Here’s my story as briefly as I could make it: I grew up in Scotland, schooled and worked there. After graduation and success in my design career I decided to leave home ground for sunny, blue sky days and headed to the desert. With suitcase in hand and dreams in mind I arrived in Dubai, October 2005. This was going to be where I got bank! Filled with enthusiasm and determination I set roots down in the hip Marina area and began my money making quest. Everywhere I looked I saw money, money, more money. ‘ WOW! …what a city and I’m ready to make a whole lotta wedge’. Dubai was my ka-ching and all I needed was the law of attraction!???! ehhhhh, yip I have to say I believed if I wanted it hard and long enough the money I dreamed of having would somehow magically work it’s way towards me and of course I found myself in April 2006 armed with the best selling book, The Secret. I was on it! I paced my ritzy apartment willing dollars, pounds, dirham into my bank account. I wrote myself blank cheques and put images of the expensive lifestyle I craved onto my walls. Everywhere I looked I focused on my dream homes, cars, holidays, my amazing dream husband and my overflowing dream bank account.While I was preparing for the big cash injection I kept my day job going. Lets face it, I had rent to pay, food to buy and a full social life! I am a designer so I set about working on some large scale architectural projects. The design teams were great and the demand for our skill set was at times quite mind blowing. The salaries were growing as rapid as Dubai and my spend was just as fast!
During the period that I was waiting for the expected millions I was earning-spending, earning-spending and at the back of my thoughts I was so sure my bank manager was going to be calling me personally to handle my future income and investments. So I kept on spending like a superstar and before I knew it my first year in Dubai was heading into my second and I had ran up two credit cards.
Debt free to debt death! I was paid well for my design work and found myself bedazzled by the glitzy bling and bought (quite literally) into the chic uptown gotta have so I’m gonna have lifestyle. Although earning more than double what my income was in Scotland, I was caught in the thick of repayments and this is where my dream started to become a nightmare.
My life turned on its head and I went from being a fun loving, chilled out kind of a gal to a nervous wreck. I was ill and constantly worried about the money I owed. I disappeared socially and became focused on my work. I knew that I had to keep my job in order to pay the debt back so I worked hard and lived on a very (very) tight budget. Naturally, I had to move out of my perfect pad into a bedroom I rented from a friend in the suburbs. As I took a last walk around my apartment I looked at the accumulation of material things that had once brought me satisfaction and happiness. Where did I go wrong? I was sure I had ‘the secret’ to money making on my side so how could it all have turned out so badly?
I sold my possessions for a song and had to give most of them away. So there I was, November 2006 again with suitcase in hand I moved into four walls. I spent the next two years in contemplation while paying back the plastic fantastic. I had no money to go out and party so I read a ton of books and lived a simple but happy life. I dug my heals in I made myself a promise never to sell my soul for fake, momentarily contentment ever again.
OK so this is where I get to tell you that my life at this point took another turn. November 2008, I just as I got myself out of debt the world recession ripped across the globe and hit Dubai overnight and knocked her clean off her feet. Construction was a slow to stop and my industry began folding like a pack of domino’s. The company I was working with pulled out of Dubai so I went from having a job one day to unemployed the next. Thankfully I was debt free but I had no savings so I put myself out there for freelance work in the hope that I’d get something/anything to keep me from going hungry. I managed to get work here and there and by now I was no stranger to making what money I had stretch as far as it could. I checked daily through the job pages both in Dubai and the UK however, the market had slumped and hit rock bottom so there were no jobs available.
I moved into an apartment in the Downtown area in March 2009 and spent the rest of the year making ends meet. I began to enjoy my time and seen that although I had no guaranteed work, the satisfaction of working for myself at home on what projects I could get was incredibly rewarding. My mum always told me that I had 2 choices in life, I could either sink or swim. Sinking wasn’t an option so I ignited the fire in my belly and got to work. I began to relish my time and make the most of my days and the benefits of not having a 9 to 6, sometimes a 9 to whenever job were unfolding and filling my life with a strong sense of freedom. I was making choices and handling my life in a clear, organised manner. Then I paused and it occurred to me that I am now living ‘the secret’ that I tried to manipulate into my life back in 2005.
So what’s going on in 2010? I’ve created this blog to connect to you and chat about life as it happens!
……………………………………………………………..THANK YOU 
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