The piece we ran about cheap Edinburgh festival tickets and cheap accommodation when up in Auld Reekie (look it up Sassenachs)  a couple of days back got something ticking over in my brain … discount hotel coupons! I should apologise for not putting two and two together sooner, but I do have a habit of thinking in straight lines at times. My initial suggestion was to do a house swap, and I still think this is a really good way to see any city, while enjoying all the home comforts.

The two big problems with Edinburgh hotel rooms at festival time are, well, availability and price. Pretty fundamental, but it’s ALWAYS worth scouring the web for discount hotel coupons. Discount coupons are used by online retailers (and of course hotels are increasingly trying to sell their rooms online) to encourage visitors to shop online, book earlier and so on. You’ll find a more detailed explanation of secret coupon codes and the like at our earlier post. Suffice to say they CAN save you a considerable amount of money on your hotel booking, and it may be a way round the logjam of people trying to book tickets for that particular hotel.

You may also find that discount hotel coupons have the effect of pushing you to accommodation you hadn’t considered. Having attended a conference in Edinburgh a year or two back at an overpriced and overpopular tourist hotel in George Street (very close to Princes Street) I could have suggested a half dozen smaller and friendlier places to stay. Anyway, we’re not a travel agent, we’re trying to save you money. Go to your favourite search engine and search for ‘discount hotel coupons’, ‘hotel discount coupons’, and the like, add ‘edinburgh’ and you may get some pleasantly lucrative surprises.

Check out our earlier piece on Secret Promotional Codes for more on this. And see you in the Cafe Royal.

This week on the Wallet Watcher personal finance podcast we talk about:-

• Car boot sales
• Convert your old mobile phone into cash
• Try an auction
• Investment funds explained

Thanks for the emails, keep them coming in to walletwatcher@btpodshow.com. Be sure to visit the Wallet Watcher blog for articles on secret promotional codes, cheap Edinburgh festival tickets and fringe tickets, collapse of Inside Track and the gifted deposit scam and C++ source code for investment calculator.

This weeks episode of Wallet Watcher is brought to you in association with GoDaddy and offers you discounts on hosting and domain names. Use one of the following Wallet Watcher May 2008 GoDaddy coupon codes to save you money – wallet1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and wallet2 gets you 20% off orders over £25. Some restrictions may apply, please see the GoDaddy web site for more details.

[DOWNLOAD MP3] | [RSS FEED] | [SUBSCRIBE IN ITUNES]

Most of us who buy shares do so via investment funds – unit trusts, investment trusts and the like. And most of these are ‘managed funds’, where you’re buying a piece of a much larger bundle of shares sold and bought by an expert in the city … a fund manager. The problem is … managed funds just don’t seem to work. The weight of academic work, with studies by economists going back almost fifty years, is that the expert fund managers tend to underperform the market.

In other words you’re paying somebody to do worse than YOU could do yourself, if you stuck pins in a printout of the FTSE 100. We’ll not mention all the surveys here, but you’ll find a link to the various reports down the years at the end of this article. The theory of the expert stock picker, powering a fund that outperforms the market, HAS to rest on markets being imperfect. In other words, there is a disparity between what a stock is priced at and what it is ACTUALLY worth.

So, Ace Oilwells may be priced at £100 a share, but Fund Manager Bob knows that they have new wells coming on stream in Brazil in the coming year, and adjudges the stock undervalued. He piles in (on your behalf) and the shares, and your fund, soars. There’s a problem with this of course. If Bob knows this, then the information is in the public domain. Now it’s arguable that once upon a time even public domain information could travel so slowly that somebody on the ground in Brazil could buy up shares before the news got back to London and the price went up. But THAT ruse went out of the window with electrical telegraphy. And things have moved on a bit since Samuel Morse in 1839. With the free availability of information on the internet and the ever increasing sophistication of stock analysis software, it’s hard to see how anyone today can consistently get an edge. THE ONLY WAY IS IF … the information ISN’T in the public domain, in which case it’s insider trading, and thus illegal.

However you slice it, it’s hard to see how a dealer in London can get an exclusive ‘IN’ to a soon to rise stock. Markets, in the parlance, are already ‘efficient’. Not perfect – there will always be a disparity between the price and the value of a stock, that’s why share prices move. But the chance of your fund manager lucking in to that disparity are, to be generous, small.

