Originally Posted by
aviation_enthus
Long story short, yes you could just walk away with the Provident Fund payout and be happy with that.
BUT I think it’s intention is to cover your lack of pension/401K/superannuation after spending so long working at EK. Personally ours will just be going into superannuation back in Aus to cover the lack of contributions from working overseas.
As as for the ‘not being able to save’ comment. Another poster on this thread summed it up better than I could;
“if you can save money in your current job/salary, you’ll be able to save on an EK f/o salary”
On the other side, if you find yourself unable to save something, no matter how small, on your current salary you’ll probably spend everything here. Make no mistake, Dubai is expensive. Once you fall into the trap of eating out a few times, buying a fancy car on finance, getting a maid, sending your kids to a school that charges more than the Education Allowance etc, you WILL have nothing left at the end of the month.
Personally we are able to stick to a budget, have kids at a good school that fits in the allowance, no maid, one car and we save a respectable amount every month. But we came here with a goal to pay down our mortgage as much as possible before we leave Everyone has different goals.
Thank you so much for your reply, it helped a lot. We are thinking of taking the plunge with that exact goal in mind of trying to get ahead with mortgage etc. This thread makes for very interesting reading. I can honestly attest that new shiny widebody jet syndrome is a thing.