If this buzz around the world reserve currency isn’t familiar to you, consider yourself lucky. There are several speculators out there, who can often be seen wearing tin foil hats, predicting that the US will LOSE WORLD RESERVE CURRENCY STATUS soon. And when that happens?! I don’t really know, because I doubt many of them are holding billions in foreign exchange reserves, but you can BET it’s gonna be bad.
But seriously, there are some reasons an economy might prefer to have be the global reserve currency, like lower international transaction costs and lower risk of exchange rate fluctuations. But do these things matter to YOU? No.
Did you hear that story about the person who cleverly predicted when the world reserve currency would shift and made some clever financial moves and got really rich? Yeah, I didn’t hear that story either. Because that’s not how people get rich.
As evidenced by all the rich people in Portugal, France, Spain, Netherlands, and the UK, losing the world reserve currency isn’t an economic kiss of death. Rich people remain rich. Owning assets that provide income and go up in value remains a good idea.
So if you want to advance your own financial interests, don’t waste time or energy worrying about macroeconomic conspiracy theories. Focus on what you can control. Earn more. Spend less. Invest the difference in index funds and real estate. That’s how rich people get rich.
As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.
-Jeremy
