Thetownend.com

With interest rates so low just wondering if any fellow posters have had much luck with premium bonds and if so how much they've invested.

Got £11.5k invested at the moment. Not won a dime for the past 6 months or so mind

Cheers Tans. I was thinking of investing arounv £10k as a bloke at work has won around £1500 over the last 9 months. Let's hope you win soon.

You could buy a quarter of one Bitcoin for that!

I don't understand the bitcoin thing so havw no idea if it's a good investment or not!

My Nan bought me £20 worth of premium bonds when I was born in 1985. I have the app on my phone so as to be able to easily check my winnings. So far it's £0.

The following is purely my opinion rather than financial advice :D

Premium Bonds are old school non-starters these days and you'll be better off investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Etherum right now.

Why? The world's banking system has been set to fail since 1971 when Nixon 'temporarily' suspended the US Dollar being backed by the value of Gold. Now, fiat currencies are suffering from hidden hyperinflation where the US is printing money like no tomorrow keeping the world economy afloat.

Where Bitcoin is different is that there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin ever created which means it has scarcity. It's a really new innovation at just over 12 years old, so it's really young and still developing scaling use cases. However, within 12 years, it's gone through 2 halving events and halfway through it's third but scaled from 1 Bitcoin being worth less than $1 to 1 BTC currently floating around $50,000. If it continues at the rate of growth demonstrated over the last decade, arguably, 1 BTC will be worth $100 billion. Whether or not it will reach that sort of value is unknown and seems absolutely insane but if someone said to Bitcoin investors that 1 bitcoin back then worth less than $1 would be worth around $50k, you'd have been laughed at...

Where will this bull run end? There are plenty that are predicting various numbers from $100k to $1.2million, personally, I think the maximum ceiling to be somewhere around $250k per BTC before the end of October. But a word of warning, cryptocurrencies are volatile. In January, Bitcoin doubled in value from $20k to $40 within 30 days then dropped 30% before pumping up to $57k before another 30% retracement. Next leg up technical target I'd set a target of $74k before another 30% retracement and then go at least once more, up to three times more, before seeing a 60-80% retracement. This is completely normal over it's 3-4 year cycle.

That said, I bought at the bottom of the coronavirus dump back in March and quadrupled my investment. If you want to trade in crypto assets, give me a shout and I'll dig out a referral link for the exchange I recommend :)

If you want exposure to Bitcoin but not directly holding the asset, I'd recommend investing in companies via a Stocks and Shares ISA that directly own Bitcoin.
Tesla recently invested 7% of their cash reserves into Bitcoin that represents a $1.5 billion investment, currently 30% down since they invested as it correlates with Bitcoin.
Microstrategy ($MSTR) has invested to date $1.3billion and holds 90,000 Bitcoin in its treasury and recently closed a fundraise of just over $1 billion to purchase even more Bitcoin..
PayPal kicked off the current bullrun by announcing PayPal customers will be able to buy, sell, hold Bitcoin in PayPal wallets (although you are merely borrowing PayPal's owned Bitcoin within it's closed payment network) - as a result, PayPal's company value has doubled since it's announcement last October.
Square Inc (owned by the same CEO as Twitter) has also experienced massive growth. This list of companies diversifying their assets into Bitcoin will continue over the years and even in this bullrun.

It's a question of WHEN will Apple buy and copy PayPal's business model, not if... If they haven't already started buying?

Argo Blockchain (a crypto mining company) is a cracking buy at the moment in a Stocks and Shares ISA. I've trebled my investment within 30 days and currently consolidating above £2 a share. If Bitcoin continues to pump upwards, I'm setting a target of £10 a share before the end of September.

If you wanted to open a Stocks and Shares ISA, I'd fully recommend Freetrade. It starts from £3 a month and can get exposure to more risky investment stocks (like Crypto companies) for £9.99 a month. No trading fees, no limit to how many times you can trade in and out of shares. If you use this link when signing up, we'll both get a free share in something random worth up to £18 or something like that. https://magic.freetrade.io/join/thomas/c852ec85 (https://magic.freetrade.io/join/thomas/c852ec85)

Sorry for the long post but this has sadly been my hobby through Covid hahaha

Drummer boy, many thanks for the detailed info.

Wow that's disappointing not have one nothing in 35 years

I have a sizeable chunk. 3 or 4 years ago I could win in about 8 of the 12 months in a year. Mostly £25. Now the odds seem to have changed and I have one a couple of times in the last 18 months.

Do you have a few thousand invested?

