can you explain???

you've lost me....

Thats how much you would roughly lose from transferring his funds from £ to $.

Ye, but in theory, have patience, I'd wait for better rates with that sort of bread.

These threads used to annoy me, now they just make me laugh.

For one thing, why would you think a bunch of engineers, hairdressers and nurses can out-predict the might of the major banks etc

For another, this "holding on until in gets to 2.40" etc: The rate will wobble up and down but it is as likely to hit 1.90 as 2.40 in a few months time. I have met people who got $3 and others who got less that $2 in the last 10 years.

Well said.

You have to say that there are a large number of people out there who revel in others misfortune and despise those who have more than they do.

Personally, with 500k I would be putting into an offshore investment account (on which you will receive your interest gross once you leave the EEC) and only transferring the bits of money I needed to keep body and soul together. The Australian economy will begin weaking later this year and the UK and US economies will begin to recover therefore I expect the exchange rate to begin moving back again but probably not until the third quarter.

However, in the last few years the economy has been so volatile that there are small windows of opportunity you need to look for and exploit - so change money on a selective basis.

well said...

Apart from the odd nasty piece of work who will actually state that they look forward to someone 'losing' money because they think they are greedy, I dont see much revelling going on.

People come on here and ask other's opinions on where the exchange rate is going....sometimes when they don't get the answer they were hoping to hear they have a wee Kevin the teenager moment.

The idea that people who have already transferred at a better rate dont understand the stress involved and sympathise is ridiculous. If you find people in a years time faced with $1.90, I'll bet they will be levelling the same accusation at people who were 'lucky' enough to get $2.10.

With £500,000 the last thing you should be doing is asking for advice on an emigration forum! go get yourself a financial advisor.

NOT!!!

Sit on it for a while!

But in saying that havent most if not all immigrants transferred money over at some stage be it $10 or millions. Get as much advice from different sources and then make an informed decision.

I agree with you, it is rather naive to ask for advice on here when you have that much money to transfer. When we came over we left our money in a tax exempt account because the exchange rate had dropped to $1.94. The bank would ring us once a month to see if we needed any money transfered over and to keep us up to date. We didn't have the bulk of our money transfered until we'd almost completed the house build 3 years later and the rate had gone up to $2.10. If we had waited another year, we could have got almost $3 to the £, but we didn't look on it as losing as it was never ours in the first place. We had also invested in shares that plummeted and, had we not rode the storm, we would have lost alot of money. Thankfully we kept our shares.

[SMUGGIT]
I know, we got over 2.9....
[/SMUGGIT]

Although I didn't have 500k to bring over

There are a few ways we can look at this. One is that if we hadn't come over when we did, then we wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the lower costs of rent and building. The land we bought for about $130K back then, is now being valued at $600K. The house we built and finished off with a pool, spa and all the extras cost us approx. $285K. Now it would cost about $550K. Our home in England was sold for just under £200K and was sold on recently for £515K. So, were we better off coming over when we did or would we be better off coming now? We think we did okay.

Here, here. Fair play to ya Mick. In the same dilema myself . Of course you want the lifestyle etc, having a bit of financial literacy seems to be 'sneaky' according to some people!! Hope you get the rate you are after, & your Land rover mate.

Goat eyes
(From St.A - living in the sunshine coast)

Granted, but it doesn't make any of them an expert. There's nothing to tell if they made a wide decision at the time or the best one. What's to say that some aren't giving false advice out of mischieviousness?

Besides which everyone's circumstances are different.

Johnny finally fading into the distance in his tracksuit is he?