I live in Dubai, ask me anything

My sister's been there for 19 years, she loves it and I'm not sure she'll ever be back (except perhaps for retirement). She's outlasted almost all of her friends and has seen countless Brits/other expats/immigrants come & go over the years. She originally transferred with a job with a large Western company, but after a few years went it alone by setting up a business which has been very successful. I think what keeps her is there is the hustle/opportunity, genuinely easier to do business there than the UK (costs-wise), and also a bigger pool of young creatives too - she's set up the first arts non-profit there. She's never had any crime, issues with the law or controversy there, despite living a pretty nonstop hedonist lifestyle..! No partner/children, she did live with an ex and had to lie they were married (ironically her male gay friends lived happily together as 'housemates' with no need to lie to the landlord..!). She does return to the UK for a few weeks in the summer to escape the heat, but wouldn't be trying to 'freeload' off UK services during that time. It's perfectly possible to make a happy life there, like everywhere there are downsides & certainly morally dubious aspects as other commenters have highlighted, interestingly she knows quite a few British families who are onto their 3rd generation out there, yes it's always precarious in terms of never getting citizenship/having a right to live there, but if that suits you then it could work. We had the opportunity to go out with my husband's work, but decided against it mainly due to family responsibilities, but also just not being city people..

Quite

Spite and envy?

I always love that as a comeback when someone is talking about living in Dubai.

Money isn't everything.

And honestly, I melt at 25c so it's actually my idea of hell. I LIKE rain believe it or not.

That's without even without the geopolitics which are very very relevant to this thread.

That's actually an hilarious post. Thanks for the entertainment. I guess we need it in this age of misery in the press! 😂

She's not being critized for being a SAHM, (but more for making "a man her plan"), the issue here is making a flag from tax dodging in a British public forum and flaunting how much wealth she's making from it. The blatant homophobia doesn't help her cause either.

Some jealous people on here saying ‘but you don’t work, so it is your husband that is loaded; it is not the same as you both being rich’.

Who cares? What if she married a wealthy husband? I married up and don’t work and yes husband pays for everything and gives me a beautiful lifestyle. Doesn’t mean I don’t contribute in other ways.

OP, I’ve lived in 4 countries and one of them is very very similar to Dubai. You’ve only been there a year, you’re in honeymoon period. You might still like it, but at the moment you’re in honeymoon period.

I also looked at Dubai (for tax purposes), but couldn’t deal with the dust and the heat and the vast display of wealth.

In the end I chose a safe country with high tax I might change my tune after a few years, but I love the idea of my kid being brought up in a wealthy country with fresh air, and good overall values.

I wish you all the best. (And I really miss having cleaning staff; that was the best having a clean home every single day 😁)

Since when? Every thread I see here discussing sahm women are advised not to become financially dependent on a man, because that man may not stick around, and then they’re stuffed.

it’s not even divorce. Death, redundancy, unable to work, relying on one salary is just daft imo. That salary goes away and you go straight to 0.

I didn't say he'd cheat. The op said they'd never split, I said no-one plans for it but if for example someone cheats that tends to be what happens.

To be reliant on a tax dodging dh and not have a career of her own would seem a bit risky.

I, like many, have been to Dubai. Its a shiny dump full of people who actually hate westerners but tolerate us for their workforce. It is full of the worst kind of westerners too all greedy and grabby.

The values and ethics are not what I'd want to expose dc to long term,. Fine for a weeks hol if you must.

I'm a SAHM...

That's risky enough tbh. Without the added issue that living abroad in a Middle Eastern country would add.

You can't leave with the kids without the father's permission.
The father automatically gets rights and you don't.
If you split you can't necessarily stay due to a lack of visa.
You can't afford to leave and have no financial protection in the event of a divorce because the laws arent in your favour.
You are financially dependent in a way that a SAHM in the UK isn't.

No thanks.

Money is nice. Long term security and protections are nicer.

@fedora1
You wrote Some jealous people on here saying ‘but you don’t work, so it is your husband that is loaded; it is not the same as you both being rich’. Who cares? What if she married a wealthy husband?
This is laughably inaccurate. I’m not jealous. I never wanted to be a SAHM. I would never visit Dubai never mind live there. I don’t value money above everything.
What I criticised was her saying that she, personally, had apid more in tax than she’ll ever take out. That’s just arrogant and inaccurate, even if her husband has laud enough for them both - which as someone in his mid 30s he won’t have…

Many white “expats” had nice lives in places like apartheid South Africa. They had nice lives in the Uk and “even nicer” lives in SA.

doesn’t mean their privileged lives weren’t built on the suffering and oppression of others.

most people admit how the apartheid regime was brutal and inhumane. Yet you are happy to replicate that in Dubai. As long as you have a nicer life, who cares.

the fact that it’s the immigrants who are treated terribly and not the native population does not make it ok.

@Schnapps00 Thank you for your really interesting post.
Great to have some thoughtful information about someone really living and working there over a period of time.

Actually, not true sadly, £100-125k is an effective 60% tax 'death zone' as I call it, yes the loss of the personal allowance isn't technically a tax blah blah, but the effect is the same. It does drive people away from this country sometimes, especially given housing and childcare costs with a young family. With 2 in nursery in London, you'd have to earn £149k+ just to be better off than someone earning eg. £101k, which can't be right!

I'm sorry if I missed this, but how did you end up in Dubai? There has been a lot of discussion about the UK, is that where you previously lived?

Lots of posts that aren’t actually questions to the OP but irrelevant references to South Africa etc … 😂😂😂

I’m another one who isn’t jealous of the OP. She is clearly much wealthier than me (or at least her husband is 😉) but I am very fortunate indeed- I work part-time and have no mortgage to pay. We are very lucky to be able to take a holiday every year, taking our caravan and our dog to Europe. I live in a beautiful part of the UK with beaches and hills on my doorstep.

That is more than enough for a good life for me and my family and I feel rich. I don’t want more. I don’t want handbags and shoes and jewellery and shopping malls and staff and sports cars and Z-list celebrities and influencers and private jets. I just want a peaceful life where I can make choices that do as little harm as possible to the planet and other humans. And that’s what I’ve got and I’m bloody grateful for it.

I always find it interesting that those who enjoy a blingy Dubai lifestyle seem incapable of understanding that not everyone is the same as them. We don’t all want the same things.

They arent irrelevant references. Join the dots. How can you have an ' interesting' post about a place if you dont ackowledge the half of it. God.

I was critical of the tax dodging and UK bashing—from Dubai of all places—not the stay at home parenting.

O/p isn’t actually answering the questions asked.

i am making the point that all these statements she is making also applied to the South African regime, someone else pointed out it’s exactly what the Deep South also said wrt. Slavery etc.

it’s someone living in a less than ethical regime because it gets them more than they would have living ethically.

unless you agree that the white immigrants to South Africa were justified in their racial oppression because it gave them a nice life, and who wouldn’t? Exactly the same reasoning by o/p.

I thought jealousy breeds evil was an interesting choice of words too.

It actually comes from James 3:16 where the full wording is “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice”

Possibly apt for Dubai.