Now let’s be fair here. Fund managers DO have good runs. New star managers and funds appear all the time. But here’s where averages bite you (and your investment) in the backside. Take a typical (if very simplified) example. Superfund Emerging Markets was launched three years ago and has outperformed the FTSE 100 for each of those last three years. The odds and the academics say that your fund is only likely to match the market at best … more likely to underperform it. But let’s be generous and say IT WILL match the Footsie. That means it’s likely to UNDERPERFORM the market for the next few, to balance out the good years it’s already had. They might have a better run .. but the principle remains. You’re too late – you’ve bought in just AFTER the fund has had its best years.

Now you see why ‘past performance is no guide to future results’ is more than just a disclaimer. But surely the fact that the funds are underperforming the market over times doesn’t make sense either does it? I’ll leave aside the puzzling fact that these guys with the sharpest brains, the best university degrees and access to ALL the latest data on the markets don’t seem to be able to beat the market. Surely they should at least be MATCHING the performance of the stock market indices? Well the experts are often doing, on a micro scale, just what you’re doing with your fund as a whole. Buying in after a share’s price has already flown.

They are also hopping in and out of the markets, and that in itself is expensive, as there are transaction costs every time you buy or sell a share. And that’s all cash that ISN’T being invested back in buying more stock. Fidelity Investments published some interesting stats a few years ago that showed how dramatically gains in share price were concentrated in just a few days a year. Between 1987 and 2002, looking at the FTSE All Share Index, there was a 9.4% gain, per year, if you bought across the entire index … and left your shares untouched. If you were out of the market for the best ten days of the year, gains fell to 6.3%. If you missed the best 40 days your gains would be just 0.6%. It was a pattern repeated across several of the world indices.

Let’s be fair here, there are two opposing points of view. The fund companies will say ‘We will beat the market’. The people producing these reports say ‘you won’t’. The first guys are trying to sell you a fund, the others are disinterested academics. So who do you believe? We’ll go with the academics.

Links: Underperforming fund managers, Why fund managers don’t make money, www.fidelity.co.uk

Tags: Investment funds explained, Investment funds, investment trusts, managed funds

Auction houses aren’t just about Christies and Sotheby’s selling the Van Gogh you found hidden in the attic.

That ghastly piece of Victorian chinaware that you inherited from your granny may well be collectable.

And much more recent products now have collectability value, so hoik out that stack of mint copies of the Beano, or your original Apple Lisa computer and head to www.auctionhammer.co.uk for a list of local auctioneers and auction rooms.

Related: EBay alternative

Tags: Auctions, general auction houses

We have a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for new mobile phones. The high street supplies mobile phone handsets to us all the time – phones that take pictures and videos, play music and a host of other whizzy features you’ll never use.

The problem is they’re having to open whole new landfill sites to swallow the ones we discard. My first tip is … don’t be seduced. Don’t buy a new phone in the first place unless your old mobile is irretrievably dead. But if you must, and you have got old mobiles kicking around in a drawer, you can make money from them – use one of the following companies to convert your mobile phone related device into cash.

Links: http://www.mazumamobile.com, http://www.mobile2cash.co.uk, http://www.envirofone.com and http://www.mopay.co.uk

Related: Drop the landline, Orange Wednesdays and Price switching

Tags: sell old mobiles, sell old mobile phones

Many people are making money from junk by selling their old stuff on ebay or Amazon Marketplace, but don’t forget the more traditional routes to market.

Sometimes people want to see before they buy … and sometimes they just buy on impulse, which is why the old favourite car boot sales are a great idea. There are all sorts of items to sell at car boot sales which people will buy.

A terrific way to clear out the attic and make some money, you’re being at least notionally green and you can have some fun haggling too.

Summer is the car boot sale season, from car boot sales in Merseyside to Nottingham car boot sales; you’ll find a great list of sales around the UK at www.carbootjunction.com.

