As you know if you follow the news, the U.S. dollar has been losing value when compared to other currencies around the world. I don’t know much about currencies, but I know that means anything dealing with something from outside the country (say, traveling overseas or imported food) is going to be more expensive.
Someone who understands this stuff has explained what effect the devaluation of the dollar might have on ordinary U.S. people like myself.
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I never cared about this stuff before, but now that I’m living in Germany, I feel the impact first hand. My husband and I have only been here 6 months, and we’ve seen the value of the dollar go WAY down. This is hard for us as because he is army, we are paid in dollars, but we live in europe and do everything off post (eating, shopping, buying groceries, traveling, etc) and our money stretches less and less. I hope this changes soon!
I am also living in Germany and being paid in USD. My contract was singed at $1.11, so I have taken a huge hit. My company gives us a semiannual “adjustment” to compensate so it’s not so bad.
The only thing it has screwed up was my plan to buy some nice furniture here in Germany to ship back at the end of my assignment.
The interesting note is that I travel back to the US on business once a month and I have to bring an extra suitcase to carry back all the requests from my German collegues who are taking advantage of the weak dollar to buy things in EURO.
To Megan, don’t count on the exchange rate changing dramatically anytime soon. I expect $1.35-$1.40 for near future. Start shopping on base…I wish I could.
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