For many years the Russian Ruble was pegged against a basket of 55% USD and 45% EUR. So at the time you could have had your wish by buying RUB. Until it devalue

For many years the Russian Ruble was pegged against a basket of 55% USD and 45% EUR. So at the time you could have had your wish by buying RUB. Until it devalued. In the 90s the Polish zloty was pegged against a basket of 4 or 5 currencies, I forget, which included marks, dollars, yen, and swiss francs if I recall. Today, the Singapore Dollar has one of the lowest aggregate volatilities, precisely because it is tightly controlled against a basket of global currencies. The motivation is exactly what you point out: reducing exposure to a single currency's fluctuations, and trying to match a country's balance of payments more accurately. Often, unfortunately, because baskets go together with pegs (crawling or not, with bands or not), they encourage speculative attack at some stage or another. You mention your consumption basket in AUD has become more expensive. Your country is highly exposed to commodities which have dropped about 37% in the past 3 years, as measured by the CRB. Thus your nation's income is declining, and you're unfortunately unavoidably exposed to that if you don't hedge your foreign consumption currency basket, because recognizing Australia's commodity links, the market has depreciated the AUD against the dollar by 28%, and by 15% against the EUR in the same 3 year period. That, by the way, keeps commodity prices denominated in AUD, more stable, and dampens the blow to the Australian economy. But it makes foreign goods more expensive (as it is supposed to given Australia's economic circumstances). You could have hedged yourself quite well by simply going to a broker and selling an AUDUSD futures contract for example, and these contracts are available in "retail" size, or even smaller if you're prepared to get into the index betting sites. Essentially the option is open to you at very reasonable cost, to create your own exposure basket, and that basket, by the way, could also include commodities themselves. Indeed I would argue that currently, as we move towards higher risks of political/policy upheaval globally, hedging is more important than ever. But not putting all your eggs in one basket has always been good advice, as you point out ;-) My point is that you can do that with your liabilities as well as your assets, quite easily.