A Case for holding US Dollars?

fishduck said:
Well the current momentum doesn't favour PMs at the moment, more like stocks and real estate look more favourable at least in a glance. And with momentum, if there is a market crash (which many stackers are anticipating), that momentum could change very quickly to haven assets like PMs, assuming the market reacts differently to the last one.

I guess the question comes to, would anyone here buy USD if they think the AUD will lose its value quicker than USD, or would they go straight to PMs, or would like buy all of them because they don't know what will happen and would be happy to diversify?
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No crash turns on a dime. A Crash takes months sometimes years

Think of it this way

if Stockmarket dropped 10% in month the chances are it will/could drop another 20% over the year or years if the news is bad and everything is in panic mode, if not it’s just a blip

Eventually stock will stabilise (could be years) wait until you see 10% movement up and get on for the ride up
Same with gold, stocks currency property.

Similar to if you collected Star Wars memorabilia this is the time to sell to newbies who will buy not realising there are no more trilogies and the shine fade

in regards to your question at a I would buy usd at heartbeat if I thought Aussie peso will go to 50c.
 
Jason1 said:
But having USD isnt a problem as long as you have backup savings in AUD.
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I've got a small emergency stash of AUD for when the power/internet goes and only cash is accepted, we've got some AUD in an offset account which we use in our business, but we don't save cash in AUD because we don't need it. Our "cash" savings are in the form of TUSD and we get 8% for our troubles and it's on call instantly so having only TUSD isn't a problem. It's an AUD hedge and as all of our other assets can be liquidated for AUD we don't feel the need to expose ourselves to holding even more AUD than is necessary apart from what we require for daily financial transactions. And I think this is applicable to any non-US resident.

I'm of the opinion you don't need to have a backup of savings in your native currency before saving in USD in these modern times, it's probably good to diversify but it's not a pre-requisite unless you're getting a good return on your native currency savings or you need to build a bank balance say to get a mortgage. It just comes down to preference and what objectives you have. I'll probably look to increase my AUD holdings in our offset account if we sell our our business as well as increase our TUSD holdings. Then of course there's shares, super, life/TPD/income protection insurance, PMs etc etc.

fishduck said:
Yep and I guess the question is how do you guys balance it out?
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Balance it according to your financial goals and budget. You could allocate 10% of your assets to cash, from there you decide how much will be in USD and how much in your own currency or maybe another.

Jason1 said:
the Yen and CHF seem to be popular alternative suggestions in conjunction with the USD. Would anyone here venture further to diversify?
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GBP?
 
mmm....shiney! said:
I've got a small emergency stash of AUD for when the power/internet goes and only cash is accepted, we've got some AUD in an offset account which we use in our business, but we don't save cash in AUD because we don't need it. Our "cash" savings are in the form of TUSD and we get 8% for our troubles and it's on call instantly so having only TUSD isn't a problem.
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Unless TrueUSD crpto goes tits-up.
 
leo25 said:
:D thanks for the laugh.
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TrueUSD (TUSD) stablecoin, has recently published a blog post revealing a third-party audit to its reserves shows it has a US dollar in its reserves to back every TUSD in circulation.

According to the Independent Accountants’ Report, created by certified accounting firm Cohen & Company, as of March 31 of this year TrustToken has a US dollar balance of $199,063,885 in its accounts, a figure above the 198,982,291 TUSD tokens in circulation.
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https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/04/trueusd-third-party-audit-reveals-full-us-dollar-backing/
 
mmm....shiney! said:
https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/04/trueusd-third-party-audit-reveals-full-us-dollar-backing/
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Most audits are completely useless. It's very well known that companies just borrow money (or something alike) to balance the books while a audit is being conducted. Most audits will not investigate deep and will just ok it after a quick look over.

TrueUSD is way too new and way too small to trust with my savings. Better off buying something like Perth Mint Gold Token if you want the novelty of blockchain.
 
