Illustration by Gary Clement for The National
If you are an expatriate, was there a significant shift in how you dealt with the money in your life when you became one?
A recent, and recurring, chat with people regarding the value of money usually includes us talking about how the currency we were brought up with, or at least started earning in and having to pay our way with, seems to be so much more weighty, valuable and somehow real compared to a currency we relocated to and started using as expatriates.
Do you have the same emotional relationship with a 100-dirham note as with the equivalent value in the currency of your birth or wherever home is for you?
The resounding response to date has been no. It appears that the way we behave with money as expats is significantly different to our behaviour and attitude towards money and how we use it before we become expatriates. And when it comes to western expats specifically, it could be said that the value of money diminishes or the entitlement factor increases.
I must point out here that these conversations have been, mostly, with western expats. Not everyone has the same attitude towards money earned as an expat, and this can be seen in the billions of dirhams that people living here send back home every year – many people are very aware of their short stay in the UAE and want to use their time here to build up wealth back home quickly.
But not everyone.
Standard Life recently surveyed 200 western expats living in the UAE – not a very large sample, but the findings are interesting, and could reflect a wider trend.
First thing to note is that most of those surveyed became expats for financial reasons.
The second thing to take on board is that almost all of them (97 per cent) spent some of their disposable income on luxury lifestyle choices, and only a third of them seek financial advice.
Figures on their own aren’t the point. It’s the underlying reason or what they translate into that’s important. So, what could these numbers mean?
Well, I’ll offer the following:
People can feel more flush with cash in the UAE, and are all too easily enticed to do things that they would save up for or plan as a special treat back home.
Let’s take a step back: we essentially live in an amazing, world-class holiday resort. We have on our doorsteps the biggest mall in the world, the tallest building, dancing fountains, restaurants and hotels galore. But. We live here. We’re not on holiday here. So, while people want to come to the UAE from all corners of the globe to shop, party, relax and have a great time, how about transporting ourselves back home: would you be going to a five-star hotel every weekend for a meal? Eating out as much? Enjoying a bout of retail therapy where you actually buy luxury things quite so often (if at all!)?
Judging by every conversation I’ve had with people, the answer is no.
What’s more, the Standard Life survey shows that western expats living in the UAE save less than their counterparts in Hong Kong and Singapore.
I’m still baffled by why this should be, and would love any insight into why this happens. Is it really down to temptation?
The original article was first published in The National
