katrina1972

Hi there..my husband has been offered a job in Dubai. His package is as follows:
AED 14 000 per month (rising to AED 15 000 after 6 months probation), AED 8000 per month Housing allowance, AED2000 car allowance + fuel, Leave tickets for the whole family, visas, 30 days annual leave, medical insurance for the whole family. There is no schooling allowance or relocation allowance. We are a family of 3 (2 adults and a child of 11 yrs old). Will this package be sufficient as we would have to pay schooling for my daughter and i dont want to battle financially.
Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Kix

This looks familiar...

katrina1972

what do you mean this looks familiar???

OleJanx

Let the search icon be your friend...

katrina1972

oh for goodness sake..i got better things to do and can ask the question on as many forums as i like..if you got nothing constructive to say..then why post a reply??? Have a nice day..i wont bother coming back to this site coz of people like you.

norsk

nice attitude.

i'll briefly answer since you are too lazy to search yourself for the answer on previous posts. yes, you can live on it, but you won't be comfortable and you will definitely be watching your pennies. i would not do it and i would never advise anyone else to do it..

is it a bad offer? who knows? we don't know what he does for a living nor how it compares to what he earns at the moment.

good luck...

OleJanx

Lazy cow.

Oyibopeppeh

24K per month total?

What's the job?

You have a shitty attitude and don't deserve any help

RDP80

I'll jump in..

Take a look at this thread: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=713490
In there is a spreadsheet I put together to help me decide whether it was worth moving here.

I did these sums a year ago BEFORE I moved over, and I'm surprised how accurate I was then, considering that I've been living da dreeem for almost a year now. To be fair I built this from research on this forum and the web, and had some of my numbers validated by the community. Most of this info is here locked up in loads of threads but searching is the bit you need to do.

katrina1972

Thank you RDP80 i really appreciate your help. I have searched on many forums and maybe i didnt look at the right ones..who knows..i have never had to do this before. The reason i asked the question is to have a more accurate understanding of my own personal situation. I do not have a shitty attitude but i did not appreciate the sarcasm. There is a way of wording a reply..and i am far from lazy..maybe not clued up on the Middle East..BUT LAZY..you not even close and dont know me at all. I asked a simple question and got a sarcastic response..for no apparent reason. Nevermind..thank you to those who offered sound and reasonable advice.

Ethos83

You'll have to excuse some of the people on here. BExpats is notoriously clannish and many people work in the Oil & Gas or construction sectors where attitudes are blunt.

I'm sorry to say that your package offer is not good. It's fine for a single person, a couple could live comfortably on it, but a family of three? No.

Dubai is very expensive. A basic 2-bed apartment in an established expat area will cost you at least 80k per year, including utilities. School fees for your child's age level will be anywhere from 50k to 70k. In other words, half your income would go to a basic, unremarkable apartment and school fees. Then there's the day to day expenses and the cost of living in Dubai is comparable to central London. I keep telling people in the UK that for a western family to have a standard middle class lifestyle in Dubai, they need to have the income and expenditures of an upper middle class family in the west.

You can survive on the package. There are cheaper areas and cheaper schools but you wouldn't be living the dream and you'd be counting the pennies. You would always feel poor compared to other people in Dubai and you wouldn't be able to take advantage of a lot of what Dubai offers. But as I mentioned, you can still survive on the package by being careful and not getting caught up in or bothered by the blatant materialism that is Dubai. Most non-western expats manage to survive just fine on packages even smaller than yours.

You may want to post your question on expatwoman.com. It's a popular women's forum for Dubai and they will have the most detailed information on day to day costs. The guys on here are generally only good for the broad picture like green fees.

Patsy Stoned

People are going to be 'snippy' with newbies who just come on here and ask the same old question time after time. It may be your 1st time here but we of the 'bored' answer this same question over and over. It is very easy to use the search button at the top of the page, let me show you just how easy it is...............
http://britishexpats.com/forum/searc...archid=3246992

however..I have a couple of minutes free so will try and enlighten you. This is just a rough estimate..I am not sure about the school things but it is about right.
Your start up costs will be high especially with no relocation allowance. You will have to pay your rent with 2 or 4 cheques and there will also be a security deposit of 5% of the rental and then a 5% agency fee on top of that

300,000 annual salary (inc all your allowances)

100,000 for rent( inc 5% housing tax and annual dewa and internet costs)
2,000 dewa deposit
66,000 schooling plus after school activities of 6000 a year approx)
60,000 a year to lease 2 cars + running costs ( you need a car for school runs etc and your husband will need 1 for work) This may be a bit high depending on the type of car.
46,000 a year basic food/household costs.

All these figures are approx and don't include the occasional social outing nor has it factored in initial setting up costs.
So income 300,000 outgoings 274,000 which leaves you with 26,000 a year to cover everything else!
Sorry but you will have a miserable time here with that income, you won't be able to join in with a lot of your peers at the school gate ..you won't be able to afford a maid :-))

Patsy Stoned

AHEM!!!!

katrina1972

Thank you for all the insight. We will decline the offer.

mentalist

What an odd thing to say after only two replies, both of which are perfectly understandable. You are sensible declining the offer. With an attitude like that, you would probably struggle in a place like this.