Back in 2017 my wife and I decided to pack up the family and move from our home in Southern Indiana to take an expat position on the other side of the world in Saudi Arabia. We know from our own personal experience that a move like this can be scary, and a little daunting as well, but we have really enjoyed our time abroad and found that most of what you see and hear on tv and the news is very skewed or even completely wrong. For us the last two plus years have been an amazing time filled with new experiences, new friends, and lots of travel. We have found that the benefits of living and working in Saudi Arabia can go well beyond just financial, but of course for those interested in the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement working abroad in KSA can be a unique path to kick start your own FIRE journey.
Our home is located on the KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) campus an hour drive North of Jeddah on the west coast of KSA along the Red Sea. When we were looking at moving to KSA in general, and KAUST specifically, we found that sometimes it was a little hard to find detailed information about life in the Kingdom from a US expat perspective. So we decide to create a section on the website devoted specifically to life in KSA and more specifically life at KAUST. We will try to cover in some detail all the aspects of daily life at KAUST from the food, to the schools, to financial benefits, but of course if there are certain topics you see missing please don’t hesitate to ask and we will be happy to share our experiences. We hope this information helps, and for any of you out there thinking about making the jump to living abroad in KSA we hope this gives you the information you need to see if its the right decision for your own family.