Transcription
What do you think has been the reason for the success of so many Emirati business people, Arab people over the last couple of years?
People think every Emirati is rich. Not even 10% of Emiratis are rich. Not even 5% of Emiratis are rich. One of my best friends is struggling.
The government also provides you with a lot, right?
We get free housing. We get a land. I opened up a clinic recently. They exempted all my license fees. All of them. Every Emirati would love to work for the government. You can never be terminated. Does it make us lazier? Definitely. My parents were strict. The old-timers would just tell me, "Put a portion of whatever salary you made in a different account." That doesn't work. I put 1.65 million. Month one, paid. Two paid. Three paid. Four, five, six. I renewed the contract. 2 months in, boom, shut down.
[music]
Are there any Emirati specific business principles that you've learned?
[music]
Everybody should leverage. The bank says they have money. Freaking take it. Take the money. The safest slash best investment I'm in is...
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Welcome to the Building Wealth Without Borders podcast with me, Lamade Elizabeth, where I'll be bringing you guests from around the world to share their strategies on building wealth. And today, we're in Dubai, filming at the Penn by Marina Pearl, and we're here with Emirati investor and business owner, media personality Ibrahim Abbas. Welcome.
Thank you for having me.
I'm so excited for this. But before we get into anything, I will allow you to introduce yourself.
My name is Ibrahim Abbas. Um, I'm from Dubai. I am a content creator. I'm a business owner. I'm an investor. And, um, I'd like to welcome you to Dubai. Well, you are based in Dubai as well.
[laughter]
Uh, and yeah, thank you for having me on.
All right, cool. I'm excited. So, what I want us to do in today's conversation, I want to kind of... Well, you're our first Emirati on the show, so you're representing your people. So, you know...
[laughter]
I won't let you guys down. I want to, um, get into a little bit about understanding how different cultures see money and wealth because I think that over the last couple of years, especially, 'cause I'll tell you, growing up in the UK, right? All you really heard when I was younger, and, you know, I don't have control over, like, the news I'm getting and stuff, is the phrase was "conflict in the Middle East, conflict in the Middle East, conflict in the Middle East." That's all you knew. You knew that in Iran, in Iraq, there were things going on, and it wasn't seen as a place that was associated with wealth. And now you have, like, the emergence of, and, like, and I'm sure even at those times, right? We know that the, the countries with the strongest currencies are Middle Eastern countries. And...
[snorts]
...even just looking at GDP per capita, a lot of Middle Eastern countries have really high GDPs per capita, but that wasn't what was presented to us. And then over the last couple of years, now we're seeing, you know, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Qatar, and you're seeing Bahrain, all of these places, and like, "Oh my god, like, these people have wealth, they have money. We didn't know about any of this," or a lot of it has happened over the last couple of years. So now we're just getting to see that. But I kind of want to delve into what the culture is behind that, and then also get into your story about how you built your wealth and how you think about investing and stuff. So, to start with, can we just get into a little bit about learning about how you grew up?
Well, I grew up in a... I grew up the Dubai life, you know, not, not, not an extremely, not like what people think a Dubai childhood would look like, like with extreme wealth or anything like that. No, I was raised very well. My parents were strict. I didn't have a phone until I was like, um, uh, 15.
Right?
Um, there was no social media. We weren't, we, you know, we used to ride bikes in the neighborhood. We, we were just, we were old school. Dubai was a little bit different back in when I was young. Uh, it wasn't crowded with tourists as much as today.
We didn't have... We had very big projects back then, but not as many and as big as the projects we have today.
Uh, went to school, still friends with people I graduated from, uh, people I graduated, uh, high school with. Um, studied here in university and, um, yeah.
Graduated university as an accounting and finance.
When you say you didn't grow up the way people might think, what is the way people might think you grew up?
Because there's a stereotype in Dubai. People think, you know, Dubai is, you know, you know, in every house in Dubai, there's a tree that grows, you know, grow some money on it, but...
[laughter]
...it's not, it's not the case. Uh, you know, children that grow up, grow up, grow up in Dubai, grow up very like how any child would grow up anywhere else in the world. You know,
Um, the children today are doing the same things, whether they were in different countries or in Dubai. You know, all the kids today have iPads, all the kids today have TikTok, you know.
Uh, they pretty much do the same thing. They also have the same haircuts, you know, so.
You know, it's, it's, it's very universal. It's very universal. A childhood is very universal. When you start to grow up, um, this is where, you know, it, it becomes different from one person to another.
Would you say that? So if I think about, let, let me think about some, some stereotypes that people might have as a kid growing up in Dubai, is maybe they're spoiled, that you have a lot of help and support around the house, or you're spoiled. There's always those TikToks that go viral of like people pulling up to university and their kid and they've got like fast cars and all of that sort of stuff. You might have that.
Or maybe, maybe even like, you're growing up with like lions and tigers. That, that thing does exist in Dubai, but it exists everywhere as well.
I have, I have family members who study in the States, and they go to bougie universities, and, um, they tell me that they see the same things that we see in Dubai. Like, for example, I talk about the American University in Dubai.
Yeah.
Um, outside in the parking lot, most of the cars would be average cars you'd see on the street on a daily basis, normal cars. But you'd see some students show up in Rolls-Royces being driven in with it, you know, being driven in a Rolls-Royce or,
Um, Bentleys or, you know, because there are, you know, sons of politicians study here, sons of ambassadors, sons of,
Businessmen, so and so studying these American universities in in the UAE, not only in Dubai, like in Sharjah and, you know, so in some universities you'd see those flashy cars, but not the majority. It would be very, very few.
And what did you, how did you grow up in relation to, like, money? What was your relationship to money if you did have any? And what did your parents do as well?
Uh, so my, my father passed away in 2013. And, um, he was a businessman. He owned multiple businesses. He owned a restaurant chain. We had four branches in Dubai. He, you know, we had to shut down the restaurant after he passed. We had, he had a company that still exists, um, a trading company doing construction work, etc., etc.
