Lemonfish

Whatever happened to it?

Exchange rate is at a near record low for the last 10 years at $1.64 to the pound.

Usually, when this happens, there is a flurry of activity on the exchange rate thread.

Has everyone given up, discouraged?

mjwalker007

its ranged anywhere between 1.62 - 1.73 over the last 2-3 months now........so really this is pretty much the norm lately !!

kamikaze

Hi all, the exchange rate has forced me to rethink our plans, your right about the rate, if it takes 1 yr to get back up to 1.90 or there abouts we would earn nearly £30k sitting still instead of sending money over now we are going over on a business PR and are looking at moving very large sums of money but you would be a very poor business person to loose money at these rates.

Atlantic Xpat

I'm sure I'm not alone in this but at 1.62 to the GBP, I don't think we'dve emigrated. We certainly couldn't have afforded the house (modest though it is) that we bought. It's almost enough to think about moving back the other way.

kamikaze

I must re-think the whole deal based on the exchange rate, there is little or no point in working hard and building up a business portfolio to loose 25% of your hard earned income, on top of that te property market in BC is still sky high, our only hope is that once the olympics are over the residential & Commercial property markets drop 25% and bring some balance back into the markets

mjwalker007

It isnt the case of being a poor business person......or losing money.......because what are you comparing losing the money too ???? 2.45....2.20......2.00.......1.90.........1.86.... .......1.67 etc etc

The exchange rate is what it is ! the world is a changing place and the economies around the world have changed. The rates may never go back up the rates of 4-5 years ago . They could go down further !!! who knows !
I agree , if you have money just sitting in the U.K and you have no plans for it at all , you could leave it 6 - 12 - 18 months and see what happens !

It all depends what your goals and dreams are and what the money is earmarked for !

If the reason for moving was because the exchange rate was very favourable and it meant you could buy a big house, then that can be peoples motivation.

Everybody has a different reason for moving here, and the exchange rate can definately affect your plans , but hopefully would not be a reason to end those plans full stop.

agr

I think it will be 3+ years before we see rates like $1.90 again - and that assumes the UK can find some new way of prospering besides financial services. It has no natural resources left, so that leaves manufacturing, in which Brits can't compete without lowering incomes quite a lot. I've kept my chin up for Blighty throughout the recession but I'm quite gloomy now.

kamikaze

I hear ya , I hear ya, our goal was to move to BC to have a family and grow a business, make jobs, we already have the big house on the ocean,so for us it was all about whales,bears,cougars,mountains,eagles and the great out doors, but when it comes to business I am ruthless and I wouldnt borrow money at these rates let alone give away my own to a bad exchange market, I understand that for most people when they are changing the value of a family home then its maybe only the differance of $15/20K at a poorer exchange rate but when your looking to invest in Canada then your looking at hundreds of thousands of $ and you have to ask yourself where is my money better to live ? in canada where its instantly worth 20% less than it was or just sleeping here in the UK, It would not be as hard a decision if canada still had cheaper goods and services but other than Gas & cars we are not seeing the differance we used to, it now cheaper to buy most thing in the UK in our mind.

Jingsamichty

Ummm, apparently a few dollars is more important than all your dreams. Any idea how pathetically grasping you sound, Mr. Ruthless Businessman?

kamikaze

Thanks for that, I guess there are some nice people in calgary , Its just shows there is a divide between people who make jobs and people who just have one. Its dead easy to throw insults, try employing hundreds of people and having there familys dreams resting on your shoulders and you might understand my post, until then keep doing you 40hr week and leave the finance isssues to people who undertand economics.

Jingsamichty

Hmmmm. You're new, so I'll behave nicely and apologise for my first snap at you. I will leave the finance to you economic whizz-kids. After all, what could I possibly know? And I've usually booked 40 hours by Tuesday lunchtime.

mandymoochops

Call me cynical but something doesn't sit right with this new guy.

Apologies if i'm wrong, but normally those who have to brag about it - don't have it.

I'm with Jings, he reminds me of that other guy that posted a few times about how much he had / how succesful he was blah blah blah

If you just want to move because of the bears, cougars etc - you can see those at London Zoo without 'loosing' anything on the exchange rate.

Lemonfish

Looking on the Australia forum, they seem to be having the same issues of affordability for new migrantsthere.

Perhaps we are seeing the end of British economic migrants to cheaper English-speaking climes for a while. Stuff doesn't seem cheaper here than in UK and visitors tell me the same thing. They are surprised at how expensive things are.

People will come for reasons other than buying a big house.

Spritzer

Wish we could as our total income is in UK pounds. It was 2.52 when we came so the drop is huge.

We may even have to give up our wine and bearing in mind that we hardly ever go out over here that would be the last straw!

MarkG

Dunno, I see at least two real chances of that happening in the next year:

1. Tories win the election and they get at least a 'honeymoon period' where currency markets expect them to do something to get British borrowing under control. Possibly they do even manage to get it under control, though I can't see Cameron suddenly growing enough balls to do a Thatcher.

2. China tanks and the commodity markets go down with it, reducing the value of Canadian resources.