Travelling between countries can be disorientating. Changes in currency values can be a major contributing factor. A bottle of Coca-Cola might be $1 USD in America, but ﷼14,000 IRR in Iran (only $0.43 USD).
Much of this can be solved using a simple currency conversion app on your phone. After a few days you’ll master the mental arithmetic to perform currency conversions instantly in your head.
Thinking about the value of different currencies, I started to wonder; where could I be a millionaire, or even billionaire?
Methodology
Results
Strongest currencies – GBP vs USD
I couldn’t start this post without mentioning Brexit. Specifically the negative impact it has had on my worldwide purchasing power (I get paid in GBP).
And it’s not just Brexit. My trips to the US are 80% more expensive when compared to 2007, before the housing crisis. As of writing this, 1 USD = 0.8 GBP. Either way, I’m a millionaire in neither currency.
Strongest currencies vs USD
The GBP is one of the strongest currencies against the USD at the moment,
| Value rank vs USD | US Dollar | 1 USD feb 192017 | 1 USD inverse feb 192017 | 1000000 USD feb 192017 | 1000000 USD inverse feb 19 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kuwaiti Dinar | 0.305627 | 3.271965 | 305627 | 3271965 |
| 2 | Bahraini Dinar | 0.377039 | 2.652243 | 377039 | 2652243 |
| 3 | Omani Rial | 0.385253 | 2.595695 | 385253 | 2595695 |
| 4 | Latvian Lat | 0.661973 | 1.510636 | 661973 | 1510636 |
| 5 | British Pound | 0.805704 | 1.24115 | 805704 | 1241150 |
| 6 | Euro | 0.941908 | 1.061675 | 941908 | 1061675 |
You probably won’t be a USD millionaire in Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Latvia, or the Euro-zone countries either. In Kuwait 1 million USD is worth around 306K Kuwaiti Dinar. You’d need 3.27 million USD to be a Kuwaiti Dinar millionaire. These are the only 6 major currencies that are currently stronger than the USD.
Weakest Currencies – IRR vs USD
The Iranian Rial is currently the weakest currency against the USD. The currency has an interesting story. The Iranian Rial was devalued in July 2013 to half its previous value as the government reduced subsidisation of the exchange rate against the dollar. Recently, in December 2016, the Iranian government announced the country’s currency will be changed from the rial to the commonly used Toman. As of writing this decision still needs Parliament’s approval.
1 USD will buy you 32420 IRR. 31 USD will buy you 1 million USD. 1 million USD will buy thirty-two billion four hundred twenty million IRR!
Weakest currencies vs USD
| Value rank vs USD | US Dollar | 1 USD feb 192017 | 1 USD inverse feb 192017 | 1000000 USD feb 192017 | 1000000 USD inverse feb 19 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Chilean Peso | 644.1 | 0.001553 | 644100000 | 1553 |
| 52 | South Korean Won | 1150.45 | 0.000869 | 1150450000 | 869 |
| 53 | Colombian Peso | 2886.5 | 0.000346 | 2886500000 | 346 |
| 54 | Indonesian Rupiah | 13341.1 | 0.000075 | 13341100000 | 75 |
| 55 | Iranian Rial | 32420 | 0.000031 | 32420000000 | 31 |
The Iranian Rial is by far the weakest currency versus the USD. The Indonesian Rupiah comes out second worst with an exchange rate of 1 USD = 13300 IDR. 75 USD would buy you millionaire status in Indonesia.
Improvements
I have completely ignored purchasing power of a currency. As discussed a bottle of Coke in Iran will cost you 14,000 IRR — it wouldn’t be hard to blow 1 million in a single day.
tl;dr
Go to Iran with 31 USD, become a IRR millionaire.