Jirrupin

The increasing strength of the AUD will create a huge financial loss for many migrants.

What exchange rate would the move to OZ become untenable for you and your family. Do you need to consider postponing your move and just validate or is it making you re-think the whole thing?

Maybe you weren't bringing over a lot of money and you don't feel you will seriously be affected, maybe you are bringing over so much money you won't notice this 'little blip'.

Maybe you don't think it will go much lower, maybe you have your fingers, toes and eyes crossed that by the time its your turn it will be a better exchange rate?

Maybe you have an idea of an exchange rate that will just make you put the migration on hold, or stop it in its tracks.

There is a lot of debate about how low the exchange rate will go, but how low is too low for you to go?

owieb

I'm already here but I get paid in £ so I thought I should vote!

I was seriously thinking about maybe cutting back my UK work and taking more Perth work as I am losing quite a bit of cash on the exchange rates at the moment, but then I'd have to probably go back and work in an office! :scared:

Even if it does keep dropping I'm not going to change my plans, I'd missing going out and playing during the day too much!

MrsDagboy

What I want to know is if its going to make things going back much cheaper?!?! At the rate its going (pun intended), flights back to the UK, holidays, car hire while there etc should be dirt cheap soon for those of us living here in Australia. Then it will be alot cheaper for us to take those long awaited trips back to the UK (& to other destinations for those that complain about the price of overseas holidays each year).

Hold on look out, here comes that flying pig again .

dotty

Ive posted this before and not many seemed to understand it, however if you are moving to OZ long term shouldn't you want the OZ dollar strong?

So it causes a bit of a blip in the funds you bring over but what about the next 30 odd years in OZ income If your dedicated to living here long term you should be happy about rising dollar.

OK I'll go now

DianeOZ

Go Aussie Dollar Go!!!

Great for interest on all my millions!! Ha ha

Not being up to date on business thingys, does a strong dollar have a negative effect on exports and tourism?

Di

Jirrupin

I agree with you Dotty, but as you know when your in the UK, you are a sterling thinker/earner, and the lifestyle you wish for in OZ can be based largely upon the strength of the money you bring over.

Its only when you convert to being a AUD thinker/earner that you can see the benefits of a strong dollar.

But does the strong dollar mean a loaf of bread is cheaper???

dotty

Exports, yes a high aussie dollar is bad for OZ. Interest rates IMO wont go that high, because each hike puts upwards pressure on the dollar which hurts OZ exports. And Exporting is big time bread and butter to OZ. What people dont understand is interest rates are not just about housing, people think that because thats what affects them. OZ has to watch what it does with rate rises for other factors too, Exports being the big one. You know all that wheat and sheep OZ has the government knows damn well we need to sell it.

Tourism, I imagine tourists still come here, maybe they spend less tho.

The dollar has just been undervalued for a long time tho, where it is now is probably more realistic but its a volatile currency. I think the main problem for immigrants is they just assumed that because they liked $2.95 that it would stay that way, unfortunately that was not really realistic. Fact is doubling your money is probably good unless you compare it to yesterdays news.

dotty

It should mean lots of things like Petrol get cheaper, which means transport gets cheaper which means in a huge country like OZ everything should get cheaper. However Pigs will fly

Dotty For PM cheap everything party

Sunlover

I know I will get slagged and am evil and selfish, but somehow can't feel terribly sympathetic about this........

When we emigrated from South Africa to the UK the exchange rate was 14-1. Try that for complete decimation of your life savings !

Simone

Maybe you weren't bringing over a lot of money and you don't feel you will seriously be affected,

Ok, I'm not in the UK, but if I was.....this would apply for us.

And of course what Dotty said, about wanting to the Aussie dollar to be strong, yes!

The thing is, we're not moving to Oz for financial reasons, we aren't going to be better of financially, and that thought has never even crossed our minds!
We're just going for something different, and a bit of an adventure! All we need is some savings for the move, and a bit for if we don't find a job quickly, which we have, so we'll be fine.

nixstuff

The ER is down AGAIN for us folks crying in our cornflakes, but it might have topped out for AUD...hopefully -

http://www.dailyfx.com/currency_aud_thomson.html

OzTennis

Yep, swings and roundabouts and some clouds can have a silver lining. For example, we are in the UK and when the exchange rate was around £1 = $2 it was widely predicted that the Australian dollar would weaken. We decided to save our £'s in our Australian bank account to take advantage of the exchange rate (rather than save in £'s here). As a result, since 1997 we have averaged an exchange rate of around $2.70 on all our transfers. So, we have some ''dosh' salted away for our move back to Oz; alternatively, if the ER fell as predicted to $2.20 we could change back to £'s and make a gain of nearly 25%. It won't be good news for transferring house sale proceeds or pensions admittedly.

Obviously it is difficult for those transfer their dosh now or in the next 12 months but as Dotty and others have said a stronger dollar can be good news longer term.

More gloom for the ER on the news last night - the UK trade deficit for Oct was much larger than expected at £4.38 BN. Keep buying that Branston Pickle and Marmite you expats in Oz

OzTennis

PeteY

We were doing our sums with 2.3 anyway....as a worst case scenario. Also, we are young and don't have a huge amount of money, so the net effect upon us has been pretty low. Regardless, we are'nt moving to aus for financial reasons, just family ones.

If we owned a house, and had a stack of equity, it **might** have been a different story. Our dream is to one day own a cute little cottage in Devon (for retirement), so if we had a load of cash we would have just done that sooner

OzTennis

Nice dream to aim for 'Don't dream it's over' (where'd I get that?)

OzTennis

steandleigh

The change in rates is not enough to alter our plans, we aren't going, to be better off, but for a change of life.

Having said that, we will probably have less to purchase a house with, when the money is exchanged, a pity, but that's life.

Ultimately, a strong aussie economy is what's important for our kids future's.