I didn't know much of what my father did because he did pass away when I was at a very young age, and everything he owned was split up and passed around as inheritance.
Mhm.
So, I don't usually, I didn't usually know in detail what the operations my dad was involved in, and I never really got into the company that he, you know,
He built up. Uh, he had two partners, and they still work for that company. But we never had any interest or, you know.
Yeah. So that was his main company, and his restaurant was his, his baby. You know, that restaurant, he was really proud of. Uh, he also owned a, a tuxedo and suit tailoring tailor shop.
Mhm.
Um, he, he's one of the founders. Um, again, it had to be taken away. Um, he owned a barber shop. So there are so many small things that he owned. But his main, his main business was was that company. My mom worked for Dubai government for for over 27 years.
She worked for Dubai Health Authority.
Okay.
And, um, yeah, very long story about how they met, but, you know, my dad was flirting. They fell in love and they got married.
[laughter]
And then, what was your relationship with money growing up? And was there anything, did you have, you may not necessarily, but did you, were there any like money, like they instill anything to you about money?
I'll tell you exactly how it started. There was no money in my pocket when we were young, young. I'm talking like toddlers or, um, you know, below the age of 10. When I turned 12 years old, I remember this. I remember the first time I went out with a friend alone.
Mhm.
You know, no nannies, no adult supervision, no parents watching over us. I asked my mom if we, if, you know, I told her, I have a friend and he told me, "Let's go out. Let's go to Magic Planet. It's a, it's a place where there's a lot of rides and games and Mall of the Emirates. Let's go to Mall of the Emirates. You want to meet tonight after school?" I was like, "I don't know if my parents are going to let me, but let's see." So I told my parents, and they said, "You know what? It's time. Maybe, maybe we should let you go out on your own for the first time in Dubai. What's going to happen?"
So they gave me 100 dirhams. That's it.
And that was the first allowance I ever received in my life.
Okay?
And I went out and I spent 30 dirhams or 40 dirhams from that 100, and I, I had 50 left. And I thought, because I didn't know what the, what, what allowance meant, I thought I had to give back whatever was left.
But they said, "No, now you just learned your first lesson. You saved money. You get to keep that for next time." All right. So I learned the new concept of saving money.
So the weekend after, I, the same friend was like, "Let's go to Mall of the Emirates again. Let's go to the cinema." Maybe they gave me 100 dirhams. So now I had 150, you know, the 50 that I saved. But so my allowance was 100 dirhams a week.
That's it.
And it was like that for a long time. Really long time. Up until I turned like 14, they pushed it to like 200, 300 a week. Every time I'd go out, but they were really strict with money. Like, if I wasted my allowance, I'm not getting anymore.
Mhm.
And that's how I grew up with, with, um, with my parents teaching us about money. They were very strict, and they wouldn't pay us a high allowance. They didn't want to, you know, pay us a high allowance. But 100 dirhams back then was the same value as like 200 dirhams today.
How did that then, did you see, have you seen any consequences of that and how it plays out with you, like, today? Like, are you a good saver today because of that?
[laughter]
I wasn't a good saver even when I was young.
You saved your first one. You saved.
I just saved it that first time, but then it was, it was, I was, I was just balling out, buying my friends Pepsis and and popcorn.
So, there was one, one kid that used to hang out with us. He was a mutual to one of my friends. His parents would give him a lot of money. In a lot, like he was like 14, 13, 14, 15. He'd have like 1,500 in his pocket. Like, as in, like his father would give him a thousand or like 1,500 or 2,000, and he'd be like, "Yeah, just take that and enjoy it."
And one time I remember we went back to one of the friends, one of the guys's house as a group of boys, and then he was like, "I'm so broke today."
[laughter]
I'm like, "Why?" He was like, "I only have 500 dirhams in my pocket." I'm like, "What?" I'm like, "I don't even get that in a week. That's my two-week allowance." And he was like, "Yeah, my father's going to pay me in a couple of days, but I'm so broke. Like, what am I going to do with 500 dirhams?" And that, that shocked me.
That really shocked me. I was like, "How, you know, I, I get to have fun and and survive with the allowance that my parents gave me, which was just a 100 dirhams a week, and this guy's complaining about having 500 in his pocket, and he's broke."
I mean, you're a kid. What are you going to spend money on?
Yeah.
You know, you're not going to go buy alcohol or go partying or,
Or, or, or go buy fancy clothes or put interests in things that are expensive. There's no materialism for, for, for kids, or maybe not today's kids, but back then in my days, there was no such thing as a child being materialistic. We didn't care.
The things we wanted to buy were food, snacks. We didn't care about bougie restaurants. We cared about taste and flavor.
Mhm.
Shake Shack opened up very recently. I remember it was like, it was a hype. Everybody was going to Shake Shack. So, we just followed these, you know, where wherever the kids would go, we would go, you know, but, and we never spent too much money, really.
I have a question. I'm really interested in, because you're kind of saying that the way you guys grew up was not as, you know, flashy, flashy, flashy. You're young. You're not really caring about that sort of stuff, right? How does, but then being in Dubai, and I'm sure I can 100% guarantee that obviously the Dubai that we see today is not what you saw when you were growing up at your age, because there's so much development that has happened, right? But were there still, like, access to see super, super wealthy people? And how did that make you feel about your current position? Like, did it inspire you?
Yeah. When you were, when you were young, like when you were forming your mindset, even when maybe like 15, 16? The reason I ask this, I grew up like low income in London, or whatever. Um, but then when I went to private school, and I saw how much money people had, and like you were saying, it was children of diplomats and people getting dropped off in Rolls-Royces. Even though I was young, like in my early teenage years, I was like, "Oh, I need to be rich in this life because other people have money and they have a lot of money, and why don't I have money? I need to go on a quest to find money." And so it really was a big driver for what I do right now and everything because I'm like, "Okay, there are people who have money, and there are those who don't." So I wonder, like, you growing up in Dubai, and Dubai now, again, may not be the Dubai of then, did it impact you in terms of your drive to, like, want to make money, etc.?
