Tahir84

Having spent nearly 4 years in a senior engineering position within KSA rail, i am now looking for other options either within KSA or within ME. I have my young family with me (kids aged 3, 5.5 and 7 years) and they will be with me for another 3 years or so before they head back to UK to continue secondary education.
I managed decent enough savings on the package offered in 2019 however it is no longer that attractive (no substantial salary increases for expats, VAT and fuel price increase post covid19). So i am trying to work out what would be an equivalent package for places like Qatar and UAE if the Saudi package was 35K basic plus usual accommodation and transport allowance, flight tickets, family medical etc.
My preference would always be KSA, however railway options are limited for me as all of KSA intercity railways are owned/managed by our semi-state rail company (exceptions to this are the Riyadh metro project and the NEOM railway project, latter being with very lucrative packages however not ideal for family life just as yet).

Thanking you experienced expats in advance for thoughts/suggestions

P.S I am UK chartered engineer with 15 plus year's experience in variety of rolling stock disciplines.

Tahir84

As no responses so far, i simplify the question further.

Is the below a good package for Qatar, for a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids age 7, 5.5 and 3.5)

50,000 total (inclusive of accom. and transport allowance)
Schooling allowance (circa 30K per child for two)
Annual flight tickets (i suspect this would also be limited to 2)
Performance Bonus
Relocation support

mb1889

With 3 kids you'll want a minimum of a 4 bed villa on a compound, this would be around 15k-18k per month for a nice compound, depending on where you work look around Al Waab, somewhere like Green Village, Al Hambra, Beverley Hills Gardens 1, Les Roses are all nice. A car on finance would be around 3k per month including insurance for a Pajero type vehicle with a small deposit.

Schooling at 30k per child is on the low side, the premium schools charge 70k per year, mid-range is around 45k-50k per year. You might get somewhere like Parkhouse but it's at the lower end of the market and class sizes are big.

If you're left with 30k per month you'll probably put 15k per month away if you live a comfortable but not OTT lifestyle ( you'll not be brunching every week, buying a Porsche, having a nanny, Maldives 4 times a year etc.) so it depends what you want.

If your partner is earning then it can help, schools like trailing spouses as teaching assistants and it can often get you a discount on school fees.

w_scott

It depends on your lifestyle. Here is the math:
-3-4 BR villa in a semi-decent location needs around 12k-15k QAR in areas like Abu Hamour, Ain Khaled, AL SADD, and AL Rayyan. If you look at west bay or pearl you probably need to pay above 20k QAR for the same.
-schools: for 30k SAR you are looking at the lower side of a middle school. British school tuition is above 60k QAR per child. Having said that, you can find some reasonably good school for less. Examples are QIS, Newton, and some others. They charge something around 35-45k QAR. Doha college, compass or Sherborne Qatar charge 65+ k QAR.
-Car: fuel is less expensive than KSA or UAE, and also the cars (both new and old). You probably need to allocate 2000 QAR monthly for a car
-Food: depends on your lifestyle.
May I ask what your job title is? The package is not bad but not great either. What is about health insurance?