Euro or sterling

casterman

I am due a fairly decent amount of sterling from an investment.

I am living in eurozone country. Should I exchange into euros or leave a sizeable portion of it in sterling?

Got a bad feeling about the future of the euro

Consumerist

I would say the best advice is to trust your own instincts on this one.

It is likely, anyway, that any downturn in the Euro will be reflected in Sterling because of the extensive trade between UK and Europe.

It will also depend on how long you intend to be living in the eurozone countries. If you propose to return in the short term then you'll save yourself two lots of coversion charges by staying in Sterling.

nrsql

Which is going to be least worst?
Are you going to return to the UK.

I would have thought both are fairly risky.
Don't know how much they have reduced in value recently - 25% ish? The question is how much further is there to go and will the things you want to spend money on get more expensive.

casterman

Well, I suppose sterling may devalue but will always be there, whereas I can envisage Ireland defaulting on its debts and jettisoning the euro (or Europe jettisoning Ireland).

Any euro on deposit would automatically be exchanged back into puntsand God knows what that would end up meaning

Voyager2002

What would you do with the money? If (for example) you wanted to invest in German industry, you would need to exchange into Euro. If at a later date Germany were to leave the Euro, your investiments would immediately increase in value (as measured in sterling or dollars).

nrsql

How about splitting it. Adjust the percentage split depending on how you feel about the currency.
I guess you are living in Ireland - I would be concerned about anything that was tied to that country at the moment.
I don't think deposits would automatically be changed to punts. Bear in mind that for this to happen there would have to be a print and issue of bank notes and exchange of currency which couldn't happen overnight.