I mean, I didn't really have a financial goal when I was a child.
I didn't really think much of it 'cause I, I remember my mom would, you know, she'd buy us clothes, right? We wouldn't go shopping. Like, she'd take us to the store and try on things, or she'd buy clothes for us when we were young. And that, we always had expensive clothes on, but we didn't care about what we liked.
I remember I had a lot of Burberry. I had a lot of Ralph Lauren. I had a lot of Tommy Hilfiger. I had a lot of Gucci. And I didn't care about what these, I don't, I didn't know how much they cost. Like, I would go out wearing a Burberry shirt and drip ketchup all over it without caring.
You know? But then she'd look and get really angry, like, like, what? I was like, you know, so we, since I was, since I was like, I have pictures of me when I was a baby,
Yeah.
Wearing something that was, you know, wearing wearing branded clothes.
So I never really got to see what's special about it today. And today, I don't, I'm wearing a kandora that I tailored for 200 dirhams. This whole piece is 200 dirhams. You know, Zara, maybe even cheaper than Zara prices. Myra is,
20, 30 dirhams. My agal is about, it's the same. So my whole outfit is below 500 dirhams.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I don't see, it's for me, branded clothes is very, uh, overrated.
In terms of me growing up and seeing the rich people around me, no, it didn't really give me that drive because we kind of came from that same, whether we were a little bit below, we kind of come from the same,
I guess,
Social status, kind of.
Social status.
Yeah.
Because, like, I went to Al-Ain school. I love that school, by the way. I always rep Moakab school.
Uh, in Moakab school, there are royal family. There are people from the Maktoum royal family, you know, some, sometimes, like, in some generations. Um, there are people that are diplomats. There are, so there are very, very wealthy people, and there are people that are on, you know, middle class.
Yeah.
Because Moakab isn't, I don't know about the, I don't want to talk about the pricing, but it is a private school.
Uh, more expensive than some, affordable than others.
Um, so yes, I grew up, we grew up seeing that outside of school as well, you know, kids getting dropped off in nice cars, everybody had a chauffeur, some people getting picked up in very normal cars by their parents, and we never, never, ever judged, you know, other students based on how they are or how they're, you know, how they came to the school and stuff.
Yeah, I like that. I think there's also an element of, like, when you grow up not necessarily lacking, um, it's 'cause when you don't have, it's easier to, like, want, want, and see what it is that you don't have, and therefore, like, aspire towards that, and that becomes a big thing. Whereas when you get to grow up and just be a kid, which is, which is, I, that's what I'm getting from what you're saying, because for those of us who, you haven't grown up with much, you don't really get to be a kid, and you do think about money a lot more because you think about every time you ask your parents for something and they're like, "I don't have money for this, I don't have money for that." Money becomes a big thing. But, like, other friends that I've spoken to who again have grown up maybe middle class, and not just middle class, 'cause middle class in the UK, you can very much still be struggling a lot, but like, who have grown up maybe, like, upper middle class where it's like, "I didn't have to, I could just be a kid. I didn't have to worry about grown-up things because at least certain things were were covered, right? Like the basics I had, or even more than the basics I had." So it's very different for them. But I think one of the interesting things about, you know, growing up as a Dubai citizen, being an Emirati, is that the government also provides you with a lot, right? So, can you speak a bit about, like, some of the benefits that you guys get being Emirati?
So, I mean, there are benefits that everybody knows about. I talk about this in all, you know, in all the podcasts I've mentioned. We get free healthcare, um, in private hospitals and private clinics. We get free insurance to cover 90% of our treat, our, um, you know, treatment or or surgery or whatever.
Uh, but sometimes other things would be covered 100%.
Um, so healthcare, we get free housing.
We get a land.
You know, how does free housing work? What does that mean?
So, there are dedicated areas. Let's, let's, let's go a little bit back from 40, 30, 40, 50 years ago.
Jumeirah, the whole area, Jumeirah 1, 2, 3.
Mhm.
They were a lot of these lands were empty, and they were given from the housing authorities, housing associations, sorry, of Mohammed bin Rashid Housing or Zayed Zayed Housing, Escan. And these houses are, so no expat can own a villa in Jumeirah, Al-Waleed, um, Kawane, where else? Maybe so multiple areas. Only Emiratis could own because these were designated areas where they would split them up in lands and give them to locals, to Emiratis, for whoever applies for a land.
Ah.
So, we get a land from the government.
Um, we get that land. Some lands are 8,000 square feet. Some lands go up to 20,000 square feet. And if you have connections, you get way, way bigger lands.
Um, you get to build a house on that land. You didn't pay anything for the land, but you pay for construction of the house, obviously.
Um, but the government could also lend you, this is perk number three, the government could lend you a million dollars,
Uh, zero interest.
Wow.
Loan for you to, you know, for you to construct your house. So, the last remaining million dollars for that construction would be lent by the government and paid out through 20 years with zero interest.
That's so good.
Yeah. So, but we pay for the house, obviously, that we build.
Um, we can't sell the house. We can't sell the land, even to another Emirati. We cannot. If it was given by the authorities, we cannot. If I went and purchased the land from one of those, only Emirati could own areas, I could then sell it. If I purchased it, but if it was given to me by the government, I will not be able to sell it for at least 30 years.
Do you have to have a plan for the land?
Yes. Yes. If you don't have a plan, they take it back.
Oh.
Yeah. You, you have, you have an expiry date which you can renew.
You can renew.
So, Dubai Municipality gives us 3 years, or some people get 6, uh, for us to build a house on that land because there are people who need it. You know, if I already live in a very big house, I asked for a land from the government and I didn't build a house on it, there's somebody that actually needs that land more than I do.
