Why do some NRI families leave the UAE even after many years?

Leeba's answer is not emotional in a vague way. She says the UAE offers "infrastructure, safety, and those parts," but the family eventually asked a harder question: what are they staying for if the move is not creating enough savings and not building toward a more secure long-term life? Her view is blunt: "You go to UAE for what? Make money." She adds that you are not getting citizenship and should evaluate the equation if life is only running month to month. For her family, the decision was not about hating the UAE. It was about deciding that a comfortable expat routine, on its own, was not a sufficient long-term reason to delay the India move until much later in life.

Is it hard to restart a career in the UAE after moving with a young child?

In this transcript, yes. Leeba says she moved in 2014 expecting a job that was somewhat equivalent to the role she had left in India. Instead, "6-8 months went by and nothing materialized." She had a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, no local network, and no desire to spend long hours in the market for a low package that would largely be consumed by childcare or home support. She also describes the market as relationship-driven, with a very wide salary range and heavy competition. Her conclusion is personal, not universal: without the right connects, a returning professional, especially a mother re-entering with a small child, can find the UAE job market far tougher than it appears from outside.

How much savings runway should UAE-based NRIs have before moving to India?

Leeba does not give one single corpus target. Her rule is percentage-based and practical. She says that if you are comfortable and "able to save at least 20% of your money" in the UAE, then you can keep investing and plan your retirement accordingly. But if you are "not making the 20% of saving in your earning," then you need to evaluate whether staying still makes sense. She also adds a second layer: an emergency fund. In her words, if you are coming to India, you should have a backup that can sustain you "for at least 6 months" without extreme pressure to earn immediately. The advice is her personal framework, not financial advice, but it is one of the clearest decision rules in the transcript.

Should you wait till retirement age to move back from the UAE to India?

Leeba's family decided the answer was no. After comparing the cost and life implications of staying in Dubai versus moving to Kerala, they concluded it "makes sense to move now rather than move at 60." Her argument is not that everybody should retire early. She says it is an individual choice whether you retire at 40 or 60. But she repeatedly warns families not to delay until fear of restarting becomes the dominant force. She had watched the older Gulf generation keep postponing life, then return at an age when energy and flexibility were much lower. Her family did not want that regret. They wanted to come back while they still had time "to explore life" rather than only manage old age.

How can children adjust after leaving Dubai or the UAE for India?

Leeba shows that adjustment can improve dramatically when the family plans the school transition carefully and involves the child in the decision. Her daughter was 12 when they first discussed the move and was initially in tears because she would leave friends behind. The family did not dismiss that reaction. They spoke to her, took her to school visits, and made sure she felt included in the decision. Once she joined school in Kerala, the transition was smoother than expected. Leeba says that if you ask her daughter today, "she doesn't want to go back." The operational differences mattered too: the current school is close to home, while in the UAE her daughter spent about one and a half hours commuting in the morning and around 45 minutes in the afternoon.

Podcast

Why This Family Left UAE After 12 Years Instead of Waiting Till 60

Leeba moved to the UAE in 2014 expecting a comparable job, built an online wellness business instead, and after 12 years abroad chose to move to India before 60 rather than wait for a later-life reset.

Avinash

1 May 202619 min read27 min watch

In this story

Key Takeaways
Why did Leeba move to the UAE in the first place?
What made the UAE job market so hard for her?
How did a stalled career turn into a business?
Why did the family decide not to wait till 60?
What financial planning made the move possible?
How did their daughter adjust after leaving Dubai?
When does staying in the UAE stop making sense?
Related guides and stories
Final thought

Real Stories | Episode #199

Why This Family Left UAE After 12 Years Instead of Waiting Till 60

Leeba moved to the UAE in 2014 expecting to continue her corporate career. Instead she hit a stalled job search, built a business from scratch, and after 12 years abroad chose a very different conclusion from the one many Gulf families postpone: move back to India while you still have time, energy, and planning flexibility, not after fear and inertia harden into a late-life decision.

