NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The common wisdom says a weaker dollar means it's a good time to invest overseas but a bad time to travel there, since all things abroad will be much more expensive.

But as is so often the case, the common wisdom is common but only partially wise.

The recent sharp decline in the once-mighty dollar will cause ripples far and wide, to be sure, but since it's hard to generalize about those effects, it pays to take a closer look.

CNN/Money has compiled a series of articles about how the falling dollar might affect you. The currency hovered near its recent lows against the euro and the Japanese yen in Wednesday trading.

One reason the Bush administration is "talking the dollar down," (even though it says its "strong dollar" policy remains intact): A weaker dollar should help U.S. exports by making them less costly to buyers using other currencies, thereby giving a lift to the sluggish U.S. economy. But there are risks to that approach.

What happens, for example, in a world where every country is trying to keep its currency weak in order to boost exports? Welcome to the wonderful world of competitive currency devaluation. (Click here for more).

Furthermore, some economists say, the ramifications of a falling dollar are so complex that it remains to be seen if it really will give the United States the economic lift that many people believe it will. (Click here for more).

Still, there is a bright side to the falling dollar, at least for the U.S. companies that derive a big part of their sales overseas, sales that are suddenly worth more when converted back into a depreciated dollar. (Click here for more).

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Then there is the effect of the dollar on the ever-volatile tech industry, which is likely to be mixed. (Click here for more).

Planning a trip overseas? Well, if you're headed to Europe, you're almost certain to see hotel and food bills that will cost you more, in dollar terms, than they did a year ago. But in other places -- notably Canada, Mexico, South America and much of Asia -- Americans still have a great deal of purchasing power. (Click here for more).

Likewise, there are risks to plowing money into stocks overseas on the theory that they should provide better returns in dollar terms. (Click here for more).

Then there's the curious observation that you can predict how the dollar will do based on whether the then-current treasury secretary happens to come from industry, which usually favors a weaker dollar, or Wall Street, where bankers like a strong dollar that encourages investments in U.S. assets.

Given human nature, and humans' inherent interest in money, maybe that's not so curious after all. (Click here for more and click here for how the dollar has fared under treasury secretaries back to the Nixon administration).