Expats in Dubai Podcast

Fraudsters often recruit for a ‘dream job’.Fraud occurs in the workplace when an employer misrepresents (spoken or in writing) something about your job. Fraud may arise when an employer makes a false representation concerning offer letters, job security, potential commission, or other aspects of employment. Katleen Penel, a HR specialist from Belgium, believed her husband's employer had violated his legal rights relating to his employment with the British-owned Real Estate company...

It's the World Cup 2022!And from Dubai, it's less than an hour away to watch this iconic sporting event, LIVE. What an amazing opportunity for the whole of the Middle East. England football fans have been through so much heartbreak over the years. The game means so much to us and while we're often the underdogs we never stop believing. Every time the world cup or euros come around, this song of hope brings everyone in the country together and that's beautiful.Three Lions is so ama...

Being in good shape is much more than just losing weight or achieving a specific look - it's about mental mastery and living life. It's no secret, being over 40 can make getting healthy and fit much harder. Then there's all the different fitness programmes and exercises. What if you do the wrong exercise for your body type and fitness goals? Is there such a thing as over-exercising? And what does a long-term calorie deficit diet do to your body?Mark Doherty is a licens...

We now have evidence that suggests that nearly two in three of us will experience mental health problem in the course of our lives and one in six of us is managing fluctuating levels of distress each week. Yet this subject remains the big elephant in the room in many offices and workplaces. Leadership teams are hesitant about broaching this topic and saying the wrong thing - to normalise the conversation.Amber is joined by Dani Hakim, the founder of Safe Space, and who is on a mis...

Inside this first episode of season two, Amber sits down with Dubai-based lawyer Stephen Ballantine as he provides an overview of the laws, challenges and legal principles that guide medical malpractice claims in the emirate. Stephen offers some great advice to healthcare professionals about communication and documentation and advice to injured patients who might be considering a malpractice claim. He discusses the role of the Medical Liability Committee, UAE Law versus English La...

Welcome to the Expats in Dubai podcast - full of lifestyle, community, financial and legal resources for the Dubai expat community.This weekly podcast unlike any other shares information and experiences from industry leaders within the Dubai community, to help expats enjoy their experience safely. Listen, Download & Subscribe on:Apple Podcast Spotify Google Podcast Stitcher Behind the Scenes of the Expat CommunityJoin me, Amber Waheed, author of The Great Fraud Fight...

This is rightfully the song to sing and listen to at Christmas. Beautiful singing. Magnificent message. Love it!Merry Xmas from Expats in Dubai!Listen here on the Buzzsprout hosting site or on all major podcast directories.Thank you for listening! Questions/Feedback or to receive a copy of our 'stories across the emirate' newsletter, please email us on hello@wizbizla.com Follow the show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts to be reminded whenever a new episode arrives https://podcasts...

Infidelity is the ultimate betrayal. But does it have to be? In this episode Amber examines why people cheat, and unpacks why affairs are so traumatic: because they threaten our emotional security. In infidelity, she sees something unexpected — an expression of longing and loss. And when an affair is exposed what are some of the specific things that couples can do? How do we heal from an affair? And if we can divorce, why do we still have affairs?A must-listen for anyone...

Deloitte have launched their Middle East Fraud Survey report, illustrating how organisations in the Middle East have been affected by fraud during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.Collin Keeney, Partner here in Dubai, conducted the survey, and is our guest today. In this episode we discuss some of his key findings, and the impact his findings will have on expats in Dubai, and what tips he can offer both to the individual and to organisations on how to protect themselves against fraud in the...

The newly implemented UAE Owners Association law came with greater responsibilities to improve quality of service and return on investments.Law 6 of 2009 on the Ownership of Common Property repealed Law 27 of 2007 and marked a substantial change in the operation of Jointly Owned Property and the roles and functions of the Owners Association Board and The Management Bodies as properties – as with every investment – needed to be protected and increased in value. How do Owners Associ...

Can a car be a sound investment in your financial portfolio? Should you diversify your garage as much as your holdings? For the automotive enthusiast, one way to diversify an investment portfolio is indeed to start collecting classic cars. Most cars lose value immediately after they are driven off the dealer lot, but classic cars gain in value over time, due to rarity, performance, or special attributes. Classic cars, in general, gain in value more than other types of collectibles,...

