I think I would only slightly agree with Sascha there.
The dubizzle site is excellent for furnishing your apartment or villa. Its also good for used cars et al.
For property I wouldn't go near it with a bargepole. Suggest property finder.ae for a more balanced view.
Dubai Marina and JBR are an acquired taste and certain types of folk won't be quite so happy to live there as others. It would depend on the sort of background you are from, what you like to do and the pace of life you like to live. I know many a couple who live and love the marina I also know some who think it is their embodiment of hell who live and love DIFC and Old Town. The beauty is as a single FO is that the choice is yours.
I wouldn't go as far as to say you can put 3000¢ away easily unless you have been very fortunate and have no debt here or at home and live reasonably frugally.
This difference between myself and Sascha's point of view is likely again down to personally taste. I know Skippers and FOs here who think that 140,000AED is an expensive amount for a two bed apartment. I also know skippers here who happy to pay 200,000AED for a two bed apartment and don't think much off it.
If you are from London paying £2000 per month for a nice city centre apartment is not at all unreasonable in my eyes. If you wanted to live in a really nice apartment and earnt say £7000 spending £3000 per month wouldn't seem unreasonable if this is your main home and you are here to stay. I FOs who spend more than captains with 3 children on accommodation.
Well what is that in AED basically it is 18,000AED per month or 216,000AED per year. I also know that there are reasonably senior captains with their wives and children in apartments for 90,000AED pa.
So the lifestyle that you choose has a huge effect on your disposable income and hence of course on what you can save. It al depends on what you think is a reasonable way to live your life.
My tuppence worth if you want to come here and make some money and plan on at least 5 yrs here then don't go living in a studio in Sharjah as you will soon tire of being here and feel very differently about the place. On the other hand unless you really are a true SW3, SW7 or broke Londoner then you likely don't need to go much past 120,000AED per year to find something of a good UK standard for a singly.
Please bear in mind this is my opinion and I have a friend who is skipper from Bulgaria who thinks that anyone spending over 75,000AED per year is mad. Personally I have never seen anything anywhere apartment or villa that I would live in for less than 120,000AED if life gets does get so expensive that I have to move the family into an apartment then I wouldn't be here for long!
Last edited by Vortex Thing; 27th May 2014 at 12:05.