Maybe  :)

😀😀😀

Fucking hell. OP asks about 100% guaranteed cash savings and gets told to put his money in literally one of the most volatile markets in the world.

Smash it all into a CBD IPO that hasn't got any products instead  ;D

Anyone looking to invest could do worse than flammableIndustries. PM me and I'll give you the bankdetails to send the money over.

Jimmy Quinn, the equivalent interest rate on Premium Bonds is <1%. Most people with less than £10k in Premium Bonds won't win anything.

If it's money you can't afford to lose, do not invest it. Keep it as cash.

If you need proper help, speak to someone who's qualified and regulated.

Volatile yes but the best performing asset class in the last decade.

I'll give you a shout out at the Press Conference when I buy the club hahaha

Many thanks Sandy

Explains the round dodging!

I'm not contesting the performance of Bitcoin. I speculate in it myself. With money I can afford to lose.

But suggesting someone who wants to get a bit of a better return on their savings puts it in Bitcoin is absolutely fucking insane. The 30 day volatility sits at over 5% PER DAY.

You only lose in Bitcoin if you sell lower than when you bought :P

Buy today and hold BTC for 10 years and your ROI on savings will outstrip anything else you hold as an investment asset.

At some point there will be a blood bath and those ITK will have bailed long before that happens.

If it was that simple everyone would be in it. You failed to mention Musk/Tesla seemingly dumped his $1.5bn and is now ramping DOGE. It’s volatile and manipulated by big players and a big collapse is as likely as a big return, it’s a bit like AIM on a grander scale that is manipulated by influential individuals!

What makes you think Tesla and Musk has dumped his $1.5billion investment?!  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Yeah, Expect up to an 80% retracement to start happening over 12 months from around September before it starts to mature around $100k and build for the next bull run in 2024-2025.

Musk loves to troll DOGE, it's hilarious.

Why more people aren't involved is a great question but it was estimated the other day that in 2017, 3% of the UK population had investment in Bitcoin... 2021, 30%+ of UK population have investments in Bitcoin.. So are more people involved in Bitcoin and those skeptical about it still are only set to miss out?

Buy today, hold for 10 years and you might have the best returns you could possibly get. Or you could lose the lot.

But how do you know OP won't need the money next week, next month, next year?

Just because it works for you doesn't mean it'll work for someone else. If you've profited, then congratulations. But telling someone who you know nothing about, who asked a question about cash savings, to buy Bitcoin, is reckless.

That's your opinion and I respect it. However, I kindly ask you equally respect mine and we agree to disagree. :)

Musk was calling Bitcoin ‘BS’ only a couple of months ago, he’s a proper market manipulator and making himself quick, easy money as he has a following significant enough to influence the market. Using him buying in to advocate Bitcoin is beyond naive!
Trading in and out of Bitcoin and all stocks is how you make money, but it’s a skill and hard work which is why relatively few make real returns.

Called it BS, then had a chat with Michael Saylor then invested $1.5billion. Still waiting for an explanation to Musk and Tesla dumping his investment though.

In my opinion, which you can slag off and disregard all you like, Bitcoin is the best store of value asset and the best appreciating asset class in the last decade. Better than any stocks, bonds, silver and gold.

Difference of opinion, maybe. I'm just highlighting the risks you seem to be conveniently ignoring.

You carry on pumping Bitcoin to whoever you want. Hopefully nobody gets caught with their pants down when the tide goes out.

I accept and fully acknowledge the risk involved. More so in crypto than traditional stocks and bonds by a lightening mile but everything has risk but IMO if you understand the risk completely, research everything you are investing in, understand it.. The risk in everything is negligible

Peter Schiff has been warning of the tide to go out on Bitcoin for years and so far been proven fundamentally wrong. Even his own son ignores his investment advice hahaha

You sound brainwashed. Get back to /r/bitcoin or /r/wallstreetbets.

So what you are saying is I should put next months rent money into bitcoin and hope for the best?

As I’ve said already once to you in response to a disrespectful reply, You have your opinions and I have mine.. It’s OK that we agree to disagree. It’s a part of life but no need to start making assumptions about anyone’s state of mind or comments that are disrespectful to anyone just because you don’t share a similar view.

I’m not saying that in the slightest. Regardless of whether you invest in bonds, stocks or crypto.. Do your research before investing anything. Know what you’re buying before you buy. Don’t risk more than you can afford to lose and have an entry and exit strategy. Hope is no strategy for success

Saying that, I’m not your Dad and each to there own. These are all my opinions.

Cowards

Disrespectful :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick: Calm down.


