Lest you focus just on how to make money with international stocks or where to find the greatest stocks of the next generation, here's a brief recap of some of the more unusual financial news out there:
- If you think you're just not wired to be a good investor, that you just don't have the right DNA, think again. You never know who might be in your family tree. According to Ancestry.com
(NASDAQ:ACOM) , it seems that President Obama is distantly related to Berkshire Hathaway's(NYSE:BRK-B) Warren Buffett, via a French indentured servant who immigrated to Maryland in the 1650s. You, too, might be related to Buffett, or might share some genes with other great investors.
- Sometimes even phone companies have a heart. In California, a father recently added his son to his cell phone plan, only to get socked with a $22,000 bill the next month, due to unexpected data downloads that weren't included in his plan. Verizon
(NYSE:VZ) wiped out the charges, and the son's account was grounded.
- Attention, Apollo Group
(NASDAQ:APOL) and other educational companies! If you're looking for new markets to conquer, consider pre-school prep. It seems that some New York City folks are paying more than $1,000 to have their 3- and 4-year-olds prepped, to increase their chances of admission to prestigious kindergartens.
- Here's a new market that weight-loss companies such as NutriSystem
(NASDAQ:NTRI) and food companies such as ConAgra(NYSE:CAG) (maker of Healthy Choice) and Campbell Soup (maker of Healthy Request) can target: It seems there's a movement afoot to get Santas to trim down, to set a better example for children. Low-carb cookies and skim milk for the man in red?
- Businesses looking for new marketing channels might want to consider this: the tattoo. It seems a restaurant in Ohio is giving lifetime discounts to patrons who get a tattoo of the establishment's famous grilled cheese sandwich. Just imagine what a win-win strategy this is: Consumers would surely notice a Best Buy
(NYSE:BBY) logo or Burger King(NYSE:BKC) slogan tattooed on a passer-by, and that person may be enjoying 10% off electronics or free onion rings for the rest of his life. (No onion rings for Santa, though.)
Enough silliness, though. We at the Fool aim "to educate, amuse, and enrich." I invite you to read any other article in Fooldom for at least a little education and perhaps some enrichment, as well.
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