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26th Feb 2026

We used to be Premium Bonds people. Not in a “stick £100 in and forget it” way.

In a “let’s optimise this” way. We’d check the results. We’d get a ridiculous little dopamine hit when a £25 win landed.

We’d quietly imagine the £1,000,000 jackpot and think: “One day. Surely one day.”

Two people holding stacks of cash beside an NS&I “Investing in Premium Bonds” booklet and a pile of Premium Bond certificates

And we told ourselves the story lots of smart, sensible people tell themselves:

  • “This is safe, we can’t lose any money.”
  • “This is responsible, we aren’t gambling.”
  • “This is basically earning interest, but more fun.”

Then we did our annual finance review for 2025 and I wondered “What did we miss out on by keeping all that money in Premium Bonds?”.

Katie did the maths. We realised we had made an expensive mistake. As with everything we do, we want to share out mistakes so you can avoid making the same ones!

It didn’t feel like a mistake at the time. It felt like being sensible. It felt like being grown-ups. It felt like a fun game with an awesome dream of winning the million jackpot and living happily ever after.

But “safe” has a price. Safe Premium Bonds cost us £212,778. Yes you read that right. We would have been £212,778 better off right now if we had invested instead of leaving our money in Premium Bonds.

How much is keeping too much invested in premium bonds costing you?

Are Premium Bonds worth it?

Let’s start with what Premium Bonds actually are, because the marketing is… sneaky.

Premium Bonds are sold by NS&I, National Savings and Investment, a UK state-owned savings bank.

Premium Bonds do not pay interest.

Instead, NS&I sets an annual prize fund rate which it changes from time to time.

What does this mean? Well, they add up the total value of everyone’s Premium Bonds and give out a percentage of it in monthly prize draws.

It’s currently 3.60% for the March 2026 draw and they’re reducing it to 3.30% for the April draw.

That 3.30% is not a promise. It is not a guaranteed return. It is a headline average across the whole prize fund. Your own return will be vastly different from this.

So why are people so attracted to Premium Bonds? Because the grand prize is a whopping £1 million of tax-free money and you can get your original money out whenever you want (with a few days’ lag).

What are the chances of winning? For every £1 Bond that you own, you have a 1 in 22,000 chance of winning a prize in March and that’s worsening to a 1 in 23,000 chance from April.

But that’s your chances of winning a prize of any value (the smallest is £25). Even if you have the maximum £50,000 in Premium Bonds, the odds of winning the big prize in a year are 1 in 49 million.

Find out more on the National Savings and Investment page

I currently have £50 in Premium Bonds and haven’t won anything for over a year. So my current return is zero and that doesn’t even take into account how inflation is eroding my poor £50!

MoneySavingExpert puts it bluntly: for many people, typical luck means winning less than the headline rate, and with smaller holdings lots of people win nothing over a year.

I can attest to this!

So are Premium Bonds worth it?

Sometimes.

They can be fine for:

  • an appropriately-sized emergency fund (more on this later!)
  • money you truly need to access fast
  • saving for something in the short to medium-term (like a car or a holiday) and you need somewhere to put the cash

But if you are using Premium Bonds as your default place to store serious money for years? or if you’re hoarding cash there because it feels safe?

Then in our opinion, the answer is No. They are not worth it. They are actually costing you a fortune!

How we got hooked (and why it felt so smart)

This is the embarrassing bit. We didn’t just “have some Premium Bonds”.

We got emotionally attached to them.

Katie Donegan and Alan Donegan holding a large NS&I Premium Bonds cheque showing a £25.00 prize, photographed outdoors

We started “optimising”. We started thinking about odds. We started feeling proud that we were “doing something sensible”.

And every time ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) dropped us a £25 prize, it reinforced the habit.

It felt like proof.

Proof that this was a clever move. Proof that we were the sort of people who make smart financial decisions. Proof that £1 million might be around the corner, even though we logically knew we had better chances of winning the national lottery!

That is how Premium Bonds get you.

Not with logic. With tiny hits of excitement. They sell you on the big dream and keep you coming back with tiny wins and dopamine hits.

