Mjc Posted March 14, 2005 Share Posted March 14, 2005 ... or US Dollars?For those of us whose earnings/pensions are paid in sterling or dollars, the increasing value of the euro starts one thinking about how to protect the value of those earnings. We have just received notification of a small increase in our pensions wef April, but the gap between last year's euro and this year's means that our income is still considerably lower. Has anyone found any way to mitigate the difference (short of returning "home")?We do buy a fair amount of groceries from England, by mail order, which is cheaper than the same or similar items here, but what else could we buy in sterling? House insurance? Car insurance? Haven't found any, but if anyone has some good experience of paying for French needs in sterling... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Causette Posted March 15, 2005 Share Posted March 15, 2005 I know, nightmare, isn't it? TOH has a gov't pension (RAF), and we never quite knew how many euros we would have for any one month. We now use Worldwide Currencies (www.wwcurr.com) We book a forward rate, and transfer a lump sum at a time, and they do not charge us any fees. It gives us certainty on our income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted March 15, 2005 Share Posted March 15, 2005 So how do I protect our euros. Deep down I don't want the pound to join the euro, but it really really would be handy for me if it did. The old franc went up around 35% and down around 30% over the years, the euro has already done quite a dance over it's little life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted March 15, 2005 Share Posted March 15, 2005 The Euro is being heralded as the new 'major' currency.The reason is that the Euro is seen as stable - the Dollar very much not so as it is in dramatic fall and of course the Pound is tied more to the Dollar than the Euro.We all know about the debt bubble but there is one area of the modern world where the people do not owe more than they earn - the Eurozone. For those of us who only have Sterling to keep us warm, it could be a very very cold few years ahead. Nothing we can do about it except to try to find ways of keeping the Euros coming in even after we have supposedly retired - so we will probably have to work far longer than anticipated but as our life expectancy is now well over 80, we would get bored doing nothing for 15 to 20 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN_S Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 Just had a look at what the £/€ picture has been for the last year.In spring 2003 the rate was almost exactly what it is today, about £1.4380. In spring 2004 the pound was worth about 1.52 at one point. It has fallen back to £1.43 so nothing much has changed in 2 years except that last year it was worth more for a time.The US dollar of course is different in that it has got steadily weaker and that is a US problem that Bush has to solve, presumably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN_S Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 My last post should have shown the € symbol instead of the £ sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham34 Posted March 16, 2005 Share Posted March 16, 2005 UK interest rates are also around 3% higher than euroland so if one has a choice of keeping sterling or euros that needs to be considered.Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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