The Manual #59 - Dubai 1 year later
It’s now been over a year since I moved permanently from the UK to Dubai.
I wrote a previous newsletter sharing my experience after two months. A lot of the stuff I said in that are still accurate now. But I’ll repeat some of it here too.
Probably the most important question which I should answer, “are you happy here”? Yes. A lot more than I expected. I was initially a little worried I wouldn’t like it, but it’s turned out amazingly.
Safety has become a more important factor for me since moving here. I’m a lot more conscious of how unsafe other parts of the world are. Dubai is ridiculously safe that I never have to worry about being mugged or hurt. I also don’t have to hide anything of remote value. In London I would only get my phone out when I absolutely needed to, so it doesn’t get snatched. Now of course that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be street smart.
Cleanliness is on another level. It made me realise how “dirty” other countries are. Now I say dirty in quotes because it varies of course. But even when I went to Japan, which is known to be one of the cleanest countries, Dubai is even cleaner. The streets, roads, buildings, public spaces…etc are immaculately kept.
Cost of living is much cheaper, but that also depends on your life. And I am comparing it to UK and US. If you’re moving from somewhere like India or Thailand, then of course cost of living is higher in Dubai. Simple stuff like prices for groceries can vary wildly depending on where you shop, which I think is a good thing because you have more choice. Electricity for your home and fuel for your car are significantly cheaper.
Quality of food is on another level. Most of the major supermarkets here have incredibly high quality of fresh food, things like fruit, veg and meat. Which is mostly what I buy as I prepare my own meals. The fruit and veg especially are probably some of the best and most fresh I’ve seen anywhere, which is surprising as most of it is imported. Though Dubai does have its own indoor farms.
Making friends has been easy. Not everyone is going to have the same experience as me, but having an online following has made it especially easy to make friends. I regularly have friends from all over the world come to Dubai, whether it be for business and pleasure. The design of Dubai makes it super easy to see those friends as you can pretty much get anywhere in the city within 30 mins as long as it’s not at rush hour. I also make friends very easily in social places like the gym, people are more willing to talk and be open due to also usually being a foreigner.
Everything is designed to be convenient. The culture here is designed for women especially. Arab culture naturally leans in to the woman being a housewife. Because of that, a lot of services are designed to be done for you so you don’t have to leave home if you don’t want to. And a lot of these services are super cheap and easy. Even opening a bank account, they will come to your home instead of you having to go to the bank.
Truly a city that never sleeps. New York and London do not come close to how active Dubai is through out the day and night. Only place that I can think of that comes close is Las Vegas.
Dubai isn’t the party and lavish living life that most people see on social media and the news. That’s a tiny part of Dubai. Most of Dubai is specifically designed for families. There are so many family-orientated communities. There’s even pet-friendly communities, specially designed for those who have dogs where dogs can run around in parks.
During the winter, between Oct-Mar, I don’t think I would want to be anywhere else on earth. These months the weather is cooler, there’s lots to do, and overall being outside is a lot of fun.
Summer months aren’t great. Naturally because it’s so hot here. During the summer most people usually stay inside or travel. I travel during the summer a lot anyway so it lines up well for me. As I like to go to the UK and other European countries during this time.
The 0% income taxes and low 9% corp tax are becoming ever more evident and useful for my future. I’m saving over 50% of my income. Most of it is going in to my investments, which is basically my retirement fund. It’s wild how quickly that’s growing now compared to how it was when I was in the UK.
Dubai can be both a wild ride or a calm serene way of living. You can very much choose.
If you’re interested in moving to Dubai or the UAE, I’ve partnered with an agency who have a done-for-you service. They help me manage my business. This service is specially designed for those who want a streamlined experience in moving — elitedubaimove.com
We’ve finally launched our own app — Linx Camera.
Specially designed to get the most out of the iPhone camera but at the same time make it easy.
We see so many apps that offer “Pro” functionality but I find them too much, with too many settings, too many options…etc.
Linx Camera is somewhere in the middle between the basic camera app and a full on pro app.
It enables you to shoot high resolution ProRAW images and removes a lot of the processing you get from other apps — giving you clean images that you can save as is, or edit with our specially designed ProRAW filters.
Please do provide any feedback you might have. We want to continually improve it.
New Ecliptic Wallpaper Pack is live →
Building on the success of the Palette wallpaper pack, wanted to create a new similar pack. Similar layered style but circles and fewer colors. More minimal and perfect for both desktop and mobile.
Notion Mail — Notion have now launched Notion Mail. An awesome email inbox manager that uses AI and a bunch of other useful features to make managing your inbox easy. My favourite feature is definitely the auto-labelling, makes it so easy to prioritise and find emails.
Connect your Gmail to Notion Mail for free →
Link Lowdown
A collection of links to stuff I think are worth sharing.
Linx Camera — my own camera app.
Whatting — a neat planning app for the iPad.
Slate — a truck or an SUV. I also want one. Hoping they come worldwide because I want a fully customised SUV.
Play — like Figma but for iOS apps.
Easyful — another digital product delivery service that integrates directly with Stripe.
Chris Williamson x Naval Ravikant — I don’t listen to many podcasts, mainly because I think most are nonsense. But this is a gem.
AF1 — an analogue camera experience. Funny how this sort of stuff is becoming popular.
Alter — an AI assistant that lives in the notch.
I live in New York City, and I really want to visit Dubai. People who’ve never lived in NYC can’t imagine how dirty it is here, or how uncomfortable it can be to walk around with so many homeless people on the streets.
Hey Oliur,
I am facing few issues with linx camera. Where should I write for feedback?