Being sensible lets me be extravagant

• Last Updated: October 29. 2009 7:41PM UAE / October 29. 2009 3:41PM GMT

Robin Hickman’s first priority after moving to the UAE last year was saving three or four months’ salary as an emergency fund. Jaime Puebla / The National

It was just me and my dad when I was growing up. This meant that from a young age I had to share a bit of the burden and be quite independent.

I grew up in inner-city Birmingham in the UK. We were comfortable but never well off.

My dad owned and ran his own squash club. Unfortunately, at that time – the early 90s – there was a recession in the UK, and sport clubs were closing down all the time. Times were hard.

I had a good relationship with my dad – he’s also a good friend and an inspiration to me. I spent a lot of time in the business and in the squash club playing.

My dad got me involved in cashing up the tills and ordering the stock, so from an early age I was aware of the value of money and to appreciate what I had.

I had a big decision to make when I was 18 – either to go to university or become a professional squash player. I decided I couldn’t miss this opportunity to do a law degree at Warwick University, and I didn’t want the financial insecurity of being a squash player. Being a pro would have been fun, but ultimately it’s a very unstable life, and a career that would only last 10 or 15 years.

I began my studies in September 2000. Dad helped me as and when I needed, but I didn’t really like to ask. I wanted to pay my own way so I worked as a squash coach at Birmingham University. It paid well, £18 per hour (Dh108), and by working up to 10 hours a week I could afford to have a car.

Life at university was still a financial high-wire balancing act: my student loan from the British government would come in and clear my overdraft, and then I would spend the money I earned and go back up to my overdraft limit. In the UK, we do not pay for tuition at university. The student loan is from the government and covers living expenses.

When I started working as a trainee solicitor with CMS Cameron McKenna in London, in August 2005, I spent everything I earned. But I didn’t go into overdraft. I was increasingly realising that I didn’t want to go into debt. I was socialising a lot, meeting new people and living in a new city.

My starting salary was £28,000 a year (about Dh168,000) and I spent probably 35 per cent on rent, 40 per cent on going out and the rest on things like food and the gym. That said, by the end of the two-year contract I had saved about £7,000.

Here in the UAE, I have a balanced approach to money. I arrived in July 2008, and my first priority was to save three to four months’ salary in an accessible place as an emergency fund.

Having cash in a current account is a poor investment, but it buys me security because it is not tied up.

I’m 27 years old and I haven’t yet started saving towards a pension, but I will soon. I am just deciding what sort of product to invest in. I do realise the importance of saving for retirement.

My generation tends to be very good at spending money and not very good at saving. If you are retired for 20 years in relation to 40 years working, the maths doesn’t add up if you save just 5 per cent a year. It’s not going to be enough, and the earlier you start, the better. In terms of investment, the meltdown in property prices and equities provides some good opportunities.

As a finance lawyer with Ashurst LLP in Abu Dhabi, I am quite risk-averse and conservative, and lots of investments are something of a gamble. I am trying to decide at the moment how much of a gamble I am willing to take.

I’m quite careful in my day-to-day spending and actually live quite frugally. The UAE is very expensive, far more expensive than London. As a result I use two-for-one offers, mall cards, Entertainer vouchers, and I buy my clothes during sales.

The recession and redundancies in many industries in the last 18 months have made me far more aware of the importance of saving money and not being frivolous in the way I spend. I have saved quite a bit since I have been here. I generally save whatever I have left at the end of the month. On average, I save about Dh9,000 a month. Some months I save nothing, others I save more.

But I still treat myself and I like nice things. If something is going to give me utility and enjoyment for a long time, I will spend a lot of money on it. I want to invest in something that gives me day-to-day enjoyment, but at least retains its value.

I like watches. I bought my first watch when I was a trainee solicitor; it was a Tag Heuer and cost me a month’s salary.

If you invest in the right watch you can actually make money. This year I bought myself a Rolex Daytona and spent about a month’s salary on that as well. They are very rare, because Rolex doesn’t make many of them, and I found this one by chance in Bangkok. There is a five-year waiting list for these watches.

I searched for 12 months before I found this one. I did a lot of research on it and it genuinely does appreciate in value.

Rolex put their prices up by 8 per cent every year, and its second-hand value could be more than I paid for it – simply because they are so hard to come by.

I probably should be more careful with it, but I wear it for sport, work and going out. I want to enjoy it, so if that means it gets a few scratches I’m not going to worry about it.

When I was growing up, we were careful with money but my dad always liked sport cars. He had a Porsche. I share this love of cars with him and it made me want one.

When I arrived in the UAE in July 2008, it was a different place. There was a lot of positivity and consumer confidence was still high.

I knew I needed a car living here. It was my first week in Abu Dhabi, I had nowhere to live, no visa, no bank account, but I went into the Porsche showroom and fell in love. It was a limited edition Boxster S RS60 Spyder. I sat in it, turned the engine on and took it for a test drive.

It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever bought but I don’t regret it at all. My only other car had been a 10-year-old Nissan with more than 120,000 miles on the clock and rust over the wheel arch. I bought it for £500 from a family friend.

I’d done a lot of research into cars and two of the few things that are cheaper in the UAE compared to the UK are cars and petrol. When I bought the Boxster it was 30 per cent cheaper than in the UK. Porsches are very good value for money, and because they are desirable they retain a fair bit of their value. I’d always wanted one since I was young so I decided to get it, as I’ve got no dependents here and this might be my only opportunity to have a car like this.

I never expected to own a sport car at the age of 26. To say my dad was jealous is an understatement.

I think we can be too focused on saving and not enjoying the money we spend, but at the same time we should be prudent and not frivolous. Money is there to be enjoyed, but you can also enjoy your investments if you invest right.

* As told to Jo Wadham