By Avinash, NRI Return Specialist Published: May 1, 2026 | Last updated: May 1, 2026

UAE Return Story Move Before 60 Women and Work School Transition Financial Planning

Key Takeaways

Leeba is from Jaipur, is Malayali by family background, studied in Pune, worked in IT, and moved to the UAE in 2014 after marriage.
Her original plan was to get a comparable job in the UAE, but six to eight months passed without anything materializing.
With a one-and-a-half-year-old child and weak salary prospects, the math of childcare and re-entry did not work for her.
She turned a personal fitness journey into an online business that later served clients across 28 countries and delivered around 10,000 client programs.
The family decided during a Kerala vacation that it made more sense to move now than to postpone the return until age 60.
Their decision was supported by earlier investments, medical insurance, a partially paid house loan, and long-term education planning for their daughter.
Leeba's practical rule for Gulf families is clear: if you are not saving at least 20% of your income, reevaluate why you are staying.
Her broader warning is to avoid waiting for a crisis. She says families should decide while they still have runway, not when they are forced by pressure.

What this story answers: Why would a family leave the UAE after 12 years even when life is stable on the surface? In Leeba's case, the answer was not one dramatic failure. It was a pile-up of smaller truths: career stagnation, childcare math, month-to-month financial limits, aging parents, and a growing conviction that waiting till 60 would only make the restart harder.

Why did Leeba move to the UAE in the first place?

Leeba did not move abroad as a teenager or student. She had already built a proper working life in India. She says she was born and raised in Jaipur, completed most of her education there, moved to Pune for her MBA, joined an IT firm, and then continued her work journey in Mumbai after that.

Marriage changed the geography. Her husband is a Malayali born and raised in Mumbai, and the couple moved to the UAE in 2014. The expectation was straightforward: she would find a role that paid well and felt reasonably aligned with the position she had left in India.

That expectation matters because this is not a transcript about someone who moved abroad for glamour alone. It began as a practical career step. The later return only makes sense when you understand that the original UAE plan was supposed to improve both earnings and opportunity, not interrupt them.

What made the UAE job market so hard for her?

Re-entry never stabilized the way she expected. Leeba says that after arriving in 2014, "6-8 months went by and nothing materialized." That was the first real crack in the plan.

The harder part was not only the absence of a job offer. It was the life stage. She had a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, had already spent around eight years working before the move, and suddenly found herself without income after being used to a salary at the end of every month.

"You have no source of income when you are so used to having that salary."

Her description of the UAE market is also specific. She says opportunities do exist, especially in IT, but relationships and network strength matter heavily. In her view, the market can offer anything from very low salaries to very attractive ones, and new entrants without strong local connects can easily land in the wrong end of that range.

Then came the childcare equation. She says that with both parents working, the family would have needed paid support either through childcare or help at home. That made low salary offers look even less sensible. In her words, spending about ten hours in the market and coming back with only a modest income did not motivate her, especially when a big part of that pay would be consumed just to make the job operational.

The important nuance

Leeba is explicit that this is her experience, not a universal rule for all women in the UAE. But she clearly felt that poor local connects, a young child, and the structure of the market combined to slow her down much more than she had expected.

Free tool · no signupShould I move back?Eight questions on money, family, work, and timing — scored, with the gaps named.Open the tool

How did a stalled career turn into a business?

The answer is unusually concrete. Leeba says she used that stuck phase to work on herself physically, lost around 15 to 20 kilograms, and grew interested in fitness. That personal shift later became the base of her next professional chapter.

In 2017 she joined a local women's group online, when Facebook groups were growing quickly. She ran a 90-day fitness challenge for women as a goodwill experiment, with around 80 participants. It worked, participants saw visible transformations, and the response pushed the idea from hobby to business possibility.

"You're mad. You're doing it for free."

That line came from the friend who later became her business partner. A few months after their first conversation, an acquaintance directly asked Leeba for help with weight loss, and that request triggered a more serious start. Leeba, her trainer-partner, and a nutritionist known through social media and working with Fortis came together, named the company overnight, and launched a pilot with one client in late 2017.

The outcome is one of the strongest fact clusters in the transcript. She says the company was registered in 2018, later expanded into yoga, counseling, and other services, and today serves clients across 28 countries with around 10,000 client programs completed.

This matters for the article's core argument. Their eventual move back to India was not supported by some mythical Gulf fortune. It was supported by a second income stream Leeba built after her original employment plan failed.

Why did the family decide not to wait till 60?