Sounds like anything else? Yes it is gambling. We fell for it.

The moment that changed everything: our annual finance review

Every year, we do an annual finance review. You can read about each review here: 2023, 2024, 2025.

The reviews are where we zoom out, look at the whole system, and ask: “Are we making good decisions with our money?”

This year, we asked a probing question:

What did our Premium Bonds decision actually cost us?

We did this to understand the maths behind our financial decisions. We are NEVER doing this to punish “past us” (prior versions of us). Past Alan and Katie made the best decisions they could given the information they had, but “current us” has to learn. That is the only way to improve things.

So Katie did the maths using a simple comparison:

“What if we had invested that money in a global stock market index fund instead?”

Specifically, we used the Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK Equity Index Fund (accumulation) as the comparison because it tracks a broad basket of developed world companies (excluding the UK). And it is the fund most of our Freedom Fund is invested in. Source: Vanguard fund page.

The numbers (the bit you might want to sit down for)

Here is what we found.

1) The short-term cost

During each period where our money sat in Premium Bonds (we’ve had a few over the years), the stock market grew enough that we missed out on growth of:

£19,654

That is the immediate impact of having the money sat in Premium Bonds.

2) The long-term cost (this is the killer)

But when you roll the clock forward to the end of 2025, the compounding effect turns that mistake into missed growth of:

£212,778

That is not a typo.

£212,778

This is the invisible tax of waiting.

Because when you delay investing you do not just miss growth today.

You miss the growth on the growth. And then you miss the growth on the growth on the growth. Unfortunately, the long-term cost will continue to increase. This is just what it was at the end of 2025.

Compounding is a superhero when you are invested.

And a super-villain when you are not.

Why we did it

Well we didn’t do it once, or even twice.

We did it three times. The chart below shows you how much we held in Premium Bonds and when.

The 1st time: 2016. Fear made us play it “safe”

  • Markets were wobbly.
  • The news was loud.
  • Everything felt uncertain.
  • Investing felt terrifying.

Sound familiar? So we did what humans do when the world feels chaotic.

We tried to create safety.

We put our cash into Premium Bonds and told ourselves we would invest “later”.

And that is the trap.

“Later” is the most expensive word in personal finance.

The 2nd time: 2021-2022. Premium Bonds became our ‘parking place’

The second time wasn’t driven by panic.

It was driven by something sneakier: habit.

Premium Bonds became our default “parking place” for money.

We were holding too much cash, and Premium Bonds felt like a safe home for it.

So we parked it.

Our balance climbed again and peaked at roughly £45,000 from September 2021 to January 2022.

Not because we had a clever strategy.

Because we had a cash habit.

The 3rd time: 2023-2024. The “what if we win big?” trap

And then we did it again.

This time it was fuelled by a much more seductive story:

“What if we win the million?”

That one thought is powerful enough to keep money stuck for years.

From late 2023 into early 2024, Premium Bonds crept back up again, rising from a few thousand to around £18,400 by April 2024.

It wasn’t a plan.

It was hope.

And hope is not an effective investment strategy.

The big lesson

Here’s what I really want you to take from this:

I’ve been talking about Premium Bonds so far, but the exact same message relates to any long-term cash hoard including cash ISAs or savings accounts. Cash is a guaranteed way to lose money even if it’s earning interest.

Premium Bonds vs investing

Premium Bonds feel like investing because:

  • you put money in
  • you hope for a return
  • you sometimes get paid
  • there is excitement

But structurally, they are not investing.

Alan Donegan and Katie Donegan at a table comparing a “Premium Bonds” display with cash to a “Stock Market” display with an upward chart, coins and stacked money

They are a prize draw funded by a prize pot. It is gambling. And in our opinion investing should never be exciting, it should be really boring so you can go and live your life while your money is working for you!

NS&I literally tells you the annual prize fund rate is variable and that the odds are 23,000 to 1 per £1 Bond per month. They also warn that inflation can reduce the true value of your money over time.
Source: NS&I Premium Bonds product page.

Meanwhile, a diversified global index fund is designed to grow with the global economy over the long term.

