junkie99

Wanted to check if this offer is decent or if there is any room for additional negotiation.

Job Function: IT Project Management Specialist with Project Management Office (part of Qatar Foundations)
Family - Me, wife and 2 kids (under 12 yrs age); American Citizen; Sr. Manager roles with overall 19+ years in IT field; MBA & MS
Compensation (in QAR)
Base: 34K per month
Housing: allowance: 12.5K per month
Transport allowance: 1.5K per month
Telephone allowance: 0.3K per month
Education allowance: fully paid for 4 kids under 18
End of Service Gratuity: 1 month basic of final base pay for every year of service
Annual Airfare: Annual economy round trip for the entire family or cash in lieu
Insurance Benefits: Full health & dental for me and family
Annual Leave: 30 days + public holidays
One time relocation allowance: 5.5k + plus in & out one-way fares for family

Is this a reasonable package - given our following needs:
* We currently save about USD 40K annually (this includes our retirement benefits of about 35K and about 5K of cash)
* We live an average-joe's life nothing out of the ordinary or extravagant (house + minivan + public schooling for kids + monthly few eat outs + occasional family vacation etc.) and we expect to live the same in Qatar too.
* As Americans we are taxed on world-wide income unlike other developed nations (like UK, Canada, Australia). Hence we still we be owing US taxes (even though it might be far less than what we currently pay due to foreign earned income exemptions). Given that, the tax consultants say that this qatar compensation will probably be on par regarding savings (i.e. about 40K USD give or take 15%).
* On the plus side, the Qatar job seems to be a lot less stressful than my current role and I am guessing I should be able to spend more quality time with my family.

Given those inputs, do you guys think it is
1) A fair compensation? Or should I ask for more?
2) How is Qatar Academy for schooling compared to American schools (this is the place the schooling will be if we want the entire education to be taken care by the employer)?
3) Is it even realistic to assume that we may be able to save about USD 40K (about QAR 145K) annually? Cost of living between Texas & Qatar still is not quite comprehensible for us yet.

Thanks for it guys.

Cheers,
JD

mikewot

I can't comment on your other questions as I'm not in your industry. Re the above, do you think that the Qatari's are paying you to come out here on holiday? Most expats find they work as hard, if not harder than their previous roles in the West.

Mogs

Your offer includes housing, schooling, transport, so your only real outgoings are food, clothes, entertainment. All of the above are considerably more than costs in Texas (I would budget double what is costs you in Texas for these items).

Therefore, you have disposable salary of QAR 34k. To save $40k annually, it works out at about QAR 12k/month.

Is QAR 22k/month ($6k) enough for food, clothes, etc on a monthly basis ?

I would suggest yes it is and therefore you will be able to save more than $40k a year on your offer.

Your annual return trip back to Texas will also give you the opportunity to stock up clothes and other items from back home.

Theseus

In my experience, my job is harder and more stressful and I work ten hours a day, however i spend less time out of the house during the day as i'm not commuting for nearly 3 hours, I get the full weekend and i rarely work any overtime. Mainly because after 10 hours of this shit i'm done and there is no more useful stuff that can be beaten out of me.

Added to this I have a bit more disposable income which means I can enjoy life a bit more. This comes with a heavy caveat in the fact that it costs a lot more to live here than it does in the States or the UK. Particularly if you have a family of 4. So what it costs me for a day out, or a meal with my son it will cost you twice that.

*Edited to add - that it sounds like a pretty good packahe to me. Particularly as school and some of your transport is added on top.

Ethos83

JD, may I ask why you are considering Qatar?

The package offered to you seems to be ok given the feedback from others and it does offer you the potential to save more than you currently do. Though you pointed out you currently save about $40K a year, and the current package offers you the ability to save $40K (which balances out the loss of your US savings which is mostly stemming from pensions), plus a bit more.

The question is - is Doha with the extra bit of savings?

I don't know what kind of research you've done or familiarity with the place you may have but Doha is not Dubai and Qatar isn't the UAE. Nor is it like being an expat in Singapore or Hong Kong or other popular destinations. Qatar is pretty quiet and very new. There's some local Arabic culture but it'll probably be largely off-limits to you. As a boom city there's a lot of hassles - traffic is insane, rents are soaring, construction everywhere.

