Re: Sterling in freefall
 

Now I ownder if missle would have the same outlook on exchange rates et al if he were to suddenly find himself with no work at all in Spain?

I'm assuming bad I know, but I will, that your line of work involves some form of service to the ex-pat community? If it doesn't my apologies.

But have you stopped to think that your income is derived from those expats who are struggling to make ends meet, and if it means postponing the car service or the new extension, then it means money to pay the tradesman who would carry out the work is not available.

The tradesman suffers. I guess you can also say that its not only UK tradesmen, but any nationality that are contracted by a UK ex-pat to carry out work.

A narrow sighted view along the lines of I'm all right Jack, sod the rest of you in my opinion.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

According to my little desktop gadget the rate is now 1 GPB for 1.162 EUR.

Autumn before last a couple of friends had come over for holiday and told me that the exchange rate was flipped around with the Euro being stronger!

Funny thing this economy business. Blowed if I understand much of it.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

We have just come back from Switzerland, and at Geneva airport the duty-free prices in euros/pounds were pretty similar. The Swiss Franc, however, had held its own since we lasted visited 3 years ago, making any purchase very expensive!

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

I was drawn to the following words from your message that prompt my post:"if you have savings and have not invested them well it`s no one elses fault but your own".

The financial collapse has created a totally new landscape. Before 2007, one could reasonably regard property as a sound long term investment if chosen carefully. Stock market investment was always deemed risky and bank deposits utterly safe. Today we have a property market here (Spain) where values are down to around 50-60% of those 4 years ago and where it is virtually impossible to achieve a sale and this situation could last up to 10 years.

We have a banking market where you need to consider if your deposit institution will go bust! Lloyds TSB came within 10 munutes of bankruptcy at one point. Thus I am tempted to think that a good mutual fund might be the best long term bet. The traditional form of financial advice has been turned upside down. So is a bad investment is always the investor's fault?

I don't think so. I believe the root cause of all our woes is gross greed and irresponsibility on the part of the top bankers. You have only to watch these men make their excuses on TV to see that they have an absolute disregard of the welfare of their fellow man as they continue to accept huge payouts and bonuses without remorse. Can you rate the integrity of MPs much higher? Would you buy a second hand car from people like these?

Lunatic levels of borrowing and gearing coupled to the use of sophisticated financial instruments that only specialists could understand have led to a collapse of asset values. The Anglo saxon financial model which England follows is fundamentally more risky than the European model which relies more heavily on unleveraged debt instruments. We see this irresponsibility in the miserable international value of the English pound.

The value of the pound is simply a reflection of what international investors think of England. I've learned one important investment lesson. Avoid investment in risky currencies such as GBP, ZAR and Zim dollars! My "nice safe" endowments are worth about 70% of what I paid!

Ever heard "Worth double! Buy now!" .. then - if it's worth double, why not sell it for double! GBP is only worth what someone will pay for it!

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

But I'll say it again. The £/$ exchange rate is rather doing well at the moment with a rate of £1 buys 1.60US$.

Its the rate of £/€ that is bad. So you have to speculate that if the pound is good against the dollar and bad against the euro. Then the euro is being held at an artificially high rate by the ECB.

I mentioned many pages ago, but the high rate brings in money investors, so fills the coffers with ready cash. It does not help exports which is where europe is suffering. At the end of the day you can only speculate with cash, buying and selling money to make a quick profit.

Which is what is happening with the euro at the moment. Better interest rates mean more people are buying euro. But buying money does not help economies only the banks, only investment in infrastructure does that.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

I have not left England I am still empoyed in the UK I fully appreciate that people that retire anywhere overseas do so at their own risk pensioners or not. Many however have done so without the hindsight of whats happened over the past few years and if you saw this all coming maybe you could have let someone know. I obviously appreciate that when the rate goes up or down there are winners and losers, but not a big believer in gloating at someone elses hardship myself. My comment re savers and intrest rates applies also to pensioners in the UK as much as Spain or anywhere else. As I have said I am still working but lets face facts it is the UK workers and savers that are paying the price of this mess in all ways.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

Have you forgotten the 20%+ unemployed here. Have you forgotten that 50% of locales are permanently closed. That Benidorm hotels are now for the first time closing for the winter making it a summer resort only?

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

We are still UK citizens no matter where we live. ;);)

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

Ithink you know what I meant, which was the Brits living in the UK.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

sorry lost me there can't see what I have said previously relates to this. What I do see when I visit the village where I have a property is very few Brits retired or otherwise and the ones I do see are not spending money within the local community like they used to do also they don't have the smile on there face that they had 4 years ago. Yes you have to get on with life and make the best of it but no matter how great the weather country etc is you have to eat and live and the exchange rate affects how many people do that.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

[QUOTE=jojojojojo;9132241]Theres no harm in having a moan about it tho!! The trouble with a low exchange rate when you're primarily an importing nation is it causes high inflatio

Is that not what Biggleswade who used to comment on here predicted a couple of years ago was what they the govrnments(not just ours ) wanted as it reduces the debts? Not sure how it all works but what he said re that and quantative easing certainly seems to be happening. What happened to him? he used to put some intresting posts on?

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

Ooh! It's gone from 1 GDP = 1.162 EUR to 1 GDP = 1.160 EUR just today.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

In a week it has gone from 1.20 to 1.16 that hurts when you have income at the month end in sterling and bills in euro.

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

I dont understand it all fully - does anyone????? But it stands to reason (to me anyway) that if you have a reduced value currency, then when you buy things from a nation with a strong currency its going to cost more. Since the UK buys alot of products from foreign countries - more than it exports, then everything will cost more.

Jo xxx

Re: Sterling in freefall
 

Ouch! :blink: