Salary/package advice

Yep, I agree with White orchid but I think there are two things you need to reconsider: 1. you def need to reconsider Gems Schools. English College is MUCH cheaper( would def come in WAY under the budget you've been given). I keep thinking about moving my kids there as would save us AED3 to 4k a month. I've checked it out and would be happy to send mine there..just concerned re moving mine as they settled so well. 2. As WhiteOrchid said, you need to look at reducing your housing budget to around AED100k per year. As WhiteOrchid says you CAN live cheaply - we wnt out for dinner the other day and had drinks and a main and was AED102 for the 4 of us (although we did use one Entertainer voucher.) We occasionally do places like Carluccios at Dubai Mall in front of the fountain and can easily eat for under AED150 for the 4 of us if we use Entertainer vouchers ditto a few places at the Marina,JBR (don't think we've ever paid more than AED150 for the 4 of us.) What can be tough though is explaining to your kids that they can't have what their friends have but that's the same wherever you are. Your other option re Gems schools is to get a job as a TA - it pays diddley squat but I believe you get a big percentage reduction in school fees (many other schools don't give TA's discounts). Good luck whatever you decide and I'm sure a few of us can advise on cost cutting/saving methods out here.

Hi OP, I think you could manage on that package, provided you: - Rent a place for about 100k - try villas in Mirdif or 3 bed apts on Dhiyafa (Satwa) for that much (check Dubizzle - there is a 3 bed villa in Jumeira for 110k today) - Select more reasonable schools (e.g. Safa or English College - not sure about secondary though), and do not put your lo in nursery - Live a frugal lifestyle (no brunches, fancy dinners, weekends away, flashy cars, maid). We manage well on an average income because we do all of the above - and still save regularly :-) Also remember that this would be temporary - you could always look for work once you get out here and improve your income. Likewise, your dh won't be on that package forever as he may find something better once he has established himself here. I would say go for it - assuming you can resist overspending, Dubai is a wonderful place to live. Good luck x

I wouldn't disagree with your assessment, TDB, either. All I could offer was my personal experience. I agree, with a family of 5, they would need to spend more on housing. For 150k they could find a good 3 bedroom apartment but a villa may be a stretch. A villa would also mean they'd probably need to shell out for a second car, too, and then your costs keep climbing.. My point was simple that you can lead a comfortable life in Dubai without an "expat" package, but you won't lead the kind of life that mrsb. has in mind, unfortunately. I think you missed my point. I agree, you could live, very frugally, on the suggested income in a small 2 bedroom apt but, most expats arrive in the UAE expecting to live the luxurious expat life of bygone days. Also, education is very expensive here, especially if one is used to the public systems in the USA or the UK. I was trying to warn Vildadalen 2013 that it would be impossible to live a good life here on that small salary. There are companies that still offer all the benefits, but they are few and far between these days.

I think that if schooling were entirely paid it would be possible if OP found a place to rent at say max of AED120k BUT it appears from the OP's post that there will be a considerable shortfall in what the company pay for fees if their kids go to Gems World. The other consideration is that school fees will continue to rise. There are cheaper , decent schools out there which may be worth investigating. With this extra money required for fees I think OP would find it very tough. Once school fees are paid we make it work ( but not by much) on a bit less than AED30k. We do, however, pay a lot less rent than she is talking about.

I wouldn't disagree with your assessment, TDB, either. All I could offer was my personal experience. I agree, with a family of 5, they would need to spend more on housing. For 150k they could find a good 3 bedroom apartment but a villa may be a stretch. A villa would also mean they'd probably need to shell out for a second car, too, and then your costs keep climbing.. My point was simple that you can lead a comfortable life in Dubai without an "expat" package, but you won't lead the kind of life that mrsb. has in mind, unfortunately.

30k would be fine as long as your salary package also included: * Family accommodation * Medical insurance (for the family) * Full education costs (Many companies give an education allowance, which sounds good but in fact does not cover even the cost of one child - education in Dubai is expensive) * Annual return airfares for family to home port * Visa costs for family Otherwise, you will find it difficult to save anything each month and therefore defeat the purpose of uprooting your family and moving to the UAE. If you are hoping to live the dream "UAE expat life" on 30k, even with all the extras added on, you will find it difficult. The cost of living in the UAE rising rapidly. For the record, these are the types of posts that gave me heart palpitations thinking we'd be destitute and blow through our savings in Dubai within weeks of arrival when my DH accepted his offer. We do tend to be a frugal family. Based on our year here and current real estate prices, I think a family of 4 could easily survive here on 30k per year plus education. It would not be a luxurious life--no living on the Palm or Arabian Ranches, no driving a new Pajero, rarely or never going to brunches, etc. That kind of money could afford you a single, used car. A large 2 bed apartment in a descent area like JLT. Occasional nights out to the movies or dinner at a moderately priced restaurant and such. You could be comfortable and live a descent life, possibly putting a little away in savings each month. If you were tempted to shop or drawn into the glitz and glam that is Dubai, though, you would quickly find yourself struggling. <em>edited by Meagle on 03/09/2013</em>

