Why should I invest while I’m in the UAE?

So you’ve done some research into the basics of investing, and are maybe starting to consider that this whole “stocks” thing isn’t as scary as you may have thought. As that starts to sink in, it’s time to consider the next step: I’ve decided to give this investing thing a go, now why should I be investing while I’m here?

In order to begin understanding the investment climate, it’s important to first talk about savings. People save up for various reasons, and these can usually be split into short-term and long-term goals. Saving up for a skiing holiday, a new laptop, or even an upcoming wedding can be classified as short-term goals. Saving up for a newborn’s university fund, retirement, or your aging parents’ care are all long-term goals that require a different portfolio (which Sarwa will help you choose). But either way, investing some of your money instead of squirrelling it all away in a savings account – or worse, in cash – will leave you with insultingly low interest rates at best and with depreciated money due to that nasty thing called inflation at worst.

So now that we’ve established that investing is important for both short- and long-term financial health – and that it’s never too early to start – the question now is: why invest while I’m here?

Before we can answer that, let’s first have a look at the saving culture here. According to a survey by Payfort, an Amazon company, 38 percent of people living in the UAE are able to save only 10 percent of their income, while only less than a quarter (23 percent) manage to leave 10-25 percent of their earnings untouched. Nearly three out of ten people are not saving at all. In other words, there isn’t much of a saving culture to begin with, a fact corroborated by Sarwa’s Head of Wealth Advisor Danny Jabbour, who notes that “there’s no savings culture in the UAE. And what I mean by that is that companies don’t offer pension plans at all. Here it’s tax free money, you do what you want, you’re using what you have, and no one’s sitting there constantly talking about savings and making you put money aside.’

This is especially relevant given that the average expat in Dubai tends to have some significant disposable cash on their hands: According to a survey conducted by HSBC Expat Explorer, the average salary for expats in the city is $138,177 per annum, with 72 percent of expats saying that they have more disposable income than they did back home. That means that there’s a lot of extra income that’s just sitting in checking accounts, quietly depreciating as inflation rates rise.

From a financial perspective, that’s obviously not great news. Nadine Mezher, Sarwa’s co-founder and CMO, has been living and working in Dubai for over ten years and has gotten well-acquainted with the standard of living (and saving) in the Emirate: “A good percentage of the population does not have savings plans and fail to commit long term,” she explains. But she goes on to note that “regardless of where they are from, UAE residents, especially expats, plan to save enough to invest back in their homes and have a retirement plan.” However, the pleasures of living in Dubai can be enticing enough to forget all about a structured saving plan, especially for expats earning a generous salary. Mezher, who is originally from Lebanon, says that she tries to put aside about 30 percent of her joint family income, but notes that people “often get derailed and soon realize that things are not going according to plan: we love our weekend outing, staycations, upgrading lifestyles and buying what we want, when we want.”

She does note that people are starting to slowly change their habits, and realising the importance of saving for the future. “People here tend to save mainly for buying a house as well as starting their own businesses. Now you started seeing people also saving to take time off from work and travel the world.“ As people have started to build families, the high cost of education in this part of the world is also starting to sink in.

So what’s the best way to save? Whatever income isn’t spent shouldn’t be stuffed under the mattress or left to wither away in a zero-interest bank account. Putting it into a high-interest savings account or – even better – investing it will ensure that the extra money that expats earn in the Emirates won’t depreciate in value over time, and will instead accumulate value.

So we’ve established that investing is a very fiscally responsible way to handle your savings. But what is the investment appetite in the UAE geared towards?

‘UAE’s residents’ top investment choice is property, especially due to the limited opportunities available for them to invest into international markets. ‘Mezher notes. But it doesn’t have to be that way. “The key word here is diversification. You should not be focusing on one class of assets, you should instead put your eggs in different baskets. You need to invest into different industries and different companies to minimize risk.”

However, that can be tricky too, because although expats may enjoy a bigger cash flush than they would back home, investing in stocks is still primarily seen as the prerogative of the super-rich. “The reality is that wealth management here is neither affordable nor accessible to everyone,” Mezher says. “Usually traditional bankers and managers charge 2% and more in fees, and require high account minimums to start investing.” So it’s not surprising that people are still hesitant to explore their investing options in the UAE. But Mezher says that this is where her team at Sarwa comes in: “We provide a service that is affordable, easy to use, and with a very low fee. We are also regulated by The Dubai Financial Service Authority. The clients money is under their names with our custodian bank/broker firm based in the US. We do this to ensure the safety of our clients’ assets.” This way, she hopes, investing will become a much more viable – and intuitive – option for the UAE residents looking to plan for the future.