The decision itself happened quickly, but only after years of slower thinking. Leeba says the final trigger came during a vacation in Kerala. While having tea, her husband asked, "Why don't we shift? Why don't we come back?" She says she had been carrying the same thought and was relieved that it emerged as a mutual conversation rather than one-sided pressure.

From there, the family moved fast. They were supposed to fly back to Dubai in two days, but before leaving they started checking local schools physically because they knew they would not be able to do that easily once they flew back.

The couple also involved their daughter directly. She was 12 at the time, was upset, and initially cried at the idea of leaving friends behind. But the family did not hide the decision from her or treat her as an afterthought.

The parent factor was concrete, not symbolic. Leeba says her in-laws were 80 and 79, while her own parents were in their 70s, so the return also meant coming back while those relationships could still be lived in daily life rather than managed through short visits. Once the school interviews and admission were done, the family completed the move in September 2025.

What they compared before choosing India

Question	If they stayed in Dubai	If they moved to Kerala
Income pattern	Comfortable life, but largely month-to-month	Needed planned runway, not instant salary replacement
Parents	Aging parents remained away	Parents and in-laws became physically reachable
Child routine	Long school commute and expat schedule	Closer school and easier daily rhythm
Long-term logic	Risk of postponing return until late age	Chance to restart while energy and flexibility remained

Back in Dubai, the couple sat with two Excel sheets and ran the comparison seriously: stay in Dubai or go to Kerala. They listed pros, cons, and cost assumptions for each option. Her conclusion is one of the most important lines in the episode: it made more sense to move now rather than move at 60.

If your need is a broad operational guide rather than a story, start with our moving back to India from UAE page. This article is narrower. It is about why one mid-income family decided the emotional and financial equation had already changed.

What financial planning made the move possible?

Leeba is careful to reject the glamorized social-media story that everyone in the UAE becomes rich and then returns home comfortably. She says that was not their reality. Their UAE-side life was giving them a life that ran month to month, not an effortless wealth surplus.

She also makes the middle-income point very clearly. In her version of the Gulf story, a large part of what people outside see as prosperity is actually a balancing act across monthly expenses, annual India trips, investments, and housing commitments. That is why this return story matters. It was not funded by fantasy wealth. It was funded by years of disciplined layering.

The difference came from layered planning. She says the family had been investing for around five years, had SIPs and mutual funds in place, had already taken medical insurance before their forties, and had some insurance products that were expected to mature during this transition period.

There was also real asset planning. The family built their Kerala house around 2018-2019, did the housewarming in 2021, and still had a remaining loan of around Rs 20 lakh. She says that loan was being paid from the income she generated from the business.

"Don't wait for the challenge to come and strike you."

That sentence captures her philosophy better than any spreadsheet. She repeatedly says families should make the decision while they still have room to think, not only when the market turns bad or an emergency arrives. She also says they planned their daughter's education separately, estimating what they would need over the next ten years and working backward from that target.

For practical next steps beyond this story, use our financial checklist for NRIs moving back to India, NRE and NRO accounts for returning NRIs, and health insurance in India for NRI and OCI families. Those pages handle the operational side that this transcript only touches indirectly.

High-stakes note

This section reflects Leeba's personal planning approach and should not be treated as financial advice. Savings thresholds, insurance strategy, and move timing depend heavily on income pattern, liabilities, school choices, and tax position.

How did their daughter adjust after leaving Dubai?

The answer is better than many families expect, but it was not automatic. Their daughter was upset at first, and Leeba makes that clear. The family respected that reaction, discussed the move with her directly, and treated school selection as central rather than secondary.

One small detail from the transcript says a lot. The child's main conditions were not prestige or branding. She wanted a good toilet and a clean pool. That gives the story a very human scale: school transitions often turn on concrete child-level comfort, not parental theory.

Once the transition happened, the experience improved quickly. Leeba says that if you ask her daughter today, she does not want to go back. The family even jokes about returning to the UAE and the daughter responds that the parents can go without her.

The commute change was also meaningful. In the UAE, her daughter was spending about one and a half hours commuting in the morning and around 45 minutes in the afternoon. In Kerala, the school is about three kilometers away, which changed the daily rhythm in a way the family could feel immediately.

