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.
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That’s adorable.
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Hah… That’s great, thanks for posting this!
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I liked the way the looked throught the stock options. Just some very simple facts that can make a huge difference.
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AAPL — yeah, good stuff…
WMG- not so much, Avril or not
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I have an interesting question. Why would the SEC catch up with her first? Anything she’s doing that is wrong?
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Fantastic!
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I just hope they don’t end up on NE Sandy Blvd selling — um — things in a few years.
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Why would the SEC catch up with her first? Anything she’s doing that is wrong?
Oh, I don’t think there’s anything wrong here. (But don’t quote me — goodness knows I’m not an expert.) I was just being flip.
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50 cents is pretty good. Investment advisers around here want 1% to 2% of your portfolio annually.
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Technically, she would need to be registered to sell investment advice. There are exemptions to the requirement to register, and I’ve heard rumors that the lemonade lobby is working around the clock in Washington to get an exemption rule.
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@JD
Oh Ok
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Pllluuuussseee don’t tell the SEC she is giving investment advice without proper license, she is too cute to go to jail!!!! LOL!!! (teasing)
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best post ever.
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That is really awesome. Kudos to the parents for getting their kids involved in and thinking about investing at such a young age.
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That is way too cute. Maybe next year she’ll be selling tips to improve your FICO score?
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Oh, that is priceless! (although like you, I would have happily paid for lemonade and a stock tip) Thanks for a post that really made me smile.
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Wow… what a cool kid, and (presumably) cool parents. Inspiring!
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Absolutely fantastic!
If they also informed people about frugality, they’d completely rock
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[...] dando uma lida nos meus feeds atrasados e vi um artigo com um título interessante: Stock Tips from Ten-Year-Olds, algo como “Dicas da bolsa de ações de crianças de 10 anos”. Fiquei curioso e fui dar uma [...]
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Great story!
The next Warren Buffett right there.
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That’s so cute. By next year she’ll be doing SarbOx compliance filing.
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Her stock picking logic is more sensible than half the people on CNBC in an average day.
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Alan, what an outrageous comment! If this had been a little boy selling stock tips, would you have suggested that he might have a future as a prostitute????????
The story itself makes me even more sure that when my son is a little bit older, I want to create/join a kids and parents together investment club. What a great kid!
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Looks like we came across the same little mogul.
http://aroundthesun.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/personal-finance-advice-found-at-garage-sale/
I loved her whole business concept, expanding and improving on the classic lemonade stand. It’s great to find out that she actually owns the stocks. I’m looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next year.
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It sounds like her parents gave her the same advice as my parents: “Buy stock in what you consume. Hopefully other’s will be consuming it too!”
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Absolutely hilarious. I don’t know which is better. The stock tips or the joke from last year! Great stuff!
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I too love that she is into stocks so young.
I hope she understands that by owning stock in Apple she owns part of the company. I owned my first stock at age 12, one share of Walt Disney, and I thought it was so cool that my share might represent a trash can at Disneyland or something.
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i didn’t know that little girls could take the series seven
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That’s great!!!
So, you gave her 50¢ for the stock advice. I guess between that and the lemonade, is how she acquires the funds for her stocks.
PS: I actually purchased AAPL when it was about $95/share, and resold it when it hit $112/share. Then re-bought it when it was at $119/share, and right now it’s at $133 (Jul 12, 2007). I only re-bought it because the iPhone was coming out, much to my luck the stock went up.
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Unfortunately for this girl, the stock tips haven’t worked out that well so far
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5 years after this was posted…
AAPL is trading for: about $600/share
Wish I’d gotten some of that stock advice. That girl is a genius.
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