I’m Abdelouahab. I’m Moroccan, I’ve lived in Dubai since 2022, and I started this site because I kept having the same conversation with friends.
Someone would ask how the mortgage worked as a non-national. Or what actually happens to your end-of-service gratuity. Or whether a “tax-free salary” really means what people assume it means. Every time, I’d end up explaining what I’d figured out along the way, including the small mistakes I made getting there.
I’m an engineer by training who ended up in a commercial career, and this isn’t advice. I’m not a financial advisor and nothing here should be read as a recommendation. It’s a record of decisions I’ve made with my own money: buying an apartment, dealing with a UAE bank, sending money home, and trying to plan for a future that might be here and might be back in Morocco.
What you’ll find here: what things actually cost, what the paperwork really asks for, and what I’d do differently.
I write in English, but I’m just as at home in French and Arabic. If something here would be more useful to someone in either, tell me.
You can reach me at hello@thedirhamdiaries.com.