premium bonds.

[Count Steer]

Genuine Q, why would gold be CGT exempt?

Sovereigns. They're legal tender, for example a 'proof' double sovereign has a face value of two quid.

Does that make them more or less valuable than "straight" gold? I can see how not being CGT liable would make them more valuable, but they're also a fixed size/format?

It's an interesting one. It's illegal to destroy a coin of the realm so sovs (in theory) can only be traded as sovs. If you can't stick them in the melt and eg make jewellery out of them might that hold the value down? Having said that, most gold seems to just be held as lumps of various sizes.

[Taipan]

£100! I'll knock that out in Peter Lugers!

[Pirahna]

Noob question, but how many bonds do you have to
Own before you yield any kind of return?

A bloke got the £1m jackpot last month with £5k in bonds, you can win it with just a £1 investment.

Wifey and I had £100k (that's £50k each) in there which we moved out at the start of the year. We found it consistantly under performed every other investment we have, even a savings account at a high street building society was better.

[Wscad]

My mates missus has £1k of pb s. Went to the post office this morning and found out she’d won £100k

She’s kicking herself she didn’t cash them in last month ago and buy some NS&I bonds

[Jody]

1 x £25
2x £100

I have an investment opportunity with 8.75% return (peer to peer lending, so IMO very very low risk)

But that would be taxable and PB's aren't !!!!

That said my UK income is zero, so I think that means that I wouldn't actually end up paying tax on the investment opportunity ?

[McSatan]

Sovereigns. They're legal tender, for example a 'proof' double sovereign has a face value of two quid.

Does that make them more or less valuable than "straight" gold? I can see how not being CGT liable would make them more valuable, but they're also a fixed size/format?

It's an interesting one. It's illegal to destroy a coin of the realm so sovs (in theory) can only be traded as sovs. If you can't stick them in the melt and eg make jewellery out of them might that hold the value down? Having said that, most gold seems to just be held as lumps of various sizes.

It's pretty much just by weight however it comes, but it tends to just be banks, governments and the like who buy actual bullion bars.
There are exceptions, most of my gold is one ounce pure standard sovereigns, however I've got a fair few 'proof' double sovereigns as well. These are rarely worth more than the spot gold value but can for no good reason that I can see suddenly become worth quite a bit more. Collectable, I suppose.
[edit] You can't really make jewellery out of bullion/sovereign gold, it's too soft, you need to mix it with something else.

[Mr. Dazzle]

[edit] You can't really make jewellery out of bullion/sovereign gold, it's too soft, you need to mix it with something else.

Carrots, presumably.

[cheb]

[edit] You can't really make jewellery out of bullion/sovereign gold, it's too soft, you need to mix it with something else.

Carrots, presumably.

Or turnips if you want white gold.

[MyLittleStudPony]

Noob question, but how many bonds do you have to
Own before you yield any kind of return?

I think it would be the same regardless of how many you hold.

[MyLittleStudPony]

And 3.15%, tax free, instant access and safe. It's a pretty decent proposition.

[Yorick]

I've just moved most of our ISAs to fixed 5 year at 4.2%.
Steady income guaranteed.

[Mr. Dazzle]

But that would be taxable and PB's aren't !!!!

That said my UK income is zero, so I think that means that I wouldn't actually end up paying tax on the investment opportunity ?

Yeah you'll get the circa £12k personal allowance which most people use up on their basic salary.

Just be aware P2P isn't protected by the FSCS. So if the bank/organisation goes tits up that's tough err...titties.

I dunno, for it to return double what banks are offering it certainly feels risky? Unless banks are screwing us and surely they'd never do that?!

To earn >12k in interest at 8% you'd have to be putting away about £150k. Worse problems to have, I'm sure.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Since you just "liked" my post and hence have read it @Jody ....

Totally forgot you can do P2P on an ISA...innovative finance or something like that they call it, one of the 4 types. The other 3 being Cash, Stocks & Shares and Lifetime.

No tax questions then . Still not protected by the FSCS though.

[KungFooBob]

1x £50.

First since December!

[KungFooBob]

Nothing.

But I took it all out (except £500) and added it to some savings to put into the fixed income bond at 4%.
I'll keep topping up the PBs now though with any spare cash, it's tax free savings at c3%.

That's what I'm doing, 20k of the PB's were moved into an NS&I bond in Feb and £5k paid off the house, there's only £13k in there now, but it's topped up £300 every month, it'll be drained again when we can make the next mortgage over pay in December.

Then when the bond matures it'll pay off the rest of the house.

And I'll buy a Panigale with the mortgage payments

[Mr. Dazzle]

Is that the 4.2% "green saver" one? Hard to argue with that as a 3 year deal TBF.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'd not looked, I assumed Tax wasn't a thing with these bonds through NS&I but I'd not really thought about it.

I've got an bond in an ISA at 4.something%, so no tax issues, but that's limited to 20k input obvs. AFAIK you can transfer a fairly hefty amount from another ISA into this 4%er and still get the rate, but obviously you need the other ISA with the cash in it to begin with.

[Dodgy69]

Bugger all.

[Jody]

£225 which is what I got last month too. Since I invested at the end of last year, my return is very nearly 6%.

[Pirahna]

£225 which is what I got last month too. Since I invested at the end of last year, my return is very nearly 6%.

I found mine underperformed which is why I moved them.