Yeah. So, if I didn't renew my, so you can constantly keep renewing it, and they would never take that land from you for tens of years. But if you didn't renew it, they might take it. They will get in touch and say, "Hey, your land expired. Are you going to take it or or do you not want it?" Cuz there are people who need it, especially in this area. So they take it.
Okay, that's cool. What, what other, what other perks are there?
Um, education is free. Well, it's an option. So I studied in a private school. We didn't, my education was not free. We had to pay for it. But the government provides public schools, which are today very advanced and very, very modern, um, for Emiratis to study for free. I studied in a free university. I studied in HCT, which is a government university.
Um, I didn't pay a dime for my bachelor's degree. I didn't pay nothing. You know, the best universities in the country such as UAEU, the University of the UAE, Khalifa University, Zayed University, uh, HCT University, uh, so Higher Colleges of Technology.
Um, these universities are free to study in, you know.
Um, another perk, the government also provides is they could send a student abroad if he had high grades. If you get good grades in high school, they fly you to London. You get fully sponsored by the government to study in Oxford University and in Manchester University, and I don't know the universities in London, really, or the UK, but, you know, the very known ones.
Yeah.
Um, my sister was one of them.
Okay.
My sister was sent to Oxford University. She just finished her masters.
Amazing.
From Oxford.
And the government paid for that.
The government paid for that.
Sick.
So, that's so good. Um, you know, one thing I'm really interested in, um, is because in other places like the UK, we also have free education up until university, we have free healthcare. One unintended consequence of that, some might say, is that it leads to a population that is very much not driven because the government provides a lot. So people often will compare people in the UK to people in America where they have to pay to give birth and like they have to pay for so much, and cite that as the reason why Americans are more driven than people in the UK because the government is not coming to save you. So, in the case where the government, your, your government provides so much, do you think it has an impact on people's drives, thoughts about money? Like, how do...
Yeah. I just wonder like if that has an impact. Yeah. So, it builds loyalty. It makes it makes the people of the UAE more loyal to their government. We love our governments. We love our rulers. Really, without our rulers, Dubai wasn't going to be what it is today.
So, we are more loyal to the government. Um, it definitely adds more ego. Uh, I would definitely feel like, you know, they have more pride. You know, that we are getting these things, and we're proud of what our government is doing for us. I wouldn't say ego, but I'd say more pride.
Um, not being driven, I wouldn't agree with. Okay.
I'd say they would, they, they will be driven to work for the government. So, every Emirati is like, I don't know about... Yeah. Every Emirati would love to work for the government. You know, getting a job at the Big Four, like PwC, a bank, uh, Emirates Airlines. Good, they're private, but again, Emirates Airlines owned by Mohammed bin Rashid, so kind of falls under government as well.
But working for the government, you get different privileges.
Yeah, you get, you get a fixed, you cannot get a lower pay than that. You can never be terminated. It's very hard to get terminated from a government job.
Mhm.
Um, the management takes care of you. You work strict hours, no overtime. So, there are, there are good benefits, and there are things that, you know, every government authority or association gives to their staff. Uh, certain discount cards, certain free airline tickets, business class. So, so many, so many different perks, you know, different places, different perks. But the government, correct me if I'm wrong, and and maybe you can shed some more light on this, but it seems like the government also supports, does it support like entrepreneurialism, like supporting you in that element as well?
Of course. Yeah.
Definitely. So, I was, I was one of those people. Um, I opened up a clinic recently called Lumera, Lumera Beauty.
Mhm.
Um, I needed support because the DHA registration, the license, the trade license itself, the commercial license, and all the other licenses that we needed, 'cause it is a clinic. Um, it is a medical business. Therefore, there were a lot of things that we had to pay for, and there were very, very high costs. Um, and hiring nurses and doctors isn't cheap. You know, the visas are very expensive, especially for somebody with a, with a somebody that is a dermatologist that works for you.
Mhm.
So, we went to Dubai... Mohammed bin Rashid...
Okay.
...Shabab. This is what it's called in Arabic. So, it's the Association of Mohammed bin Rashid for, uh, young entrepreneurs. They exempted all my license fees. All of them, except, except the DED, the DED license, which I paid only 2,000 for.
Mhm.
They exempted the extra costs for all the visas for the staff. So, we paid only 2,000 dirhams per visa per staff.
Wow.
Which was so, so, you know, very good.
Yeah.
Um, they, they also had a push and prioritized us in the pending list in DHA for the clinics that are supposed to be open. So, we were placed on top for us to review us first before reviewing someone else.
Um, and we also, they also gave us the privilege of opening bank accounts with no fees, and we could apply for loans with very, very low interest as a business.
So, these are the perks I got from this specific association, and this is another thing that also Emiratis have the privilege to get. Last year, I took over 30 flights across countries and continents. And that is because traveling has opened up more doors for me when it comes to building wealth than I could have ever imagined. And most of the times when I am traveling, it's actually for work. And so, it's super important for me to be connected all the way through my journey. From the moment I land, I'd need to be connected. And one of the ways that you can do that is through an eSIM. And that is why I have been using SLY. SLY is an eSIM service app from the creators of NordVPN that gives you affordable mobile data in over 200 destinations worldwide. So no more crazy roaming fees, no more waiting in the line at an airport for a SIM card. You literally land and you are connected. All you need to do is download the SLY app on your phone, choose the destination that you want, so maybe that's Dubai or somewhere else. Pick a data plan that works for your trip. It could be global, it could be regional, and then install the eSIM from the app. You do this once before your trip, and then by the time you've landed, it is already automatically activated, and the prices are actually affordable. Plus, they've got 24/7 support and built-in security features with an ad blocker that can actually save you up to 28% on data usage. We need that. So, download the SLY app in the app store or by scanning the QR code on the screen. Use the code BWWB at checkout to get 50% off your first purchase. The details will also be in the description box. Okay, let's get back into this episode.
