A few weeks back, Robb Report launched a Luxury Travel Index to track the ups and downs of public companies peddling luxury goods. The goal is to have an index that shows the overall strength of this loosely defined industry, which doesn’t fit into one segment such as fashion, travel, real estate, or jewelry. So who qualifies?

“Global brand names among the index constituents are luxury houses such as LVMH, Richemont and PPR; fashion companies Hermes, Burberry, and Ralph Lauren; financial services providers UBS, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse; retailers Saks and Nordstrom; jewelers Tiffany & Co. and Harry Winston; airplane manufacturers Dassault and Embraer-Empresa; liquor companies Remy Cointreau and Pernod Ricard; auto companies Porsche, Daimler Chrysler and BMW; and lodging concerns Starwood and Mandarin Oriental.”

The index launched right before the worldwide wild stock market ride of the past few weeks, but it has been amazingly consistent so far. Trading under the symbol ROB on the NYSE, it has so far only ranged from 23.50 to 25.00 a share. It’s quite thinly traded right now though, so who knows if this trend will continue.

They say that once you’re a multi-multi-millionaire, the first thing you want is…to be a billionaire.

If so, there are now 946 people who got their wish, according to Forbes. The world’s population of billionaires climbed to 946 last year, a record. Bill Gates is still at the top, with some $56 billion to his name, while new entries include Howard Shultz of Starbucks and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. The second one is a bit galling. How out of hand has corporate CEO pay gotten when you can build up a billion-dollar fortune in an office job? That seems too much like a something from the snap of a genie’s fingers.

Meanwhile, U.S. households with a net worth over $5 million, excluding the primary home, topped the one million mark in 2006, up from 250,000 in 1996. A rising tide may not lift all boats, but it looks like the American Dream is alive and well.

If you read the financial news, you know the U.S. dollar is in the toilet. There are plenty of sound reasons for this, plus a few other reasons that have nothing to do with logic or reason. None of that really matters though when you’re planning a trip to Italy or France and you go into cardiac arrest looking at the prices.

Fortunately for U.S. and Canadian travelers, it’s still 2001 in Spanish-speaking Latin America in terms of exchange rates. Overall, things haven’t changed all that much except in Argentina, where it’s a far better deal than it used to be (though not as good as two or three years ago.) Here’s a look at how the U.S. dollar has done so far this year against other currencies.

Argentina +1%

Mexico +1.7%

Ecuador and Panama - unchanged (they use the dollar)

Peru -0.5%

Brazil -5.3% (ouch)

Euro -2.9%

Australia -5.8%

India -5.7%

New Zealand -5.9%

Thailand -8.3% (double ouch)

You better believe these costs will show up in your travel budget, whether it’s taxi rides, hotels, restaurant meals, or museums. Taking a trip to Europe this summer is akin to opening your wallet and letting someone take out 1/3 of your cash. If you go to Latin America, your wallet stays intact.

If you’re looking into retiring overseas or buying real estate as an investment, there’s another reason to pay attention to currency fluctuations. That rural castle in Romania is not looking like such a deal anymore, but beachfront property in Mexico, Roatan, or Panama? That’s a different story.