Here is the real comparison:

  • Premium Bonds headline prize fund rate: 3.30% (currently – it changes) which you will rarely actually receive as it is a prize draw
  • Vanguard FTSE Developed World ex-UK fund has grown by 13% a year since we started investing.

This is not a promise about future returns. Markets go down as well as up.

But it is a real illustration of the gap between:

A) a variable prize rate with luck involved
and
B)
owning a slice of the global economy

Important: this is the best-case version of our mistake

Before anyone says “yeah but”, let’s be very clear.

This calculation is basically the kindest possible interpretation of our Premium Bonds decision.

  • We assumed no tax because we would have invested inside a Stocks and Shares ISA or a self-invested personal pension (SIPP).
  • We used a low-cost global index fund with an ongoing charge of 0.14%, so this is not some exotic high-fee fantasy.
    Source: Vanguard factsheet
  • We did not include inflation. That is actually generous to Premium Bonds because inflation silently eats cash-like holdings.

So if anything, £212,778 is the polite British version of the comparison.

Yeah but what if you’d won £1m?

“Yeah but what if you’d won big?” Honestly, that question is the trap.

Because a big win would have made Premium Bonds feel like a genius move… even if it was still a bad strategy. That is what luck does. It rewards you emotionally, not logically.

The point of this article isn’t “Premium Bonds never pay out”. The point is: you can’t rely on prizes to build wealth. You need a plan that works even when you get zero excitement and zero fireworks. Investing is boring. That’s why it works.

Your odds of winning are 49million to one if you have 50,000 invested. You have better chances of winning the national lottery.

Premium Bonds vs ISA or SIPP (only one sentence you need to remember)

If you are building wealth, and you have money sitting in Premium Bonds that is not genuinely needed for emergencies:

That money should be in a Stocks and Shares ISA or SIPP (self-invested personal pension), invested in a global index fund.

Because Premium Bonds are not a wealth-building tool.

They are a cash-like parking place with a lottery attached.

The “do this now” section (save your future self)

If you are reading this and thinking “uh oh, this is me”, here is what to do next.

Step 1: Decide what “emergency fund” means for you

Premium Bonds can be fine for an emergency fund.

Pick a number that lets you sleep at night. We suggest 3-6 months of no-frills spending. Notice I said spending not income. Pick a number that’s enough to get you through what you would spend in a genuine emergency. Not a number that lets you avoid learning investing.

Do it now. Work out how much you’ll have in your emergency fund.

Step 2: Identify the hoarded money

Ask: “If I did not have Premium Bonds, would I actually need this cash in the next 12-36 months?”

If the answer is no, it is probably not emergency money. It is fear money.

Step 3: Put the rest to work

Move the hoarded chunk into a Stocks and Shares ISA and invest it in a diversified global index fund.

We built Rebel Finance School to help people get their cash invested. So many people are scared of investing so they pay down their mortgage, fill up cash ISAs and buy Premium bonds.

If you don’t understand the sentence above about investing in a global index fund then watch weeks 6-8 of Rebel Finance School, you can find the notes here and there is an AI coach embedded on that page to help you implement what you learn.

Step 4: Share this with your Premium Bonds friend

You know the one.

They get excited about Premium Bonds.
They talk about ERNIE like it is their mate.
They treat a £25 win like a sign from the universe.

Send them this article.

This is how we save our friends.

Quick disclaimer (boring but important)

This article is for education and inspiration, not financial advice. Katie and I are not trained financial advisors. We share what we have learnt, what happened in our investing journey in an effort to help you avoid the same mistakes we made. Full Disclaimer

What do you think?

Are you hoarding money in Premium Bonds? Are you squirreling money away for your kids in Premium Bonds? Do you know the true cost of the “safe” financial moves you are making?

We would LOVE to know your thoughts on the article and what we have shared. Please leave us a comment and let us know.

Peace and Pineapples

Katie and Alan

53 Comments

  1. Joanne Weatherill February 26, 2026 at 9:33 pm - Reply

    Great article – thank you both!

