Abu Dhabi package - is this enough?

[Mountainstories]

Hey, my husband has recently been offered the following package (screenshot in images).

We have 1 toddler. We both currently work in the UK, he earns £120k and I earn £45k per year before tax.

It's a life goal for us to move to the Middle East for various reasons, one being that I grew up there as a child of an expat and loved the experience.

But I'd like to know from any current Abu Dhabi expats if the package we've been offered is doable? Ideally we'd like to save up to buy a nicer house in the UK (with the tax free money) but also benefit from having a nicer quality of life in the Middle East.

I intend to find a job in Abu Dhabi too, but that may take a little while.

Hope that's enough information to go on and thanks for your input!

Oh FGS.

The max salary is £96,000, right? (Aed 40k per month)?

So nowhere near what he's on now, never mind pension etc.

Yes, but what about the tax free element? If the Abu Dhabi salaries aren't taxed, then he'd need to earn the equivalent of £76k in the UAE to have the same take home salary as in the UK.

Right but you need to check pension contributions/sick pay/death in service/job security eg redundancy terms as there is no public social security so you'll need to plan for all that from the salary.

Unclear whether you are expecting to work as well. Will the company sponsor your visa? Have you done basic research into cost of schools, houses, cars, utilities, food, childcare etc?
Plus return flights home/to see family.

Yep I've just been looking at a few other threads on mumsnet around similar topics, and it doesn't look like the 40k salary with 20k contribution to education is going to cut it.

There are schools in that price range, but you wouldn't want your children to attend them. The budget British schools with more UK staff are Noya, Al Shohub, GEMS Masdar City. You won't find a significant proportion of British kids in most schools like this - often around 15%.

As a general rule, he shouldn't be moving to AD for less than he is currently on in the UK even though there's no tax - there are significant other costs that aren't incurred in the UK eg education, medical (even with insurance), flights home to see family (even if just once a year this is a big expense). You are not going to be able to save significantly on the salary being proposed but if you are motivated by a desire to move to AD rather than purely financial, then it is doable. I'm not clear whether you'll get a better quality of life - depends a lot on where you are in the UK and what you like doing in the UK. The factor a lot of people miss is how different the working environment is between the UK and the UAE. Of course it varies based on company, and sector, but generally expected working hours are much longer in the UAE. This can materially impact lifestyle.

You'll need to add at least 20k a year to that education budget (and that's per child). Holiday allowance is very good btw - it says working days but I would double check they mean that. 30 working days is unusual. Lots of companies still do 30 calendar days but this means weekends within leave period are counted (and it's a faff to work out what your allowance means).

What do you do? If you give people an idea they can give you a good indication of how easy it will be for you to get work, and your likely salary.

I used to be a HR Director in the UAE so used to draft offers. The relocation allowance is pretty low. You will need to buy furniture if you are not given accommodation. What I am used to offering is a housing allowance, school fees and annual flights/ cash equivalent. Have they offered you flights out and back home at the end of the contract? This was for government roles. The best payers were government, medical and educational organisations. Massive red flag is the “30-40k”. This figure needs to be definitive or I guarantee you will receive the 30k figure.

I would also assume that roughly 1/3 of that 30-40k is actually 'housing allowance'. This is normal but be aware when you're crunching figures that end of service benefit is on basic salary only.

Far, far too low to relocate.

Considering your joint salary now it’s too low. There looks to be no housing allowance and housing will be a hefty chunk of the salary. You will top up schooling by around 25-40k depending on which school you choose. Add in travel back and forth from UK to see family. It adds up.