The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: cbr shadow on January 19, 2016, 12:18:16 AM
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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
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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.
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At least get the best rate you can using ozforex or some other exchange provider.
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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.
Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
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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.