Before everything tanked,
I was living paycheck to paycheck in a rented "studio" apartment (glorified bedsit) and was struggling to keep up with my expenses (after 6 years of sharing expenses with the ex).

When mum died, we knew she'd left bro and I some money but didn't quite know how much. Once everything came in, we split quite a nice amount of English Pounds Sterling between us. Enough that we each have a modest amount to fall back on for a while if it becomes necessary.

Now, of course, those nice English Pounds had to be transferred to my bank in the US. And the exchange rate that day was $1.98 to the pound....... almost "doubled" the money.

I held on to it a while, and invested in some strong shares when the prices dipped. They're still low but I've made some money on them.

And as rents have gone down, and I got a 15% payrise (we fired two people and I took over their jobs), I moved into a lovely new 1 bedroom apartment a month ago and can afford my monthly expenses with a little left over for fishing trips. Yay!
( Batshitmentalist is sane for once, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 21:12, Reply)