The dollar has hit a 2 year high against the Japanese Yen – while this may not affect the majority of you, it has profound consequences for my personal finances. It wasn’t too long ago that the yen was trading at 105 to the dollar. The rise is a 12% increase in about a year. For me, that’s like receiving a 12% raise since almost all my income comes in dollars and then gets converted to yen.

This is especially helpful for sites like eBay where I haven’t changed any of my habits, but am getting a better return on all the things I sell due to the exchange rate moving in my favor. The same with all the money that is generated through advertising on my sites which helps me move closer to the goal of making the sites my one and only full time position.

Experience tells me that this won’t last for long, so I should be concentrating on leveraging as much income as I can at this point and time to take advantage of the positive exchange rate as it could very well be much lower 6 months from now.