Financial nerdery

[loic]

So, as the US dollar has tumbled the risk of inflation has been rising (the weakening dollar means imports will be relatively more expensive, a lot of the economy is the consumption of imported consumer good - look at Walmart). To counteract this the federal reserve has been slashing interest rates. A year ago the rate was 5.25%, today it's 2% (see

Comments

[hub_]

in 2001 I went for a short trip to Boston, just before 9/11....

I got $300 in cash from the bank. On the return I had over $100 left. At that time I paid 1.15 EUR for a $. I kept them instead of changing them back.
I spent some this week-end. It did really hurt....

[loic]

yeah - that was a really poor investment :)

[hub_]

that was not an investement. that was a leftover. *sigh*

[tylercox]

LJ is for talking about feelings, not facts. duh.

[hub_]

I thought is was about drama and teen angst?

[loic]

I'm feeling all emo about the USD.

[marnanel]

Never mind the Feds cutting interest rates: the interest rates are getting so emo they're cutting themselves.

[craig9520]

If you read the terms and conditions for the ING Direct accounts in Australia you have to be an Australian Resident (strictly speaking) to open one of the accounts. I'm sure you can wangle something having relatives there and all, but you may want to pay attention to any T&Cs for any money making schemes you come up with.

The Pound is tanking against the Australia dollar, just on a different timescale to the US dollar (where it is now cheaper place to take a holiday than it was a year ago).

As an aside, I just paid US$2.25/litre for fuel to fill up my car today. That's only just over 2:1 when it used to be 4:1 price difference. Sign of the times. That is probably as much to do with the US dollar dropping as anything else.

[loic]

I wonder where I'm a resident. I'm certainly not a US permanent-resident, but I don't actually have residency anywhere else. I do have current Australian bank accounts but none that have rates like ING's.

The AUD is a really great currency at the moment, and it doesn't show any sign of turning around - at least till something really bad happens globally and hurts demand for steel or oil...

[craig9520]

You should try to argue that because you aren't a "resident" you shouldn't have to pay tax :-)

[dannipenguin]

I've not read them, but I suspect it means 'resident for taxation purposes'. Because it's a high-interest account, Ian would need to supply his tax file number and start filing Australian tax returns for the revenue he generates.

The whole idea seems like it's worth investigating. If you still have Australian bank accounts, you should be able to link an Internet-based high-Interest account easily enough. The trick will be working out how you can change a lot of currency into and out of Australian dollars, without having it erroded in fees.

[harryh]

Beware of predicting future results based on past performance. Especially when it comes to short/medium term currency fluctuations.

[loic]

It's true, but since I'm planning on spending this money largely as Euros and Australian Dollars it's probably worth the risk.

[dearanxiety]

don't lose my money!