Biting the Exchange Rate Bullet

[Guest Woody and Jane]

Hi, just wondering if anyone else has decided to bite the bullet and bring their money over to Oz even though the exchange rate is shockingly bad?

We have grown tired of waiting for the exchange rate to pick up only to think at 1.74 that we should have transferred at 1.84 and at 1.64 we should have transferred at 1.74. We've also grown tired of renting, having had to rent in England before we moved over and then once again after arriving in Adelaide. When you've owned you own house for a long time renting is such an inconvenience, plus it's essentially money down the drain. We decided that any money we lost because of the exchange rate we'll make back by not having to rent (well some of it anyway) and using that money to pay our home loan rather than the landlord's.

Also, we didn't move all this way to "live the dream" as it were only to end up renting in the hope that maybe someday soon the exchange rate will go up. It might not happen for years and when it does house prices may have sky rocketed leaving you condemned to a life of renting or buying in Elizabeth.

Tell me we're not alone on this.

Cheers

Woody.

[Guest Skippy]

Hi Woody,

 

no you are not alone - we brought our proceeds from our house sale over on the eve of the UK election! We had had enough also of worrying about the exchange rate and we want to get back on the property ladder sooner than later! At least now we know what we've got for a deposit!

 

Love Anna

[PetenLainy]

We had the same dilema. We have been lucky enough to be staying with rellies since arriving in October but got fed-up waiting for the exchange rate to improve, so we bit the proverbial bullet and brought our money over to put towards a house (which we get the keys for on Friday ). Sometimes I think it's better to go with what you have just now rather than what you might have in the future.

 

Good luck with whatever way you decide to go.

 

Peter

[Guest clare]

Yea us too , we come ova in June we are worried bout the exchange rate but just gotta do what you gotta do! I really dont know how this is gonna work out for us i really dont!

Good luck with your future plans.!

[Guest mimasawrus]

We came over in October and after being here a couple of months we were fed up with looking at the exchange rate. We felt that we could not settle until our money, which was the proceeds of the sale of our UK house was with us. We always wanted to build our house and looking at the rate was not getting us anywhere so we took the plunge and got it all over here. We are getting interest on our money better than the UK and we have bought land and the footings of our house are due to be poured in the next four weeks. We too cannot wait to get out of rented. We also felt that the quicker we got out of rental the quicker we would be using our money for our own investment.

 

So no you are not alone, and we have felt a lot more settled since our money arrived.

 

We no longer have to check the exchange rate and we dont feel like we have lost anything because we are moving towards living the dream we planned.

 

Laura x:)

[Guest kangomik]

I think you will always have this dilema, but your points about house prices are good, and it is important to settle. When we exchanged just over 2.00 we didn't knowo if it was the right thing afterall when we started the process we were looking at 2.30. Now it seems we did the right thing. Not that the exchange rate dropped further, but that you stop looking, stop wishing and manage to get on with things. Basically you live and spend the dollar.

We have just had rellies over who came last year when it peaked and they got 2.54. This time they got 1.60 and often commented on how expensive it was. To us it's just the same, i no longer have a need to constantly check the rate. If it goes up i will watch it out of intrest but i could be waiting a long time!