hereandthere

Last time I bought USD I got $1.60. The pound has certainly been destroyed, I don't think there's any argument there. In the 16th Century a pound would purchase one pound of silver, today you need over £80 to buy one pound of silver. This is a 99% debasement of the currency.

In the 1940s a pound bought you $4 USD, for example. More recently, the pound has lost massive value against the euro, the AUD, the CAD and a host of others. In fact in the last twelve months the pound has lost value against the USD, the Japanese yen, the Australian and Canadian dollars, the euro, and even the Thai baht just to name a few.

So in recap: yes, the pound is toast, yes it is toast against way more than one "selectively" chosen currency, and yes it is being deliberately destroyed by the government in order to prop up exports. And then the BBC write about the mighty Australian dollar being the reason behind the imminent 1.8 rate. What a joke.

bcworld

In Sep 2000 you'd need about A$400 to buy an ounce of gold. Today that figure is closer to A$1200. Has the A$ lost 2/3 of it's value in that time?

Indeed.

hereandthere

I presume your looking only at this part of my argument means you agree with the rest of my post. On the gold price, yes, relative to gold the AUD has of course lost this value.

You might be interested in the destrutive effects of inflation on fiat currency:

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_...inflation.html

themerlin

I agree, think twice about moving to somewhere like the sunshine coast unless you want a very long drive to work.

Amazulu

GBP has been weaker against the USD than it is at the moment - same against the Euro.
Currencies rise and fall - always have, always will and the reasons are many.

hereandthere

Yes, but what's going to pull sterling up this time? There are no utilities left to sell, the oil is gone and London's reputation as a financial centre is ruined.

bcworld

You presume wrong.

All very interesting and inherently sensible - I'm struggling to find the part though where it fails to apply to other economies, including Australia?

hereandthere

All fiat currencies suffer inflation, I said nothing to the contrary. Again, sterling is being crushed at a faster rate. Frankly, I knew some card-carrying Labour members and BBC types were still trying to make out that sterling is doing OK, but I had no idea the general public still thought so.

Speargun

I think thats definately the Sunshine Coast for you...it is paradise one day and perfect the next but the jobs on the coast are awful... to get a decent job its better to be in Brissy

NikiL

The jobs market is starting to pick up, but the biggest problem anyone moving in recent months is have had is that Brisbane employers (and I'm only commenting on Brisbane here) have been reverting to preferring candidates with local experience, i.e. Australian experience. From what I can gather from employment agencies, and I do speak to a few of them, albeit only in one field, employers took the redundancy situations as the opportunity to clear out dead wood so if someone has a good skillset the problem is lack of local experience.

That is starting to ease now, and jobs are starting to increase again - career one actually had adverts for jobs rather than training courses in the last few editions.

Speak to employment agencies that deal with your field, that should give you an idea of what the market is in your area. Different areas have different speed and level of recovery.

Blossom

Maybe working at Bunnings isn't your dream, but it gets you a wage and a step on the ladder.[/QUOTE]

Working at Bunnings is my hubby's dream! At 60 he wants to wind down but not stop and Bunnings would be Eutopia for him! LOL

chilliman

I can totally understand where you're coming from. I was going to knock it on the head totally if I didn't get the job & told my family as such.

Got the job so it's all go.

I did however have a MAJOR wobble last night due to the initial costs of living when I arrive. Accomodation rental, car hire - man its shocking!!!

And the advice from a guy I know out there - buy property as soon as you can. No chance of that with the current exchange rate!

Sooty and Sweep

Hi,

We talked again today, very emotional last night after a few bottles of wine. We will give it another two weeks, nothing to lose really. We will not get any money back.

One thing i was wondering though, we both would be owed money back from the Inland Revenue, as we both have worked full time up until now. But because we are leaving our savings in the UK; if we went, then we will both will wait until the end of the tax year to claim what we are owed. As some of the money will come from overpayment of tax due to savings interest. So, we will submit i think its callled a R43 in April 2010, if we were in Australia, but do you need to tell the Inland Revenue that you are leaving the UK, even if at the time you are Not claiming any money back?

Thanks Sooty.

chilliman

I'm not going to bother, not earned any money this tax year so not going to get any back!!

NikiL

You need to notify them that you will be a non resident - and you also need to notify your bank that holds the savings (assuming you're on PR). The bank can then deduct tax from the interest at source (i.e when they pay it to you), and you can still get your tax refund.