Mhm.
I love that because essentially the government is supporting in, like, there is a way to sort of implement, like, institutional generational wealth. They are ensuring that its own citizens are also becoming wealthy and supporting you guys in that journey. So I think that's, that's amazing. And, and I know that, like, it's not necessarily directly comparable to other places, right? Because you're, it's their own people. So it's, it's, it's not the same. Like, you can't just, like, "Oh, like, why doesn't the UK do that?" Blah, blah, blah. Like, I'm not saying that, but, um, it's just, it's just good because there are countries where they don't do that for their own people, you know? So, it, it's really good to see. Um, I wanted to talk a little bit about, what are some of your thoughts then, actually, just in general? Like, are there any, like, maybe Arab specific or Emirati specific cultural values about, like, money, um, or business principles that you've learned that you can share with us?
No haram money.
Number one rule. This is my personal principle that I must follow. But every, like, I would say 99% of Emiratis must follow that as well.
What does that mean?
Follow that. So, what is, so, if, if you, so any money that you make, money that you make, whether you work for someone or you own, you had your own business, the money that you make should not be haram money because haram money is not something that is mubarak. How do you say mubarak in in English? I have no idea, sorry. Haram money, selling alcohol.
Okay.
Uh, putting your money into interest, interest-making investments.
Mhm.
Such as interest-based bonds, um, or and opening up a savings account that pays you interest every year.
Um, fixed deposits. Some fixed deposits are haram money. Um, opening up a casino. Gambling.
Gambling money is haram money.
Uh, alcohol is haram money.
Anything illegal, under the table, is haram money.
Mhm.
Um,
About investing in the stock market, that's a no.
Investing in the stock market is not, uh, haram.
Okay.
Uh, like trading stocks and crypto is not haram.
Okay.
This is what the, this is what we know as per what the Islamic,
People, knowledge people said that it's not haram. It's halal.
But haram money is interest,
Such as alcohol and the other things.
Mhm.
So, making money from that, like opening up a hotel that serves alcohol and has clubs and bars, it's haram.
It's haram. The revenue is haram, right? Um, opening up a bar, haram. Opening up a liquor store, haram money. Opening up a, a bank that is purely based on interest,
Haram.
Um, putting your money into interest-based investments, haram. Uh, these principles, so my principle is, do not make haram money. This is definitely something we were also raised right from the start.
I would buy something that's haram,
[laughter]
but I wouldn't want to sell it back.
Okay?
For example, you get what I mean?
Yeah, I get that. I get that. I get that.
Like, I'd buy a pack of cigarettes, but I wouldn't sell tobacco. Selling tobacco is haram. Anything that you sell that harms an individual is haram. Drugs, tobacco, alcohol, gambling.
Mhm.
These three,
Revenue streams are haram.
So, you cannot pay Zakat with haram money. You cannot even,
Zakat is like, I think we have a version that's called tithe. It's like a portion of your money that you put towards, like, charity and stuff, right?
For, for specific, a specific charity once a year.
Mhm.
Yes.
And most people, which is not necessarily an obligation, but most people pay it during Ramadan.
Mhm.
Uh, so, yeah, these, this is one principle, haram money. Another principle would be, um, uh, greed.
We shouldn't be greedy. This is something that they used to tell me all the time with the money that you make. Do not be greedy. Or how do you say tama in in English?
I don't know. But no meaning, you know, like, um,
When you make too much too soon, you expect, you, you automatically expect that you'd make more.
I think that's greed.
Greed. Yeah. Greed.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, greed for money. Haram money. These are the principles we were raised about.
So, those are like principles of what not to do. What about things that you should do? Like, this is how you make money. Ever since we were young, every Emirati had to go through this talk, especially us boys.
Um, you need to go to school, you need to go to college, get yourself a job, save money, apply for a land, save money, save money, save money, get married,
[laughter]
and, you know, and that's the Emirati dream. That's the Emirati. That's the Emirati advice that all the Emiratis were, you know, were told or and given.
Um, there weren't specific guidelines on how I can save money. You know, the old-timers would just tell me, "Put a portion of whatever salary you made in a different account." That doesn't work.
That doesn't work. I'm going to say 5% of, let's say my salary was $20,000 a month. When I worked my first job after college, I was getting paid $18,000. That was my first ever salary. I worked for Wasel Properties, and I was getting paid $18,000, right?
I was an investor. I had revenue streams. I had like income from other other places, such as stocks and and specific investment contracts. But that was my first salary.
Mhm.
You know, I had 8, so 18,000 was my first salary. I was really happy, but let's say I'd save 5% of 18,000. You know, I'm not going to be able to build a house with that.
Uh, the value of currency keeps going down, right? It's, it's, it's, there's inflation on currency. So, whatever, whatever small portions I'm saving would not really have any value in 10 years' time.
I can't get married with those. I can't book myself a five-star venue to for for my wedding party. I can't build a a two-story house with five bedrooms.
$18,000 is not going to, is not, I can't afford to build a house with that.
Going to change your life. So, then what would you say then, if you were advising, let's say your children on, like, money, making money, what would you say?
So, I think I was not given the proper advice.
Mhm.
How would my, I mean, look, I want my kids to go through the same things and and struggles I went through as a child. You know.
Uh, I was not spoiled. I was given a very low allowance. They need to learn how to hold money. They need to learn how to keep low amounts of money and not being able to afford anything they want.
You know, I remember there were some things when I was a child, my friends would want to do that I couldn't because I didn't have enough allowance on me. They'd all go to this, uh, store called Go Sports and they'd buy a football, a football t-shirt.
Yeah.
Like a Messi t-shirt or something.
Mhm.
I couldn't afford it because I didn't have enough money to buy the same shirt that they all got. Right.
