For those with a UK income who live in Italy

Well those who do have a UK income will certainly have noticed their income goes further at the moment. Obviously if inflation was great here, then it may be a different story. However it's not and depending on how you handle your money I reckon you could be making 15-20% on your money this year, which beats any old granny bonds the UK can spin out! We were thinking it's a good time for anyone buying here, but it's also likely a great time for any of us wanting to get work done here, especially larger jobs like heating re-wiring etc... But even without these things is it also not a good time to simply move your pounds into Euros? If so, then comes the question we are currently asking ourselves, how much? Worse case scenario being we pack up and never come back to a Euro zone and are left with a large amount of Euro. We've already decided it's too risky keeping Euro in our Italian account and now keep as little as possible there. Pre paid cards are now our main Euro bank, but obviously give no interest and have limits on amounts you can hold (circa £10,000), but is still a lot as far as we are concerned. I just wonder what others think, if indeed they have at all?

We're thinking of building a barn, with wood and gardening equipment etc storage on the ground floor and some basic accommodation upstairs, adjacent to Casa Ghiro.  Incidentally we don't live (in the residency sense) in Italy.

Encouraged by the £/€ rate we moved a chunk of money to our Italian bank account last week at €1.3621/£.  It's been a long time since we last saw a rate like that and thought that strike, iron, hot applied.

Only time will tell if this was a good decision or not.

.... of course part of the good rate is down to future expectations/fear etc so I'd be cautious about holding a Euro stash but for buying stuff that makes life better out here it certainly looks good.  Everyone is trying to devalue their currency so it's going to be chaotic ... The sure fire bet secondo me is that oil is down in price just to screw the Russians and maybe to disrupt the shale industry... the market price will revert to over $100 again so why not buy some real oil and sit on it.  You might think that's hard to do but Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) do a nice Brent crude fund that you can just buy through your broker. N.B. Not giving financial advice here - just saying what I would do.

WoW Ghiro is that net rate after any charges etc.. It's excellent if it is that. Don't think there is a question of it being the right thing. Just look at it compared to what you would have got last year.

Sagraiasolar wrote:.... of course part of the good rate is down to future expectations/fear etc so I'd be cautious about holding a Euro stash but for buying stuff that makes life better out here it certainly looks good.  Everyone is trying to devalue their currency so it's going to be chaotic ... The sure fire bet secondo me is that oil is down in price just to screw the Russians and maybe to disrupt the shale industry... the market price will revert to over $100 again so why not buy some real oil and sit on it.  You might think that's hard to do but Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) do a nice Brent crude fund that you can just buy through your broker. N.B. Not giving financial advice here - just saying what I would do.

Think the good rate is simply the current Greek situation which has not went away, just been put off for 4 more weeks. But it does seem the Euro will not collapse this time around. Now oil.... well it could well be right the Russians are getting hit, or the Saudi Arabia or Qatar, who seem to be causing a lot of trouble. Oil is much more of a speculation, it's complex to say the least as rapid developments over the years have had the price fluctuating all over the place. Not one I would personally want to ever gamble on.

Perhaps we could have a sweep (not in Euro mind you) on when the pound will get to 1.50 Euro.. Almost 1.40 today...