What do expats need the most - a lawyer, a doctor, a maintenance guy? What have you learned about female expats in Dubai? Favorite part of Old Dubai? What’s one thing everyone should check out in Dubai What would you say to Sheikh Mohammed, today, as he celebrates the 50th National Day?It's the National Day today and Expats in Dubai launched their 50x50 initiative to mark the 50th UAE National Day. All this week, we asked Expats to answer 50 questions about being an Expat in...

What's the greatest thing you have learnt from the locals? Have you picked up any slang from them? What's Dubai's secret sauce / greatest talent? Three words to describe the Dubai lifestyle? What's one service you cannot live without in Dubai?It's the National Day on 2nd December and Expats in Dubai launches 50x50 initiative to mark the 50th UAE National Day. All this week, we are asking Expats to answer 50 questions about being an Expat in Dubai.For this round o...

Which scam did you secretly think was genius? Have you ever used your British 'charm’ to get your way in Dubai? Which Nationality have you learnt the most from? What misconceptions do Brits back home have about Dubai expats? What advice would you give to anyone about Government Houses and how to deal with them?It's the National Day on 2nd December and Expats in Dubai launches 50x50 initiative to mark the 50th UAE National Day. All this week, we are asking Expats ...

Which three services should be on every expats speed dial? Describe your perfect date night. What's the strangest thing you've seen someone do in Dubai? What is it about Dubai, that has positively shaped you?Expats in Dubai launches 50x50 initiative to mark the 50th UAE National Day. All this week, we are asking Expats to answer 50 questions about being an Expat in Dubai.Greek blood, Zimbabwean raised, Australian soil. Our guest today is Event Planner Ioanna Dubash, who shar...

What are three things you can't live without in Dubai? What's your favorite landmark? How best would you describe the locals? What's one word to describe the scam artists in Dubai? What's your philosophy about Dubai?It's the National Day on 2nd December, and we have an idea.Expats in Dubai launches 50x50 initiative to mark the 50th UAE National Day. All this week, we are asking Expats to answer 50 questions about being an Expat in Dubai.Today, in this first episode, we...

Over a third (34%) of people admit to a personal fear stopping them from doing something they wanted to achieve in life. Behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings supported Franklin Roosevelt’s saying: ‘The only thing to fear, is fear itself’. And in many ways he was right - fear is what ultimately holds us back from many of the activities and challenges in life that could enrich us rather than damage us in some way. Many of us simply avoid fear, stepping away from situations or objects that trigg...

Inheritance matters are inherently complex.Having a will in place in their country of origin is regarded by many expats as essential planning when they move to live and work abroad, offering peace of mind in the event of a tragedy.However, many Non-Muslim expats in Dubai are unaware that in the absence of a legally registered will in the UAE, the process of transferring assets after death can be extremely time consuming, costly and fraught with legal complexities. This could mean that assets ...

Today’s subject is a topic that, all fertility specialists caring for women, encounter on a regular basis. Social Egg Preservation is a key component of assisted reproductive technologies – an increasing number of women are embracing careers and financial independencies and wish to know how to prevent unintended childlessness. Dr Marikinti is a Fertility Specialist who meets such women seeking fertility preservation on an almost daily basis. He observes that an increasing nu...

The investment journey goes through many challenges and stages. There are times in our lives, as we personally grow and change, when we start asking When can I start investing? How much disposable income do I need to become an investor? What if I get married? What if I get divorced - what happens to our joint investments? If you are at this point, where your mind keeps throwing these questions at you, this episode answers them for you as we dive deep into this topic.Stuart M...

There is a right time for everything. After being an expat for 12 years in Dubai, Laurence Hill decided to move back to the UK.In this interview, Amber sits down with Laurence to discuss what it was like working for the Middle East and Africa arms of a global business, the unique challenges he faced as an expat in Dubai, and how he made that all-important decision to retire as his passion shifted.Laurence shares his incredible life lessons as an expat in this wide-ranging conversation includi...

Amber is back with The Great Fraud Fightback series that focusses on the Financial Advisory Industry and in this episode she is joined by Dubai-based Financial Planner Paul McCullagh. As we’re drawing to the end of 2021, Paul discusses the current state of the financial advisory industry, and also some of the popular alternative investment options that have crept in the market this year including property, bitcoin and classical cars.Paul also shares his outlook for the advisory in...

Todays focus is on one of the most important, if not, the, most important areas of your life. An area of life that when it’s handled can give you tremendous amount of joy, love and nothing can compete with it, and if it’s handled ineffectively, this is the place of pain, where life seems to lose its meaning.We’re talking of course about - Relationships.To help us understand where our core beliefs about relationships come from, Farhana Vohra, a certified life coach joins Amber and discus...

