What would you do? Pound/Dollar
Discussion
Need some help from the great educated masses on PH. I've asked the question before, and got some good advice, but as usual it got a bit lost in all the other stuff in the P&P.
Basically i'm going to be in the states for 3 months from January the 5th (i'm going snowboarding in Colorado for most of the season) I've quit my job to do this and all my money is in sterling so all this dollar/pound malarky has hit me pretty hard. I have just opened a dollar bank account with lloyds which I could transfer an amount into now (to protect against any further weakening of the pound) or I could wait and see and hope the dollar weakens a little - All the forecasts I can find have no decisive information or advice.
Now obviously I realise there is no way to know for sure and I'm not looking for indepth analysis or anything like that, just a simple put yourself in my shoes and what would you do in my situation?
There's some clever folk on here, people far more in the know with regards to the worlds finances then I expect I ever shall be, so i'd really appreciate the help.
Basically i'm going to be in the states for 3 months from January the 5th (i'm going snowboarding in Colorado for most of the season) I've quit my job to do this and all my money is in sterling so all this dollar/pound malarky has hit me pretty hard. I have just opened a dollar bank account with lloyds which I could transfer an amount into now (to protect against any further weakening of the pound) or I could wait and see and hope the dollar weakens a little - All the forecasts I can find have no decisive information or advice.
Now obviously I realise there is no way to know for sure and I'm not looking for indepth analysis or anything like that, just a simple put yourself in my shoes and what would you do in my situation?
There's some clever folk on here, people far more in the know with regards to the worlds finances then I expect I ever shall be, so i'd really appreciate the help.
You could become a little one man hedgefund and buy some dollar options! 
Seriously though Stick half in now, and the rest just before you go. Its not going to get any better, unless something catastrophic happens state side (like ford + gm going bust?)
Seriously though Stick half in now, and the rest just before you go. Its not going to get any better, unless something catastrophic happens state side (like ford + gm going bust?)
Edited by davido140 on Saturday 13th December 22:09
milfordkong said:
Need some help from the great educated masses on PH. I've asked the question before, and got some good advice, but as usual it got a bit lost in all the other stuff in the P&P.
Basically i'm going to be in the states for 3 months from January the 5th (i'm going snowboarding in Colorado for most of the season) I've quit my job to do this and all my money is in sterling so all this dollar/pound malarky has hit me pretty hard. I have just opened a dollar bank account with lloyds which I could transfer an amount into now (to protect against any further weakening of the pound) or I could wait and see and hope the dollar weakens a little - All the forecasts I can find have no decisive information or advice.
Now obviously I realise there is no way to know for sure and I'm not looking for indepth analysis or anything like that, just a simple put yourself in my shoes and what would you do in my situation?
There's some clever folk on here, people far more in the know with regards to the worlds finances then I expect I ever shall be, so i'd really appreciate the help.
I get paid in US$, but live in the UK, so I hope and pray the exchange rate stays just where it is. Basically i'm going to be in the states for 3 months from January the 5th (i'm going snowboarding in Colorado for most of the season) I've quit my job to do this and all my money is in sterling so all this dollar/pound malarky has hit me pretty hard. I have just opened a dollar bank account with lloyds which I could transfer an amount into now (to protect against any further weakening of the pound) or I could wait and see and hope the dollar weakens a little - All the forecasts I can find have no decisive information or advice.
Now obviously I realise there is no way to know for sure and I'm not looking for indepth analysis or anything like that, just a simple put yourself in my shoes and what would you do in my situation?
There's some clever folk on here, people far more in the know with regards to the worlds finances then I expect I ever shall be, so i'd really appreciate the help.
Sorry to be of no use whatsoever, but I spent the last four years or so getting screwed on my salary with the exchange rate, so I'm happy now.
King Herald said:
I get paid in US$, but live in the UK, so I hope and pray the exchange rate stays just where it is.
Sorry to be of no use whatsoever, but I spent the last four years or so getting screwed on my salary with the exchange rate, so I'm happy now.
