My Dubai Salary: ‘I earn up to Dh55,000 a month as a freelance plastic surgeon’

Passive income streams enabled Dr Abizer Kapadia to quit a full-time job to work on his own terms

Dr Abizer Kapadia invests in exchange-traded funds, bonds, property and businesses. Antonie Robertson / The National

Dr Abizer Kapadia quit his job as a full-time plastic surgeon in Dubai this year to go freelance after achieving a certain degree of financial freedom.

The 40-year-old Indian, who’s been living in the UAE for six years, currently works for a private clinic called Med Art Clinics and Day Surgery Centre and is also associated with Saudi German Hospital in Al Barsha.

“I worked in Al Zahra Hospital and Saudi German Hospital full time for three years each. I used to work as a full-time doctor on a monthly salary. This year onwards, I work on a revenue share model as a freelancer,” he says.

“We had a sense of financial freedom because my wife runs our family business and I have invested in a business that is going well. So, I can take the liberty of freelancing.”

Mr Kapadia studied for his bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degree at KEM Hospital, Mumbai.

After that, he trained in general and plastic surgery with the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in the north Indian city of Chandigarh for six years.

He later went to the UK to specialise in plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery.

He lives with his wife and their two children, aged nine and three, in The Springs, Dubai.

What was your first job and salary?

Salaries of doctors who have just passed out are not great in India. After we finish MBBS, we do an internship where we are paid a stipend. My stipend in the year 2007 was 1,700 Indian rupees ($20).

When I did my training for general surgery, my salary was about 38,000 rupees and while I trained for plastic surgery, it was between 65,000 and 72,000 rupees.

In medicine, as compared to other specialties, it takes a long time to establish your career. I was a graduate in 2007-2008, but started practising as a consultant in plastic surgery only in 2016.

My first proper job was in the UK. I used to earn about £3,200 ($2,200) a month as a plastic surgeon in 2015.

My first job in Dubai was in 2018 and I earned Dh45,000 per month. Before going freelance, my full-time salary was Dh75,000.

What is your salary now?

Right now, I'm making less because I'm freelancing. You only get paid if you have performed surgeries or have enough patients.

I have a fixed income, which is known as a minimum guarantee of pay, but overall it works like a revenue share model.

My average salary now would be about Dh50,000 to Dh55,000 per month.

Do you have considerable savings?

I have an emergency fund worth six months of monthly expenses.

Apart from that, I do not believe in saving, one should rather be investing.

What asset classes do you invest in?

I invest in US exchange-traded funds. I believe in investing in a diversified portfolio.

I invest in VWRA, which is an index that tracks stock markets globally. I also invest in bonds through a fund called IGLA. I invest through the Interactive Brokers platform. Currently, I have about half a million dirhams invested.

Index funds account for 80 per cent of my investment portfolio, while bonds make up 20 per cent.

I also invested in a car rental business. I get about Dh10,000 to Dh12,000 every month from it as a fixed income. I have also invested in the Indian stock market.

I plan to invest for the next 10 years and have been investing since I was 36. I have a very long-term outlook, so I invest more in stocks and less in bonds. When I get closer to 65, I plan to invest more in bonds.

Health care and life sciences salaries in the UAE in 2024 - in pictures

Was this all self-taught or did someone guide you?

I was very poor at managing my finances before. In medicine, two things are different from an average person who does a job. You take a long time for training, start earning well very late and have to catch up for a lot of years.

It's a busy, stressful and difficult job as a doctor, especially as a surgeon. You don’t have the time to learn about financial education and finances.

I made a lot of mistakes. I invested in a company and lost more than Dh100,000. I then decided to take matters into my hands and started learning.

Three years ago, I read many books about financial education and joined the Facebook group SimplyFI, from where I acquired a lot of knowledge.

I believe in the philosophy of paying yourself first. As soon as you get your salary, invest in something that is going to make more money.

The longer you invest, you will benefit from the effect of compounding, and the earlier you start investing, the more benefits will accrue.

Have you purchased property?

I invested in an off-plan property in Dubai South this year through a payment plan and have paid a 20 per cent down payment.

I bought a three-bedroom villa in The Springs where I live. I bought it in 2022 for Dh2.9 million with a mortgage.

Do you have any debt?

Only the mortgage. My top priority is to clear the pending mortgage of Dh1.6 million in the next 10 to 15 years.

I extensively use credit cards because they offer different benefits like cash back, offers and lounge access.

Dr Abizer Kapadia collects the cashback from his credit cards and invests it in gold. Antonie Robertson / The National

All my credit cards have an auto debit feature. I always make sure that I pay it in full and the card limits are only what I can afford.

My average credit card spend is about Dh20,000 to Dh25,000 a month. Earlier, we used to spend the cashback on things that we didn't need. Now we collect the cashback and invest it in gold.

Have you ever inherited a sum of money?

My father had a house in Mumbai, after he passed away, the money was distributed among three siblings. I got a share, which was approximately 6.5 million Indian rupees.

I invested it in a family food business, which is run by my wife, called Mama's Momos.

She also contributes to the household monthly income. That also helped me decide to give up a full-time job because money comes from my wife's business, my business investment and freelance work.

Growing up, were you taught how to handle your finances?

I belong to a well-to-do family. We never thought before spending. But all that changed when my father passed away in 2008 and I did not have any back-up. I was still studying and training.

So, I went from a period where I didn't have to worry about money at all to having to do everything myself.

I was never taught about finances. I learnt about investments, equities and ETFs only after the age of 35.

I learnt about finances through books, Facebook groups and talking to like-minded people.

How do you budget your salary every month?

We have a simple way of budgeting. We know our fixed expenses.

Now I worry less about money because I have an emergency fund and a diversified investment portfolio

Dr Abizer Kapadia,
plastic surgeon

Our biggest expenses are children's education, the mortgage, for which we pay Dh11,000 every month, and travelling, for which we keep aside a fixed amount every month.

The other fixed expenses, like grocery, consistently amount to between Dh3,000 and Dh4,000.

Every month, we remove all the fixed expenses and give ourselves some leeway, such as Dh5,000 for miscellaneous expenses. We channel the rest of the money into investments.

Have you started saving for retirement?

I don't believe in retirement because you don't retire from something you love to do. I love doing plastic surgery as it's not a mundane office job.

But I want to work on my own terms and conditions and manage my time myself. I have already started doing that from this year. Hopefully, I'll continue to do so.

All our investments in VWRA and IGLA funds are going towards our retirement. We also have a child education fund.

I also have a limited life term insurance until the age of 65. If anything happens to me before the age of 65, my family will receive a lumpsum payout of about Dh2.5 million.

People make the mistake of mixing insurance with investments. I did it and lost a lot of money.

Do you worry about money?

Yes. I am now in a position where I maintain a certain lifestyle and if I can’t maintain it, then it would be difficult to downgrade.

I used to worry about money more. Now I worry less because of two reasons. One is I have an emergency fund. Second, I have a diversified investment portfolio, which gives me financial freedom to a certain extent.

What are your financial goals?

My immediate financial goal is to renovate my villa. We are actively saving for it.

In the medium term, my goal is to pay off my mortgage and my children's education.

A long-term goal is to continue working on my terms and generate a lot of passive income, which will take care of our expenses.

What are your best money saving hacks to beat inflation?

Saving money doesn't make anybody rich. What you do with the saved money is what will determine your financial future.

Money sitting idle in your bank is never going to beat inflation. Put it into equities, mutual funds, property or any other instrument.

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