Moving Money from AUS to USA - Help!

[cbr shadow]

My wife and I are from Chicago but are living in Melbourne for an 18-month contract through our jobs.  Both employers pay us in AUD.  Over the last 18 months we've saved about $110k AUD.  It's now time we move back to the US, but WOW those exchange rates are KILLING me. 
When we moved here the rate was $1.00AUD to $0.92 USD.  Right now according to Google it's $1.00AUD to $0.69USD!

So our hard-earned $110k AUD is worth $76k USD.  Do we move the money now and just take a massive hit?  Wait it out?  I don't really believe in market timing unless there's a big event that I'm not aware of that could change things for the better for the AUD.   

Anyways, what would you do?  Roughly a $25k loss due to exchange rate..  Should I just look at it as money that's already been lost and take the hit?

Thanks for any advice.
-Cbr

[faramund]

Sadly for you, the days of 1.00 AUD to 0.92 USD were a historical anomaly, I think the current rate is much more historically consistent. Until there's another mining boom (and unless India goes ballistic, that might be never) I don't think the AUD will get near parity with USD for a long time, sorry.

[potm]

At least get the best rate you can using ozforex or some other exchange provider.

[alsoknownasDean]

Yeah the high exchange rates were driven by the boom in mining investment. Slowing growth in China and plummeting resource prices mean those days are over.

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[cbr shadow]

Well it looks like we just had very poor timing for coming here.  At least we enjoyed the time in Australia and still saved a pretty decent amount while here.