New Year's Resolution from four years ago.

Wednesdayman

For many years I played the lottery, a couple of quid once or maybe twice a week.  In 2020 I made a new year's resolution to buy premium bonds instead. I have stuck to this resolution and now have £3,700 worth. In this time I have won 100 quid once.

In all the talk of investments and interest rates I think the gambling element is often missed.  I will keep buying premium bonds because if I didn't then I would gamble it away somewhere else.

Sus59

This is exactly the same reason I buy premium bonds.  I may not win, but at least I won't have lost my initial investment. And there is the excitement of checking on the app every month to see if you have won anything.

DjangoUnchained

I use to have the full holding £50k but when interest rates for fixed savers went up i took most of the premium bonds out all but a couple of hundred that i left in.. I know my chances of winning are minimal but it satisfies my small gambling craving that i might be very lucky, but without feeling im losing out on guaranteed interest that ive moved most of my money into.

Alexland

I don't really feel the need to gamble anywhere so would only hold PBs in the expectation that if I had enough I would get the average rate of return eventually minus the proportion allocated to large prizes. If you don't win on PBs you are losing spending power to inflation.

I went to a stag do at a casino once and took some play money to participate in games I didn't really understand but for some reason I did quite well and so decided to cash out early which made the rest of the night quite dull watching other people wasting their money away. They had a lot more excitement and wins to talk about but I went home with the money.

I'd only use PBs to hold money until it can be ISA etc wrapped where the interest in standard cash savings would otherwise be taxed and would likely end up with a lower return.

UKX69

Alexland said:

I don't really feel the need to gamble anywhere so would only hold PBs in the expectation that if I had enough I would get the average rate of return eventually minus the proportion allocated to large prizes. If you don't win on PBs you are losing spending power to inflation.

I went to a stag do at a casino once and took some play money to participate in games I didn't really understand but for some reason I did quite well and so decided to cash out early which made the rest of the night quite dull watching other people wasting their money away. They had a lot more excitement and wins to talk about but I went home with the money.

I'd only use PBs to hold money until it can be ISA etc wrapped where the interest in standard cash savings would otherwise be taxed and would likely end up with a lower return.

Many years ago I went on a works outing to the races. Like you, I don’t know the first thing about betting and odds, so just stuck a quid (minimum I was told), on the six races on the card. Needless to say, lost the lot. Had more fun watching the bookie taking the bets and his assistant logging them down in his ledger. 😂

Alexland

Albermarle said:

I had some DM's once with a guy who was very nervous about investing/losing money that he had inherited.

I'm always a bit uncomfortable when randoms DM asking for investment advice as obviously we can never provide 121 advice only suggestions for things to consider and I would rather do it in the main forum where the conversation is peer reviewed for completeness and accuracy.

Doing the messages in the forum also provides cover for if I get busy when I would otherwise feel the pressure to reply. Or if the chat strays into topics where I might not be the best person to comment.

eskbanker

Alexland said:

Albermarle said:

I had some DM's once with a guy who was very nervous about investing/losing money that he had inherited.

I'm always a bit uncomfortable when randoms DM asking for investment advice as obviously we can never provide 121 advice only suggestions for things to consider and I would rather do it in the main forum where the conversation is peer reviewed for completeness and accuracy.

Doing the messages in the forum also provides cover for if I get busy when I would otherwise feel the pressure to reply. Or if the chat strays into topics where I might not be the best person to comment.

Yes, same here, when people DM regarding stuff already discussed on threads (with no reason for confidentiality) I always tell them to post on the forum, which is what it's there for!  As well as the reasons you give, it's useful to others for threads to contain the complete story for reference purposes.

Albermarle

eskbanker said:

Alexland said:

Albermarle said:

I had some DM's once with a guy who was very nervous about investing/losing money that he had inherited.

I'm always a bit uncomfortable when randoms DM asking for investment advice as obviously we can never provide 121 advice only suggestions for things to consider and I would rather do it in the main forum where the conversation is peer reviewed for completeness and accuracy.

Doing the messages in the forum also provides cover for if I get busy when I would otherwise feel the pressure to reply. Or if the chat strays into topics where I might not be the best person to comment.

Yes, same here, when people DM regarding stuff already discussed on threads (with no reason for confidentiality) I always tell them to post on the forum, which is what it's there for!  As well as the reasons you give, it's useful to others for threads to contain the complete story for reference purposes.

I do not disagree, and I have had very few DM’s with anybody.
However in this case there was already a lot of public debate on the forum, on the poster in questions threads. 

The main thread had gone off topic ( as often happens) , hence the DM.
Fascinating different approach to risk though.

fuzzzzy

Wednesdayman said:

For many years I played the lottery, a couple of quid once or maybe twice a week.  In 2020 I made a new year's resolution to buy premium bonds instead. I have stuck to this resolution and now have £3,700 worth. In this time I have won 100 quid once.

In all the talk of investments and interest rates I think the gambling element is often missed.  I will keep buying premium bonds because if I didn't then I would gamble it away somewhere else.

The worst thing I ever did was join a lottery syndicate. I know it is a complete waste of money but the remote chance they might win big just after I've stopped contributing makes it very difficult to pull out.