Why the school change felt better after the move

The family involved the child before finalizing the move.
The current school environment was easier for a UAE-brought-up child to enter smoothly.
The commute improved sharply compared with the UAE routine.
The family solved school and city together instead of treating education as an afterthought.

If your own move depends heavily on school choice, our guides on best schools in India for NRI kids and IB vs IGCSE vs CBSE for returning families go much deeper than a single story can.

When does staying in the UAE stop making sense?

Leeba gives unusually crisp decision rules in the final part of the transcript. They are not universal laws, but they are useful filters if you are genuinely evaluating whether the Gulf chapter still serves your family.

"You go to UAE for what? Make money. You're not getting a citizenship."

Check whether you are actually saving

Her threshold is not abstract. If you are comfortably saving at least 20%, she says you can keep investing and plan your retirement accordingly. If you cannot save at least 20% of what you earn, she says you need to reevaluate why you are staying.

Do not wait for pressure to make the decision for you

She warns families not to wait for job-market collapse, business pain, or a crisis before they begin planning the move.

Build an emergency fund before you land in India

Her rule is at least six months of runway so you do not enter India already desperate for immediate income.

Make the choice as partners, not as competing individuals

She says the most beautiful part of their decision was that the couple sat together and decided jointly instead of one person dragging the other.

Return while you still have time to enjoy life

The family's deeper trigger was watching older generations postpone joy and exploration until an age when energy had already reduced.

"We wanted to live life to the fullest."

That is the cleanest summary of the episode. Not everyone needs to move back from the UAE early. Leeba says clearly that retirement timing is an individual choice. But her family concluded that their best years for rebuilding life in India were not at 60. They were now.

Final thought

The strongest part of this transcript is that it refuses the lazy Gulf stereotype from both directions. It does not say the UAE is fake, and it does not say India is automatically better. It says something more useful: if your life abroad is no longer building toward savings, freedom, or the family structure you actually want, then comfort can become a reason for delay rather than a reason to stay.

Leeba's family did not wait for retirement age to test that truth. They looked at the numbers, looked at the parents, looked at the child, and decided that the harder mistake would be waiting too long.

Planning your own UAE-to-India move without waiting for a crisis?

If your decision depends on runway, school choices, bank-account changes, health insurance, and whether the move should happen now or later, put the plan on paper before emotion starts making the timeline for you.

Open the Financial Blueprint

Book a 60-Min Call

This is especially useful if you are comparing "stay in UAE" versus "move now" and want a cleaner framework than vague pros-and-cons lists.

Chapters

0:00 Introduction
1:47 Reality of UAE Job market
3:17 Starting business in UAE
6:21 Why UAE doesn't work?
10:12 Why move back to India?
13:57 Financial planning
19:26 Kid transition
21:26 Advice

Transcript

Auto-generated captions, lightly cleaned

0:00 And it made more sense for both of us concluded that it makes sense to move now rather than move at 60. 6-8 months went by and nothing materialized. house and you have no source of income when you are so used to having that salary creating at the end of the month and here you are with absolutely nothing. You go to UAE for what reason? Make money. You're not getting a citizenship. You're not getting any other benefits other than having the infrastructure safety and those parts. When we started in 2017 with that one client and today we are having clients across 28 countries. We have done cliental programs of around 10,000.

0:46 While sitting with a cup of tea my husband asked me why don't we shift? Why don't we come back? Today we are talking to Liba. Moved to UAE, struggled to find a job, built a business from scratch and then made a bold decision to move back to India. My name is Liba. I'm born and raised in Jaipur but I'm a Malayali from Kerala. Done my most of my education from Jaipur and then I moved to Pune. I did my MBA masters and I got a job with an IT firm. I was working there and then I moved to Bombay with work the gods and continued my work journey there.

1:35 That's when I got married. My husband is from Bombay. He's also a Malayali born and raised in Bombay itself. Then we moved to UAE in 2014.

