Has The Weak Dollar Changed Anything For You?

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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...

[Optsol]

All posters claiming it has had no direct effect on them either do not live in the US, or are wrong.

The weak dollar affects countless functions, most noticeably, interest rates and imported items (read that as oil).

[sweeps]

All posters claiming it has had no direct effect on them either do not live in the US, or are wrong.

The weak dollar affects countless functions, most noticeably, interest rates and imported items (read that as oil).

In the long run, yes, but not necessarily in the short run. Interest rates have been going down. And oil was spiking even before the dollar went into its tailspin.

[jasanderson]

I have strong and well-founded fears for the future of the US dollar. Debt load here is way too high and with manufacturing and other non-professional high-paying jobs leaving the US, we could face a significant level of failure among financial institutions. Americans are stupid on the whole, and the moment that starts, there will be a run on the banks, forcing the government to suspend financial markets. There could be a period of major financial chaos in those 10-20 years.

You can thank everyone who voted for Bush - my husband calls me a tree hugger, which I'm not - I just think he is one of the major reasons our country has gone so downhill. He has encouraged the export of jobs. This from a man who can barely put a legible sentence together without the help of writers. Just my opinion that frequently gets me in trouble with my very staunch Republican inlaws!

[jasanderson]

I think it affects everyone a lot more than most of us realize. The reason that oil prices are so high isn't just because there is a shortage. A lot is because the dollar is plummeting. That affects food prices which hits everyone in the pocket book. Anything that is imported will see price increases soon if they haven't already.

It seems like oil prices were high when the economy was doing good. I feel like that was the start of our downfall. I think there is conspiracy with the middle eastern countried because they hate Americans.

[veronak]

It hasn't affected me; I am not planning a trip anythime soon, but I think it will turn around slowly