By Jim Edwards
One a recent trip overseas I discovered just how useful acurrency converter could prove itself, especially whennegotiating contracts, hotel rooms, and even paying therestaurant bill.
While traveling this year I've converted my money into 4different currencies and, if you've ever traveled abroad, youknow you lose money every time you change your money from onecurrency to another.
In an effort to save my own financial skin, I turned to theInternet to help me figure out the best conversion rates aheadof time and gauge how much cash I'd actually need for each trip.
In the process, I discovered a veritable "buffet" of helpful andjust plain cool converters and tools online.
They help you do everything from knowing your buying powerabroad to what time to ask for a wake up call halfway around theworld.
** Currency Converter **
Log on to http://www.XE.com and you can estimate the exchange ofyour currency into virtually any of 180 currencies in the world,including: U.S. dollars, Yen, British Pounds, Australiandollars, Euros, and more.
Simply enter the amount of money you want to convert, choose thecurrency you want to convert from and to, then click the button.
Instantly you'll know the value of your money in another countrybased on the latest currency trading value available.
XE.com also offers a good FAQ section that explains how and whycurrency exchange rates vary along with information aboutcurrency markets.
XE.com gets their conversion data from a variety of sourcesaround the world and, according to the site, updates their ratesseveral times per day.
** World Clocks **
Log on to http://www.TimeAndDate.com to find a wealth of toolsto help you get a global perspective not only of local times anddates, but also local holidays and the best time to planmeetings.
From the home page a couple of links rate special attention.
The first, "The World Clock," allows you to see the local timein most of the world's capital cities.
You can select "Full World Clock" for an even more comprehensivelist of cities and their local times around the world.
I found the World "Meeting Planner" the most useful part of thesite for me.
It allows you to put in your current time zone location and thenchoose up to 3 additional cities around the world.
The site will then give you a list of times that represent thebest times to hold a meeting over the net or via phone orteleconference.
You can then log on to the "Calendar" function on the site,select the country, and instantly see if any local holidays willconflict with your meeting or visit.
It even offers a handy little calculator that allows you tocalculate the exact number of days, hours and minutes betweentwo dates. I felt a lot older when I discovered that more than13,000 days passed since the day I was born.
The site even allows you to see a live countdown to New Yearsday so you can time your champagne consumption accordingly.
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