kittycat1

It all comes down to what you want out of life? Do you want to go home and earn a modest salary or just how important is money to you, have you saved enough for what you originally set out to do or are you being greedy? or do you actually enjoy being away from home so the money is just a bonus to working in some interesting places and having a bit of an adventure with yoru life? At the end of the day money comes and goes so you have to think why are you doing it- perhaps you actually like the challenge even though on a daily basis it might drive you mad but perhaps being at home becomes mundane after a while and would just drive you a different style of cuckoo.

It all comes down to what you want out of life, If you have enough money to give yourself future security then anything else is just gravy. I always say trust your gut- its rarely wrong.

Welivehere

Just put add another zero to the left of the decimal point and I am pretty much good to go....

weasel central

Unfortunately going home is out of the question with the state of the industry in Ireland, I am really aiming for a place like Yemen I think good salary but still a bit wild.
Its the other offers that are appealing to my greedy side a little which are adding to the confusion.

kittycat1

well how long will it take you to regret giving into your greedy side? long enough to make it worth your while or will you end up moving before you've had a chacne for yoru first pay packet to go in?

weasel central

I managed a year in KSA so I expect I can tough it out to some degree. The question seems to be now knowing how that was am I willing to do it again.

Its months away and things change, I was just curious mostly. Personally I don't really consider the UAE as being away as its basically like Europe. I know people don't think that's the case but anyone who has been in more difficult locations would agree with me.

kittycat1

but if you have other options do you really want to 'tough it out'?

Life is too short!

Welivehere

To some extent I agree with Weasel. Having spent time working in Africa and some of the less well developed countries in the ME coming back to Dubai is quite an easy deal. Decent infra, decent service, relatively low crime and safer (in terms of security), yes it is all relative and Dubai has it weaknesses / problems / issues but on whole the it is better than most of the other options there are locally (geographically speaking).

I have no intention of returning to the UK anytime soon so for me Dubai acts as the bench mark when measuring the cost and my willingness to move to another location. I.e. what would my standard of living be like compared to Dubai and what is the cost for me to give that up to go work in XXX, YYY, ZZZ…..

co durham boy

The U.A.E is the easiest tour on the circuit end of .

co durham boy

Dubai's the best place in the region without a shadow of a doubt but the only problem is as you probably know is that if your benchmark is Dubai then everything is downhill from there.

Personally i wouldn't class it as a benchmark as you basically can't get above it in this region , that's why a lot of expats cry foul when moving to another M.E location , they think Dubai's the norm , it's not it's the exception !

Welivehere

Valid point, however for me however to judge or measure I need a stable point to measure against. I use Dubai as; I was recruited to come to Dubai, my co’s head office is here and as I have spent longer here than anywhere else. Dubai is a standard to which we have become accustomed with a cost of living I understand and am compensated for. If therefore you want / expect me to go elsewhere then I will but for the current time you will pay me for what I interpret I will give up / lose…

Just my way of looking at things and purely based on this region, a move to back Europe or Far East (or new employer) would be a whole different ball game …..

Meow

Good. I've never really been one for roughing it.

Bahtatboy

Ah yes. I still have the joys of all those expenses back in the UK...

weasel central

In the construction business depending on what part you are involved in there is going to be elements of roughing it from time to time.

Its unlikely a gas field in PNG will see the need for IFAs for a while, the parasitic industries come much further down the line.

just kidding

Meow

And this is a Good Thing.

Love from your favourite parasite

weasel central

Well its an inexact science some people inexplicably like KSA but in general the favourites are similar except how much it will take to go to a bad location.