Hi Mickey Canada!
I think I've made this post before, but I'll suggest it again. If you can't beat the US$, use it. Invest some U.S. currency in a U.S. stock and hope the market goes up. We invested $1000 US in 98 and watched it grow to the point where it paid for our 00 vacation. I know that this was an exceptional period for the DOW and NASDAQ, both of which crashed hard shortly after we got out, but I think that the equity markets will give you a better return than a savings account. Had we simply held our $1000 in a US account, it would have drawn very little interest, but it is a risk to throw it into the stock market. Worst case you have to hold some stocks which didn't pan out and find another way to save for the vacation. We plan to plow some money into the market in addition to regular vacation saving. If the stocks work out, great. If not, we'll have to hold and save the conventional way. The bottom line: The Canadian dollar is not going to outperform the US dollar anytime soon. I think we're stuck with a sub 70 cent dollar for a looonnnnnnggggg time. Investing is the closest you can get to getting paid in US currency - dividends and gains in the value of your stocks. Just make sure it's money you can afford to lose and don't go into margin.