Related: EBay alternative

Tags: car boot sales, Car boot sales in my area

Following an email from Alison Eddy asking about tools for calculating the rate of return on investments, I have to say that my systematic analysis usually involves a biro and the back of an envelope or, if I’m feeling particularly slick, a calculator. However, I have been pointed in the direction of this c++ source code for investment calculator which, providing you’re reasonably au fait with doing a bit of simple coding (this really isn’t rocket science) can help you work out rates of return or return on investment (ROI) on your various investments, and get a handle on compound interest. The key thing to bear in mind here is that there are as many ways to calculate rate of return on investment as there are rotten new groups appearing on the X-Factor each year. Different measuring systems will give different returns, as you can work out the return on the total sum invested or just the sum you invested for instance (so if you put £20,000 down on a £200,000 house and it rose £2000 in a year you could calculate it as a 1% absolute return or a 10% return on your investment, for example). Then you have to factor in depreciation, the opportunity cost of what the money could be doing, and so on. Anyway, a place to start. Check out the c++ source code for investment calculator here. Check here to find some guidance on what is compound interest and why it’s so important to your investments.

Online retailers will often ask for a coupon code, discount code or promo code during the checkout process. These promotional codes are usually given away to select potential customers using various campaigns from their marketing departments and offer money-off discounts or free shipping. Some thoughtful internet users will often share these discount codes online so that others can enjoy money off too.

Next time you purchase something online and are filling in your address details in the checkout we recommend opening a new window and using Google to search for these secret promotional codes online. Each promo code will knock money or a certain percentage off, give you free shipping, send you a rebate, throw in a free gift or even offer free delivery on heavy items. When dealing with expensive items a quick 2 minute search for promotional codes can literally save you hundreds of pounds.

Here are some quick tips when searching for discount and promotional codes:

• Keep it simple. Use the company name or URL, followed by “coupon code“, “discount code” or “promotional code“.
  Try “spalook promotional code” (AMOM gets you 20 FREE Samples Plus Gift Card)
• Check the expiry. Use a date when searching too. Most coupon codes have an expiry date so try adding a month and year onto the end of your search otherwise you’ll be constantly entering expired codes at the checkout.
  Try “godaddy coupon codes may 2008” (WALLET1 gets you 10% off your GoDaddy)
• Free shipping. Some sites won’t offer you a discount but might offer free shipping. Take advantage of adding “free shipping” or “free delivery” to your search for products where shipping costs might outweigh the cost of the product.
  Try “jcpenney free shipping” (JCPCAPRL), “free shipping wooden bathroom vanities” or “leather sofa free delivery removal”
  These could save your a fortune when buying large, heavy and cumbersome furniture online.
• Scour the forums. Forums are often a great place to find discount codes as they offer a quick and easy way for their users to post and share their codes. If you are struggling to find codes from the hundreds of official promo code sites out there then just try adding the word “forum” to the end of your search
  Try “jo ann free coupon codes forums” (APRA840) or “free subway coupon forum”
  Not only will you find a suitable code for your product but you may also stumble across some like-minded shoppers who have brought the product or brand and know if its worthwhile buying it or not.
• Look for campaigns. Try searching for a specific campaign relating to the company.
  Try “netflix 30 day coupon“
• Printable coupons. For items which don’t have online retailers look for printable coupons instead so alter your search accordingly.
  Try “free printable coupons for subway“
• Look after the pennies. This doesn’t just apply to expensive goods ordered online. From fast food to pizzas – cheaper everyday products also have promo codes too.
  Try “subway sandwich coupons“, “outback steakhouse coupons“, “wendy’s coupons” or “papa john coupon codes”
  These could see you snacking out for free. Just find the code, print it out and bring it along to the shop or restaurant.
• Stay local. Check which country these coupon codes are valid for, remember the internet is global. Adding “£” or “$” to your search will filter out foreign offers not applicable to you.

To help you save money on a wide range of goods and services we’ll be hunting down and listing some codes ranging from coupons for self gifts to airline promotional codes, from discount hotel coupons to free pizza coupons and publishing them here on Wallet Watcher. You can view the growing list on our Wallet Watcher secret promotional codes list which we’ll be updating on a regular basis. If you would like to get these offers automatically via RSS then subscribe to our Wallet Watcher RSS feed, where you’ll get regular money saving advice and tips as well as our weekly Wallet Watcher podcast (also available from our Wallet Watcher page in iTunes for free).