Ha ha, thanks man, I appreciate your reply anyway...Sorry to be of no use whatsoever, but I spent the last four years or so getting screwed on my salary with the exchange rate, so I'm happy now.
No opinion on if it'll go up or down?
milfordkong said:
King Herald said:
I get paid in US$, but live in the UK, so I hope and pray the exchange rate stays just where it is.
Sorry to be of no use whatsoever, but I spent the last four years or so getting screwed on my salary with the exchange rate, so I'm happy now.
Ha ha, thanks man, I appreciate your reply anyway...Sorry to be of no use whatsoever, but I spent the last four years or so getting screwed on my salary with the exchange rate, so I'm happy now.
No opinion on if it'll go up or down?
Honestly, if I was a betting man I wouldn't know which way to go. The Pound has been really high against the Dollar of late but now it's returned to normality. Equally, both economies are well and truly in the mire. I've heard the Chinese currency is on the up, so why not buy some of that for the time being? There again, if you listen to my currency speculation advice you'll probably end up bankrupt in a few weeks!
short term - this...
http://www.dailyfx.com/story/currency/gbp_fundamen...
long term - who knows...
Almost all my money is in Euros with only some in USDs and GBPs. Not been a bad year for me especially as I don't have property at the moment or shares. Will jump into both next year.
http://www.dailyfx.com/story/currency/gbp_fundamen...
long term - who knows...
Almost all my money is in Euros with only some in USDs and GBPs. Not been a bad year for me especially as I don't have property at the moment or shares. Will jump into both next year.
Edited by Olivero on Sunday 14th December 01:04
milfordkong said:
Any more thoughts on this from the working week crowd??
Just got a little bit better at £1 = $1.55... Makes quite a difference when you're buying a lot of dollars but again, i'm worried i'll buy them now and in a months time it'll be at $1.70.
How much are you changing? If you need $10K then it makes a few hundred pounds difference (which you'd probably rather have, but it's not life changing).Just got a little bit better at £1 = $1.55... Makes quite a difference when you're buying a lot of dollars but again, i'm worried i'll buy them now and in a months time it'll be at $1.70.
All my companies income is in dollars (although in the UK we get paid a fixed amount in pounds). We just did a review for next year and our finance guy's opinion (he's been very senior in multi-nationals for many years, but it is only his opinion) was that it would trade in the $1.50-$1.60 range for the foreseeable future. That's very good news for the company, although a disaster for my US holiday in March!
What you could do is feed money into dollars gradually over the next 3 months - then you get an average of the rate over that period.
Deva Link said:
milfordkong said:
Any more thoughts on this from the working week crowd??
Just got a little bit better at £1 = $1.55... Makes quite a difference when you're buying a lot of dollars but again, i'm worried i'll buy them now and in a months time it'll be at $1.70.
How much are you changing? If you need $10K then it makes a few hundred pounds difference (which you'd probably rather have, but it's not life changing).Just got a little bit better at £1 = $1.55... Makes quite a difference when you're buying a lot of dollars but again, i'm worried i'll buy them now and in a months time it'll be at $1.70.
All my companies income is in dollars (although in the UK we get paid a fixed amount in pounds). We just did a review for next year and our finance guy's opinion (he's been very senior in multi-nationals for many years, but it is only his opinion) was that it would trade in the $1.50-$1.60 range for the foreseeable future. That's very good news for the company, although a disaster for my US holiday in March!
What you could do is feed money into dollars gradually over the next 3 months - then you get an average of the rate over that period.
We (the missus & I) opened a Sterling offshore fixed deposit account a few weeks back and stuck loads in that. Our stuff is in a dollar pegged currency and have seen it grow by around 25% against the pound
Hopefully the pound will gain ground back against the dollar so we make something out of it - money for nothing. STerling could crash even further but I doubt it and we'er aware of teh risk that it might.
Happy Days!
Going to buy something nice in the UK thanks to that and the arse falling out of the property market.
Hopefully the pound will gain ground back against the dollar so we make something out of it - money for nothing. STerling could crash even further but I doubt it and we'er aware of teh risk that it might.
Happy Days!