  2. Jason February 26, 2026 at 11:29 pm - Reply

    Wow that resonated I was seriously thinking about premium bonds but not anymore, I think I also need to move my cash ISA after reading that! Thanks as ever to you both I would be a lot poorer both in knowledge and finance if it wasn’t for rebel finance

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:47 pm - Reply

      Jason you are amazing. And good spot, you are right the same principles apply to cash ISAs and the UK has a tendency to over contribute to cash ISAs. Sending you happiness. Alan

  3. Ronnie February 27, 2026 at 6:37 am - Reply

    Without wanting to come back with a ‘yes, but’ immediately (!) I am in the position where I have maxed my SIPP/workplace pension/ISA/LISA and use a GIA with an amount to roughly the limit of CGT/dividend interest for bed and ISA. I have to be careful to not push my adjusted net income over or would lose all allowances. I have maxed out my PBs as can’t think of an alternative and they are also my emergency fund/saving for short term / medium goals. I can’t think of a more tax efficient place while I wait for each financial year (perhaps low coupon gilts or gold brittania too.)

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 3:08 pm - Reply

      Hey Ronnie, that is the annoying bit about the tax brackets in the UK where you get penalised for earning more at a certain point. My only thought is why not put more in the GIA, better to have it growing and pay tax on the growth when you sell it (dividends pay tax on the way)? Thanks for commenting and adding to the conversation. Alan

      • Ronnie March 1, 2026 at 8:12 pm - Reply

        Ah, I was thinking that dividends were counting to tax each year even if you didn’t sell like savings interest does, not just when you sell. I am doing everything to keep my adjusted net income down!

  4. Jacqueline Allport February 27, 2026 at 7:01 am - Reply

    Great article really made me see clearly and question how much emergency fund do I really need.

  5. Craig February 27, 2026 at 8:22 am - Reply

    Hi Guys, great article, I like many others have my emergency fund in PBs, £50k. I have been lucky in the past with them, but I also get what you are saying about missing the growth etc. So I guess my question is, if my emergency fund is not in PBs, then where do I put it, cash ISA? Thanks for the great work. 🍍🍍

    • Martin February 27, 2026 at 10:25 am - Reply

      If you need the full 50k as an emergency fund and aren’t using your ISA allowance for stocks and shares ISAs, then a flexible cash ISA is a good option, you can get a better return (https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds-calculator/) and also if you come into a lump sum (inheritance, etc.) then you can easily move that money that’s in the cash ISA to a S&S ISA and then refill the emergency fund into a non ISA savings account until you have ISA allowance again (effectively banking your ISA allowance from when you put the money in to the tax year when you get the lump sum). Otherwise, if you are maxing out your S&S ISA allowance, then a high interest savings account can usually beat premium bonds, although the higher your tax rate is the less likely that is (due to tax on interest savings of such a large pot), the MSE calculator gives you a good breakdown based on tax rate.

    • Chris February 28, 2026 at 7:33 am - Reply

      I would say a high interest easy access account NOT a cash ISA as you are wasting your tax efficient allowance allowance which can go to a Stocks and Shares ISA.

      • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:28 pm - Reply

        yes 100% right, if you can use all your ISA allowance for stocks and shares then use that first! Thanks Chris! Alan

    • RobH February 28, 2026 at 7:59 am - Reply

      They’re saying it’s fine to put your emergency fund there – if that’s what it is. Use either premium bonds or a high interest easy access savings account for this.
      Use your ISA allowance to protect your investments and their growth preferentially.
      50k doesn’t sound like an emergency fund though – the usual is 3-6 months of essential outgoings. Work out if it’s really needed and what it’s protecting you from – is it really a fear fund? If so, try and work out alternative mitigations and get it invested and working for you in your freedom fund.

      • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:27 pm - Reply

        Hey Craig and Rob,

        Rob is right, you can 100% keep your emergency fund in premium bonds if you would like to. To us 50k sounds like a very large emergency fund and you “probably” don’t need that much, although I know nothing about your situation!

        I would keep 3-6 months of bare bones expenses in either high interest savings account or premium bonds and then invest the rest!

