So Brexit is looming, as Brexit tends to do, but for real this time and I am…not confident in how the pound is going to do when we crash out with either no deal or a very bad one on 1 Jan. As well as general prepper stuff, which I’ll update my journal with, I’m thinking about savings and the best thing to do with them.
My questions are as follows:
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Can I save money in another currency (I’m thinking the Euro since no offence Americans but I have no idea wtf is going to happen in November or in Jan when certain people may or may not actually leave office)?
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How would I do that and is there actually any real benefit?
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Could I withdraw it into GBP easily?
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How the fuck do you prepare for the fact that your once strong currency might get gubbed like Spurs on an off day?
I should point out here that I’m likely to only have between £500-£2,000 to play with initially so maybe it’s not even worth it, but I would like to have some kind of safety net. I’d also consider withdrawing GBP in cash, but since Miss Rona most places aren’t taking it and I suspect that will increase so it would presumably be fairly worthless.
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Oh, and FWIW I’m actually getting paid in dollars by my freelance client - currently via PayPal which I feel probably doesn’t have the best conversion rate.
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I’m actually considering going THE other way (get GBP before the dollar tanks in order to pay for grad school in the UK) so I’ve done a bit of looking into this.
Things to consider:
- yes, you can invest in other currencies BUT bare in mind that you may have to pay special rate for foreign currency assets/investments in your taxes - look into this for UK taxes
- Transferwise has some of the best exchange rates I’ve seen/lowest feeds but know that you will pay money every time you move money around
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Also I normally say “don’t try to time the market” but…try a lil bit. Like a lil bit. I.e. don’t move money around on a day where GPB dips.
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I suppose my question is also…what does that actually mean? Is it just sticking some money in a savings account in another currency so it doesn’t get fucked over if the pound does? Is it overkill or something only super rich people do? How do you know when to use it or do you just use it to buy stuff from countries that use that currency?
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Honestly, I’d just keep your USD in paypal and let it hang out there.
If both the pound and the USD take a giant deep dive, I think the world has bigger problems than £2,000 worth of Euro are going to help with.
If you were talking 2 million…then maybe it’s a game worth playing.
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Right. If I’m going to do this, it needs to be because it’s the sensible choice rather than a safety net that’s actually not going to catch me.
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