 bed flat seems a bit on the high side. Depends on area though I suppose.

Use the spreadsheet in the sticky 'is it worth it?' post. That has good info in it. My feeling is you will be more than fine on that salary and able to save a substantial amount.

EnfieldExpat

Thanks guys,

Base salary of AED 55k/month not including any allowances, that's just base pay

There is no accommodation allowance

Education is going to be AED 27.5k per year, per child

Travel allowance for all four of us will be a total of AED 27.5k a year

That's the package/offer

My issue is that the school (for both kids) needs to be very close to our apartment as my wife is not particularly confident with driving, and this is why it looks like it starts to become very expensive...

Sounds like financing a car or two should be much cheaper than what I initially thought because we can just go for second hand. Does anyone know what the deposit requirements are usually for used cars in Abu Dhabi?

Thanks for the advice, we appreciate it

Cheers

PS. Forgot to mention that base in UK is around GBP 100k/annum

norsk

Alternatively get the kids on the school bus. Costs around 2-3K extra per kid per term I believe. Of course if you live very far away the kids will have to get up at the crack of dawn..

Deposit for all cars (new and used) is 20%

EnfieldExpat

Thanks Norsk, we'd rather drive the kids to school ourselves for peace of mind etc. so the school bus isn't an option for us unfortunately. 20% for a used car and the financing for the remaining 80% sounds reasonable then, and doable...

archie159

If your base is 100k in the UK, then I am beginning to agree - the salary increase on offer is less attractive. The sort of people we offer 55kAED to tend to be earning much less than you do in the UK. I suspect you'll still be better off here, but maybe not massively. So much depends upon what you do, where you live (in the UK) etc. Is the job better here, or a promotion? How old are the children? When do you expect to move here (if you don't already have places, and your children are the wrong ages, you might have left it too late for a place at a half-way decent school in September). Many factors which only you can answer. But before I accepted that package (if I was in a good job in the UK paying 100k) I'd ensure I could get my children into a school here...

EnfieldExpat

Thanks Archie, yes this is our thinking too - just doesn't feel right to make a move with this level of uncertainty around schooling without the compensation being sufficiently compelling enough. The kids are 7 and 3, so it's looking pretty unlikely that we'll have anything concrete in a British school in AD for Sept 2015 entry/start...

omega7

How much (salary + allowances & housing) would you roughly offer in AD for someone who earns 100k (pounds) in the UK?

FriendlyExpat

Sounds like you'll be taking a pay cut. Not worth it in my mind unless you want the adventure? In Saudi (different market to UAE, obviously) most people get 2/3x net what they get in the UK (factoring in salary uplift plus tax savings) plus various random allowances.

HVO_1111

Hi,

I'm a fellow Enfieldian - we've been here for 6 months. Drop me a PM if you have any questions about A.D.

scot47

School bus is normal in KSA - and I assume in UAE.

mission

If the school run is a bit of a sticking point, you could pay for a driver (I am pretty sure you could get someone for a couple of thousand dirhams a month, if not less), with your Mrs in car with him - that way less stress for her since she won't be actually driving.

jack.bauer

wow!

55k base + 82.5k allowances = 742,500 AED per annum or ~ £132k GBP TAX FREE so net monthly take home of 11k GBP vs 5.5k GBP for somone on £100k per annum

It is twice the money. how is this not attractive ??

what sort of money are you guys earning out there!

omega7

It's somewhat attractive but not really the real deal. You need to consider the extra costs such as housing, school fees and travelling costs. So in a away it's not really double the money.

But even if it were, I'd think this would be the minimum for someone to move from the comfort of his life in his native country to the Middle East (and I'm talking about UAE now - obviously the premium should be higher if one went to Qatar or KSA).