        Sending you both happiness. . Alan

  6. Lisa February 27, 2026 at 9:02 am - Reply

    We had 100k combined after a lump sum from DB. Since moved to 4.5% savings, will take 40k from it in April for S&S ISA. Should any remaining not needed be in a GIA? Interest allowed bust for us both.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:45 pm - Reply

      hey Lisa, depends what the money is for! Is this our emergency fund? Is it invested to look after you in retirement? If it is money that should be working for you to create a return in retirement we would invest it but we don’t know your finances and we aren’t financial advisors. Have you had a look through your whole finances to see what your money is doing and where it is? Sending you huge happiness. Alan

  7. Steve February 27, 2026 at 3:15 pm - Reply

    I disagree with your calculations of the chances of winning. You state above they are 1 in 49M, and first of all I think you mean the chances of winning one million pound prize as opposed to the chances of winning anything at all. I can’t remember my A-level statistics well enough so I might be totally wrong but bear with me and tell me if I have gone wrong in my calculations below.
    The December 2025 prize fund according to the NS&I website was £403,875,350. This being 3.6% of the PB pool means the size of the pool was (403M/0.036) = 11,218,759,722. If someone holds 50,000 bonds the chances of a bond being picked out at any one time is 11B/50K = 224,375. There are 2 £1M prizes so the chances of getting one of them is half this figure, 1 in 112,187 which, if I am correct, is a far cry from 1 in 49Million.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:36 pm - Reply

      Hey Steve, thanks for commenting. We have seen various numbers for chances of winning. LOVE that you have gone back to first principles and worked it out.

      We have seen: Odds of Winning £1 Million: With £50,000, your annual chance of hitting the jackpot is roughly 1 in 110,000 to 1 in 113,037. Some estimates for specific periods suggest it could be even lower (1 in 49 million for a specific month).

      We will go back and do some more maths and update. The key point is the chances of winning are tiny! Thanks for replying. Alan

  8. Anna February 27, 2026 at 5:27 pm - Reply

    Craig asks if not Premium bonds, then what else.
    There are many savings accounts in the UK paying 4%.
    At least then our mine has a chance of keeping up with inflation.
    Surely having read this very thorough article, no one would leave their money there 🤷‍♀️

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:33 pm - Reply

      Hey Anna, yes high interest rate savings accounts are good for emergency funds too. We absolutely wanted to call out over storing of cash in premium bonds like we did and help people get their money working for them! Thanks for commenting Anna! Alan

  9. David February 27, 2026 at 5:51 pm - Reply

    Good Article. Made me think and I will make some changes as a result. It is the excitement of clicking the reveal results button on the PB app once a month 🤩. Thanks again!

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:32 pm - Reply

      Hey David, that is 100% how they get you with the excitement and the intrigue of it all. We know that feeling and have the same. The cost of paying for that excitement can be HUGE though! Sending happiness. Alan

  10. Annette February 27, 2026 at 6:07 pm - Reply

    I have 50k in PBs, however after reading this I will be taking all of it out and putting some in my SIPP (taking into account the tax-free annual max allowance of 60k) and the rest I’ll drip feed into my ISA in April 2026.

    @donegans, prior to listening to all of your videos this year, I had an absolute fear and hatred of anything to do with finance (I called finance the ‘F’ word!). Having learned so much from you and also other Youtubers that were recommended by you, I am now excited about my monthly finance meeting with myself, have consolidated my pensions, choosing my my own fund rather than employers default funds and am driving friends mad talking about investing!

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:32 pm - Reply

      Annette, this is AMAZING. Congratulations for taking control and I love that you have reclaimed F for finances and can now use F for other words! you are fabulous. Love how you have taken action and taken control! Thanks for commenting. Alan

  11. Karen Dhanecha February 27, 2026 at 7:27 pm - Reply

    What about the tax free bit??