Maybe you should've posted that before saying:

You're not thinking big enough. Make your own BenCoins on a zx spectrum. Put the price just higher than bitcoin so they seem 'premium'.

Got a bbc micro econet going with a teletext adapter hooked up. Step 3 profit.

 :whoosh: :notworthy:

This is going well off-topic now, but I'm genuinely interested to know what you've made since you started trading? % or £.

380% in crypto since March last year. 111% in my Stocks and Shares ISA since the start of 2021.

That's good going. Actively trading, or mostly buy-and-hold?

A bit of both. Two thirds buying and holding, the rest trading but at this point in the bull cycle, will now be holding up the bubble is about to pop according to key indicators. Will then sell majority of my positions and dogpile into Defi for a year before starting to start accumulating again on the dips. If I can double my assets from the blow off top, that will do nicely ahead of the 2024 bull run to $1mil a coin. Triple my assets in the bear market would be awesome. That’s my plan anyways.

I have to keep my assets liquid (long story), at the mo' my premium bonds are performing well and in the words of the great Ruud Gullit they are "netto"

I stick to real estate. 

Whilst BTC is a good SOV (Store of Value) for now it is absolutely terrible as a real world use case. It's incredibly slow and expensive to pay and settle with. Awful. SOV is all it has but the banks will not be interested in using it as they adapt their own strategies. Mostly in how to move money quicker, in places that struggle with cross transfers. Often in some of the more poor places in the world. Essentially helping to bank the unbanked.

There are much better digital assets available that have several use cases. Ones that can both pay and settle transactions in a few seconds, at a fraction of a penny (around 0.000001p). There is one that is currently being used by many banks. It's why several businesses and banks can offer not only FPI but also settle that payment too. This has been one of the most difficult things for the antiquated banking system in regards to SWIFT messaging system. It's still too slow on the "settlement" side. This doesn't apply so much if you are within the same banking group or country but even SEPA payments can take a while to settle.

We live in a faster world now and the traditional banking system is still behind. They are working towards it but the future isn't with SWIFT. The GBP and USD are continually being devalued, thanks to things like increased quantitative easing. You £1 or $1 simply is just not worth as much and it will continue to reduce in value.

Imagine if there was an asset that can solve that problem? Can work with any currency and solve all the issues for the unbanked and cross border settlement? Well there is, but it isn't BTC or ETH.

ETH is also pretty slow, unless you pay the astronomical "gas" fees to transact quicker which is then counter productive because if I'm buying a coffee I not only don't want to have to wait for 30+ confirmations before it settles but I also don't want to have to pay high fees to process it. BTC is worse. It can take days sometimes to settle. My coffee will be very cold and don't even think about attempting to pay with it during a bull run. It simply is not practical as a useable asset.

If we want to talk about using future digital assets (or crypto if you must) as normal as we do with FIAT today then those assets are not for that. Stability is key (and I'm not talking "stable coins") and there are some assets that have relative stability compared to the likes of BTC and ETH and/or many other assets that get purposely manipulated or shilled to the max.

If you want something that has a future within integrating the banking system to a new and more modern level; that is inclusive for all and not just for the greedy "maxis" then I'd be looking at a digital asset called XRP. Along with Spark Token (FLR), which will also bring even more use case possibilities.

I won't tell anyone that they should invest or speculate on this or that outright because i'm not being qualified to give that advice but there are also some people that are qualified to give advice who know very little about digital assets (or crypto), or even emerging markets. Which I always find odd and often their main answer is to dismiss it altogether. Maybe really it's a curve ball and they are hoping people don't get in before them ;)

The only downside to anything Samdy said (I'm aware of your job btw :) ), was regarding keeping hold of your cash. As I said above, the GBP is devaluing year on year. It isn't really something you want to just hold completely on its own. That'd be throwing value away.

As an aside, I've held XRP since around 2015. NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) are another way and "fun" to get involved with. NFTs are essentially items or collectibles that are often loaded with value within. Say artwork, concert tickets, photography and so on. There's more to them than that but NFTs could have a use case in future for marketing strategies via bands as they may look to take back a little control of how their works are distributed.

Don't believe the scaremongers who say it's all for drug dealers (sorry Flammable, this isn't for you), the darkweb or other mucky undertones. In fact, the beauty of XRP is that everything is fully traceable. Plus anyone can work on the XRPL (XRP Ledger). I have known a great guy called Wietse for several years now and he initially created the XRP Tipbot, a fun way to move money via social media (I've mentioned having something similar on here before to replace the "like"/"cunt" function), he now runs XRP Labs with two other guys in an office in Amsterdam. All his work goes into building on the XRP Ledger to make integration even easier for say your Nan or anyone who doesn't digital assets or "crypto". He's an incredibly approachable guy.