Going to buy something nice in the UK thanks to that and the arse falling out of the property market.
Asterix said:
We (the missus & I) opened a Sterling offshore fixed deposit account a few weeks back and stuck loads in that. Our stuff is in a dollar pegged currency and have seen it grow by around 25% against the pound
Hopefully the pound will gain ground back against the dollar so we make something out of it - money for nothing. STerling could crash even further but I doubt it and we'er aware of teh risk that it might.
OK, I'm confused. Kindly explain:Hopefully the pound will gain ground back against the dollar so we make something out of it - money for nothing. STerling could crash even further but I doubt it and we'er aware of teh risk that it might.
How can you have a Sterling account in a dollar pegged currency?
And if Sterling strengthens then surely that's a bad thing for anything dollar related?
I can well undertand that if you spent (say) £100K on dollars a few mths ago you'd have got $200K. Today that's worth something like £125K, so there's your 25%. But unless you change it back now, the last thing you want is for sterling to strengthen.
Depending on how much you need to get it can be worth hedging with TravelEx.
Order a grand's worth and pay about 6 quid for their "buy back guarantee". If the rate gets worse you're fine, if the rate gets more than 6 quid better then put in another order and when you pick up the first just give it straight back.
You could even try to make a profit on this too. If you get say 2 grands worth and the rate gets worse you can pick up the 2 grands worth and then sell half the dollars back to them for a profit (allowing for their 2% spread).
Finally, the Travelex website isn't updated that often. Earlier this year the pound dropped a lot by 11am but the Travelex site was still showing the rate from the date before which was better than the base rate!
Order a grand's worth and pay about 6 quid for their "buy back guarantee". If the rate gets worse you're fine, if the rate gets more than 6 quid better then put in another order and when you pick up the first just give it straight back.
You could even try to make a profit on this too. If you get say 2 grands worth and the rate gets worse you can pick up the 2 grands worth and then sell half the dollars back to them for a profit (allowing for their 2% spread).
Finally, the Travelex website isn't updated that often. Earlier this year the pound dropped a lot by 11am but the Travelex site was still showing the rate from the date before which was better than the base rate!
Deva Link said:
Asterix said:
We (the missus & I) opened a Sterling offshore fixed deposit account a few weeks back and stuck loads in that. Our stuff is in a dollar pegged currency and have seen it grow by around 25% against the pound
Hopefully the pound will gain ground back against the dollar so we make something out of it - money for nothing. STerling could crash even further but I doubt it and we'er aware of teh risk that it might.
OK, I'm confused. Kindly explain:Hopefully the pound will gain ground back against the dollar so we make something out of it - money for nothing. STerling could crash even further but I doubt it and we'er aware of teh risk that it might.
How can you have a Sterling account in a dollar pegged currency?
And if Sterling strengthens then surely that's a bad thing for anything dollar related?
I can well undertand that if you spent (say) £100K on dollars a few mths ago you'd have got $200K. Today that's worth something like £125K, so there's your 25%. But unless you change it back now, the last thing you want is for sterling to strengthen.
To your point about it being bad if Sterling strengthens - yes it is bad but there's nothing I can do about it. I get paid and buy stuff in the currency - I can however make something of it by investing in Sterling now with the long term view it will strengthen naturaly. Just covering the bases really. Same reason why we're in a great position to buy in the UK now wit hthe long term in mind.
milfordkong said:
Basically i'm going to be in the states for 3 months from January the 5th (i'm going snowboarding in Colorado for most of the season) I've quit my job to do this
Slightly off the topic, but unless you have a visa, don't tell US Immigration, Customs and Enforcement that you have done this. They are going to have a hard enough time figuring out how you blagged a 3 month vacation. They like to see reasons why you need to go home and in their eyes, you just removed one of them by quitting your job. Also off topic, it's been -27c in Denver; God alone knows what it was like up in the hills. Dress WARM.
However, there are some good deals at the moment-
http://www.9news.com/weather/outdoors/ski/default....
However, there are some good deals at the moment-
http://www.9news.com/weather/outdoors/ski/default....
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff