Blog Marco - Money

Australian Dollar is Screwed

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:53:59 -0700

Teaser:
The Australian Dollar is stuffed. The forex markets are screwing with our precious Aussie dollar.

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Australian dollar at parity? Bah! Remember all the foreign exchange analysts pegging the Aussie to be at parity at the beginning of the year? It certainly looked that way, but there is never any certainty in the forex markets. Anything can happen, at any time. All forex traders know (or should know) that trading is not a game about prophesy and prediction. There are only probabilities. At that point in time, there was a high possibility of the Aussie dollar hitting parity (AUD$1 = USD$1) because of the upward momentum and strength of the aussie against the greenback. But there was a small possibility bouncing back off the resistance. And an even more minute possibility of a crash. And guess what? the market took for the worst and chose the most improbable route. Although improbable, forex traders should have stops in place (if they had been long) to protect them from the downside.

As the credit crisis broke and large international institutions unwound their overseas investments into cash (especially USD), currencies such as the Australian dollar was battered. Other factors to the fall of the Aussie from 98+ cents to about 60 cents (about a 40 percent drop in 3 months) include: the 100 point (1 percent) official interest rate drop, the credit crisis and falling metals prices.

How Do You Handle Money When You Shop?

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:27:16 -0700

Teaser:
Ask yourself: How Do You Handle Money When You Shop?

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When you go to the shopping centre (or shopping mall as they're called in the USA) - what kind of monster do you become? How do you handle you money when you go shopping? What kind of purchaser are you? Logical purchases are when you consider and research your purchases well ahead while an emotional purchase is based purely on emotions and are more likely to be impulse buys. Rate yourself on a scale... Are you extremely logical when you buy or are you an extremely emotional buyer?

Imagine that you've just purchased a product worth over $2000. Before you bought the item did you take some time to research all your options with regards to alternative similar products and compare features and prices? Are you the person who would research all the similar products and compare prices? Would you think about it for a few days? Would you buy the product instantly because what is the use of researching if THIS is what I WANT.

Imagine you went shopping and you came across an ipod you wanted. You can't afford it until your next paycheck. Would you wait until you've actually got the money in your pocket to afford the ipod? Would you layby the ipod? Would you pay for the ipod using your credit card, knowing that you've got a good habit of paying back your debt on time? Or simply throw it onto your credit card and worrying about the debt when you get the bill?

The Forex Business

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:33:26 -0700

The forex business is an interesting business to be in. Forex is a business solely involved in money. Nothing is being exchanged but money from different countries. I guess Forex can be considered as a "service" business as the brokers and the money exchangers act as a service to help people change money from one currency to another for people who travel and businesses who are involved with international business through imports or exports.

How about the Forex business for traders? Traders can take advantage of the fluctuations of the currency exchange prices and profit from the volatility. Does this help anyone? Not directly. It helps you (that is if you are profitable in trading forex) and it helps the broker turnover money and hence make money off commissions (or trading spreads).

Impulse Buy!

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:50:59 -0800

Teaser:
Impulse Buys Hurts Our Budgets - Is There Any Way Around To Prevent Impulse Buying

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Christmas is coming up again - and is heralding another shopping season. And when people are in the mood for a spot of shopping, I'm sure there would be a lot of impulse buying happening too. Impulse buying is great isn't it? We feel like we need the product, it's right there and by buying it we can quench whatever thirst for shopping we had.

Impulse buying makes us feel good. And that's the problem. Impulsive purchases has the potential to be an addictive hobby, to break budgets and to fill homes with plenty of useless junk which you wonder week's later as to why you bought the products in the first place.

Some people may argue that impulse buys aren't all bad. Why would that be? I don't see any reason why impulse buys would be good for you (unless you see shopping as therapeutic, which isn't good either - pick a better hobby!). Before going shopping I always make sure I have a list which I know fits in my budget with the stuff I need (or want, people need some luxuries too). Sometimes I do find a product that I had previously made a mental note to buy which I do end up buying. I don't classify this as impulse buying since you have already made a decision to buy it before you were at the shopping mall.