Should my husband and I move to Abu Dhabi?

[Ellen91]

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I recently got married and bought a house in Louisiana. We have a dog but no children and aren't planning on having them for a while. I'm still in school. He's been offered a job as a NEK employee in Abu Dhabi with the following package:

$400,000 base salary (USD) which translates to 1,469,200 UAE Dirham un-taxed
8 First Class tickets to and from home
Generous allowance (unstated as of yet) for high quality housing
Free University for me
A car
Free shipping of household items there and back
Purchase of furniture upon arrival
35 days vacation
Medical and Dental Benefits
End of service gratuity of 2 weeks salary for each year served (ex 1 year $15,342, 2 years $30,684 and so on... we plan to stay for 5 years so $76,710)

I also have the added benefit of getting to see him every day (his current job has him out of the country a lot with me home alone) and we get to have a bit of an adventure before children.

Can anyone tell me if this is a good package for Abu Dhabi and what kind of lifestyle we could sustain on this sort of salary?

Thanks!

Ellen

[amerifren]

Uh, hell yes you should go! OK, I've never lived in the UAE, but I've visited twice. That salary is amazing. You'd pretty much live like a queen from what I understand. U can probably go to school there...and isnt the point of going to school to make money and have a good life...oh and the whole self-actualization part...but the first two would be taken care of. But I think the later would also be highly possible.

That is, if this is a step up. If you're used to this lifestyle already, then that's another story.

People with more first hand experience please correct me if i'm wrong (which im sure will happen on here