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29 March 2024

Dubai-based author’s tips on how to get out of debt trap

Published
By PS Nair

Being deep in debt is bad enough. If, on top of that, you lose your job or your business revenues plunge, you are in serious trouble - both financial and emotional.

Is there no way to get out of the woods fully or at least substantially? Can’t you do anything about it except despair?

Indeed, there is much you can do to rehabilitate yourself both financially and emotionally, according to Theda Muller, a Dubai-based author.

She says her e-book - 'Embrace Financial Freedom' - is dedicated to people in the UAE who have financial troubles.

According to her, a large number of expatriates in the UAE are facing a serious debt crisis with no knowledge on how to go about fully or substantially solving it.

Having helped quite a few people to recoup their financial and emotional health, her tips in the e-book for debt-ridden people make much common sense. And, as the author rightly says, you have nothing to lose by accepting guidance.

Muller says finding yourself in debt in the Middle East is very much different from a similar situation in a Western country because the rules vary significantly. Also, expatriates in the UAE can easily get big loans that they would not be eligible to in their home countries without the standard securities.

According to the author, the real reason why a debt crisis hits most UAE expatriates hard, is that most of them hardly take the time and trouble to build their ‘nest eggs’.

And the reason for that is that for most expatriates, who may be unaccustomed to real wealth, there is a tendency to ‘forget about tomorrow.’  During good times, they never think they might face a debt crisis and so when such a crisis hits them and suddenly, they don’t have a plan of action that they can put in place fast to bring their wobbling financial ship back on a rather even keel.

The gist of the book can be summed up in the author’s own words: Debt is also not bad if controlled.  After all, we need to buy those necessities that cost too much to pay cash for, so we need a line of credit for these purchases. However, it must be strictly controlled so you don’t find yourself facing a debt crisis.

The e-book is divided into ten chapters, the most important of which are ‘Reality Check’ (Chapter 2), ‘Take Responsibility and Control’ (Chapter 3), The Real Deal (Chapter 4), ‘Confronting Your Creditors’ (Chapter 9) and ‘Emotional Release Tips’ (Chapter 10).  It also includes three case studies.

All Gulf expatriates, particularly in the UAE, could do well to read this e-book because it doesn’t just deal with ang a debt crisis of today – it also gives advice on how to avoid one as also how to face one if any arises in the future.

Muller says it is better if we are intellectually and emotionally prepared. After all, as the old proverb says, forewarned is forearmed.