Tags: coupon code, discount code, promo code

Planning a little trip up to Edinburgh Festival in the autumn to enjoy the festival as ever, so I thought I’d share a couple of moneysaving tips on saving money on Edinburgh festival tickets and Edinburgh fringe tickets. The last couple of years it has definitely been worth getting up to Edinburgh early, as the Fringe office has been kicking things off with a massive ticket giveaway. The idea is to boost attendance on the opening weekend, which was traditionally quiet. Last year it was two tickets for the price of one on the opening weekend. Rumour has it that’s going to happen again this year too, so keep eyes peeled and keep checking the official Edinburgh Festivals website. Last year too, there was the Fringe Half Price Hut on the corner of Waverley Bridge and Prince’s Street by Prince’s Mall, with discounted tickets available for many shows on the day of performance.

I’d also caution that hotel rooms become not only very rare but very expensive during the Festival … it’s very unlikely you’ll get bargains. A good alternative for accommodation during the Edinburgh Festival is to do a house swap. Having lived in Edinburgh for years during the 1980s, I can confirm that many of the locals just want to get out of town and leave the visitors to it … the city just gets too busy. You get all the home comforts and you can save money on your meals too. And hire a car well in advance, there’s some great scenery to be enjoyed as a break from all the excitement. Read more on this at our piece on Should I buy car rental insurance.

The collapse of Inside Track, which has been running property seminars around the UK for the past few years, promising attendees the ability to ‘get rich quick’ should come as no surprise given the current state of the credit, mortgage and housing markets. The scandal is that so many of these companies are allowed to trade on the gullibility of the public. I personally don’t buy the line that ‘if people are greedy they deserve to get ripped off’. Yes, people are responsible for their actions and if they lose money trying to make money, then hard luck. But investment companies making misleading claims should be taken to task, and prosecuted if necessary. The Inside Track model was largely predicated on new build. Putting down a deposit off-plan in the sure knowledge that the property value would have risen before completion.

The even ‘sexier’ version of this was ‘flipping’. Here’s how it works – though as you’ll see, it often doesn’t. A new block of apartments is being built off-plan at £200,000. In February enter the sales suite, a nicely white painted prefab amid the mud and rubble and slap down your 10% deposit of £20,000, and are told that your apartment will be ‘delivered’ in a ‘turnkey’ condition in November. I apologise for all the ‘quotes’ but enter the world of estate agents and property investment and you start to drown in the jargon. Hey, the market’s flying. You put your property back on the market in July and sell it for £220,000. 100% profit! You’ve done nothing! In fact it gets even better. You didn’t have to put the deposit down because it was a ‘gifted deposit’ from the developer. His way of saying thankyou, free money.

Er no. When a developer offers to give you something for nothing, check who’s paying for it. The apartment is likely to be selling at a premium to absorb his gift. In simple terms, it would have been £180,000 otherwise. The other beauty for the sellers of seminars is that this gifted deposit enables you to get a 90% buy to let mortgage, because 100% BTL mortgages are very hard to get. And there’s a good reason for that – prudence, safety, not overstretching yourself. And of course, you DON’T have a 90% mortgage, you effectively have a 100% one because all they did was diddle the figures.

Now in a rising market all this is disguised. The flat goes up to £220,000 (and comfortably masks the fact that had you saved a deposit, or just bought a Victorian flat or something that needed a bit of work you could have avoided paying a premium). But when things are flat or falling, as they are now, you’ve lost big time.

But … they’re still out there. Win, Russ Whitney, Win Property Investing and the rest. Whitney, to its slight credit, advises buyers to purchase distressed properties and do them up, though that too is a much tighter market than it was. And, certainly in the past, Whitney were suggesting people buy using Credit Card debt, which, call me a scaredy cat, strikes me as a terrifyingly foolhardy plan.

But again … I use Wordtracker to find what the great British public are actually searching for, typing into Google, MSN and Yahoo, and I find lots of results for ‘property investment seminars’, ‘make money through property’ and, oh dear, ‘get rick quick through property’. This is spring 2008, credit crunch, property crash, bad news being shouted from the rooftops. Some people, it seems, are their own worst enemies.

Not all property advisors are equally bad, but you should ask yourself some careful questions before you invest. In my next property investment post, I’ll be giving some pointers. In the meantime, check out our ‘House prices in my street’ post for some observations on what’s really happening to our property market … or should that be markets!