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:30 pm - Reply

      Hey Karen, if you have your money invested in Stocks and Shares ISAs then it is tax free too. Alan

  12. Julie February 27, 2026 at 9:22 pm - Reply

    Love the article and it makes complete sense. I’m aiming for an emergency fund of £15000. £5000 will be in a higher interest savings account (they only pay interest on the first £5000) with the remainder in premium bonds. It’s a relatively high emergency fund as it covers 3 months expenses plus potential emergency vet bills for 2 old (12) large dogs and 2 horses, one of whom is 33. I don’t think I’m hoarding cash…? Just as an example, one of the dogs recently had a lump removed and it cost just over £2500.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:30 pm - Reply

      Hey Julie, if you have potential big expenses then having either a larger emergency fund or insurance to cover the costs is wise so I think that is great for your situation. Sending you huge happiness. Alan

  13. Jacqui Charles February 28, 2026 at 12:40 am - Reply

    We are big fans of Premium Bonds….but your article has hit home on a few points and got me thinking about the accumulated losses, the missed growth and future compounding. 🫣

    Only issue is that we have currently run out of tax efficient places to park money, but roll on April and I’ll transfer into a couple of ISA’s.

    Thanks for taking the time to produce this article, it’s helped me have less of a blinkered view about Premium Bonds.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:29 pm - Reply

      Hey Jacqui, thanks for commenting and being so open minded. We were super fans too and then we did the numbers and maths speaks to us! you could do your numbers if you wanted to, or just move on and make a change in April like you said! Sending you happiness. Alan

  14. Mark Charlton February 28, 2026 at 7:59 am - Reply

    Sorry but your maths is very wrong and it is a typo. Compound interest of 13 % on your lost investment gain of £19,645 is nearer to £60,000 and that assumes every penny of the lost opportunity was on day 1 – which clearly it didn’t . Never mind the detailed maths for now – you can google a compound interest calculator – just think about it – you’re claiming that compound interest would have multiplied by your principal sum by 11 x over ten years – there’s no market index that’s ever ever grown that much. That’s also not 13% it’s nearer to 30%
    See Google AI – To grow an initial amount of 20,000 to 220,000 over 10 years, the annual compound interest rate is approximately 27.10%.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:27 pm - Reply

      Hi Mark, see my other comment which explains how the maths works. Alan

  15. RobH February 28, 2026 at 8:06 am - Reply

    Excellent article – thanks.
    Prior to RFS’24 we had the full 100k in Premium Bonds – now successfully pivoted away so it’s just the emergency fund.
    However, still get the urge to check results every month in case it’s the ‘Big One’ – easy to see how gambling is so addictive and unhealthy!

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:25 pm - Reply

      Hey Rob, it is addictive isn’t it! lol. That is how they get you! Alan

  16. Mark Charlton February 28, 2026 at 8:06 am - Reply

    This time put a little more clearly.
    Sorry but your maths is very wrong and it is a typo to say you lost over 2220k Compound growth of 13 % on your lost growth of £19,645 is nearer to £60,000 and that assumes every penny of the lost opportunity was on day 1 – which clearly it wasn’t as you put money over different time periods.
    Never mind the detailed maths for now – you can google a compound interest calculator – just think about it – you’re claiming that compound growth would have multiplied by your principal sum a missive 11 x over ten years – there’s no market index that’s ever ever grown that much. To achieve that would require annual compound growth of nearer to 30%
    See Google AI – To grow an initial amount of 20,000 to 220,000 over 10 years, the annual compound interest rate is approximately 27.10%.
    Sorry – but you need to check your maths and maybe feel a little better about your lost opportunity!
    PS. – you’re right though that Premium Bonds are for losers.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:25 pm - Reply

      Hey Mark, Appreciate your comment. The maths isn’t wrong we double checked. the key piece here is the number of units we would have bought at the time of buying premium bonds if we had gone with an index fund instead. So it is not a simple maths problem like applying 13% compounded. We went back to the unit price, how many we could buy and how that changed.

      The 19645GBP that you refer to was just the growth we missed out on in just the months we had them. So you can’t take that figure and compound that. Does that make sense to you?