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leo25 said:
Most audits are completely useless. It's very well known that companies just borrow money (or something alike) to balance the books while a audit is being conducted. Most audits will not investigate deep and will just ok it after a quick look over.
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The OP was interested in opinions and strategies regarding the value of buying USD as opposed to his native currency. I shared my strategy and the rationale behind it, it won't suit everyone naturally.

leo25 said:
Better off buying something like Perth Mint Gold Token if you want the novelty of blockchain.
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Now you're being condescending.
 
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mmm....shiney! said:
I shared my strategy, it won't suit everyone naturally.

Now you're being condescending.
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You're allowed to share your opinion, i have no issue with anything you said. I'm just sharing my opinion, you don't have to get defensive. And i wasn't trying to be condescending.
 
So no one here would hold physical USD? I thought the whole point was to get out of the banking system?
And no one here is concerned of counter party risk??
I thought the whole point of getting into physical PM and even USD was for security rather than gains.
If you wanted gains, I thought it would be better to have paper PMs as you don't have a storage and a premium issue.
And using that logic why be invested in PM at all as its currently not in favour?
 
fishduck said:
So no one here would hold physical USD? I thought the whole point was to get out of the banking system?
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I think it's a good idea and so does most of the world. If i had a lot of disposable income i would definitely consider putting some into USD. I see minimal risk short to medium term.
 
leo25 said:
I think it's a good idea and so does most of the world. If i had a lot of disposable income i would definitely consider putting some into USD. I see minimal risk short to medium term.
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And what are you going to do with USD physical cash in Australia?
Good luck trying to buy anything, and good luck trying to exchange it at a reasonable rate.
 
In some South American countries, people who did exactly that would have managed to save themselves from the local currency devaluating and from the banks either closing or holding your money.
Australia is not at that point but if you don't want to hold cash in the bank and you think the AUD will depreciate, would holding physical USD be a viable option?
 
SilverDJ said:
And what are you going to do with USD physical cash in Australia?
Good luck trying to buy anything, and good luck trying to exchange it at a reasonable rate.
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You could say the same with bullion. You can't buy anything with it and the spread between buy and sell is not great. (unless dealing in small amounts with people on the forum)
 
fishduck said:
but if you don't want to hold cash in the bank and you think the AUD will depreciate, would holding physical USD be a viable option?
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It would have been an extremely viable options if you converted AUD to USD between 2010 - 2014 :)
 
Which is why I'm asking others if they would go straight to bullion or diversify into USD and if they did, their reason in doing so. Once again, in some Asian and South American countries, the USD is still seen as a haven asset when it shouldn't be.
 
leo25 said:
It would have been an extremely viable options if you converted AUD to USD between 2010 - 2014 :)
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I guess the problem comes to, would you be more concerned if the bank took your money in form of a bail in or would you be more concerned with the government taking away your purchasing power?
 
fishduck said:
In some South American countries, people who did exactly that would have managed to save themselves from the local currency devaluating and from the banks either closing or holding your money.
Australia is not at that point but if you don't want to hold cash in the bank and you think the AUD will depreciate, would holding physical USD be a viable option?
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It's viable, but not the best option economically. There are better ways to hold USD outside the traditional banking system. PayPal, online currency trading houses etc.
Converting physical cash into USD and then back into AUD through the banks or shop front currency dealers is horrendously expensive, like 5%+ each way. A good currency house does it at a fraction of that value.
Also depends on how you receive your money too. If you get paid in USD through PayPal for things then it's best to just leave it in there until required.
 
leo25 said:
You could say the same with bullion. You can't buy anything with it and the spread between buy and sell is not great. (unless dealing in small amounts with people on the forum)
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Physical gold is about half the buy/sell spread of of bank and currency house conversion rates.
But yeah, still not great, which is why I have most of mine in an unallocated account. Zero storage fee, and much lower buy/sell spreads.
 
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