1:47 So yeah in 2014 when I went to UAE I obviously went with the hope that I will be able to land up a job which pays me well and which is a profile which is somewhat equivalent to where I left my job in India. So that was the hope of of a job opportunity. Unfortunately almost like 6-8 months went by and nothing materialized. So what happens is when you've been working for last 8 years and you always wanted to be independent and you get stuck in a situation where you have a 1 and 1/2 year old baby. You have to manage her and the house and you have no source of income when you are so used to having that salary creating at at the end of the month and here you are with absolutely nothing in your hand and not that my husband is not supportive. He's very supportive in those manners but then it is something that individually if you ask me it mattered to me most because it kind

Read the full transcript (30 more sections)

2:49 Of made me a very stagnant in my career. And I got into fitness and I started working on myself. I got interested in that and I worked on physically myself and I lost almost like 15 kg, 20 kg and that brought me into where I started my business later on. 2017

3:19 I happened to join a group a local group there online and that time Facebook was like growing in in leaps and bounds and that's when I got introduced to a local women group and I did experiment. It was absolutely with no thought of any business idea that would pop up later but then I did as a goodwill gesture with women some 50-60 I think 80 80 numbers of women who participated in that fitness challenge. It was a 90-day challenge. It went really successful and that's when my current partner she happened to call me and she said okay what are you doing and how are you and how's life and that's when I said okay I did not get up get into a job and there's something that I'm doing. I'm doing a 90-day challenge with women and it was really successful and they had a lot of transformation stories to share.

4:17 And she said you're mad. You're doing it for free. You're you're really crazy. Why don't you charge people and and stuff like that and it just was a very casual conversation and it we just left it there. After a couple of months she happened to contact me again and we happened to speak about this entire thing and that's when we said okay why don't we start a business or a concept around this and make it see see where it goes. And we just left the conversation there again and a month later in October 2017 September end 2017 one one of my known person not known but an acquaintance she connected with me that saying okay Liba I need to lose weight and can you help me? And that's when it struck me that maybe we can work on this and that's when I spoke to my same friend and she said okay let's

5:17 Go ahead with it. The challenge was we did not have a nutritionist. So she was a fitness trainer. I was a trainer. We needed a nutritionist. So we had another friend who was a who was known to us from social media at that point in time and we connected with her. She was doing her she finished her nutritionist course and she was working with Fortis we just came together formed the company. We named it overnight and we said okay let's let's do a pilot project or a pilot program with this one client. So that's when we started in 2017 with that one client. And today we are cliental programs of around 10,000 since then. We registered our company in 2018 from that one program we evolved into yoga. We evolved into counseling and lot many other stuff that we do

6:19 Online with our clients.

6:22 See there are opportunities. I will not say there are not enough opportunities. There are enough opportunities in IT sector because if you see UAE UAE is a growing market. They always want to be ahead of everyone else whether it is having the tallest building, having the biggest island theme park or any any of the stuff. They are always ahead and they are top number one. But then when you see for a job opportunity it is all connections. It is you need to have somebody very strong because it's built on relationships. The market is built on relationships. So and especially obviously when you're moving into the market for a job opportunity the hiring party would also want to see what are you bringing on the table. Are you bringing in with a list of clients along with you? Are you bringing in with a list of funnel with you?

7:19 Do you have the connections who they can address from the business front? So definitely there were smaller opportunities which were coming but then frankly Avinash when you see the market there's there is a market which offers you 2,000 dirhams also or 20,000 dirhams opportunities also. Now when you're new you can be exploited if you do not have the right connects or the people in the industry who can help you with the right people at the right time at the right place. So that was something that I lack which I feel. It's it's my personal opinion be having their own experiences where they would have got excellent opportunities by themselves. But then when I started I did not have that kind of connects in the local market. With a baby of 1 and 1/2 year old you can understand both the partners if they are working they need to put the child in child care or with

8:22 Some nanny at home. Paying a nanny and then ending up a job at 3,000 or 3,500 and paying half of the salary to the person who is helping at home it did not make a financial sense to me to spend say 10 hours in the market and then come back home with such a low salary. It did not motivate me ahead. Maybe it was the wrong decision at that point in time but hindsight maybe it was something that I do not want to regret at this point in time but that was the decision that we we took that we do not want to end up compromising on many things when it comes to our child.

9:09 Start at a low package then the growing number is very low. It's not exponential. So you have to spend that much time in the market and the supply is more and demand is less. The UAE market is such that the supply is is is just it's every day like the market is flooded with good candidates. So as I said I felt that I was a right candidate. There there might be 100 other candidates who are as equal equally qualified as me. So that is a choice and being a woman it becomes the hiring party also may they may choose not to hire a woman though they say okay it's a equal opportunity driven firm and everything but then that's how the market is. Whether we agree to this, it's not just UAE, it's everywhere.