30k would be fine as long as your salary package also included: * Family accommodation * Medical insurance (for the family) * Full education costs (Many companies give an education allowance, which sounds good but in fact does not cover even the cost of one child - education in Dubai is expensive) * Annual return airfares for family to home port * Visa costs for family Otherwise, you will find it difficult to save anything each month and therefore defeat the purpose of uprooting your family and moving to the UAE. If you are hoping to live the dream "UAE expat life" on 30k, even with all the extras added on, you will find it difficult. The cost of living in the UAE rising rapidly.

OP - I'm confused. I initially read it as fact you got 30k plus a housing allowance but now I'm reading it as if the housing is included in that 30k. Assuming you do spend 12k a month on housing u will be left with 18k a month. From what I know of schools fees I think you will havea shortfall of close to AED26k per child per year ie your allowance for primary sounds as if it is AED40k but Gems is typically 66k a year. This would mean an additional AED5 to 6 k a month for school fees.( secondary is approx AED84 k at Gems and I believe your company pay 60k) Fees also have a horrid habit of going up every year. Ours have just gone up 9 and 7% respectively. After paying top up for fees, This will then leave you with AED 12k a month but you will need to run at least one car and utility bills in summer in a villa can easily be AED2 to 3k a month.... I know you say you have seen loads of villas advertised for under AED150k. A word of advice on this, we saw loads advertised last year around 80k but when we actually called to view they were either not available or horrendous. Agents in my experience often advertise properties that simply aren't available just to get you through their door! I would be very concerned if ur package is as I understand it and I certainly wouldn't be looking at paying more than AED 8 or 9 k a month on housing. Even then you will struggle. Sport out here isn't cheap..whereby I may pay a couple of quid at home to send my kids to a swim club or athletic club etc , out here you et very little for less than AED50 a time, often more. As others will know fom my previous postings, we 're very tight out here financially and pretty frugal but I would struggle with the package you describe. I also pick up some work myself which pads out the budget. So, AED30k if you have to pay housing from this and top up school fees isn't enough. We were 'lucky ' and found a relatively cheap apartment....approx AED7k a month. If we were paying more than this we simply wouldn't manage.

Saying: 'Satwa' or 'Marina' doesn't exactly reveal an exact location and landlord.... agreed!

Faded Blue Jeans would you let the OP know where these 100k villa's are, afterall we are here to help when we can!!! Just dont get it that FBJ's doesnt want to reveal her location!!!! edited by salsB on 03/09/2013 Agree...rather odd... Why is it odd? If people suddenly bombarded the LL about moving in, then the demand goes up and therefore the price..... what is odd about that? i have a great nail salon i use, a small independent one near my house - people as for recommendations i would not volunteer this salon as i like to be able to get appointments. in that case you wouldn't brag about it in the first place !!

Saying: 'Satwa' or 'Marina' doesn't exactly reveal an exact location and landlord....

maybe it's so cheap because she shares it !! lol

Faded Blue Jeans would you let the OP know where these 100k villa's are, afterall we are here to help when we can!!! Just dont get it that FBJ's doesnt want to reveal her location!!!! edited by salsB on 03/09/2013 Agree...rather odd... Why is it odd? If people suddenly bombarded the LL about moving in, then the demand goes up and therefore the price..... what is odd about that? i have a great nail salon i use, a small independent one near my house - people as for recommendations i would not volunteer this salon as i like to be able to get appointments.

Faded Blue Jeans would you let the OP know where these 100k villa's are, afterall we are here to help when we can!!! Just dont get it that FBJ's doesnt want to reveal her location!!!! edited by salsB on 03/09/2013 Agree...rather odd...

Faded Blue Jeans would you let the OP know where these 100k villa's are, afterall we are here to help when we can!!! Just dont get it that FBJ's doesnt want to reveal her location!!!! <em>edited by salsB on 03/09/2013</em>