I want my kids to go through that same struggle and learn. And I want my kids to go to college and graduate from college and get their first, you know, work, get a job.
Okay?
I feel like they need to learn, uh, basic skills, corporate skills on the ground, in a place that already exists. If I had a huge company, an enterprise, I'd rather they work for me.
Okay?
But so far, I don't. I'm still 28 years old. Hopefully, inshallah, one day I will. In the last year, we grew by over 100,000 subscribers because so many of you chose to support the channel by just clicking subscribe. This year, we want to grow even more. So, if you are a regular watcher of this channel, please do subscribe and check out the Building Wealth Without Borders store for resources to help you build real wealth.
[laughter]
So, then what do you think has been the reason for the success of so many, um, Emirati business people, Arab people over the last couple of years? 'Cause I mean, Arab money is a thing, right? Do you know that song we're getting? "Arab Money."
Yeah.
Yeah. Like, that's the thing, right? People talk about it. What is, what is that secret then?
Look, everybody says it's everything is linked to oil.
Yeah.
It's not really.
Um,
The oil in the UAE is owned by Abu Dhabi.
All right. It's not owned by,
Yeah.
Any, the projects built in Dubai are built by people that have, yeah, any, not all of them, but a lot of them are built by people that are not part of the royal families. They're not part of the government.
Right.
Um, car dealerships. Who are the owners of car dealerships? Al Gash. Private, normal family, just business family. Nissan Patrol, uh, sorry, Nissan, owned by Armani.
Mhm.
Right. GMC, owned by a family. Chevrolet, owned by the same family. Alim Motors. So, these are just, these are tribes. These are Arab tribes that that are, right. They were the lucky ones. They were the lucky ones to get these agencies into Dubai, and they have, they're fully licensed to run them as owners here.
But not all are rich. This is, this is absolutely false. Not even 10% of Emiratis are rich. Not even 5% of Emiratis are rich.
The Emiratis that are rich are very, very low in in stat.
They're not a lot.
But the ones that are rich are, 'cause I mean, like, Arabs own, like, a big proportion.
Look, if you're an Emirati, you're either above a little bit above middle class, or super wealthy. There's not, there's no in-between. Right.
You're either super wealthy, or you're just a little bit above middle class, or you're struggling.
There are [clears throat] struggling Emiratis.
Yes. I, one of my best friends is struggling.
I don't know if I'm allowed to speak about this, but I will tell you, he's a police officer. Um, he, he doesn't make a lot a month, you know, and he has a lot of loans. He has a lot of debt he pays, and he has a family. And whatever is left from his salary, being a police officer, at the end of the month, is nothing.
It's a, it's a four-digit number, you know. It's, and he had to, he has to feed his kids and his wife, and he's an Emirati.
Okay.
And he, he served the police for a long time, you know.
So, yeah, there are Emiratis that are struggling. People around me, I see people around me that are struggling, you know. But that doesn't mean that the government doesn't help. He reached his limit, and he cannot anymore. There are associations and charity or associations that are that have sections specific for struggling Emirati families.
That would help them out.
Yeah.
You know.
That's good. I think this is good. I think it really demystifies a lot of stuff that people, you know, misconceptions that people usually have. Are there any other misconceptions that you would say that people have around maybe Emiratis or Dubai that you would kind of like to bust?
Yeah, people think everybody in Dubai made money from oil. Not really. I mean, Ben family, did they make their money from oil?
No. You know, they're just, they're just an Arab family lives in Dubai. Started from a very small project and built all of this, and today they are a very huge real estate. They're probably the biggest real estate corporation in 2026.
They're the most heard of in the market, right?
Um, yeah. Any,
Misconceptions? So, misconceptions would be us making money from oil. Maybe they were the initial building blocks of Dubai, but they're definitely not what Dubai is today, or what it was 20 years ago, or 40 years ago. Um, business-wise misconceptions. Yeah, I guess.
Or just even normal life in Dubai.
Another misconception is they think people think every Emirati is rich.
Yeah.
Every Emirati has a a Ferrari at home or a Lamborghini at home. No, it's not true at all.
There are Emiratis that are struggling, honestly. Uh, people think just because, yeah, this is a very important misconception. They think just because an Emirati works somewhere, they are entitled to a high salary. That's, that's complete BS.
Really?
That's not true at all. My sister is, my sister.
My sister, my baby sister, she's not a baby anymore, but she's the youngest one of my siblings.
She is 24 years old today. She just turned 24 in January. And she has a master's degree in education, and she has a bachelor's degree in environmental science. I'm not going to name the school because I, I really want to, I hate this school so much. I really want to like go out on them,
But I don't want to be sued for defamation,
Especially your podcast.
There's a school,
Very bougie school, very whitewashed, multiple branches in Dubai, starts with the letter G. All right. They offered my sister a job because
There's an Amirati amortization law that is in place, and, um, companies with more than 50 staff, say 50 staff or more, must have a certain number of Amiratis working. Uh, in that company because there are a lot of jobless Amiratis that are that part of the struggling, right? Struggling category, right? Okay.
They offered my sister a job to be an assistant teacher. She can't be immediately a teacher. She has an education, a master's degree. She can't be a teacher. She has to train to be a teacher, right? So, she'll be an assistant teacher for two years, one year, two years, and then becomes a teacher.
And that was her dream. Ever since she was young, she wanted to be a teacher. She wanted to teach kids. Ever since she was young. And, um, they offered her a job to be a teacher for $6,000. She's an Emirati. Not other teachers that work in that school don't even make that.
And then she asked them, why are you, you know, why are you paying me less than what you're paying everybody else? They said, because there's a NAF program. You make money from the NAF program, which is another Emirati privilege, right? But the NAF program is not, it's not them. You heard of the NAF program? So, it is, it is a program that was started by the rulers of the country where if you get below a certain threshold of a salary, the government pays you the remaining until you reach that threshold.