10:02 Hiring a woman and a man, the decision is completely different when it comes to the hiring part. So, all all that factored

10:13 And most of the people would not believe that this decision was made just during the the last vacation that we came down to India in Kerala. And it was made in a in a day or two. While sitting with a cup of tea, my husband asked me, "Why don't we shift? Why don't we come back?" And I said I was waiting for you to come back to me with these thoughts and I was having these thoughts 2 days back. But I didn't want to voice it out because I wanted it to be a mutual decision and not something that I wished to do because I just wanted to do so. It just so happened that he spoke about something that was going through my mind 2 days prior to he coming and discussing with me.

10:59 We sat over it, we thought about it, and we were supposed to fly back to UAE after 2 days. After the vacation. So, we were just packing up stuff from from here and my husband and me sat together and we said, "Okay, let's just look at some schools around here. Let's just see before we fly because once you fly, obviously you can't be here physically to do all that stuff." And we listed out the schools that we have in the surrounding place and we found a school which is like well-known and everything and we didn't know that the school is like 20 km from our place. We spoke to our daughter. She's she was 12 at that point and we said, "This is something that we are thinking." She was in tears. She was like she because she had her friends and everything. But then we made her understand that we will not make a decision without taking you into consideration and everything.

11:57 We spoke to her, we told her this is cool and we looked at the school and the only concern that she was having that she should have a good toilet. It should have a clean pool. So, that was the only condition that she put in. We went back and we reached Dubai and we sat across. So, there was this one day me and my husband, we sat with two Excel sheets in our hands. He was sitting in this work desk, I was sitting in my work desk. We had a list of things if we stay in Dubai, what are the pros and cons, what are the cost involved. He sat with if we move to Kerala. So, two questions. If we stay in Kerala, if we go to India and if we stay in Dubai. So, we posed these two questions to ourselves. We listed down our own pros and cons, the cost that we feel that will be cost of living that will that is there in Dubai and what would be the probable number that we have to end up every month. We did that cost analysis, we

12:59 Then came together, we sat down, we discussed on the points. concluded that it makes sense to move now. >> Got it. Rather than move at 60. And that's how we So, it was it is something that happened within a span of 1 week. We spoke to the school, we did all the initial interviews. She my daughter went through with the test, interviews and interactions, parent interactions, we did the admission. We told our parents, our parents were more than happy because they are aging. So, my in-laws, they are 80 and 79. My parents, they are in their 70s. They are here. So, they were more than happy to have this news that their children are coming down because usually it's the other way where I mean once the children are gone, they do not want to come back to India and the parents are usually like left alone in India. So, they were very happy about this decision.

13:58 So, we were sitting outside having a cup of chai and the peace that you have at your home where you can just sit and just explore other things in life. So, in hindsight, so that's when the 5 years of right investment, right financial planning, and all those things helped us. So, as I as I said, my husband was working there. So, we were not earning so much in UAE that we could save from the UAE money. So, when I put up my post on Instagram, that's when it went viral and all those So, there were a lot of people who actually commented, "You made all the money and now you're talking okay, you wanted to go and settle." And it is not the case with everybody.

14:45 People don't understand not everybody is a millionaire in UAE, but that's the story and the what do you say? The glam that you see on social media that everybody is making money and everybody is like making lakhs and millions and coming back to India. No, it's not the case. People There are people who are middle-income families who are trying to live their life a little better than the Indian infrastructure if you if you compare. The safety that we talk about, the infrastructure development that we have in UAE, everything from At least in tier two cities or apart from the cities like Bombay, Delhi, the metro cities, there are cities where you you may not get that kind of infrastructure.

15:38 So, in UAE, we were having a certain income, but that income was only able to give us a life which could which was happening on a month-on-month basis. I was earning in India with my business and everything. And that money we were saving up a part of it in investments, a part of it was going into our annual trips coming to India because it's a significant People don't understand the amount of expense that one family needs to make sure when they are traveling to India to meet their parents. It's a big It's a big money. So, that money was being saved from the income that I was having in UAE. So, it was a balance of both that we were able to do with whatever the situation that we had.

