Cash ISA currency hedge?
Cash ISA currency hedge?
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Discussion

Timer

Original Poster:

356 posts

185 months

Supposing you had a good chunk in a cash ISA, and didn’t want to deploy that into the markets, is there a cost effective way to protect that cash from a currency devaluation?

I earn in GBP, mortgage and bills in GBP, got no need for savings to be there too but they’re in an ISA so a bit limited on options from what I can tell. Any ideas?

Coutts do a multi currency offset mortgage which would be splendid…. but I’m far too poor for them. Is there anything similar out there or a DIY bodge job?





Happy Jim

1,079 posts

268 months

? I don’t follow, if you have savings in £, earn in £, Debt in £ then surely a devaluation is a zero sum problem?

Timer

Original Poster:

356 posts

185 months

Not really. My earnings pay the debt off. The savings don t need to.

If you thought GBP would do worse against a basket of world currencies (over a 20year time frame .which I do) then wouldn t it make sense to avoid it if you can?

Edited to add that I’d like to have options open to move abroad in the future.

shtu

4,502 posts

175 months

You could hold an assortment of money market ETFs, held in whatever currency mix you like. But, I'd expect a bunch of fees and currency exchange snags. Rather than holding cash you're taking a punt on multiple exchange rates.

thekingisdead

316 posts

162 months

Yesterday (00:29)
quotequote all
"
Supposing you had a good chunk in a cash ISA, and didn’t want to deploy that into the markets, is there a cost effective way to protect that cash from a currency devaluation?"

Global equities is the answer. and thats not meant to sound facetious.

Cash rarely (never?) keeps its purchasing power over the long term. Those of a cynical persuasion may argue thats the way the govt keeps it to devalue the national debt.

IMO

NowWatchThisDrive

1,324 posts

133 months

Yesterday (06:57)
quotequote all
If you really want to do this you could transfer into a S&S ISA and buy foreign currency money market/very short duration bond funds...e.g. from a quick search XEON for EUR, IB01 for USD.

But I don't really get the rationale. If it's money you might need to spend (in GBP) in the foreseeable future then GBP is what you want, otherwise if it's just sitting there indefinitely then doesn't make much sense to be in cash anyway regardless of currency. If you just want to take a punt on GBP vs other currencies over the next 20yrs that is very much "deploying it into markets".

leef44

5,180 posts

182 months

You could put the ISA funds into a gold etf like SGLN. This would effectively be a cheap currency hedge.

SchillingTwo

690 posts

3 months

Timer said:
Not really. My earnings pay the debt off. The savings don t need to.

If you thought GBP would do worse against a basket of world currencies (over a 20year time frame .which I do) then wouldn t it make sense to avoid it if you can?

Edited to add that I d like to have options open to move abroad in the future.
You need to give more information. What currency are your wages in and what currencies are your expenses in?

If all GBP then your current currency exposure is zero and there’s nothing to hedge,