One a recent trip overseas I discovered just how useful a currency converter could prove itself, especially when negotiating contracts, hotel rooms, and even paying the restaurant bill.

While traveling this year I've converted my money into 4 different currencies and, if you've ever traveled abroad, you know you lose money every time you change your money from one currency to another.

In an effort to save my own financial skin, I turned to the Internet to help me figure out the best conversion rates ahead of time and gauge how much cash I'd actually need for each trip.

In the process, I discovered a veritable "buffet" of helpful and just plain cool converters and tools online.

They help you do everything from knowing your buying power abroad to what time to ask for a wake up call halfway around the world.

** Currency Converter **

Log on to http://www.XE.com and you can estimate the exchange of your currency into virtually any of 180 currencies in the world, including: U.S. dollars, Yen, British Pounds, Australian dollars, Euros, and more.

Simply enter the amount of money you want to convert, choose the currency you want to convert from and to, then click the button.

Instantly you'll know the value of your money in another country based on the latest currency trading value available.

XE.com also offers a good FAQ section that explains how and why currency exchange rates vary along with information about currency markets.

XE.com gets their conversion data from a variety of sources around the world and, according to the site, updates their rates several times per day.

** World Clocks **

Log on to http://www.TimeAndDate.com to find a wealth of tools to help you get a global perspective not only of local times and dates, but also local holidays and the best time to plan meetings.

From the home page a couple of links rate special attention.

The first, "The World Clock," allows you to see the local time in most of the world's capital cities.

You can select "Full World Clock" for an even more comprehensive list of cities and their local times around the world.

I found the World "Meeting Planner" the most useful part of the site for me.

It allows you to put in your current time zone location and then choose up to 3 additional cities around the world.

The site will then give you a list of times that represent the best times to hold a meeting over the net or via phone or teleconference.

You can then log on to the "Calendar" function on the site, select the country, and instantly see if any local holidays will conflict with your meeting or visit.

It even offers a handy little calculator that allows you to calculate the exact number of days, hours and minutes between two dates. I felt a lot older when I discovered that more than 13,000 days passed since the day I was born.

The site even allows you to see a live countdown to New Years day so you can time your champagne consumption accordingly.

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