Bahrain is widely considered the lowest cost of living in GCC and was recently ranked 1st globally as the "Best Destination for Getting Started Abroad" in 2023 according to InterNations, based in Germany. In 2022, the same group awarded Bahrain 1st out of 52 nations for expats to live and work. When coming to a new country, the cost of living is a major factor to consider. That is what we mainly discuss in this video.
Of course there is a lot of debate about who exactly are they talking about when they say "expat". In this video we are giving our opinion about this when it comes to the cost of living in Bahrain. We think this highly depends on what is the level of development the previous country you lived in. This is measured by a country's human development index (HDI). Bahrain has a high HDI of 87.5, tied for the second highest in GCC.
If you are coming from another country which also has a high HDI, you still could have a higher cost of living in Bahrain but only if you do not change your habits. So it is best if you can drop many of your old consumption habits and be open to other ways of living. After we made this adjustment, we noticed our quality of life is better and the cost of living in Bahrain is much more reasonable.
There are many costs which exist in western countries which are very high and some of these costs do not exist in Bahrain. But on the flip side, many foreign branded consumer goods are very expensive in Bahrain. Our opinion is that in order to take advantage of the areas of cost savings in Bahrain, you have to adjust your consumption away from the foreign brands used back home in the west.
What if you come from a country which has a lower HDI than Bahrain? In this video we promote the idea of doing business in Bahrain and we notice a high level of entrepreneurial spirit. This is important for foreigners moving to Bahrain who come from places with a lower HDI. In this case you'll need to earn a higher wage than your home country. Not all jobs in Bahrain pay a high salary so if you choose to come here it's best to plan well in advance to start a business. Yes, doing business of course costs money to get started. But we noticed if you can prepare for this, we have seen a wide variety of nationalities do well in business in Bahrain.
We also discuss if you are a Bahraini, especially a young one, and are considering going abroad to work. Bahrain is a small country, thus there are some careers which have more opportunity in other places. But we mention in the video that you need to consider that although there are high salary opportunities elsewhere, the inflation rate (10% in UK) and expenses are much higher than in Bahrain. We think less about how much money we are making and more about how much we are KEEPING. This is a dilemma for some people. It's not easy to start a business in a field which you are new, but going outside to advance your career is not easy also. In western countries, many industries are fully saturated, more big corporations and less entrepreneurs. In Bahrain, a highly motivated career person is more likely to run their own business while in the west it is more likely that same type of person will work for a large company. Bahrain is a well developed country but we think it still has many untapped opportunities.
Timestamps
0:00 - Start
0:27 - Human Development Index (HDI) in Bahrain
2:26 - Expenses in Bahrain vs. Western countries
4:15 - Food costs in Bahrain
11:10 - Vehicles and car expenses
12:18 - Price inflation rate in Bahrain vs. Elsewhere
13:44 - Utilities expenses (EWA)
15:20 - Choices as a new graduate Bahraini
17:33 - Doing business in Bahrain
21:45 - Service industry in Bahrain
23:25 - Bahraini credit cards and payment systems
24:42 - Having a nanny or driver in Bahrain
26:04 - Costs of using medical clinics in Bahrain
31:49 - Leisure activities
35:31 - Being open minded