Hi Guys and Girls,

I’ve read through the thread and please excuse my question for being glaringly obvious if that is the case but a lot of people say that you can’t save a lot on the salary whilst living in Dubai due to expenses and inflation etc. I’m wondering what the point of saving is anyway when you have the provident scheme or end of service benefit pay out when you leave? If someone has done in the vicinity of 10 years service then could they expect a substantial payout? Or even 5 years as soon as the bond is up?
Am I missing something??
Cheers

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.

HOOROO, you’re welcome mate!

Just a word of caution:

I too had a reasonable desire to fly all over the world in a big jet. It was a ‘scratch I had to itch’. 😂
Emirates will definitely help you achieve that! However, be aware that everyone has to go home eventually (I’m guessing AUS/NZ for you). That can be for various reasons completely seperate from flying, wife, family etc. So the eternal question you will always have to answer is what will you do when you leave?

Are you happy to go home and rejoin Jetstar/Virgin/Tiger as an f/o and if you’re in your late 40’s by then, potentially sitting in the RHS for the rest of your career?

Basically the decision to head overseas takes you out of the seniority system back home. So yes you’ll make some money, see the world and hopefully enjoy it, but when you go back.... it’ll be back to the bottom of the pile. Personally I can live with that, but some people can’t. Then they end up feeling stuck at EK and come to hate the place.

Aviation_enthus I asked in another thread but no answer so far. With a young family, do you live in company accomodation? Even if you don’t, do you know what site is better? From what I can tell, we would be put in either Meydan Heights or Meydan South. One looks quite dated and the other quite new. Any info or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers