WoW! Six Reais!!! Incredible Exchange Rate!!!

I have an app that sends notifications. Right now it’s 5.87 to 1.

@KenAquarius That's about what I saw on-line. This is Amazing. I store my money from America away and just use my Social Security each month to live off of. (I already paid cash for my house, car and appliances). This is just too good...and there will be a modest cost of living increase in 2025. WoW, what did I do to deserve this?

Roddie in Retirement🕵️‍♂️

@roddiesho

Where do you store your money? Asking for a friend.

It's all very temporary. If Trump gets a convincing win the globalists cannot cheat their way out of like they did in 2020, expect a concerted attack on the USD, as well as a structured financial implosion of the US economy. Oh yeah, and BRICS+ ............

Wise is at 5.87 reais per dollar today, and you pay a processing fee to Wise of course.

@alan279 Wise kicked me out, so you can pay the fee for me.

Roddie in Retirement🕵

@alan279 Well I will tell your friend where some of it is going, but not where it is now. When my YouTube channel becomes monetized (don't hold your breath, this will be months away) I plan to use Charles Schwab for my proceeds. I finally got my Banco Do Brazil account straightened out with my new Permanent Residency but there is a monthly fee that is scary so i will just keep it in case.

Roddie in Retirement🕵

My friend’s pension and investments are in GBP. I think that inflation in Brazil is eating away at his foreign wealth. He is reluctant to move his money to Brazil.

@alan279 I think I follow you, but I don't keep my money in Brazil, I have my money in an American Bank where I can withdraw it when I want and because of the Exchange Rate I get more for my money each time.

Roddie in Retirement🕵

@roddiesho

What is the interest rate paid to you by your American bank?

@alan279 This is an undercover top-secret topic. I very much prefer for close to obvious reasons to not disclose where I keep my money. It ranks up there with not saying out loud what my passwords are. Let's just say I keep it under my mattress and leave it at that.

Roddie in Retirement🕵

@alan279

“Where do you store your money?”

Under my shotgun 🤣🤣🤣

I keep my money in a cookie jar. 😀

@KenAquarius I will use that next time @alan279 keeps bugging me about my money. 😏

Roddie in Retirement🕵

My mother wrapped stacks of cash in butcher paper, labeled them "Sirloin" and stored them in her freezer. 🙃

@alan279

Is that where the term "cold hard cash" comes from?

@alan279
Is that where the term "cold hard cash" comes from? - @KenAquarius

Could be. She handed me $1,000 out of her freezer one time. She had to explain it to me.

11/04/24 It's all very temporary. If Trump gets a convincing win the globalists cannot cheat their way out of like they did in 2020, expect a concerted attack on the USD, as well as a structured financial implosion of the US economy. Oh yeah, and BRICS+ ............ - @Gasparzinho 777

BRICS doesn't worry me, especially after the dog's dinner it's  become at this last meeting (Ethiopia, Iran, AND Saudi Arabia!?!?!?  Jeez Louise!  😂)  Trump, on the other hand, scares the stuffing out of me -- between tariffs, trade wars, out-of-control deficits, resulting inflation, recession, and unemployment, even before adding in what will certainly be a highly chaotic and *ahem!* deeply compromised foreign policy,  he'll do the Dollar in all by himself, no outside help required.  Although he'll get all the help he needs from the tyrants of whom he's such a fan. 

I guess that those of us whose incomes are in USD will have a pretty good idea by the end of the week whether we've dodged the bullet, or should be looking hard at part-time jobs to make ends meet. 

11/04/24 My friend’s pension and investments are in GBP. I think that inflation in Brazil is eating away at his foreign wealth. He is reluctant to move his money to Brazil. - @alan279

I wouldn't move all of my money to Brazil either, and haven't.  But if your friend's money is in GBP, I don't see how inflation in Brazil could be eating away at his foreign wealth, although British inflation may be.  I've been transferring the same USD amount to my bank here every month for seven years, and the gradual appreciation of the USD against the BRL has balanced Brazilian inflation pretty well.  Well enough, anyway, that we've never increased the amount and haven't been aware of any change for the worse in our standard of living. 

11/04/24 My friend’s pension and investments are in GBP. I think that inflation in Brazil is eating away at his foreign wealth. He is reluctant to move his money to Brazil.  - @alan279
I wouldn't move all of my money to Brazil either, and haven't. But if your friend's money is in GBP, I don't see how inflation in Brazil could be eating away at his foreign wealth, although British inflation may be. I've been transferring the same USD amount to my bank here every month for seven years, and the gradual appreciation of the USD against the BRL has balanced Brazilian inflation pretty well. Well enough, anyway, that we've never increased the amount and haven't been aware of any change for the worse in our standard of living.
- @abthree

My friend plans to move some of his wealth to Brazil to buy property. My thinking is that he is receiving a low rate of return on his pounds and that property prices in Brazil are increasing at a higher rate. Has your property increased in value in seven years? What if you had left that money in dollars?

11/05/24 My friend plans to move some of his wealth to Brazil to buy property. My thinking is that he is receiving a low rate of return on his pounds and that property prices in Brazil are increasing at a higher rate. Has your property increased in value in seven years? What if you had left that money in dollars?
- @alan279

Good question.  The answer's a little complicated. 

We knew when we bought that we'd be here for at least five years, because my husband had just started university.  Without such a long time horizon we may have continued to rent, but with five years basically locked in, buying made a lot more sense.

