Hi folks, I've had a search through this section of the forum and appreciate majority posts are from people from Indian sub-continent.
I've been approached with an offer (to apply for) job in Muscat in the Project Management field.
Current personal status is I have a wife (not working) and 3 young kids at state school.
my basic salary is £50k, my employer adds 10% into my pension pot and i get an annual discretionary bonus of about 7-10%
So after my voluntary deductions (pension/shares/charity) my basic net is about £2800, which equates to about 1400 OMR
I also get £190/month Child Benefit
Obviously we pay NI/tax which looks after our healthcare and education needs (amongst other things).
Own a house which have a mortgage on which isn't an issue as I would just rent that out whilst abroad (if we all moved a a family - more on that later). It's a nice house in a modestly affluent nice area
Live a fairly modest lifestyle so managed to have a fair bit left over each month (£500-£800) for savings etc.
What's on offer? - Remember it's not an offer of employment, just a recruiter contacting me to see if I'm interested in applying, hence the hazy detail & assumptions on my part
It's an initial 12 month contract, subject to renewal, so I probably wouldn't uproot my family until permanent.
Net monthly Salary 2200 OMR (I presume there's no income taxes to pay there anyway?)
Free Medical insurance (presumably for me only)
Annual flight ticket for vacation
Relocation assistance
Firstly, it's not worth me leaving a good employer for just one year, unless I was offered a voluntary redundancy package. I could try a sabbatical.
Secondly, kids. I've looked at school fees and something decent like International Muscat school is upto around 6000 OMR/year/child. I would have to negotiate that in otherwise it's likely to be a no deal for me.
As well as school fees, i understand rent is a bit higher too. If with family, it would have to be 4BHK villa. I would pay around £800-£1000PCM where I live now so equates to about 400-500OMR.
Again, I would like it to be a nice area with some amenities within reach (walking distance). Somehere nice to go for an evening walk with family etc. It doesn't have to be an exclusive compound/area and given that I'm of Pakistani descent, I would find it relatively easy to mix with people from Indian sub-continent if that was the case - though it's not what I'm specifically looking for.
It would only be worth uprooting my family if we were actually having a much better quality of life rather than the same quality of life but in a different location.
So... what are your thoughts?