What you can do to protect your money

The key thing about protecting whatever assets you have accumulated in dirhams as an expat is that you relate back to your 'base currency'.

That's the one you hope eventually to translate your savings into, and may also be the one you tend instinctively to convert local prices into when assessing a purchase.

Even without thinking about it, however, by working here and getting paid in dirhams you are already taking a gamble with regard to currency risk.

"That has worked a lot of the time, but [unless your base currency is the dollar] it isn't working now," says Sean Kelleher, chairman of Mondial Financial Partners International.

So how do you recover from the hit already taken? To begin with, don't panic, and don't rush to try to make up the loss.

The pursuit of higher rewards usually entails higher risk. "It's important to feel that you can still sleep at night," Kelleher says.

The dollar issue remains an acute consideration. The possibility of dirham revaluation — which would alleviate the difficulty considerably — is only that, a possibility, and officials have downplayed the chances. So whether the dollar will continue to plunge is the key question.

"It's hard," continues Kelleher, "but the advice we are getting is that the dollar will weaken further," with an outright housing crisis in the US likely to lean more on interest rates.

Since guessing where foreign exchange markets will go next can be a tough call, you might want to trust someone else's opinion.

Financial planning services are available at the banks now, as well as from licensed financial advisers. No particular capital sum is necessary, although there are minimums applying to specific products and, Kelleher confirms, "the more money you have, the more attention you'll get."