Built by an expat who's
seen both sides.

I've lived and worked in the Gulf for twenty years. I've watched colleagues arrive with a tax-free salary and big plans, and leave twenty years later with very little to show for it. It wasn't because they didn't earn well. They earned very well. Too much of the advice industry aimed at expats is set up to take money off them.

I've sat across from colleagues who signed 25-year RL360 Quantum plans they didn't understand, handed over thousands in upfront commission to advisers they met once at a networking event and never heard from again, and found out ten years later that their surrender value barely equalled what they'd paid in. I've seen people spend their tax-free windfall on boats, four-wheel drives, and a lifestyle that only works while the big salary lasts. The Gulf is generous. It is not permanent.

Some spent money they didn't need to spend on things that depreciated the moment they bought them. Others lost it in fees so complicated and well hidden that they didn't know they were paying them. Both groups often left with far less than the figure they'd been planning around for years.

About seven years ago, I started doing something simple. I opened an Interactive Brokers account, bought a single global ETF (VWRA, the Vanguard FTSE All-World UCITS ETF) and set up a monthly direct debit. No adviser. No offshore savings plan. No product with a 25-page fee schedule and a surrender penalty that kicks in if you lose your job and can't contribute for six months. With markets as they stand today, most of the colleagues and friends I walked through the same process are sitting on returns of 60% or more. They didn't pick stocks or try to time the market. They stayed invested and kept their costs low.

I built ExpatMoneyMatters because the tools that show what an RL360 or Zurich Vista plan costs over 25 years, or what you really have left each month after school fees, flights home and currency losses, either didn't exist or sat behind a paywall, a sales form or a very persuasive phone call. Every calculator here is free. There's no advertising, and I get no commission from any product, platform or provider.

I work in IT. AI has let me build tools that a few years ago would have needed a team of developers and a proper budget, and I've used it to build something for a community I've been part of for twenty years. Wherever you're from, and whether you work in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Riyadh or Kuwait City, compound interest works the same way. It doesn't care about your nationality or your employer, only your savings rate and your costs.

If you find a mistake, a gap or something that could be explained better, tell me. Use the contact form below. I read every message.

If you're paying into an offshore savings plan and haven't worked out what it's costing you, start with the RL360 / Zurich Audit and use your real numbers. You may not like the answer, but at least you'll know.