Elena Schildgen, managing partner of Meyer-Reumann & Partners, and renowned within the expat community to be one of Dubai’s best legal settlers joins Amber in this episode of The Great Fraud Fightback to explain why conversations between her and financial advisor Neil Grant didn’t result in a settlement, why the percentage of financial legal cases that settle out of court is low, and the tactics financial service providers employ to avoid settling. Elena discusses the stigma around l...

As the Expats in Dubai podcast reaches 10,000 downloads a special thanks to all the guests who have come onto the show and shared their knowledge, experience and stories with us, and to the listeners, who have taken the time to tune in and supported us. In this 21st episode, and as most of us are relaxing and on holidays with our families, we thought to take this opportunity to share some timeless words from Baz Luhrmann - slow down, have a look around and Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunsc...

Following on from episode 18 in The Great Fraud Fightback series we pick up the story after the Dubai police call Neil Grant to the station for questioning and the pursuit to obtain hard evidence linking the rogue financial advisor to financial advisory fraud to open a criminal case.The task in this episode was to get around the ‘no contract’ issue as no court of law would even consider such a case, by convincing the police to request a statement from the Department of Economic Developm...

Part two of Maria’s story of living with abuse, continues with how she finally broke her silence against domestic abuse.We also hear from another lady called Lesley on how she made the transition from abused victim to thriving and vocal leader. Through self work, personal growth and dedication to applying the lessons she learned. Lesley believes every woman can heal from domestic abuse and create a safe, happy, healthy life after their escape.Thank you for listening! Questions/Fee...

We continue deconstructing the book, The Great Fraud Fightback and in this episode, following industry revelations from the Dubai regulators, Amber takes her suspicions to the local police in an attempt to take forward her complaint and open an investigation into her financial advisor, Neil Grant.Here she recounts her experience of persuading the police to open a file and the simple online research that led to an unexpected turn in her story as she discovered she was dealing with a more serio...

He swept her off her feet. She believed she had fallen deeply in love with an ideal partner and was set for the perfect family life.First, he pushed her, then grabbed her, then squeezed her neck so tightly she almost blacked out. As she lived in abuse, she morphed into someone else. The emotional, mental, financial and physical abuse at home caused her to change into someone else. Someone her abuser created. A few years later she was standing on top of her apartment bl...

What’s the point of living minimally now so you’ve got a big pot when you’re too old to enjoy it?In this episode in The Great Fraud Fightback series, we discuss the three bucket asset allocation – the philosophy of investing, and a gentle reminder from the late Steve Jobs, in one of his greatest motivational speeches, the importance of investing in yourself, first, and the rest, and particularly financial security, as Jobs' life is a testament to, will take care of itself.Amber's podcas...

The top social problems teenagers struggle with every day – in coaching parents and their teenagers, these are always on the list – mental health, depression, bullying, substance abuse, obesity, academic problems, peer pressure – and these concerns you tend to find are multifarious but interrelated in many cases.The first thing you ask is… where are they originating from? Well let’s ask the teenagers themselves…because no one can answer that question better than them.In this episode of ...

In this episode of The Great Fraud Fightback series, Amber reveals how the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) sowed the seed of the reality behind her investment portfolio and the Dubai Insurance Authority (DIA) gave a very worrying insight into her rogue financial advisors business affairs. She shares the advice and support she gained from the local regulators and the official industry confirmation that changed it all. Thank you for listening! Questions/Feedback or to receive a c...

Throughout the pandemic, energising stories of community, compassion and kindness all around the globe have been heard. Stop and Help is one such story here in Dubai.The organization started up in March of last year 2020, at the start of the pandemic - with a single objective: to support families in need and families with children in particular. It started off as a Facebook group and has ended up helping 200,000 people in need, and counting.In this episode in the Behind the Scenes series...

A big part of financial plans is retirement planning and a big part of retirement plans is a pension. A state pension offers a minimum income to cover the basics, whilst a private pension is a way of deferring some of your income now by putting some money aside for spending when you are older. When you have a pension, things start to get complicated when you move abroad and the duration of that work experience overseas; add to that the conversations around tax that needs to take p...

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been gaining momentum – but what exactly are they, and what constitutes an NTF? How much are they really worth? Can one tokenize and sell their digital work as an NFT? And are people really paying millions of dollars for tokens?Amber is joined by award winning Kristel Bechara and the first artist from the UAE to enter the Crypto world and launch and sell NFT’s to global collectors. Here she explains why NFTs are important to artists, the authenticity of a...