16:30 So, we made a certain investment in certain mutual funds, SIPs, and stuff and we were doing our annual trips. So, from an outside world view, everything was going like good. What you When we see social media, when we post pictures, people see that end picture. They don't understand how probably that picture has ended up. So, because of that, in 2018-2019, we happened to have this house done. Knowing my background, I'm a I'm a North Indian born and brought up. My husband is from Bombay. Taking a house in Kerala was also absolutely unthinkable thing that we did. But then it it ended it ended up here and in '21, we did our housewarming and there was a certain loan on that part and we were paying that loan since '21.

17:23 Which was very which was around 20 lakhs. So, if you if you ask me. 20 lakhs of loans and best to pick was done. And that loan was being paid from the income that I was generating in India. So, there was a loan payment, there was an investment that I was doing from the money that I was earning, and then there was a annual travel trip that I was So, this was the plan that was happening for last 5 when we came when we were deciding to come back to India, we they and we were we were having So, we did a medical insurance 3 years back. So, that was a decision that worked in our done their insurance on time.

18:10 So, we made sure and before our 40s, we do our medical insurance. Some of the investments in insurance were done prior which we knew will mature during this particular time which will help us as a backup. There was an investment of SIPs and mutual funds that were already in place. our house was already done. there was only a partial loan which we had to pay. So, from a decision perspective, all these factors actually helped us to look at it from a long-term view. So, we we have only one child. So, her education is something that we planned, okay, this amount will go into her education next. She's in grade eight now. So, next 10 years 5 years of schooling, 5 years of whatever education. So, next 10 years education, this is the amount that we would need. So, by 2030-2031, this is the amount that we would need for her education for higher education.

19:07 So, all those planning had been done. we started in 2020-21. Got it. So, because those things were in place, we could take this immediate decision of moving to UAE in 2025 last year September.

19:27 As I said, the moment the day we decided that we are okay, we are we are planning and this thought has come in our mind. And we as a family of three, we have always considered or made decision rather I would say for any matter in our life which concerns three of us together. So, we've always involved her in all our decisions and made her feel important in all the decisions that we feel because it is concerning her also. She has to have a complete change of place, change of friends, change of schedule, and everything. So, initially when we told her, she was a bit upset, but then gradually when she met with the principal, she had her interviews done, and when she came down here and she started going to school, she Today if you ask her, Avinash, she says she doesn't want to go back.

20:19 So, we We actually kid around and we actually joke around, "Okay, we're planning to go back to UAE." So, she's like, "You You both go. I'm not coming." So, it's it's that. So, we made sure that her transition to this school is easier in terms of So, not See, it is not it is not an inexpensive school here in Kerala where she's going. It's It is expensive from a India perspective fee structure if you see. But then, if you compare the fee that we were paying for her in UAE, the amount of time that she was traveling in the morning, which I also mentioned it in my Instagram post also. 1 and 1/2 year of commute in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon. Now, she is the last pick up and first drop.

21:07 So, house the school and house is like 3 km away. The school is of international level. the transition from a UAE brought up kid to this school was by God's grace, it was it was very smooth for her.

21:28 Make sure that your finances are in place and you make that decision. Don't wait for the challenge to come and strike you. Don't wait for that time where, "Okay, everything goes wrong and you have to Like Like currently if you ask me today, UAE Middle East is going through a very tough situation, and there are families who are really struggling hard. The business has taken a hit. The job market is really bad. make that decision. Not Not that we had a control over it. Not that we could foresee it. But if you are already just meeting expenses and it has been going on for the last 1 year, then probably it's time that you make Sit together. So, the the the most beautiful thing that happened in our decision was that we sat together as partners because it's not just one person's decision to move.

22:27 It's >> Yes. obviously two people, two individuals who have to go back and restart. So, if if you if you have a comfortable life, you're you're able to save at least 20% of your money that you're earning there in UAE, you're comfortable. Place that money, save that money for in in the right way. Invest and plan your retirement accordingly. So, it it is a it is an individual choice, Avinash, whether you want to retire at 40, whether you want to retire at 60. Sure. Make the emergency funds for at least 6 months if you're without job. If you're coming to India, you should be able to have that backup plan which will sustain you without any a lot without any lot of pressure that you have to get into a job, you have to start earning, you have to have a income in place. Yes, you need to have an income. The expenses are rising. It's not getting cheaper by the day. It's only going higher.

