Good post , Dubai is identical .

If you are thinking of coming to EK then get the 'snip'. :-)

That's nice. Now how about we come back to reality?

Are there any, even legacy carrier FO's on pay point 1 that can afford to have 2 kids in private school, pay off a SECOND mortgage, have a $5000/y private club membership with a wife who doesn't work and puts an extra $2000/month pension contribution away whilst taking the family on J class holidays around the world... And still has money left over each month?

Because that is just what was described! Unbelievable.

It's a tough life out here.

Er, Zulu, you might want to re-read Jack's post because it is pretty accurate and not what he described at all. If you want to do all the stuff you describe your wife had better have a damn good job.

Remember, in most people's home countries you don't need to pay for private schools because the state provides education. Nobody said anything about a second mortgage it was just mentioned that if you want to keep a property in your home country the bills on that will have to be paid somehow. You would be braver than me to sell up and burn all your bridges to your home country if you come to the Middle East. J class holidays around the world, well most legacy carriers have a better staff travel deal than EK do. $2,000 pension contributions- again, most legacy carriers will have a pretty good pension scheme. That $2,000 a month, by the way, will not be enough to retire on unless you do something else as well. Finally, the club membership. Your family will need to do something at the weekends, especially since you will be away for a lot of them. Believe it or not a trip to a beach club can work out as one of the cheaper options. Almost EVERY leisure activity in Dubai costs money, especially in the Summer and far more so with children in tow. There are only so many times you can go camping in the desert.

Crucially, you aren't at home. That needs to be compensated for somehow. There is no point in moving your family half-way around the world unless the money and the lifestyle are both better. A surprising number of new guys come to Dubai and expect to have the lifestyle of a rockstar then leave after ten years with a million dollars in the bank- and that is what they have sold to their families. It is never going to happen and people need to know that before they come.

You can save money in Dubai and if you are careful you can probably retire before you could back home. (You will need to because the rosters here will kill you long before you reach 65.) The price you will pay for that is living in Dubai for twenty or thirty years. That is a high price, believe me. You only have one life.

Now go and read Jack's post again because I can't see any errors in it.

I think the issue is that there will be not even be the extra $2000 available at the end of each month to put into the pension pot, as Xulu mentioned.

My previous post was tongue in cheek but it concisely sums up that EK is not the company to be joining if you have kids. Dubai can be a great place to raise kids and especially if they are young but the cost involved is expensive and keeps on rising.

EK is now only really worth it if you are single or married with no kids and have no desire to have kids either. Thats what I have told friends who have been considering joining. A new joiner has to financially plan for sitting in the RHS for a considerably longer period that was once the case, whilst dealing with your income not matching inflation for a number of years. A sobering thought.

Very true and most F/Os with at least a couple of kids say that they have very little money left at the end of each month.

BigGeordie - I don't know if you are being purposefully stubborn. Why do you think I am replying or have to reply to 'Jack'?

Everything I mentioned, with the same figures used, was posted above for all to read. I just gave a nice summary.

It's fine to protest over money, the problem is when the people try too hard to make their point it ends up looking rather spoilt.

We're all on the same team, let's just keep our feet on the ground.

Bananas,

Stop scaring the new FOs. You know the Roids make them paranoid and delusional :)

Nice discussion people. :)