Financial advisory fraud looks to be extremely complex in makeup, and it can feel really overwhelming to try to understand all the nuance and how it happens. But when you break it down, you will find it’s actually not. It’s simply manipulation against a backdrop where neither party can be held legally responsible. In this episode in the Great Fraud Fightback series, Amber talks us through a case study of how she was manipulated into parting with her savings and was essentially trapped i...

With Dubai burgeoning as a tourist hotspot and the upcoming Expo 2020 expected to bring in over 25 million visitors, the demand for short-term rentals or holiday homes in Dubai is also expected to grow. A lucrative opportunity for those looking to benefit from good rental yields, many homeowners and investors are taking the step to convert their property into a holiday home or purchase strategically located properties for the purpose of short-term rental. In this episode Amber is joined ...

Amber is joined by Con Lillis, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Abacus, a financial advisory firm headquartered in Dubai to discuss how, as the lack of trust in the financial advisory industry grew, he felt it became necessary to separate client service from leadership and operation of the business. Lillis made a deliberate decision to move himself away from a client-facing role so he could spend all of his time working on the business and developing its systems and culture, which...

Amber is joined by Dr Anthony Thomas from Prime Hospital in Dubai and a scientific advisor to EIAC who worked with the state department on helping to minimise the prevention of spreading COVID 19 in Dubai, and building a response team of healthcare workers. In this episode we discuss the origins of COVID 19, what makes COVID 19 different from every other coronavirus we know, managing the pandemic in modern time in comparison to the influenza pandemic of 1918, the public pressure on kids ...

Before engaging with lawyers, Amber discusses two options that can be pursued to gather information on your financial situation if you feel stuck, confined, and in-prison by your current financial investment circumstances - one of which includes ordering a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR). In this episode of The Great Fraud Fightback series Amber shares her experience and findings of the DSAR ordered as part of her legal case against rogue financial advisors and companies.Thank you fo...

Amber is joined by Mazhar Farooqui, Senior Features Editor at Gulf News and one of the country’s top investigative journalist whose smashing stories and intriguing exposes have raised the bar on in-depth reporting in this part of the world. Here he discusses the importance of resistance journalism, the role of local media and his relentless pursuit for truth.Thank you for listening! Questions/Feedback or to receive a copy of our 'stories across the emirate' newsletter, please emai...

Amber is joined by Sam Instone, Chairman of AES International and one of Dubai's leading and longest servicing financial advisory firms, who shares his diagnosis of an all-to common example of an investment portfolio of high commission for a rogue financial advisor and of non-experienced cautious investors being totally ill-advised. He also shares his thoughts on personal responsibility, on the on-line DIY financial courses currently flooding the local market and what investors should b...

What is the biggest sign that someone is suffering from corporate traumatic stress disorder (CTSD)? Is it smoking or is it evidence of multi moving of employment? Amber is joined by Dr. Marikinti a Medical Practitioner, who has the experience of corporate and corporate health or lack of health and who has studied what makes corporates healthy and what can actually affect the health in a negative way, and what lessons he has learnt or observed through his knowledge and expertise.In...

In the first episode in The Great Fraud Fightback series, Amber is joined by Stuart McCulloch, Executive Director at The Fry Group. In this episode they will show you how to pick a Financial Advisor, the key areas to research, the importance of doing your own due diligence and how you can protect yourself from financial advisory fraud from the very first step of investing.Thank you for listening! Questions/Feedback or to receive a copy of our 'stories across the emirate' newsletter, ple...

One of the biggest personal finance concerns many people have faced over the years is dishonest advisers selling complex, high-commission financial products to unsuspecting investors that can lock them in for years.Amber Waheed is one of them and she lost her life savings after being duped by her adviser into signing up for long-term investments she believed were low risk.In The Great Fraud Fightback series, named of course after the book, Amber deconstructs her story of how she lost her savi...

Expats in Dubai | Behind the Scenes Hosted by Amber Waheed Join Amber Waheed of Business Sculpting, author of The Great Fraud Fightback and a passionate fighter against fraud to enhance your financial advisory and legal services awareness so you can avoid the costly mistakes most investors make. You'll also get a behind the scenes look from Amber and other savvy professionals at what it's like to live in Dubai as an Expat, from the lifestyle you can expect to the supportive communit...