If I had left the money where it was, it would have earned 10-15% per year.  It would just be sitting there, but I'd have it if I needed it, I suppose.  In USD terms, we're almost certainly going to lose money on our place.  Barring a collapse of the USD (which I'd hate to see but it's a possibility -- see Post #19 above) there's no way to avoid it:  the exchange when we bought was 3.6540, and yesterday it was 5.8019.  We can't make that up in the Historic Center of Manaus, or anywhere in Manaus, for that matter.

On the other hand, we'll realize a modest profit in BRL terms when we sell, and we'll be plowing the proceeds back into a new residence almost immediately, probably somewhere else in Brazil since my husband is doing a nationwide job search.  That will be a BRL purchase, so for me the USD loss is really only a paper loss.  We've also been making 5% a year (BRL) on this unit compared to the cost of renting:  before we bought we were renting an almost identical apartment in the same building, so I have a very good basis of comparison.  That's free cash flow that we have every month that we live here.  The other considerations include being able to make the changes we wanted, decorating as we liked, and living as we like without having to account to or deal with a landlord looking over our shoulders.  And postcard-quality views from every window, maybe the best we'll ever have in Brazil -- https://www.expat.com/forum/profile.php … n=pictures

Like so many things, the "right" answer is whatever the people asking the question are happiest with.  Owning works for us.

An apartment/house is where I live. It is not where I invest, it is just a dual use store of capital. Here is how I view housing.

My previous condo in Canada cost $242K, and condo fees/util/taxes were $700 a month. You don't need a $2MM house to live in, even if you can buy one. It could easily have been rented out for $2,000 a month, so, as it was paid for, my net savings was $15,600 per annum, or, roughly a 6.6% tax free per annum yield on my cap cost of $242K versus if I had to rent instead. Not bad considering banks pay 1-2% and that is taxable as well. It went up in value 20% in 14 years (a tax free cap gain in Canada) but that's not why I bought it. If I got my money back I would have been just as happy.

All my money is in two BRICS countries, and here in Brasil, I am earning, as of yesterday, 10.2% tax free per annum on freely accessible cash deposits with no strings attached. You cannot touch that in any western financial institution.

In America, per capita national debt is roughly $120K, UK is $49K, Germany $37K, Canada is $25K, Brasil is $7K, India is $2K, Russia is $2K and China is $1,700....that is what really matters in the big scheme of things as it relates to YOUR taxes and YOUR interest rates. Look at the BIG geopolitical picture and forget your preprogrammed beliefs about what your countries elites have been feeding you for decades.

Google "recency bias" for starters.........everything is fine, until suddenly, it isn't.

🤣🤣🤣

Dupe post.

11/05/24 @Gasparzinho 777 I take very much the same view of housing.  👍🏻

@abthree

How much has your property increased in value since you’ve owned it? What was the price to rent ratio when you bought versus today?

@Gasparzinho 777

So your opportunity cost for other possible investments is your current 10.2% tax-free investment return? Are you considering any investments in Brazil?

@abthree

The question is “Where can we get another spectacular view?”, as always. 😀

@abthree
How much has your property increased in value since you’ve owned it? What was the price to rent ratio when you bought versus today? - @alan279

Property increase -> 3x but this is not a fair comparison to US standards in the Bay Area.

11/05/24 @abthreeHow much has your property increased in value since you’ve owned it? What was the price to rent ratio when you bought versus today? - @alan279

If we can get 66% appreciation over what we paid in BRL on a cash deal, I'll think that we'll be doing very well.  The real estate market is dead here.

I wasn't comparing rent to price; I think of purchase price as a sunk cost. I was comparing rent to monthly cost of ownership -- condominium assessment, repairs, etc.

@Gasparzinho 777So your opportunity cost for other possible investments is your current 10.2% tax-free investment return? Are you considering any investments in Brazil? - @alan279

No.

There are better countries to invest in right now. Brasil has two problems IMHO, ingrained political corruption (centrao) and serious political instability. Bolsonaro was making headway with breaking up the centrao gang, which is why Alexandre Moraes was paid off to release Lula from prison to get re-elected. FWIW, the criminals who run Blackrock refused to invest here while Bolsonaro was president. Ask yourself the reasons why.

I can deal with corruption in a country with a solid and stable long term leadership, but in the case of Brasil, I'm too small a fish to play their game. I live here, and I refuse to invest here......YMMV. And, the two properties we own here are not investments, they are our homes.

BRL-USD is 6.19.

I'm getting sell bids of R$5.67 right now.

No.
....

I can deal with corruption in a country with a solid and stable long term leadership, but in the case of Brasil, I'm too small a fish to play their game. I live here, and I refuse to invest here......YMMV. And, the two properties we own here are not investments, they are our homes. - @Gasparzinho 777

@gasparzinho777, your response reminded me of a joke that @peter_itamaraca shared with me about how government works in Brazil.  I had a good laugh.

I understand your position.

To generalize here - living in any country is about deciding whether the glass is half-empty or half-full.  It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Yeah, so true, and, the term investment is also a moving definition, based on one's desires and ability.

BRL-USD is 6.19. - @alan279

Sorry, 6.19 was a Google News error.

It looks like Google (or the third party it retrieved data from) had errors and the USD-BRL exchange rate was taken offline.

https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2 … olar.ghtml

I guess it's a good reminder to check multiple exchange rate sources.

F’ing Google…..🤨

I always go to wise now for the exchange rate.  Since I use wise to make the transfers, nothing else really matters.

@mikehunter fyi WISE kicked me off, because of some technicality. Do not put all your eggs in the WISE bucket.

Roddie in Retirement🕵