How are expats coping with the low exchange rates ?Similar Threads:
How are expats coping with the low exchange rates ?Similar Threads:
It costs more...every day...if you earn Sterling!
I am not an expat but my yearly short vacations in Thailand become more expensive. I sure notice it. And I am very angry about it. Who or what is to blame?
In the United Kingdom, AsDaRa, many of us blame the nincompoop David Cameron for his decision to hold a referendum on the European Union, and all that followed from that decision, for the depressingly poor GBP/ Thai Baht exchange rates.Originally Posted by AsDaRa
Hitherto I used to spend six months of the year living in Thailand, but will probably reduce my time spent there to three months. But, as a British citizen, thank goodness I do not live there permanently; otherwise I might have been so down on my uppers that I would have been forced to give up . . . sorry, forgive me, but it pains me to say it . . . shopping at Tesco Lotus!
In the case of the UK, the people to blame are the population of the UK, most of the governments in the last 75 years and of course, above all ourselves, including you & me.
Voting for Brexit was merely a catalyst for the exchange rate. Much more significant is the underlying economics, where our economy is not competitive, so we import much more than we export and the trade deficits are financed by ever more debt. In the past, there have been lunatic government policies. For example, whilst Germany has Mecedes, BMW and Audi, all with huge exporting businesses, in the UK, Jaguar, Rover and Triumph were all nationalised and mismanaged by politicians who know naff all about running a competitive business. After many years in the private sector, Jaguar has finally started to recover.
If a country runs persistent large balance of trade deficits, then we can expect the exchange rate to eventually adjust in response to this. This is what has happened.
Blaming someone else for your & my misfortune is also completely pointless.
For a start, we have no divine right to live in a country where the GDP is a multiple of that in Thailand & enjoy the resulting difference in entertainment costs when we go to Thailand (e.g. laow labour costs & cheap hookers). Rather, we have to EARN that right by superior economic and financial performance. The world does not owe us a living.
In reality, the changing exchange rates are of course a little painful.
However, all we can do is take little sensible steps, like maximise earnings, NOT waste it by putting a flash new car on the drive, rent the spare room out to a cute lodger, save like hell and invest what is spare in Asian funds, so we are not screwed the next time the pound falls.
That is likely to be more productive than looking for someone to blame.
[Note: If Jeremy Corbyn gets elected and as seems quite likely, screws the UK economy to the extent that foreign exchange controls eventually have to be re-introduced, I shall of course demonstrate inconsistency by blaming the government. I will, however have spent some of the preceding 5 years planning for that, knowing that it is a risk.
Incidentally, up until Mrs Thatcher abolished them in about 1979, there were controls on what money we could take out of the country. I'm not quite sure what the limit was in the late 70s, but back in the late 1960s it was apparently £50. Which is equivalent to £850 in today's money. Having to get by on that would spoil a holiday. And, if anyone DOES have a resource which explains the limits in the 1970s, please post a link]
christianpfc (June 26th, 2019), Jellybean (June 18th, 2019)
Most U.K. voters are so thick they shouldn't be allowed to vote without having passed some sort of examination
I brought my flight ticket last month for my Oct holiday , and would loose about £ 500 if i was to cancel as it is non refundable
An interesting and well thought out post, if I may say so, goji. I agree that the GBP/ Thai Baht exchange rate was falling long before Brexit. I recall the exchange rate being around the 70 -74 Baht to the GBP mark when I first started holidaying in Thailand in 2003.
And, as regards the UK travel allowance, I’m pretty sure that it remained at £50 from 1966 to 1979. There follows an extract from Hansard from 1969:
From a brief Internet search I could not find anything definitive, but the following extract appears to indicate that the £50 allowance remained unchanged until it was abolished in 1979.£50 TRAVEL ALLOWANCE
HC Deb 27 November 1969 vol 792 cc657-701 657
§ 5.13 p.m.
§ Mr. Reginald Maudling (Barnet)
I beg to move, That this House regrets the refusal of Her Majesty's Government to increase the £50 travel allowance. It has taken some time and a considerable journey to reach this subject. I am afraid that our time now available for debate will be very much truncated. Therefore, I will try to compress my remarks and make them as brief and concise as I can, since I know many hon. Members on both sides wish to take part . . .
Exchange controls had been the cross that British individuals and businesses had had to bear through sterling’s long period of vulnerability. During the worst of the country’s ‘sick man of Europe’ period in the 1960s, before and after the 1967 devaluation, a £50 ‘foreign travel allowance; operated, this being the limit on the amount of money British travellers could take abroad.
http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/002127.html
Last edited by Jellybean; June 18th, 2019 at 02:58.
christianpfc (June 26th, 2019), goji (June 18th, 2019)
When you say, 'some sort of examination', are you alluding to a rectal examination by any chance, gerefan2? If so, well just come right out and say so. As a veteran member you know we don't stand on ceremony around these parts, just spit it out.
As one of the younger members (* cough) I was genuinely shocked to read about that £50 travel allowance as I'd never heard of it before and assumed it was a joke until a quick goggle confirmed otherwise ! Absolutely shocking and amazing that they ever were able to get away with imposing such a thing - I was going to say thank god times have changed but if anyone was watching the recent TV program "Years and Years: it would make you wonder HAVE things changed just as much as we might like to think and will history repeat itself in some regards !
Re the drop in the £ I know I absolutely and blatantly reduced the length of time for my next Asia in a few weeks mainly ( but not solely) because of that drop - and not so much that I cant afford it but more as I'm damned if I'm going to shell out maybe 20% more than I already did over what was always an already expensive 4 or 5 week holiday and on what was already a ridiculous sum for all I ever do there ( i.e eat, drink and shag basically) - especially as the place as we all know is at it's lowest of low just now etc.
So I've now reduced my trip to Thailand and Bali down to about 3 weeks now and that will enable me to scratch my Asian itch just fine for now ( I really should get some cream for that perhaps !) and the money I wont blow in Asia I'll then piss up the wall somewhere else instead, adding it into the pot for lots of shorter 10 day, one week or long weekender trips around in Europe more ( which I have been doing all of this and last year several times and actually much to my own surprise actually quite enjoying the difference for a bit of a change) - albeit Asia still of course wins hands down for cute guys and on tap sex - but for me anyway just not at ANY price anymore as perhaps it used to for me in the past - and when I think back to how much I did blow then ( no pun intended) thank GOD the pound wasn't where it was now !!
joe552 (June 20th, 2019)
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