23:29 See, you go to UAE for what? To make money. not getting any other benefits other than having the infrastructure, safety, and those part. So, if the that country was giving you a citizenship or some kind of pension fund or some kind of insurance medical insurance and stuff like that, there is that country makes sense. Like people go to UK, Australia, New Zealand, US. those countries are aspirational country because you know, even if you struggle for 5 years, after 5 years you're going to get a PR. But if in a country like Middle East, you are just living month to month and you're not able to save 20% of your income, that should be bare minimum. So, if you're not making the 20% of saving in your earning, then you need to evaluate. Malayalis are the greatest the the largest expats in Middle East. If you If you understand the If you go to Middle East, 70 60 to 70%

24:30 Of the population is Malayali. and looking at the previous generation, most of them went in their 20s or late early 30s, and they left the country probably in this late 60s, 70s. There's no retirement age from from that person. You can definitely take a business license, and people start their business and stuff. they do not want to come back to India for the simple fact that they do not know how to operate in India other than how they operated probably 30 35 years in Middle East. Middle East. So, there's a lot of fear that I have seen with my father, with whoever that I have interacted with in that age, they do not know what "What can I do other than this in India? There is There's nothing I That fear of restarting is there when you come back at that age.

25:30 So, you need to have because they they are coming at an age where they cannot get a job. So, they they make sure that they work till the time that they can in Middle East, and then they come back with some money. As I said, the the motivation for us to come back now is that we we have time in our hand to explore life. Yes. So, I've seen my parents at the age of 60, 70, 80, they they spend their whole life working for us as children, giving us a foundational stability and everything, and they postponed everything in their life for later. For later trips, for later happiness, for later gatherings, for later exploration. But now they are at the age where they are not physically able to do all of that or even enjoy all of that. So, we do not want to live with that regret.

26:24 That's something that has motivated us or triggered us where which you asked, "What was the trigger that made us take this decision?" So, I think the trigger was that, Avinash, that we wanted to live life to the fullest. So, thanks a lot, Leeba, for sharing your journey.

Podcast

Why This Family Left UAE After 12 Years Instead of Waiting Till 60

Avinash

1 May 202619 min read27 min watch

In this story

Key Takeaways
Why did Leeba move to the UAE in the first place?
What made the UAE job market so hard for her?
How did a stalled career turn into a business?
Why did the family decide not to wait till 60?
What financial planning made the move possible?
How did their daughter adjust after leaving Dubai?
When does staying in the UAE stop making sense?
Related guides and stories
Final thought

Real Stories | Episode #199

Why This Family Left UAE After 12 Years Instead of Waiting Till 60

By Avinash, NRI Return Specialist Published: May 1, 2026 | Last updated: May 1, 2026

UAE Return Story Move Before 60 Women and Work School Transition Financial Planning

Key Takeaways

Leeba is from Jaipur, is Malayali by family background, studied in Pune, worked in IT, and moved to the UAE in 2014 after marriage.
Her original plan was to get a comparable job in the UAE, but six to eight months passed without anything materializing.
With a one-and-a-half-year-old child and weak salary prospects, the math of childcare and re-entry did not work for her.
She turned a personal fitness journey into an online business that later served clients across 28 countries and delivered around 10,000 client programs.
The family decided during a Kerala vacation that it made more sense to move now than to postpone the return until age 60.
Their decision was supported by earlier investments, medical insurance, a partially paid house loan, and long-term education planning for their daughter.
Leeba's practical rule for Gulf families is clear: if you are not saving at least 20% of your income, reevaluate why you are staying.
Her broader warning is to avoid waiting for a crisis. She says families should decide while they still have runway, not when they are forced by pressure.

Why did Leeba move to the UAE in the first place?

What made the UAE job market so hard for her?

Re-entry never stabilized the way she expected. Leeba says that after arriving in 2014, "6-8 months went by and nothing materialized." That was the first real crack in the plan.

"You have no source of income when you are so used to having that salary."