After spending the day’s expenses, the majority of the expatriates are the ones who sift the rest and send them back home. Therefore, the expatriates around us are struggling with no financial balance when they end their life in the Gulf and return home. But if you think in a smart way, there are opportunities for expatriates to improve financially in the Gulf itself, say economists.
The amount to be set aside for this is $1000 per month. That is 33 dirhams per day. Economists point out that even if it is less than this, it can be beneficial to understand the investment opportunities in a better way.
When we see the word ‘investment’, many of us think of buying shares of individual companies listed on the stock market. While AED 1,000 is a good amount to start investing in assets like shares, funds or bonds, you need to spend at least five years of your money in these investments to really reap the benefits.
This investment strategy allows you to diversify your investments as much as possible and invest in large stocks that you cannot afford. For example, you cannot buy a share of Tesla for 200 dirhams. But through fractional share you can invest in Tesla at AED 220.
This method of buying stocks is great even if you only have 100 dirhams to start investing. Investing in fractional shares is as easy as investing in traditional stocks or ETFs. All you need to do is find a brokerage firm that allows fractional share investment. From there, you can choose the companies you want.
While it may be impossible to start investing in real estate with Dh1,000, you can now invest in real estate with small amounts through the crowdfunding process. Real estate crowdfunding collects money from investors for the property and distributes the returns and gains equally among the investors.
UAE’s real estate crowdfunding industry includes equity and smart crowd. Both are regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Both these platforms allow investment in rental ready properties starting from AED 2,000 (Stock) or AED 5,000 (SmartCrowd).
Exchange-traded funds are an investment similar to mutual funds. You can buy many different stocks in a single ETF. ETFs allow you to buy a group of stocks and other securities all at once.
You can invest in ETFs with most major brokerage firms, and you can usually do so with low investment fees. Keep in mind that these types of investments should be well-informed as the chances of profit and loss are the same.