      Thank you for checking our maths, we appreciate you saying. The maths is right on the article. Sending happiness. Alan

  17. Yvonne February 28, 2026 at 8:30 am - Reply

    I also have £50k invested in premium bonds for the last three years. I have won most months but only very small amounts and like you say hoping for the big win that never happens. And my prizes have been getting smaller and non-existent. I will now be looking for a better place to invest.
    Thank you.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:22 pm - Reply

      Hey Yvonne, we had the same dreams! lol. The odds are crazy small and it is not worth optimising them! Is this money for your retirement? Alan

  18. Melissa February 28, 2026 at 6:01 pm - Reply

    Interesting. We don’t have any PBs, but probably do have too much in our emergency fund. Need to get the extra working for us!

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:13 pm - Reply

      Hey Melissa, nice spot, and yes cash in the emergency fund is essentially the same! you rock! Alan

  19. Martin Hart February 28, 2026 at 8:33 pm - Reply

    I too have got the maximum amount in PBs. Prizes go into my current account most months – which is nice.
    I think that this amount is perhaps too much and should probably move 20% to my S&S ISA in April given that the prize rate is soon to reduce.

    • Alan Donegan March 1, 2026 at 2:13 pm - Reply

      Hey Martin, good reflections. The prizes feel awesome when they come which is cool but they are rarely better than inflation! You are awesome. Thanks for reading. Alan

      • Clementine March 2, 2026 at 12:05 pm - Reply

        Thanks a lot to you two. I have my emergency fund (which is currently 1500£) in bonds. Ill know in the future not to put more money in there. Its very good to know on a logical level what the odds of actually winning are.

  20. Louise Harris March 1, 2026 at 10:06 pm - Reply

    Hi, we had part of our emergency fund in Premium Bonds but only win 2-3% each year. I was already thinking about transferring part of the money to a cash ISA to increase our return so I am doing that in March and April this year. Your article is very informative. I do enjoy the little wins every month but more interest will be better for our finances.

  21. Mark March 2, 2026 at 1:20 pm - Reply

    I thought I was doing so well with the RFS way of life but I can still see we have way too much uninvested. Come round for a coffee Alan and fine tune my plan lol

    • Alan Donegan March 9, 2026 at 7:35 am - Reply

      Hey mark, where are you living? Coffee is a tempting offer……. Sending happiness. Alan

  22. Robbie C March 3, 2026 at 9:23 pm - Reply

    I’m using Premium Bonds at the moment to store future income tax owed – I work for myself, and am not on a PAYE scheme. I have my payments automated, and use buffers to make it predictable, including what I think the tax will be. I put that into bonds each month as a way to have it “out of sight, out of mind” – it’s money already allocated, plus for that chance to win big… gotta dream.

    • Alan Donegan March 9, 2026 at 7:33 am - Reply

      Love that Robbie and that is a great use of premium bonds as that money market for the gov is safe and might jus might give you a cool gift! Love it! Alan

  23. Trude June 13, 2026 at 3:51 pm - Reply

    Thank you for sharing this, and it adds a good perspective. My partner and I have separate finances, but a few joint accounts for bills and joint saving for house issues. We have already maxed out our ISAs and are still wanting to finish the RFS course before investing. Would you say for a small joint emergency fund of 6K this is still reasonable way to store it?

    • Alan Donegan June 13, 2026 at 4:19 pm - Reply

      Trude, thanks for the lovely message. The emergency fund we talk about is 3-6 months of no frills spending. if you think that size covers you and you feel good about job security etc then that works. The key is to cover what could go wrong so you don’t have to sell off investments at a bad money! sending happiness. Alan

  24. Sam September 4, 2026 at 3:20 pm - Reply

    Thanks for this. I have taken 7 grand out of my PB and am putting it in my SIPP. I’m self employed and so far this year my part time net earnings is just over £7000 . I have only just opened a SIPP thanks to your fantastic course so am putting my net earnings into that.
    Thank you both so much. Your course has really helped me! A million thank yous

    • Alan Donegan September 6, 2026 at 1:32 am - Reply

      am that is awesome. Congratulations and I love that you worked that out. Premium bonds can be a great place for an emergency fund but not for long term money! Sending you happiness. Alan

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