Tax Free Investment Options

DRS1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115723#Comment_82115723

I am sure you could have great fun analysing which £250 block won the most.

But I believe you have to wait a period before your bonds are entered in the draw. So the more you spread it out the longer you will have to wait for the full value of the bonds to qualify.

Maybe if you think a spread is better just buy in larger blocks £10k a month say - and someone on here is bound to have worked out the optimum time of the month to invest.

Just a thought on pension contributions maybe you can contribute enough to get your overall taxable income below the higher rate tax threshold? If the £90k is from a pension tax free lump sum then you may need to watch out for the pension recycling rules so that could restrict how much you increase your contributions.

flaneurs_lobster

But I believe you have to wait a period before your bonds are entered in the draw. So the more you spread it out the longer you will have to wait for the full value of the bonds to qualify.

Maybe if you think a spread is better just buy in larger blocks £10k a month say - and someone on here is bound to have worked out the optimum time of the month to invest.

It's simpler than that, the bonds have to be in your account for a full calendar month before they are entered into the following month's draw.

So the only 'strategy' is keeping your cash in an interest-bearing account for as long as possible before funding the purchase of the bonds prior to month end.

Someone will know what the purchase cycle/timings are for PBs.

Enzo_L

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115723#Comment_82115723

The best way I've found to debunk the myth surrounding certain volumes of holding giving a better chance of winning was with a friend who believed the opposite to you - he thought you had a better chance of winning with a big block.

I explained that the random number picking equipment isn't throwing a dart which is more likely to hit something big. Nor, as far as your method is concerned, is it throwing a dart which is going to an area of a board where a small cluster of your bonds are, after you've used a buying method that has, in your mind's eye, spread them out across the target area. It just throws out random sequences of letters and numbers, some of which match with single premium bonds that someone owns.

It doesn't know that blocks of numbers are, in a human' mind's view, right next to each other. It doesn't see the block. Nor is it aiming an arrow towards a certain area of numbers and then a different area of numbers - because the single individual bond numbers aren't in a location.

Then the penny dropped.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115799#Comment_82115799

You are right of course, but with any games of luck many people ( the majority probably), believe in all sorts of things.

Birthday date numbers for the lottery - newer PBs win more than old ones - bet on grey horses only - only go to bingo when there is a full moon etc etc

Newbie_John

TN28, TG31 gilts are your friend, 4 and 4.5% return tax free.

Way better return than Premium Bonds guranteed.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115896#Comment_82115896

…wear a green shirt when applying for certain savings accounts. 😉

clairec666

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82115799#Comment_82115799

Similarly, most people wouldn't pick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as their lottery numbers, because surely 6 numbers in a row would never win. Yet they'd happily pick 4, 15, 19, 27, 36, 48. Same odds.

subjecttocontract

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116502#Comment_82116502

I wore a green shirt when I bought my winning premium bond, so it must work.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116281#Comment_82116281

That's a potentially misleading way of phrasing that - it's not guaranteed to be better than the return from Premium Bonds, but is fixed and likely to be better than the average PB return (currently 3.8% median on a full holding, but technically a mean of 4.35%).

Notepad_Phil

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82116554#Comment_82116554

I'll never choose 1 thru 6 as my lottery numbers as I don't want to win the big one and have to share the cash with the thousands that some research has calculated also choose those exact numbers :-)