For those who haven't heard of the UK premium bonds, here is a link to the government site.
https://www.nsandi.com/products/premium-bondsThe interest rate is 3.3% at the moment, and it is tax free. This interest is put into a prize fund, and prizes are awarded in a monthly draw. They range from £25 up to £1,000,000, and 2 million pound prizes are awarded every month. The odd of a £1 bond winning a prize are 1 in 24,000, and that is repeated for every month that you hold bonds. You can see that it isn't free money, but money won from gambling with the interest. I hold a few thousand bonds, so I am hoping for some more wins this year.
As has been mentioned, I am 81 in June, and have hit middle age now. I have had a clourful and rewarding life, and as a result I have managed to dispose of ( read lose ) several million pounds, and I think it is time for me to behave responsibly. I am a true green environmentalist, and not one of the new green deal proponents who want to turn every green into an inert brown or grey mass. Every government "green" initiative is designed to destroy the planet, and to raise taxes or increase control over the population. Just look at the CO2 obsession. The real causes of global warming are nothing to do with CO2, but are caused by solar activity and sub-marine volcanic eruptions. That is why the arctic is warming, and the antarctic isn't. My goal is to raise a £million to buy somewoodland with a stream, and to preserve that for the benefit of the wildlife, the planet, and my health. A million pound win woulkd be spent on this, but I accept that my chances of winning this must be north of !:100,000,000. The appeal of Bitcoin and the Premium bonds are that they both give me the remote chance of winning a million, and preserving my capital at the same time. I have looked atr some other options, and I may post about them sometime. I'm also trying to build slowly towards my million with a few side hustles. I bought a couple of Volvo 740 cars for example. I paid £350 for a 1988 saloon with engine and other problems, and I have fixed the engine problems, and I use it as a daily driver. It's still a bit of a rat rod, but it's probably worth about £1,500 now. I bought an estate (wagon in american) for £850, and that is in almost concours condition. It has a stearing problem which I believe is caused by failing rubber bushes. I'll replace those wil more reliable neoprene ones. Once I have done that, the car should be worth around £5,000. The problenm is that I love both cars, and I want to keep them. I've got far too much stuff in storage, and I need to do some serious disposal work, but I enjoy lying on the beach admiring the bikinis too much.
So why did I start this thread? I love Bitcoin and the Bitcoin Talk foum, and it is a sadness to me that so many of the valuable members from the past have left. I even enjoyed the street fighting posts of Tman. It is obvious from this thread that there is an incredible diversity of experience and wealth in this forum, and I hope that my readers will be able to draw on this to help them to make their own financial decisions. Almost all of the replies have some elements of good advice, and I am encouraged by this. My own circumstances are extremely uinusual, and I wouldn't really expect anyone to empathise with me, but I do consider all of the opinions. Bitcoin is unusual in that it is a resource that can be beneficial whatever your wealth may be. It ranges from the purchase of a few Satoshi up to over 1,000 Bitcoin, and that can help almost everyone to gain some protection from the impending financial collapse. Just be careful, and don't overstretch yourselves, and I don't believe in gearing ( leverage ), Bitcoin is too volatile for anyone but professional speculators to indulge in that.