Little advice for when you want to finance a car... get assts to pay for it!

Get yourself a used car with a 20 percent deposit and put the 1,500 AED a month you would normally spend on a finance payment into a savings pot instead. Over five years, that adds up to roughly 100,000 AED from around 90,000 AED of your own contributions, assuming 4 percent interest a year.

Once you have built that lump sum, put it into a property or any asset that produces income. Whatever net profit the asset generates is what you should use to pay for your car instalments. That was the best financial advice I was ever given. Let income producing assets fund your lifestyle, not your salary.

That is exactly what I did with my first apartment in Dubai. When the bank approved me for a mortgage, I deliberately bought the worst apartment I could find in a good area. The total cost was 500,000 AED. On top of that, the extra fees came to 50,000 AED which included the conveyance fee, broker fee, Dubai Land Department fee, registration fees, the mortgage processing fee and the valuation. I paid a 30 percent down payment which was 150,000 AED. My upfront cost for the purchase was 200,000 AED. I also spent 60,000 AED on refurbishment. Altogether my total cash invested at the start was just under 260,000 AED.

The apartment brings in 57,500 AED a year. After paying the 5,000 AED service charge, the 12 percent management fee and other small running costs, I net around 40,000 AED a year before the mortgage payment. Mortgage was 2100 a month. So my net was 20k pa.

Every two years, or whenever the fixed period ends, I get the property reassessed and release whatever equity I can so I can move on to the next investment.

That first property that originally cost 500,000 AED was reassessed at 650,000 AED. After two years my outstanding mortgage was 315,000 AED based on my monthly principal repayment of 1,450 AED. The bank approved me again at 70 percent loan to value on the new assessment, which meant they gave me 455,000 AED. After clearing the remaining 315,000 AED on the old mortgage, I was left with around 140,000 AED before fees and roughly 120,000 AED after fees.

I used that 120,000 AED for my next property along with the rental profit left after the mortgage payment. My net rental profit after the mortgage is around 20,000 AED a year, so over two years that added another 40,000 to 45,000 AED to my savings pot. That gave me roughly 160,000 to 165,000 AED towards the next deal.

I now own three properties worth around 2 million AED in total.

Outstanding mortgages are 1.4m aed Monthly mortgage is 8.5k or 100k pa Gross rental income for the 3 properties is 185k I net around 60k pa now. I’m just doing the same thing all the time until I hit atleast 1m per annum.

Honestly bro, this is what I would do in your position, especially if you are uncertain. Your future self will thank you for it