The Dollar and the Euro

Wise Green Capitalists with €s to invest should consider the current weakness of the almighty Dollar as an opportunity to take advantage,and get their hands on stocks quoted in $$. The dollar will not just keep declining,and has been firming up a bit lately,and if you fancied putting some cash in a $ share,well,right now $2000 costs a whole lot fewer Euros than a few months back. I am a small investor and $2000 is real money to me. Just saving that amount to put into my own future is not without pain. First to go were the dancing girls... Getting the money together was always going to be too tough for an impulsive and disorganised creature like me.(Mind you, I preferred to think of it as being "Creative", rather than more time in the pub) The Irish Government had a brilliant idea some years ago at a time when it was worried about the economy overheating. It wanted to encourage a saving habit. Special Saving Investor Accounts allowed the public the public sign up to a 5 year saving schemes,in which the Government would top up by 25% the money you paid in. After 5 years Equities beat all "safer" investments. This scheme was inspired, because who could resist free money from the State? It is something which is rare. And the conditions and entry level allowed people on welfare find a safe haven for small savings and a decent return. At first there was real pain in saving as SSIAs were Direct Debits,but it didn't take long to adjust. It is so much easier when the money is taken away before you have the chance to spend it and soon it was just another monthly outgoing. The Celtic Tiger raised the Minimum Wage from about €5.65 in 2001 to €8.65,and the low paid were mostly taken out of the tax net. So saving became painless, and when the 5 years were up about 20-25% of the population collected lump sums of €16-23000. And financial houses and banks etcetera all fell over themselves to snare that painless saving habit. Wow. That is a long digression! What I hope to explain is how important it is to save, and then invest in something that pays a better return. Why am I talking about this? Because if you are like me and you are a virgin investor you make your choice of stock,call a broker and buy. I was,perhaps, lucky in my choice. I had done my research and watched this firm before buying the shares for a while as they kept going up. I may have been lucky but my choice was influenced by the use of common sense; I could see more and more iPods around and I keep adding to Apple shares when I can. So if you want to invest for more than 5 years in American shares do it now.You will be able to buy more shares for the same amount of Euros, and the dollar will recover.