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We spent several hours last Saturday walking the streets of southeast Portland, looking for bargains. Portland’s posh Eastmoreland neighborhood held its 22nd annual garage sale (which I wrote about last year), and we joined the thousands of others who were hoping to find some great deals.

Kris scored a bunch of cheap canning jars, but I didn’t find anything on my list. I did, however, find the girl who last year sold me jokes and lemonade. (The joke she sold me was: “Q: What did the sock say to the foot? A: You’re putting me on!”)

This year she was selling stock tips and lemonade.

“What do you know about stocks?” I asked.

“Not much,” she admitted. “These are just the stocks we own.” I wasn’t sure whether “we” referred to the girl and her sister, or to the family in general. She showed me printouts she had made from Yahoo! Finance. She also had a large pile of index cards, one for each stock.

“You own all of these?”

“Yes,” she said. I was impressed. In my mind, I imagined these girls’ parents sitting down once a month to discuss the stock market with their daughters. I imagined the family working jointly to decide which stocks to buy. I imagined the girls tracking stock performance over the months and years. I can’t be sure that this happens in their family, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

I thumbed through the printouts. “So what kind of tips can you give?” I asked.

“Well, I can’t really,” she said. “But you can look through these pages to find one you like. Or I can just give you one.” She handed me two index cards.

“Thanks,” I said, turning to leave.

“Oh, you can’t keep those,” she said. “You’ll have to remember them. I am not going to copy them by hand again.” I had to content myself with a snap from a cameraphone so that I wouldn’t forget this valuable information.

These tips may be difficult to read, and because I want you to be able to benefit from her wisdom, I’ve transcribed the information below:

AAPL — apple conputer is a really useful difice including teknolg and fun!

WMG — warner music is a wonderful scince it sponsirs so many femis singers such as Avril Lavigne it is gernted to do well

It cracks me up that this girl had trouble spelling several words, but was able to nail “Avril Lavigne”. I can’t wait to see what this little entrepreneur is selling next year. That is, if the SEC doesn’t catch up with her first.