When is a good time to withdraw savings and move them to EU?

hamburger, i did understand that ;-)

i have until february to figure it out, until then, i will work on adding money to my savings and learning about investment, diversifying, whatnot.

eh, gotta run again

deb, i'll let you know when i post the chapter i think you'll be most interested in. (on working with 'difficult' groups)

dag--

I couldn't comment on that amount sensibly but shoved into a corner and taking no responsibility I might remind you of troubles in Georgia will have caused certain offices to be lit up all night trying to figure out potentialities in relation to the market with which we are concerned here.

And there's Pakistan to worry about. And a few other things. In other offices.

For us, as Bill said, it's the gut to heed. I told you mine.

There's gold at about $850 an ounce. Plenty piled into that three or four years ago. Phew! How time flies. And the rest is lies.

But, being Uncleish, we, due to another bubble bursting, have nationalised one of our banks. Now that's as safe as you can get aside from burying gold in the hills: as many have done in the past. Northern Rock it is named. Some rock eh?

It's ironic really. First run on a bank in over 100 years and it's called after not only a rock but a northern one too.

They pay 6% I believe and they guarantee your money. Assuming the Government remains in being. Which I think it will.

Of course, in there, your capital amount would fluctuate with the exchange rate between £s and $s and thus also Euros depending what you ask for on withdrawing.

A stiff drink and a fag eh?

Settin' Aah-aah leaves it in I gather.

Which is a mug's game.

spendius, i do worry about Georgia (having friends and colleagues from there) and Pakistan (ditto) very much, but I have no clue what it will do to any market. Of course i can employ imagination, but that's about it.
And gold at about $850 an ounce? If you told me that at a reception, I would shake my head gravely and offered to fetch a glass of champagne...or skillfully changed conversation to something entirely unrelated, perhaps offering that gold should be measured in grams and really, why doesn't everybody drive on the right side of the road already...... but i really have no idea what that means.
i feel like i should nod and know what conclusions to draw out of all that and deal with my finances accordingly, but no conclusions are crystallizing in my head.

i do know that 6% is better than i can get at my current bank, that much i know.

Thankee...looking..

Email good....googling also will happen.

That tink shall be well pickled!

Just so you dont feel so bad Dag.
Part of my superannuation (retirement) investment reads like this:

opening balance: 31 dec 2007 $62889.04

Closing balance: 30 june 2008 $47030.68

a drop of almost $16,000

It doesn't matter to me as I cant access it until age 60 anyway so I'm not stressed about it.

Here are my two cents worth:

The US economy is in deep trouble. It must lower its interest rates to avoid a deep recession. There will be inflation as money will be printed and the financial system will be fixed. The infrastructure program will come on stream and the economy will start perking up. On a year or two the US economy will be strong again as the US economy is the source of much innovation in the computer high tech sector. Defense spending on advanced military systems helps the economy. The Internet was the result of the Defense Department spending called DARPA which laid down the foundation of the computer network. The TCPIP protocol was developed. Probably the auto sector will be helped in some form Washington does not want to lose the auto sector.

If you took a course in investing there is a recommendation as to your age and the kind of portfolio you should hold. The portfolio is the word they use to call your entire financial holdings. It depends on your earning capacity. If you are young and have a lot years to make money then it is suggested that you put 30-40% of portfolio on a safe investment that is a bond or certified deposit account. Then they recommend 30-40% on blue chip stocks i.e. big name companies like IBM, Microsoft, Disney, etc. (At the moment stocks would be good to buy at rock bottom prices as they will pick up when the economy recovers. Better wait till they reach near bottom. However, you should check their debt load as that could be their undoing. Those big name companies with high debt loads are the ones teetering on bankruptcy as they tried to use loans for operational expenses and expansion. Avoid companies using loans for operational expenses as they are mis-managed.)

Then the remaining 10-20% go for high risk stocks companies that are in their infancy but grow to be behemoths like Google was a few years ago and also Dreamworks. You have to know the founders and what they achieved.

Those close to retiring or whose earning capacity are limited should go for the no-capital loss feature i.e. Government Bonds, Certified Deposits, real estate and the like. With the US real estate at a market low one could pick up some real estate dirt cheap and hold it till the economy comes back up. Then rent it or sell it. The infrastructure program will start within 6-9 months of Obama's Inauguration. The economy will start climbing up. You'd be laughing.

At age 30 you could leave your deposit and build on your other portfolio in maybe some riskier stuff as you have another 35 years of earning power left.

As much as I hate to admit it, Setanta's advice looks much better today than mine does. It's a good thing Dasha didn't listen to me.

I believe the best strategy for CDs is to ladder them over time periods.

I"ve been doing that with T-Bonds and notes for 25 years. Until a few years ago I still had a couple with double digit "coupons". In the last few years, as they came due, I have reinvested most of them in T-Bills and CD's due to better yields on the CD's even after factoring in state and city taxes on them. I had planned on starting to put more into governments shortly, but with the 10 years' yield down below 3% for the first time in I don't know how long, I'll be rethinking that.

Shorter term seems to be in order in this market.

I had to think of this thread as I was doing some banking stuff today. Well done, Dasha! You turned out to be right.

I was scrolling back on this thread, and dag posted this gem that proves to me that she knows about financial responsibility. Too many people forget the simple rule of financial security.

what gem? me? i don't know nothing. i haven't done anything. i'm innocent.

...but this thread is actually relevant again. i closed my CD account and while themoney is still sitting in the same bank in a savings account, i would like to move it soon - buying an apartment in slovakia, yikes.

dag, Aren't there some questions as to Eastern Europe countries remaining in the European Union?

hmm? not that i know of, plus slovakia is Central Europe and we got Euro from 1st of January - no rolling that baby back!

Maybe not as bad as I thought; I must have read something recently about this issue about Eastern Europe. Can't seem to find it now.