Chance to work in Saudi for 3 years…

At work Ive been offered the chance to go out to Saudi for 3 years to work tax free.

Pro’s – money obviously is a big pro. there is scope to earn upto £50k a year tax free.

Con’s – I would only get to come home for 2-3 weeks every 12 weeks.
The bif one for me and its what holding me back at the moment is my kids, they are 8 and 10 so thrre years is a big portion out of the their lives and at a time where education is going to become quite important for them especailly the eldest as he will be chosing his GCSE’s.

Anyone ever done it ?

What would you do ?

I wouldn’t for the reason you give – kids (tho I don’t have any)

It also sounds a bit crap out there!

No no and thrice no

Only £50k? not a chance.

£50k a year tax free.

nothing like enough to compensate for 3 yrs of shit.

Married, two kids? Id not consider it for less than £200kpa

Would I do it for £50k? No – and you say “up to”
Would I do it for 3 years? No

Compound living and sitting round with a bunch of over paid ex pats?

Pigface

No no and thrice no

+3

I dont particularly want to do this my self.

But I have friends who have.

I would of assumed they were getting closer to £100,000 a year.

Doesnt seem worth it for £50,000.

Dont forget if you have a wife they may be unlikely to work unless they can do something on the base.

£50k is no money for working there.

I wouldn’t do it for 5 times that. You can’t buy time, especially with kids.

iolo – Member

£50k is no money for working there.

Yup, think that might be the crappest Saudi deal I’ve heard of.

You could probably go and be comfortable at first, but after a while you’ll find that things don’t quite fit the way you want….

Not with kids that age, no way.

you’d probably be the lowest paid expat in your compound.
doubt the rest would even talk to you 🙂

As above, absolutely not.

Being a part of my kids lives is far more important than money

i have friends who did UAE for less than that,

however they got house, car & food allowance + a %ge increase on UK salary.

It effectively meant they could save their UK salary. Significant house deposits in 2 years whereas in the UK they would have struggled to save a small deposit.

They hated it though…

So have any of those saying no actually done it or even had the chance to do so?

I did two years out there from 2006 to 2007. My kids were 6 and 2 at the time so not that bad. Yes I missed the kids and could have stayed out there longer if the company hadnt screwed up and not been able to get the family out there in the timescales agreed.

Yes I was there at the time of the bombs etc, as for doing for 50k a year at the moment I wouldnt think about it as there are better opportunities for me elsewhere.

What you have to remember is that you can not all of that time off in the UK as you are only allowed to be in the country for a short of time each year in order to keep your salary tax free. You will be only be tax free after the first six months or so!! You will still need to pay your NI if you want to get a state pension (for whats it worth) when you retire.

Are they paying for your flights, visas etc? Remember you need an exit visa to leave the country and have to hand your passport in to get your Saudi ID (Iqama) card. Driving is a pain in the arse and is not for the faint hearted.

My sister moved to work in hong kong in feb of this year for 3 years.
She left husband and son (11) here. So far they seem to be doing ok. They’ve been over there for 2 weeks at easter and she came back here for 2 weeks at the end of May. BIL and nephew go over again in a couple of weeks for 3 weeks then sister is back again at there end of august. She’s now in a quite senior position within a major uk retailer and as such has to come back here fairly regularly anyway. They also give them a massive allowance towards getting them all together. To be honest she was away a lot when she was here and often had to stay away or got caught up while commuting so it has settled them all down a bit because the BIL knows she’s not actually coming home so they’re not left waiting around.
I couldn’t do it but we are quite different people. She is very career minded and always has been. I speak to her more now she’s over there than i did when she was 10 miles up the road.

50K? definitely not

You can’t buy time, especially with kids.

This^

My Dad was in the Merchant Navy and I hardly saw him as me being in a boarding school compounded the problem. He unfortunately died young at sea. We missed him and him us.

I wouldn’t do it personally. Money isn’t everything. Time away from your loved one’s is a killer. I know I spent 10 years of my life at sea when I was younger and it sucked.

But all the best with whatever decision you make.

Personally not a chance for 50k , a mate just about tolerates working there for 150k plus return flights and use of an apartment in the UAE .

Erm, that £50k is some sort of retention bonus isn’t it? The salaries clearly more like £200kpa shirley…

At least it ought to be….

And No, it’s a bit shite out there. Way harder and Hotter than hell which makes going out in the PM/Eves a proper hard time. Ok so occasionally you’ll see the Sun but my oh my you will want to be indoors most of the time like everyone else.. Why do yo think there are so may Malls there.

I have a mate who runs a large Marina in Quatar and whilst he loves what he does no end, the pay is £150kpa and he spends 50% of his time outdoors and the the other 50% dealing in back handers to get things done.
He’s out there for a few years to earn money but it’s by no means easy.. A gold gravy train it ain’t.

And..

And you have Kids.

Think very long and very hard before committing.

No.

No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No .

Not sure what of work you’re in but 50k a year doesn’t sound much for an ex-pat package – certainly not enough for me to write off 3 years of my life in Saudi.

