dominoman

I've been reading these forums for months now, ever since interviewing for a job in Abu Dhabi. You are all so happy, helpful, and fun, with a liberal dose of sardonic wit - so I thought I'd ask you for a slice of your wisdom.

What advice would you give me, a late thirties guy arriving in the UAE for the first time. Wife, no kids, and no local contacts, so I want to try and make some pals soon.

So far my resolutions are to:
1. Buy a car and start dune bashing
2. Join the gym (boring but necessary)
3. Go cycling at Yas GP circuit once a week
4. Explore as much of Abu Dhabi, Oman, the UAE, Wadis, mountains etc as possible at weekends

What's your top tip for survival / fitting in?

Millhouse

get the wife out to work ASAP.

Bahtatboy

The twat:normal person ratio is much higher than in the UK. Keep that in mind when choosing who you associate with.

scot47

Why are there so few normies there ?

soukie

Don't borrow money to fund your resolutions or keep up with others.

DXBtoDOH

A few advice off the top of my head:

1. Don't bank with HSBC. They have a bloody awful reputation in the UAE especially for customer service. The best banks are the premier local banks. I banked with Emirates NBD (mostly in Dubai but has branches in AD), not only was the customer service excellent, but they offered very useful perks and loyalty schemes. For example, users of Emirates NBD debit/credit cards get up to 20% discount at a pretty impressive range of restaurants in Dubai.

2. Assuming you're coming in January, you've got through early May for great weather. Definitely explore the country, from Liwa Oasis in the south up to Musandum in the north (technically Oman). Oman itself is a glorious weekend destination, especially the wadis and mountains around Nizwa.

3. AD is a pretty quiet town. Dubai is a different beast altogether. Spend a few weekends up there if you crave urban excitement. But don't forget to explore the old parts of Dubai along the creek for there's a lot more to Dubai than the fancy malls and bars.

4. Avoid debt at all cost. Even only take out a car loan that you can easily pay off quickly if needed.

5. Minimise expenditures as much as possible in your first year. Life in the UAE is very expensive and always takes everyone by surprise. Settling into a new country will always have its expenses and start up costs, which manifests itself in ways you can't fully anticipate. If feasible, I'd keep my housing budget as low as possible - rent a one-bedroom apartment for your first year and in your second year when you know the place better and have a solid idea of both your expenditures and job security, then upgrade into a bigger/nicer place (in general, try to save from your housing allowance rather than spending all of it).

6. In terms of housing, it's the little things that can add / save a lot from your budget. Many new buildings/areas are district cooling, which means you pay for your air conditioning and the bills can be quite stiff. But other areas/buildings have internal a/c systems that are paid for by the landlord through his maintenance fees and thus included in your rent, so you pay zero. The differential can add up to a nice savings.

7. Have plenty of cash in the bank at the onset to pay all the deposits and start up costs. You, not the landlord, pays the 5% agency fees to rent the apartment, for example.

8. Check out the offerings on meetup.com. Lots of groups on there. Decent way to meet other people.

9. UAE is a fantastic base for travelling and exploring the region outside the country. FlyDubai in Dubai has cheap flights to a nice range of countries. I think they even now fly to Thailand.

10. In general, it's very easy to just spend spend spend in the UAE. But anyone with reasonable self-control and disciple can easily set a budget and stick to it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that oh, it's an expensive country, "everyone" is spending and "no one" is saving then it's ok to do the same. Along the same lines, many people just eat/drink all the time (bars, happy hours, brunches) and then complain about how expensive life is and there's nothing to do. Flat out wrong. They're just lazy and undisciplined.

Johnnyboy11

Boring, I know, but I'd replace your four resolutions as follows:

1. Open a UK personal pension before you leave the UK and pay in £2,880 this year and for the next 5 tax years. You get £720 free money from HMRC each year (20% basic tax relief).
2. Save at least 20% of your gross income into a pension fund. Never, ever dip into this.
3. Keep a detailed record of your hours worked overseas and your days visiting or working in the UK, to prove that you've passed the UK Automatic Overseas Test. 6th April 2018 is an important date for you, do understand why.
4. Rent a car for the first six months, until you get used to the madness that happens on the roads in the Middle East.

[J]

co durham boy

Don't take debt to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like.

Dubai is full of chancers , be careful with your circle of friends . Choose wisely and with care .

Be prepared to leave within 1month

GolfGardener

Shun all cold callers offering financial advice as you would a rabid dog, no matter that they talk to you as though they know you somehow.

Store their numbers so you can ignore them next time they call, which they will.

After a year your phone will be full of strange names like "PIC Moron", but you'll still have your hard-earned money and will be thanking me for this advice.

scrubbedexpat141

Spend loads of ****ing money doing fun shit.

The first year you're going to be brunching every weekend or spending cash on something else exciting.

Don't beat yourself up if you haven't saved £150,000 in the first 5 months of being here. It's expensive to get set up and doing the fun shit that's all exciting and new isn't cheap either. Being boring and staying in all the time is cheap, but your mrs will hate it and demand to move home.

Ignore the naysayers, be sensible but have some bloody fun. It's a wicked part of the world to live in, to explore, to visit new places etc etc etc.

co durham boy

Not saving much then ...

dominoman

Haha. Thanks. That's some great advice for me there! And thanks Scamp for adding the balance and reminding us to have fun too.

I'm a natural low-spender. I love lots of holidays and doing something different every day, but I'd take the tourist bus and stayed in a hostel if it were up to me. My main indulgence is a good car and regular nights out on the beers with friends. The wife is more of a spender. Likes her branded foods and posh hotels. So I'll definitely need to do some of that to keep her happy. I hope she gets a job because until that happens I'll be worse off than now, not better off.

The main expense to start will be the apartment and the car. There's only two of us but I'm hoping in the next year or so there might be a little one, so was going to get a 2-bed apartment somewhere in Tourist Club area or maybe Reem. It needs to have a pool and decent gym, for the wife.

For the car I'll take the advice of renting for several months at least. I've been looking at 2 year old Nissan Patrols and Pajero's. But I'll hold off until we're absolutely sure it will work out here first - which it will of course.

I'll throw myself into life and doing as much as possible. Really looking forward to treks to the desert, drives to Liwa, Oman, and exploring the other emirates.

I'm saving this thread. Some really great tips.

Hope to meet some of you guys in the coming months.

scrubbedexpat141

Didn't in year 1, no. Regularly saving now...just don't agree that it's realistic to come here as a new couple and not spend lots of cash in year one.

DXBtoDOH

The one thing the UAE does really well are hotels. Your wife will be spoilt for choice as will your credit card

scrubbedexpat141

You'll have a blast mate. Rent for a while (car) and then buy. That's what I and most seem to have done. I had a Lancerghini for 6 months before buying, it was fine (shit) but did the job and I always enjoyed getting it valeted at a 5* hotel.

Don't go loopy getting into mad debt but don't hold back on setting yourselves up if you feel it's a med-long term move. IKEA on Yas will be your friend if unfurnished apartment initially, as will dubizzle. Plenty of opportunities to be sensible with housing shit, which can be upgraded at a later date if you so desired (we're replacing IKEA stuff with nicer stuff a bit at a time which we will then ship home).

But, as much as I'm anti-fun-police on here - people are right. Don't be a knob and get into loads of debt straight away. Manage things sensibly, have fun and make sure you do have a little slush fund. I was lucky that I did have a slush fun in year one but saved very little on top of that....but always planned to not save loads in the first year anyway. Just make sure you have a plan and all that shit too.

You know, enjoy it.