Abu Dhabi: An Indian engineer who has been working in the UAE with a good salary for 25 years never saved money for the future although he enjoyed a comfortable life with his family here.

“This lack of financial discipline is a common characteristic of the salaried class across the board,” a financial guidance counsellor told Gulf News.

People with high salaries generally tend to save money but you will find many exceptions too, said K.V. Shamsudheen, chairman of the UAE-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, a social organisation for Indian expatriates in the Gulf.

The business class has a different story — they are basically good at financial management, he said.

Shamsudheen has come across many high-salaried Indian professionals living in posh residential colonies in Dubai, who have not saved in proportion to their income.

They live in an apartment or villa with an annual rent of Dh 200,000 and own a similar residence in a posh colony in an Indian metro city. And they say they have a comfortable life but could not make any investment except on a huge residence back home.

Shamsudheen has come across many of them struggling to pay annual maintenance fees for huge apartments or villas back home.

The reasons are simple. They have servants at home but when a guest comes, they take him or her to posh coffee shops; they never prepare a coffee at home on such occasions.

Children also do the same when their friends come. In many families, the wife is not working and she has her own circle of friends who regularly meet at expensive coffee shops and restaurants. “She will have a supplementary credit card with huge monthly bills for such parties which otherwise would be used for essential expenses alone.”

When people indulge in such things in a limited manner to enjoy themselves within their means, there is no problem. “But when people do it to show-off, there is no limit to expenses. So they are unable to save and often end up in debt!”

PROFILE- K.V. Shamsudheen

K.V. Shamsudheen is the chairman of Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, a welfare organisation for Indian expatriates in the Gulf.

An investment consultant by profession, he is the founder director of Barjeel Geojith Securities LLC in Dubai, a financial monetary intermediary.

He has been living in the UAE since 1970. He has conducted 300 financial awareness programmes for Indian expatriate workers in all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries for the past 12 years and for their families in India. He has hosted more than 500 radio programmes and more than 200 TV shows for the same purpose.

He guides the attendees of the programme titled “For a better tomorrow” to build financial discipline in their life.

“I want them to live comfortably when they return home from the Gulf.”

He has circulated his mobile number (050-6467801) in the community, asking them to call him any time for financial guidance. He says thousands of people have shared their financial and other problems with him and many of them have changed their lives.

Georgetown University and Qatar Foundation conducted a detailed study on the impact of his financial literacy programme and found it was very effective for migrant workers in Qatar.

-B.A.K.