Okay. All right. Mhm. So they said, because NAF program is paying for you, so why should we pay? No. No. I'm not working for an office. I'm working for you. You need to pay me what you should pay me, right? Regardless of what NAF pays me. You don't make money for an office. NAF is the government's money. I'm entitled to that money, you know? So you shouldn't be, you know, throwing my salary way too low, you know, on that basis, just because of, uh, the NAF program. And a lot of are have been, you know, going through a lot of troubles because of this same issue. And my sister didn't want to work for them, uh, because honestly, it's ridiculous. You know, it's ridiculous.
Amiratis don't. So this is a misconception. Yeah. That's wow. Yeah. Because we knew like when I used to work at Citibank in Dubai, people just said, you know, if you're Emirati working here, they all earn more than the rest of us would. So we thought that was like a standard that whatever you're paying expats, you have to pay Emirati more. I mean, there are bank tellers that could be an Emirati. They're not getting paid as much as people in the operations departments, right? Depends if you have an educational background or not.
Yeah. Are you encouraged as Emirati to sort of like build wealth outside of Dubai? I mean, me myself, just in general, like, is there a culture of like, you know, you have this money, invest in London, invest in Tanzania, invest in other places? I, yeah. Okay. But not, I wouldn't, I wouldn't select countries. I'd select enterprises. I'd select places instead of countries, right? Like, I would tell people to invest in Allianz Corporation. BlackRock Corporation. Actually, not BlackRock. They're [laughter] very dark. Okay. I tell people to invest in HSBC, you know. Uh, I tell people to invest in so on so forth.
That's cool, man. I really, that's been really interesting, actually. I've learned a lot. If you're enjoying this content, please don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe. And if you would like to become an international property investor in Dubai or in the UK, the link to book a free consultation will be in the description box below.
Okay, so we are going to be moving on to the wealth segment of the podcast, and this is where we read out a dilemma and then we kind of want to hear what you think about it. Okay. Cool. Okay, so this person says, "For many years, we've socialized as a couple with a large group, which now includes many children of all ages. We're the only couple that doesn't have kids. We've always split restaurant bills equally. Yet now some of the older kids eat more than the grown-ups, and soft drinks can cost the same as alcoholic ones. Should we continue to subsidize the other children or ask that the bills be divided more fairly and risk causing disharmony in the group?"
As a couple, like bills be divided? They are a couple and they're going for dinner with other couples, but those other couples have kids, and now some of those kids are grown, and then they split the bill equally. It shouldn't be split equally. If there are kids, no, depending on how many kids. If it was one child, then yeah. If it was two children, maybe if you were generous, but more than two children, I think a family should settle their bill and the couple should settle theirs.
So, if you went out to dinner with your friends, I mean, who invited, right? What if it's just like a weekly gathering? There's no invite. No invite. It's just a friendly thing. Casual. Yeah. I think every family should settle their own bill. Settle their own bill.
Us Arabs wouldn't do that, but I'm just speaking. What would Arabs do? We'd we'd fight over who would pay, not who would not pay. So we'd actually try to snatch the bill off of their hands so we can invite them. Why is that? This is Arabs are generous. You know, this is part of our culture. We're just, you know, generosity is part of our identity, I guess. You don't think other people should like aim, aspire towards that? Not if you know, not always.
M. We look, me and my close friends, very close friends, we share, we split the bill. Um, but meeting new people, I'd rather, you know, invite them. We're, we're, I don't know how to say this, but up to a certain point in your friendship, it starts being casual. But in the beginning phase, you know, you have to be generous and professional.
Okay. So like, that that idea of like kind of fighting for the bill, is that like when you're being introduced into a relationship and you're trying to like have good faith and stuff like that? Okay. But then as things progress, you kind of like, okay, everyone pull your weight. Yes. Okay. Okay. That's interesting. That's interesting. All right. So let's move on to the quickfire money question. So these are three questions. Um, and I just want to know what your first answer is.
So the first, the first one is, what is the best investment you've ever made? Let me think about this because I did make something very good recently, but I want to, I want to make sure I didn't make anything better from from before. I mean, the safest slash best investment I'm in is is a mutual investment contract with Allianz Corporation, which is a German, German Dutch, German company. Company. No. No, it's not. Allianz. A L I A N Z, right? Allianz. Yeah. Allianz and they have a deal with the bank that I'm in. So the bank came to me and they were like, "Hey, we have all these investment opportunities and this is Allianz." I never heard of Allianz before. They're like, "Allianz is like the BlackRock of Europe." I was like, "Oh, okay." They're like, I was like, I was like, "Okay, so if I put money here, where is it going?" They're like, "It's going to go to mutual funds and they're going to buy this and that and this and that with them." I was okay. Is it halal? That was the first question. He was like, "Yes, we do have a Sharia certificate that this investment is halal."
Okay. Um, I put money in and I did a bank leverage. So the bank gave me exactly what I put in. They doubled it, but they take, they took about, they take about 3% to 4% interest. And I make the rest. So that investment itself makes 9%. With the bank's leverage, 18% a year, minus the interest, so about 16%. That's good. That's good.
