Is it a good time to invest in the US dollar?

[Red Squirrel]

With our dollar being par with the US dollar, I've been debating on if I should put a couple grand into my US savings account, or if it's a bad idea. From my understanding the US economy is crap right now, and it's only going to get worse. Meanwhile here in Canada we are actually exporting quite a lot, and there's even more stuff on the table such as exporting oil to China, so my gut feeling is that it's a bad idea.

I have a US account I don't really use and got a notice that if I don't use it, it will be closed. Debating on just transferring the little money I have in there and letting it close.

 

[RavenSEAL]

The whole world financial system is going down the chute, buy gold.

 

[Matthiasa]

Bad idea no matter what really.
Savings rates in the US are trash. So only if the Canadian dollar would fall by a few percent a year from now till forever would it be a good idea.

 

[Imp]

Half my investment money is in US of A dolla. I love it. I got a nice 5% paper gain just during the past few months as people freaked out and flocked to the US doller.

But the most important thing is that US stocks are funner. Volatility is higher and did I mention fun? I'm doing 4 times better with half the cash through my Canadian stock trades than my US stocks, but FUN!

 

[skim milk]

Depends on your time frame
But long USDCAD is a good bet

 

[Red Squirrel]

Ended up removing the account. I have mutual funds and other saving accounts that I've been using anyway.

While I was on the phone with the bank I increased my credit line from 10k to 20k and lowered my interest rate from 4.2 to 3.9 (+ prime which is 3, so 6.9%) and I slightly increased my mortgage payments which will knock off 7k and 2 years.

That was the most productive phone call I did all day, even counting work.

 

[Bignate603]

With our dollar being par with the US dollar, I've been debating on if I should put a couple grand into my US savings account, or if it's a bad idea. From my understanding the US economy is crap right now, and it's only going to get worse. Meanwhile here in Canada we are actually exporting quite a lot, and there's even more stuff on the table such as exporting oil to China, so my gut feeling is that it's a bad idea.

I have a US account I don't really use and got a notice that if I don't use it, it will be closed. Debating on just transferring the little money I have in there and letting it close.

Might want to rethink that, as much as the people here are talking doom and gloom the unemployment rate is falling and the stock market is rising. If the US goes into a recession it will be because of issues with Europe and that won't help Canada's exports either.

Also, the "buy gold" contingent is nuts. It made sense a while ago during the crash when people were moving to assets the thought were more stable. That drove the prices up like crazy. If you buy gold now you're buying in at a high price with a high risk that prices will drop (possibly quite sharply) as people move back into other assets.

 

[darkxshade]

Meanwhile here in Canada we are actually exporting quite a lot

How do you manage to prevent the snow from melting before it reaches its destination?

 

[Red Squirrel]

How do you manage to prevent the snow from melting before it reaches its destination?

It is shipped in large ice containers. The containers do melt, by the time it reaches the destination but the snow stays intact. They are sacrificial containers, so to speak.

We also ship oil that way, cheaper than barrels.

 

[eldorado99]

Sometimes we also use beaver pelts. ^^