My dad moved to the UK with £15 in his pocket – now I own a £500k dental practice & spend £7k a year on handbags
GROWING up with a father who arrived in the UK with just £15 to his name, Rhona Eskander learned the value of hard work from an early age.
Her perspective on money was shaped by her parents’ journey – her father left Egypt aged 21 with barely anything, and her mother’s degree was dismissed as invalid when she arrived in the UK.
Rhona learnt that value of money after watching her mum and dad struggleSupplied
SuppliedRhona’s father came to the UK with just £15 in his pocket[/caption]
SuppliedRhona now owns a £500k dental practice[/caption]
Watch Fabulous’ Talking Money series in full here – and catch it every Wednesday
As the second guest on Fabulous’ Talking Money YouTube series, Rhona shared how her family once had to count every penny.
It’s a far cry from the lifestyle she enjoys in London’s Chelsea today, where she can afford to spend £20,000 a year on holidays and £7,000 on handbags.
She said the biggest impact on how she views money was “seeing how hard my dad had to work as an immigrant from Egypt and how hard he had to fight to get his position, especially in a time where it was quite racist in the UK.
“He really struggled with that – it definitely had an impact on me.
“Also seeing my mum come to the UK and being told that her degree wasn’t valid was also something that inspired me.
“I remember in the early years of our life, we went to Asda and we couldn’t buy Coca-Cola – we had to get Asda’s Coca-Cola, and my parents were really counting the pennies.
“I found it really difficult to watch them do that.”
Having watched her dad eventually get into medical school through sheer determination and hard work, Rhona believes her childhood really shaped her mindset.
“People say that things that happen to you either motivate you or they detract you,” she added.
“And I think it motivated me to do better because I thought, okay, great, I want to be like these kids’ parents. I don’t want to struggle.
“I want to make sure that I live comfortably. And so for me, money wasn’t about greed. It was just about comfort and freedom.”
Today, Rhona, 38, is the proud owner of a dental practice The Chelsea Dental Clinic, in London, which is now worth over £500,000 and co-founder of sustainable toothpaste brand Pärla Oral Care.
Her passion for dentistry was sparked at age 12 by the medics in her family. “I felt that dentistry wasn’t just a profession where you treat disease, but there was a lot of prevention involved.
“There was a real ability to make a huge difference and impact on people’s self-confidence. So that’s what really drew me to it.”
Like many young professionals, Rhona started with a modest income.
When she first graduated, she earned an NHS salary of £30,000 to £35,000 and lived in Kent, budgeting carefully for rent, food, and transport.
Growing up, I believed money doesn’t give you happiness, but it definitely gives you freedom
Rhona Eskander
“I was probably spending just over £1,000 a month – so not a lot. I don’t drink (alcohol), so I think that saves me a lot of money.
“I ended up saving between £500 to £1,000 every single month, and I had that in my head.”
That discipline helped her buy her own dental clinic – half funded by her savings and half by a loan.
However, just a week after she completed the purchase in 2020, the UK went into lockdown, forcing her practice to shut for three months.
SuppliedRhona is speaking exclusively to Fabulous’ Talking Money YouTube series[/caption]
SuppliedRhona pictured with her mother when she was younger[/caption]
SuppliedRhona pictured with her father[/caption]
“It was seeing one patient a month when I started,” she says. “It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and no one could really make it work.
“But within three years, I turned the practice around from seeing one patient a month to being fully booked for three months.”
Now financially secure, Rhona’s attitude towards money has evolved.
Her monthly outgoings include, £300 on grooming and beauty, £250 on gym membership, £1,000 on eating out, £300 on takeaways, about £500 on entertainment, £100 on subscriptions, £500 on clothes which equals to a total of £2,950.
Talking about her wardrobe, she says: “I have inherited half of my clothes from my mum because she was a fashionista and half her stuff is vintage actually.
“I am pretty good, I like to treat myself every now and then when it comes to fashion.
I’m not going to sacrifice spending time with my family and friends, or even a social event, because I actually enjoy life
Rhona Eskander
“If I have in my head, ‘OK you are allowed two handbags a year’ then I know that’s like £7,000 a year.”
Her monthly essential spends are £700 on utilities, £200 on her phone bill, £800 on groceries, £2,000 on insurance, and a £3,000 mortgage which her husband contributes to which allows her to put money into her savings for the future.
She also saves between £3,000 and £4,000 a month, and £1,500 on pensions, £500 on various charities equalling to £5,700 on monthly essentials.
But her favourite things to spend her money on is her holidays which estimate around £20,000 a year.
“My partner and I are total holiday junkies, we go away all the time and we love to go to super exotic places.
“We have been to Guatemala, we’ve been to Rwanda. We do a bit of hippy stuff, go backpacking and end up in a really nice hotel at the end of the holiday.”
SuppliedRhona spends around £20,000 a year on travel[/caption]
Rhona continues: “Growing up, I believed money doesn’t give you happiness, but it definitely gives you freedom.
“My parents are your typical hardworking, immigrant Middle Eastern parents who left their respective countries because they didn’t have opportunities.
“For me, that meant trying to double revenue, trying to hit all of these financial goalposts.
“But I’m not going to sacrifice spending time with my family and friends, or even a social event, because I actually enjoy life – and life is to be enjoyed.”
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