One of the things you learn right away if you are going to live in the Philippines is that ForEx (Foreign Exchange trading) is no longer something you read about in the papers or hear about people taking university classes in.  It becomes part and parcel of your everyday life.

Don’t worry, though, the majority of expats seem to be able to ignore ForEx issues with aplomb.  I’ve watched discussion for year now about issues like credit or debit card charges where people claim their particular card is free, or only charging them a certain amount, when the truth is the merchant is charging them significantly more … by exchanging the currency at a different rate.  usually people don’t even want to get into this very deeply, because “it only amounts to a few cents:.

Well, to each individual transaction it may only amount to a few cents (although Visa has just finished paying off $336,000,000 USD in money the court determined they wrongfully took from patrons by charging the wrong rate) so those pennies can really add up.

I’ve written often here in recent time about the price of gas and diesel fuel … see Pesos per Dollar, Pesos per Liter, My Waistline — All 40 Plus and Still Going Up — No End In Sight for a few examples if you missed any.

If you refer back slightly over a month ago you’ll see that my cost per US gallon for diesel fuel was about $4.12 per gallon.

Diesel has risen more than 6 pesos per liter since then, so based on that it should be about $4.67 a gallon or more these days … but I just filled up for 54.47 per liter or about $4.51 USD per US gallon … an increase, but a much smaller increase than it might have been.

How can this be?  easy.  In the earlier example the peso per dollar was sitting at 44.07 to the US dollar.  Today it is running 45.7 or so.  A peso and a half per dollar makes a significant difference to those of us who earn in dollars.

They (ever wonder who “they” really are?) say the Philippine Peso per US Dollar rate should stabilize at about 55 to 1 in a few month’s time.  Perhaps it will.  Or, perhaps it won’t.

“They” may be among those ‘experts” just a few months ago who were predicting the peso would ‘settle out’ at 33 or so to the US dollar.  Hmm, wonder how much “they” bet on their own advice?

What do I recommend?  Cautious optimism (I was born with it) and, above all, learn what is going on, what the plus and minus sides of each venture are, and what your personal risk tolerance is … before you make a move.  Only a couple months ago I remember being involved in discussion with several of these guys on-line who were apparently willing to bet the Peso was going to go to 33.  How would you like to have to pay 45.7 of those 33 per dollar pesos for each dollar you needed to buy today?

By the way, if you want to learn the ForEx business … and potentially make money at it, this is an excellent offer I just came across.  yes, it has one of those huge sales pages … why, because they sell product, that’s why … and it requires a purchase (although there is an excellent free newsletter you can sign up for as well), but there is also a limited time offer 75% off coupon and an ironclad money back guarantee, so it’s exceedingly cheap education in this potentially very lucrative business … where you will be, finance-wise at this time next month or next year is totally your decision. Step One to ForEx Success! is here.

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