No Australian should ever curse the Aussie dollar for being too strong.
Recently, however, I was guilty of doing exactly that.
You see, I’ve just moved home to Australia after two years in London, which has meant transferring hard-earned British pounds from my UK account into an Australian one.
The figures are far from pretty.
Visiting and living in the UK has traditionally been an expensive past time for us Aussies. When I arrived in London two years ago, ready to live the life of an expat, I had a modest AUD $10,000 to my name.
Sadly, that number dwindled to a little over £5,000 when deposited into a UK bank account.
That was painful. But I knew that I fared better than expats before me, because at the time the Australian dollar was doing relatively well.
I also found solace in the thought that my loss would be reversed when I decided to move home. When I converted my savings back to Australian dollars, all those lost bucks would reappear, or so I thought.
It seems the Australian economy continued to strengthen while I was away, so that missing change was nowhere to be seen.
Yet again, I was forced to witness my modest savings pot, which had become much, much smaller, shrink into a mere shadow of its former self.
My £3,000 became a tiny $4,800, or thereabouts.
If the dollar had remained unchanged I would have pocketed an extra $1,200 or so dollars, which is nothing to laugh at when you’re moving back with no job and no home.
Returning to a healthy economy is of course a blessing in countless other ways, so obviously I couldn’t possibly stay mad for long.
And the experience and memories I gained in London are worth so much more than my lost dough.
But allow me this; permission to whinge about the stronger-than-ever dollar, for just a few more weeks.
