Has The Weak Dollar Changed Anything For You?

[PRICEPLUS]

Interestingly enough if our economy goes everyone else is coming with us.

[jeffmem]

Was considering to travel, but not now, also considering what I should do with any savings I have, a little late to transfer anything into foreign currency as you would lose at this moment, should have done it years ago when I first thought about it... I have my fears also over the next 10-20 years what could happen to the US dollar. Bad presidents, poor decision making by lawmakers, cheaper is better mentality of consumers leading to outsourcing more of products that should remain being factored in the US, it's pretty scary...

[Ingtar17]

This couldn't be more perfect timing for me. I'm a Canadian AND an American living in Canada. I was thinking of moving to the States very soon. My wife is thinking about going to school, so now it has become SOOOOO much cheaper for us. The Canadian dollar has gone from about $0.66US to $1.05 US

[Aleta]

It is definitely a good time to use our vacation money in our own country to support it. I have wanted to go to Europe but it's so expensive now. There is so much for us to see in our own country, plus Canada is a good place to travel as well. We need to start bolstering our own economy.

As one poster said, if our dollar goes down, we'll take a lot with us. There are so many countries depending on us for monetary support.

[DebbieL]

"The Canadian dollar has gone from about $0.66US to $1.05 US"

It was only ever that low for a brief period. I’m 37 and I was too young to remember the last time the Canadian dollar was worth more than the US dollar (in the 70’s). We did go to the US pretty often though, and it was usually between about 80-90 cents US.

[marvholly]

A friend had been talking to me for several months about a May 08 trip to Europe. At the end of September I was just about to tell her no way because of the falling dollar, which I expected to fall more and its has. However, I got lucky and have a different excuse:

DD is pregnant and due in mid-May!!!!

[marvholly]

Also, I just got back from Canada on Tue 10/31.

Almost everywhere the US dollar is accepted at equal value so I was ok. Registers must be tied into banks as they automatically do the calculations. Where it was not I used my Cap One card as they have no transaction fees.

[Exile]

The weaker dollar has made living in the Philippines a lot more expensive than, say, a year ago at this time.

[InDebtInDC]

A lot of people are saying to pull money out of the market, but I'm betting it all on the international funds. I hope I come out ahead.

[T_I_N_A20]

I'm in Canada. SO yeah, I'm taking full advantage of the low currency in the South to do some shopping. I haven'visited New York for almost 6 years.

[msnln]

Yes. I hate paying over $3 for gallon of gasoline so I stopped driving the car to work. Instead I drive to the train station and take the train. Now I fill up once a month.

[Staceyy]

I lost my job, but we have a large stockpile of food (bought on sale) and firewood. We rarely have to buy gas as dh is a long distance truck driver and rarely home, and I'm a non-driver. When we do buy gas for the car, we buy it discounted as our grocery store gives us ten cents off per gallon of gas for every $50 we spend on groceries. Dh bought gas the other day and got 60 cents off per gallon.

[Hypersion]

I resell tons of item overseas on ebay!!!

[krayziebone33]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Even medicine is seeing some outsourcing. Radiology services are already being outsourced. X-rays are taken digitally and it doesn't matter where they transmit the image. So a radiologist in Mumbai interprets the film and e-mails back the reading.

Yup. I was talking to one of my doctors the other day and he was telling me how his daughter is struggling in medical school and how they're bringing on all these foreign doctors who work for less but have half the skills that they teach here in the U.S. He, too, fears outsourcing in medicine and actually told me to stay if finance when I told him that medicine still interests me. It was a very interesting conversation.

[feh]

The investment I made in gold 9 months ago has done really well.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by feh

The investment I made in gold 9 months ago has done really well.

What was the nature of your investment in gold? Mutual funds, Gold bullion or -?

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Exile

What was the nature of your investment in gold? Mutual funds, Gold bullion or -?

Our gold fund, OPGSX, is up 31.16% YTD and 47.25% for the year ended 9/30/07. I only wish we had more in the fund.

[feh]

Originally Posted by Exile

What was the nature of your investment in gold? Mutual funds, Gold bullion or -?

Mutual fund. And it's actually not gold itself, but gold mining companies. However, the value of the fund essentially mirrors the price of gold.

It's pretty volatile, but when the dollar is sinking, it's volatile in a good way.

[gackle]

Originally Posted by Exile

The weaker dollar has made living in the Philippines a lot more expensive than, say, a year ago at this time.

We have U.S. missionary friends in Ireland who are really hurting also. They are asking for about 25% more funds than normal due to the lower dollar.

[ceejay74]

Yes, I'm getting hit HARD by the weak dollar! My husband just moved here from England, and he still has bills to pay over there (mortgage and credit card), so I'm throwing tons of our puny American dollars into his account and wincing when it comes out to less than half that in pounds. I may have to figure out how to do an international balance transfer of his debt to over here (if that's even possible...) It would expand once it got converted into U.S. currency, but at least I wouldn't pay outrageous wire transfer fees coming and going...