I’m sure we’ve all had that dream of winning the National Lottery, becoming a multi-millionaire, then quiting out jobs and treating ourselves to a wonderful home. The odds of winning a jackpot (i.e. picking 6 numbers between 1 and 49 that actually turn up) are 1 in 13,983,816. It’s not exactly goods odds really is it? There is a slightly better alternative…

The UK National Lottery costs £1 per ticket, which has your 6 chosen numbers. If you lose, you get nothing. Premium Bonds are slightly different, as they are a government savings initiative. They’ve been around for years too. With Premium Bonds, you simply invest a chunk of money, which purchases a block of serial numbers, 1 serial number for every £1 invested. Every month, a random number generator picks a number from the purchased premium bonds, and if its your number, you win a prize. The prizes range from £50 to £1 million, with the odds of winning being 1 in 21,000.

This is the crunch, with each monthly draw on the Premium Bonds, if you lose, you still get to keep your invested money! So you can spend that £1 over and over again. If you really want to find out how much you could win based on your investment, have a go with the Premium Bond Calculator.

However, the calculator soon shows that if you saved your money in a high interest account like an ISA, you’d be much better off. But if you do have a few quid spare, have a little flutter, as you can invest from just £100.