Malaysian Ringgit outlook?

[Wazandy]

My wife's mother unfortunately recently died in Malaysia, leaving her about 30,000 Australian dollars in Ringgit (by last weeks conversion.)

The Ringgit's pretty low at the moment - does anyone have any rough advice as to when would be a good time to cash in and convert to Aus?

I could do it now, but if it was your money - would you wait a bit?

Any advice gladly appreciated - trying to save for a house deposit!

(Obviously, I'm not trying to break the 'financial advice' rule - more a general answer based on trends...)

Thanks all!

 

[Wazandy]

..anyone?

 

[treefrog]

..anyone?

Part of your problem in a lack of response Waz, is that the Ringgit is not tracked on many FX platforms and people are unable to get a chart up easily.

 

[Wazandy]

Ok, my mistake. I'm pretty new to all this.. !

 

[RazzaDazzla]

Can you invest these Ringit in Malaysia in the mean time in a high interest at call account while you get some advice on when to convert?

 

[tayser]

This forum generally attracts forex traders.

Asking when is the best time to exchange a currency for another is like asking when is the best time to buy / sell an equity....

Your best bet is to go to a bank and shop around there.

 

[CanOz]

You could subsribe to the Daily Pfennig, Its a daily newsletter by Chuck Butler from EverBank. Its free and it gives you an idea where the currency's are headed based on the country's fundementals. Not always are all currencies mentioned but he generally covers allot of them in a month. Also, as a subsriber, you could email him and ask him yourself, you'll probably get an answer from a real currency analyst, or Chuck Butler himself.

Anyone who is interested in macro economics or currencies should check him out, he's a nice guy too.

subscribe here:

WWW.EVERBANK.COM

 

[bvbfan]

Ringgit is a managed float against a basket of currencies, so converting back to AUD would depend more on the AUDUSD rate than anything else.
Also explains why it may not be followed in detail since it is managed.

Without looking I'd say the AUDMYR would be lower - Less MYR needed to buy AUD.
You may want to look more at AUDUSD than what MYR will do.

Here's a chart http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=MYR&to=AUD&amt=100000&t=5y

Oh and sorry to hear about your mother-in-law

 

[zaz]

Inflation in Malaysia is running at about 8% and bank interest rates are 3.5% or lower. That means even leaving Ringgit in a bank you'd be losing some 4.5% per year due to inflation. AUD has a lot going for it fundamentally and simply transfering your money back here and putting it in a high interest account at 8% you'd be making some 3-4% above inflation versus 4% below in Malaysia. So even if you don't pick the right time to transfer money, over a year or so you'll be well ahead if you just bring it back now. If you're not an expert you shouldn't try to time the move, just do it now and then do something useful with the money.