It is not a good idea to write your email address in an open forum because you will get tons of spam mail everyday. You can change it to read gani59 (at) yahoo.com instead! oh ye of little faith. Yes this place exists. It's central and I only moved in a few months ago. The compound is owned by one person who obviously feels no need to fleece his tenants. Did I mention 4 cheques? No matter how eager you non-believers are to know where this "fairy-tale land" is, I'm keeping this location to myself. lol But as I managed to find it, so presumably can you. Dear Faded Blue Jeans, I know you mentioned that you are not going to reveal the location but I am quite desperate here. We are a family of 5 and are currently settled in Ajman. Our universities and offices are based in Dubai, however we cannot afford anything in Dubai so are forced to spend about 3 hours per day travelling back and forth from Media City. We have been desperately looking for a new house and your villa sounds absolutely perfect for our needs thus I would really appreciate it if you could email me the details of your landlord and the location at gani59@yahoo.com edited by Flames92 on 03/09/2013 Thanks for the advice! I updated my initial post :)

oh ye of little faith. Yes this place exists. It's central and I only moved in a few months ago. The compound is owned by one person who obviously feels no need to fleece his tenants. Did I mention 4 cheques? No matter how eager you non-believers are to know where this "fairy-tale land" is, I'm keeping this location to myself. lol But as I managed to find it, so presumably can you. Dear Faded Blue Jeans, I know you mentioned that you are not going to reveal the location but I am quite desperate here. We are a family of 5 and are currently settled in Ajman. Our universities and offices are based in Dubai, however we cannot afford anything in Dubai so are forced to spend about 3 hours per day travelling back and forth from Media City. We have been desperately looking for a new house and your villa sounds absolutely perfect for our needs thus I would really appreciate it if you could email me the details of your landlord and the location at DELETED address <em>edited by Flames92 on 28/09/2014</em>

Or you could take the company accommodation EK offer for that grade, furnished or unfurnished, and save yourself some sleepless nights worrying.

So, Faded Blue Jeans, care to give us your definition of "central" in Dubai? :-" (That's supposed to be a whistling emoticon ;) )

I am guessing it's an older compound villa in Jumeira 1 / Al Badia /Satwa? Yes, I'd rather live there than out in Al Furjan or the Springs. It seems to be becoming the forgotten part of town despite having so many amenities and close to the beaches. oh ye of little faith. Yes this place exists. It's central and I only moved in a few months ago. The compound is owned by one person who obviously feels no need to fleece his tenants. Did I mention 4 cheques? No matter how eager you non-believers are to know where this "fairy-tale land" is, I'm keeping this location to myself. lol But as I managed to find it, so presumably can you. we are in satwa and we love it! having said that, we spent 6 months driving around, using dubizzle, contacts etc. the best price we could find for a 3 bed villa was 120 and they were really really few and far between and would have needed a lot of work (IMO). 100 is amazing for 4 bedrooms in jumeirah/satwa/al badaa - if that is where we are talking.

I am guessing it's an older compound villa in Jumeira 1 / Al Badia /Satwa? Yes, I'd rather live there than out in Al Furjan or the Springs. It seems to be becoming the forgotten part of town despite having so many amenities and close to the beaches. oh ye of little faith. Yes this place exists. It's central and I only moved in a few months ago. The compound is owned by one person who obviously feels no need to fleece his tenants. Did I mention 4 cheques? No matter how eager you non-believers are to know where this "fairy-tale land" is, I'm keeping this location to myself. lol But as I managed to find it, so presumably can you.

oh ye of little faith. Yes this place exists. It's central and I only moved in a few months ago. The compound is owned by one person who obviously feels no need to fleece his tenants. Did I mention 4 cheques? No matter how eager you non-believers are to know where this "fairy-tale land" is, I'm keeping this location to myself. lol But as I managed to find it, so presumably can you.

Sorry for that, housing and transport is included in the package. However, we get 40.000 to 60.000 per year per kid up to 3 kids and premium medical and insurance. If you were receiving housing in addition to the 30k per month, that would be a good, comfortable package assuming the education allowance was sufficient. A good rule of thumb is to keep housing costs at or below 30% of your total income. We've found we never go wrong using that metric no matter where we live. If you apply that standard with that package, you're going to have to find a place for under 110k per year. Given the way real estate prices have escalated in Dubai, I doubt you'll find a suitable place for a family of 5 in that budget unless you want to share a 2 bedroom apartment. Al Furjan will cost you considerably more. Unfortunately, you're going to be "house poor" if you accept this offer and move to Dubai.

Sorry for that, housing and transport is included in the package. However, we get 40.000 to 60.000 per year per kid up to 3 kids and premium medical and insurance. At that rate, I think you should be fine. You also need to bear in mind your start-up costs here - we spent our first two years paying back the initial outlay. I don't know how EK works, will they pay your 1 year rental cheque and your deposit up-front for you? Will they pay to ship your home furnishings here and/or to equip your kitchen with fridge, freezer, stove, dishwasher, washing machine? ETA: Sorry, I misread you and misunderstood. I thought you meant that housing and transport were included in the package on top of the 30,000 per month. If that is not the case, then as Meagle says above, you'll have a hard time finding somewhere large enough to live, within your budget. <em>edited by simpleasabc on 02/09/2013</em>