Money & Me: ‘We contracted coronavirus but our finances haven’t suffered’ – The National

Money & Me: ‘We contracted coronavirus but our finances haven’t suffered’ – The National

Jaspal Bal, 39, is a British lighting designer who moved to Dubai 11 years ago.. Mr Bal lives in his own three-bedroom villa in Arabian Ranches with his maths teacher wife Reena and 10-month-old daughter.. Financially we are not paying gym or nursery fees, not going out and cooking a lot more at home, so it has not been a strain: we're saving Dh5,000-Dh7,000 a month.. A friend in the industry knew someone in Dubai.. Two months after that, I was moved to Sharjah and my salary was cut by 30 per cent.. I didn't recover that salary for several years [as] it became the industry benchmark.. For the first six months, I didn't pay myself as I wanted to ensure my staff were taken care of before anything else.. As there are a lot of people in the same boat, everyone is showing camaraderie.. Because we had such a successful first year in the business, I had recuperated the money I invested.. Being able to pay my daughter's nursery fee even after investing in the business: that made me prouder than anything.. There's that fear of missing out and you want to be everywhere - it costs money to