Anyway, I've gone full Bamboo (not talking in the third person really) but I hope it offers some counter balance to Drummer Boy, who whilst is partly correct in BTC being a new SOV, it isn't the future in terms of usability. Without being patronising to you FDB, I'd ease off on the BTC maxi forums for a while as it seems they've got you sucked into the blinkered BTC culture of "BTC is the only one and everything else is trash" (I know you mentioned ETH but same foe in some respects).

Also, fully respect what Samdy has to say too. Good evening chaps (and chapettes, if there actually are any left on here).

 :pint:

The moral of the story is don't seek financial or investment advice from a loosely football based forum.

Possibly but then if that's the line of thought then you can apply the same to seeking legal advice :)

True. I would not purport to give legal advice. Any posts are for general interest only. 

Poor JQ just wanted to know whether Premium Bonds are any good, now look what we've done to his thread.

Whilst I may have come across as BTC maximalist in my responses, I am not. I hold current investments in ETH and LINK assets too and fully expect evolution. Will BTC hit $100 billion? Who actually knows.

I completely agree with you that BTC's real-world use is not more than store of value. It was the beginning of Blockchain technology, the start and at this point in time represents the lion share of the total capital locked up in the crypto market. But that's all BTC ever needs to be - a true store of value for other assets like real estate, fiat currencies, stocks, to be pegged against.

I would not be mentioning XRP to anyone considering that Ripple (the company behind the asset) is currently being investigated by SEC for fraudulent activity, and since the news broke tanked off the edge of a cliff. I, personally, don't really believe in it that's just one opinion in a bucket of thousands.

If Bitcoin went to zero, crypto would be dead IMO. I do completely agree that we're yet to see that killer app in crypto, like what email and www. did for the internet. It's only a matter of time but I do believe and morally hope for my libertarian views that BTC is the foundation for the future. I think ETH will survive with its innovation in smart contracts but with the hundreds of other crypto assets on the market, easily 95% of those projects will fail. Which ones actually make it is like betting on horses but it's a financial revolution happening right under your nose.

The banks and world governments will need to react at some point. It's just a matter of when and what price point that BTC will reach to make that happen IMO. My key message out of all of this conversation and debate, go investigate and research for yourself because in my opinion, it's the biggest financial revolution the world has ever seen is happening as we speak and will have a far-reaching impact in our society that thee industrial revolution and the internet revolution. It might be Bitcoin, it might be one that hasn't even been created yet but there is a reason why Governments and Banks hate Bitcoin and it's because it's threatening their power status and ability to devalue the money in your pocket.

Hopefully it's helped hahaha

It certainly got detailed😀

I put a fair amount in premium bonds 4 months ago and have had a return of 0.25% so far. I intend to put more in. I'm risk averse. I'm more interested in keeping what I've got than gambling when I don't know enough about what I'd be gambling on.
You don't lose your capital but if you don't win anything you're worse off because of inflation.
Premium bonds work for me. I also intend to set up a stocks and shares ISA next month but a simple boring tracker, again lowish risk.

Cheers Chalkie.
I do have other investments and a private pension so was considering putting around 10k into premium bonds as there is literally nothing on the high street to give that amount even 1% since Santander cut their rates.

Good luck Chalkie.

Basically, If FDB and I aren't buying the Town together in 10yrs then we've failed  :pint:

I put some money into a company called Alpine Solutions on trading 212 over Christmas - was up 150% at one point but now in the red

Still haven’t recouped my litecoin and ethereum losses from the 2017 bubble

Absofuckinglutely. Fan’s ownership becomes a reality and bagsies the Chairman role! New stadium, proper youth investment and Premier League in due course.

Did you buy at the peak and sell at the bottom?

I’m still holding alpine - that’s a long term thing, see how it pans out

I’ve panicked and moved far too much about on the crypto to even know anymore

I got bored of numbers going up when I was 8.

You’ll be okay, they have a NASDAQ up-listing this month. Very envious on the people who got in early on ALPP

If you’re still holding your ETH from the peak of 2017, you must of recovered your losses by now considering it’s now higher than the 2017 peak? Litecoin is nearly there but not quite, but should happen in the coming months..

Nope, like I say, I panicked. It’s all in nucypher and Bitcoin cash - decisions based on nothing