If you only see Doha as a base to try something new - whatever little local culture there is, plus travel to surrounding regions, especially Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Europe, Thailand etc, as Qatar Airways has good and inexpensive flights to lots of places, then that's feasible. But if you just want the typical quiet suburban lifestyle is it worth moving all the way to Qatar and putting up with whatever hassles there are (and there will be hassles) in exchange just for a bit more savings at the end of the day?

scot47

What will you do after Doha ? In some fields workjing in the Middle East means no going back to working in the "Real World".

Mogs

you also need to consider the tax implications as I do not think you'd be entitled to tax-free living as a US citizen.

Brains1983

Mogs

His opening post was too long to read all the way to the bottom

junkie99

Actually in most ways this new job in Qatar would be a step-down in terms of responsibilities and duties. Currently, for my Company which is a global fortune 100, I manage an entire practice (a team of 175+ comprising of folks from US, India and UK) and responsible for client engagements (at least 2 projects at any given time). Typically my work is no less than 65-75 hours a week but usually 5 days a week though. The tough part is I travel to client locations by flying out on Sunday Night/Monday early morning and back on Thursday night invariably every week.

The new job is more like a individual contributor. No travel other than local commute. I do understand that it will be easily about 40-50 hours of work even though the new employer thinks that it'll be only a 35-40 hours/wk job. So, from that perspective I believe the new job will be less stressful. Sorry didn't provide the full context earlier.

junkie99

Thanks for the inputs Mogs. That's certainly good news.

junkie99

The commute part here in US in my current job is the big PIA for me and my family. Kids of that age where they are beginning to realize that I am most a 'weekend dad'. I reason I take it because the current job that I have in US is much better than other such consulting jobs out there and mercifully it pays decent than other jobs and provides the ability for us to live in Texas (state tax free, housing is a lot cheaper, schooling is a lot better) than Virginia.

I am kind of expecting a similar situation in the new job in Doha

Thanks Theseus. That give me a picture on what to expect in terms of expenses.

The school part is still iffy as I don't know how Qatar Academy schools are. Hopefully fellow BE-ers will share their experiences to throw more light on it.

junkie99

Two main reasons:
1) The current job's travel [me being out of home pretty much Monday-Thursday] seems to have finally worn down my wife as kids are getting ready to move to middle schools in the next few years.
2) My wife has family and few friends back in UAE and she think life is in a slow-motion in Doha compared to what is in US (which I may not agree, but she has a point!)
The idea is to stack up some cash (as opposed to those being in retirement funds that's off-limits till I am 60 years) and see if we could pay off our house in texas and be back in US when kids are ready to move to high school.

Honestly that's was I am trying to get a grip on. Finances are just one part to determining that. Lifestyle and future opportunities are the second part to the multi-part question.

I am hoping that I can learn a lesson or two from folks from BE who are already there and have gone through similar motions.

That is something that crossed my mind too - possibly take time to explore Europe and parts of Africa while we are there. Unfortunately that wouldn't be my primary motivation to move to Doha.

Thanks Ethos83, that is precisely the million dollar question I am trying to get answers to. Hopefully the interactions with you guys will help me make the right choices.

junkie99

Thanks scot47. That is indeed the question of the day for me!!! I'll have to do some search soul-searching on that question. By me stepping down from my career path with the greater interest of the family already means that career would go for a spin. By moving to ME now and later back to US.... gosh... dreadful to think from a career point of view. Add to that I'll be closer to 50 if I decide to get back to US in about 5 years which makes employability a bigger question.

But I am trying to look at the light at the end of the tunnel (or is it a speeding train ) that if I am there for about 5 years which would mean about 5 x 40K = 200K USD which means the current house paid off and some 25K cash in hand enough to help me sustain without a job in US for at least 5 months once when I decide to get back. Too many variable and possibilities........

OriginalSunshine

Problem is that on a forum called britishexpats there aren't many Americans on here, and we don't know your tax position, nor can advise you how much you can save

As for the salary offer - it's very reasonable, and better than a lot of others you may get (especially housing, schooling etc).... but as I said, most folks won't know how to work out your tax and whether you can make the savings you want to make.