Disrupt my life up for £50k a year? No.

Spend that amount of time away from your kids?

For £50K?

And you’re even contemplating it? 😯

Aren’t you RAF, Renton?

An armourer, or similar? Or have you left?

If it’s in the military I’d be more concerned about supporting the government there.

I was in Saudi way back in 1980 and the situation was far better in those days. My salary as a young single bloke was equivalent to about £65k these days, plus accommodation and flights (though that’s normal), so I certainly wouldn’t be going for £50k now and given the way things are in the Middle East probably not at all.

Conditions in UAE are far more civilised than Saudi so I wouldn’t expect pay to be as good there.

I don’t know if things have changed but in my day you had to be working overseas for 12 months to avoid tax and were allowed 90 days home in any 12 month period.

No way o! I would certainly not uproot my family and disrupt my kids’ education for £50k!

If it was somewhere relaxed with a benign environment like New Zealand or Canada I might think about it but not that sweltering dump infested with the world’s most disgraceful hypocrites.

As a child of a parent who worked in the Persian Gulf when I was that age, I’d say don’t do it.
My dad had the good life in the UAE, which is more of a party than Saudi. My mate’s dad went to Saudi and stuck it out for a couple of years, came home and got divorced. His daughter doesn’t speak to him.
My dad stayed out 10+ years for the money and got divorced. I haven’t had a relationship with him for over twenty years.
I’m sure there are plenty who can survive the experience intact, I wouldn’t bother for that sort of money when you can get it in the UK.

Plenty of opportunities within my company, and my wider industry (Engineering)
For £50k I’d not even think about it – £200k is probably more realistic.
I’ve also got little kids and wouldn’t want to miss the time with them.

So it is a no from me.

Is that £50k pa the salary or how much you think you’d be having after all costs etc?

If the former, then it really depends on what you earn now.

If the latter (and working out first how much you’d have if you didn’t go), then walking away with £150k after 3 years (and still getting home for 2-3 weeks every 12 weeks) – doesn’t sound that bad a deal.

Not that I’d take it, not enough money plus regime isn’t one I’d like to be involved in.

And I’m assuming you’ll go alone.

Yup, think that might be the crappest Saudi deal I’ve heard of.

Yep sounds very low. Basically three years bored shitless in a compound with expats earning 3x your wage, missing your family.

I was chatting to a guy last week who was considering the same move but for £200-300k, as a final few years work before retiring early. He was undecided at that salary never mind 50k!

Aren’t you RAF, Renton? An armourer, or similar? Or have you left?

Yep Im still in the RAF.

Its a 3 year secondment to BAE systems working on Typhoon.

The £50k a year is what blokes are earning out there now.

I earn about £34k a year no before tax with no scope for overtime so its quite abit more pay.

I agree about the living on a compound being shit etc, I did 3 tours of Afghanistan and that was the same.

Plus no MTB’ing !!

A few years ago (I think it was 2010) I was offered a job that paid 50% more than I was earning and I was about to accept when they mentioned that in addition to 1 week a month in Germany (not a big deal) that I’d need to install the code we were writing ‘in the field’. As the software was for military use I asked what ‘in the field’ meant and I was then told it was to go to Camp Bastion and install/monitor the software for 1 week every quarter.

I then asked the obvious i.e. “how safe is it” to which the reply was ‘very, no real issues and we’ll pay you a tax free bonus every day you’re at Camp Bastion and an enhanced bonus when you’re at the forward stations”.

At this point I asked them to be 100% frank and it turned out that of the week 2 days were at Camp Bastion and 5 days were at various front line command posts travelling by armoured car between them. At this point I turned it down.

Just out of curiosity I asked what the daily bonus was, it was £1k a day at Camp Bastion and £3k a day at the command posts! Still turned it down!

50k – no way. Saudi is a sh*thole.

Interesting… is the secondment with BAE?
Only reason I ask is BAE are basically my paymasters (although I work for a subcontractor) and I know there are opportunities with BAE in my industry in Bahrain and Oman at the moment.

I had a mate who was in Bahrain, had to leg it when it all kicked off in 2010/11. Had a hell of a time getting out of the country. Brought one of his sons back to UK and then went back for his wife and the other kids. His youngest had been born the previous November and at that point had no passport – was very difficult getting her out – limited help from the Embassy too! Not fun and more than a little bit stressful.
Also bear in mind that suicide attacks have been increasing in Saudi and as the partnership ‘protection/peacekeeping for oil’ deal between US and Saudi is coming to an end, I wouldn’t expect Middle East to be a peaceful place anytime soon – but you’ll know more than me about that!
Plus your wife will have no kind of life out there.
For a 30% increase on current salary I’d say there’s no way that’s a worthwhile premium…

Always ask yourself why a job pays well – would they need to if it was desirable in and of itself?

Freeagent… yep thats right.

So basically 12 on 2/3 off? Even the worst FIFO here in Oz get better than that. Honestly it’s going to be crap and it sounds like they are exploiting the fact that they can get you on the cheap from the RAF, the BAE guys will be raking in a fir bit more than that.
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