What is the biggest money mistake you've made? I, and I bought Arabtec stocks. Uh, have you heard of Arabtec? No. So it's a, it's a local company. Well, used to be. It's, it used to be the biggest construction company in the Middle East. Arabtec. They built, they built everything. They, a tech company? No, no, construction. Okay. Construction company. They built all the massive buildings in Dubai. They built the Burj Khalifa. They built, you know, they had some, yeah. They had some parts of the Burj Khalifa that they built, and also downtown. So Arabtec is like a huge major construction company that went bankrupt and their stocks were public available on the Dubai financial market. I went and purchased Arabtec stocks. I put $200,000 on them and three days later, not three days later. Yeah. My $200,000s were gone. Gone. Gone. The, if you open my portfolio on DFM application, you'd see, you'd see frozen $200,000 out of Arabtec stock purchase. What happened? They announced bankruptcy. So the stock completely froze on the stock market. Damn. That's one, um, bad investment. The worst investment I have ever done in my life. I got scammed. Yeah. I got scammed in Dubai. Yeah. For real. By who? Yeah. So, there was this company. We, we can name names because because they're, they're, they're, they're criminals and they're all out of Dubai anyways and they're under investigation currently as we speak. There is a company that came out called, uh, Zetex. Mhm. They opened up, uh, they opened up an office in Business Bay. They had two offices. They were really smart, very outspoken. Uh, they hired a lot of Emirati influencers and a lot of Arab influencers to to come and promote their business. Very big names, very big influential names. Yeah. Snapchat, Emirati Snapchatters and stuff like that. Zetex company. What do they do? They take your money, they put it in, uh, they put it in a car flipping business. That's what they do. They car flip, but in huge bulks. They say that they purchase cars from auctions in, in America, flip them and sell them in parts in the Middle East and Africa. Okay. How much money do you make a month? They make up to 6% monthly. M. So the minimum you'd make a month is 3% and the maximum you'd make a month is 6%. So looking at that throughout a whole year, that's a very big number. So in a year and a half, you could double your investment. You know what I mean? So that was very intriguing for me looking at all these big names promoting this company. So I take a visit to that company and I go there and they are one of the richest tribes in Jordan. They have so much power in Jordan. M. They're Jordanian people. So the people running that company, Zetex company, they turned out to be scammers. So honestly, I'll tell you how much I put in. I put 1.65 million. Woo. Yeah. I put 1,650,000. 150,000 of that 1.6 million is my mom's money. My money was 1.5. Exactly. My mom put 150,000 in that. And I bought two friends from the UK to put money in, you know. This is a life lesson that I learned. They were paying me dividends on time. Month one paid, two paid, three paid, four, five, six. The investment contract is only six months long. And you get to renew it, right? So you give them a capital, they pay you 6% a month, and then they give you a capital back six months later. Yeah. I renewed it. I got the greed. I renewed the contract. Two months in, boom, shut down. Guy takes our money, flees the fleds the country. That used to run this Zetex company have fled. One of them thankfully is in prison right now. Oh my goodness. You still in prison? But what were they doing with the money? Just like a pyramid scheme type thing. So there, they are known on TikTok, these people. Uh, one of them has a, you know, a couple thousand followers on TikTok. It was, it was a, it was a pyramid scheme. Uh, you can tell. And now on his TikTok page, um, he, he bought a new mansion. He has, um, brand new cars, G-Classes, Bentleys, and stuff like that. And they scammed more than a hundred people. The money that they stole was about $26 million US from all the people. My goodness. And it be, and it, it really did raise an alarm at the Dubai headquarters, Dubai Police headquarters. Yeah. So the, everything is under investigation. We already have lawyers in place. Um, the government knows. Yeah. Everything about it. And that's one thing you have to be careful of in Dubai. A lot of people come here with the wrong intentions because they know that people here have money. So you do, I know a lot of people that have been scammed in different ways in Dubai because a lot of people come in like, what do they call it? Sheep in wolves clothing or wolves in sheep's clothing, sheep, something. Yeah.
Um, okay, before I ask you the last one, I just wondered how come you did, did you invest in property in Dubai, cuz that would have done pretty well. Yes, I did. We bought, uh, me and my mom bought Omniyat properties, um, and then sold it, sold it for low profit, but with profit. Mhm. Omniyat, honestly, they didn't deliver on time. M. But thankfully, when we got the unit, it was, it was very good. Uh, got rid of it quick, and then we bought a Dubai Hills property off-plan. We doubled the investment. Dubai Hills Maple, Maple 2 townhouse. Uh, and then we bought another project at Alaba Malab 3. M. So we flipped our Dubai Hills properties and bought, uh, properties from the same developer at Malabat 3 townhouses as well. Yeah. And plan to flip those as well. I mean, they have tenants in them. They're paying pretty well. They're, they're paying us about one, you know, they're paying 200,000 rent. So it's okay. Good. I love that.
Okay, and finally, what is one piece of advice you'd give to someone who is trying to build wealth? Borrow money to make money. Oo. Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely. I just learned recently what leveraging is. You guys should leverage. Really? Everybody should leverage. The bank says they have money. Freaking take it. Take the money. Don't use your own money to make more money. Borrow money to make more money. That's good. Yeah. That's really, really good. It's something that a lot of my mentors have been saying in in different ways in terms of like doing the best possible to not use your own money to make money. If you had something to invest, if you had, uh, a six-figure number, hopefully in US dollars that you had to, that you wanted to invest, do it through a bank, preferably private banking, and ask for leverage. If there's no bank leverage on your investment, I say don't, don't invest. M. But you should always borrow more money to invest to make more money. Using your own money to make more money is just, it's not going to work out. It's going to, it's going to take a lot of time and it's going to take a lot of saving. Yeah. Oh, that's good. But to do that, make sure you do your research so that you don't go under.
Thank you so much, Ibrahim. Where can they find you if they want to find you? If they want to go to your clinic or any of your other businesses? Well, I'm on Instagram and TikTok. I don't make money from social media. Social media is just a side thing that I do for fun. M. I never made money from social media. I don't accept any brand deals. I don't work with nobody, really. I, you know, so this is just something I do for my followers because they like my stories. So you can find me on Ibrahim_Ka either on TikTok or Instagram. Um, and yeah, I don't post. I'm not very active on social media. Not like before. But yeah. What about the clinic if they want to get fillers? Uh, so Lumera.e. E is the website. Um, or you can, you can go to La Mer Clinic, Laamera.clinic on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook. Um, we're still not, we're still doing renovations, so hopefully by the time this episode is out, we'll be, we'll be fully functional again. We need to go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for robbing.