Buying Austrialian Dollars - Good idea?

[Happy Girl]

Given all the economic uncertainty around at the moment and the probability of a severe devaluation of the euro would it make sense now to buy a large amount of Australian dollars & hold on to them for the long term as a possible way of retaining some value on my current funds on deposit.

 

[JoeB]

To be honest, people would usually turn to precious metals for that purpose, if they were looking for a reliable store of value... things like gold and silver. There's a few threads on this site about both currency speculation and gold, silver etc.

I'd say you'd need about 20K minimum before you'd have to worry too much about currencies.. but if you travel or live in Australia that'd affect your choices too..

 

[snowdrop]

aus dollars

We had some euro funds on deposit with investec paying 3.5% aer for 9 months

We have now changed this to 75% AUD and 25% CAD (australian and canadian) respectively. I have a rate of 4.5% and .5% aer respectively for 6 months and will review then. (the 12 month rate was 4.75% and 1% but the pundits think interest rates will go up in both countries in the near term so we held off on locking in for 12 months)

The euro lost 22% and 19.75% against the AUD and CAD respectively in the last 12 months (see the economist website).

Changing the account denomination was v. simple, its the same account number and we can change denomination again when it suits us.

We did this to diversify out of only euro holdings; we already have some gold and silver through perth mint and chose these currencies due to their underlying stability and rich natural resources.

We have some fears re the future of the euro and feel this is a prudent move - but each to their own.

Hope this is of some use to you.

 

[Daytrader]

The following article may be of interest to you on the Aussie

[broken link removed]