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Show The Salt Lake Tribune BUSINESS Sunday, December26, 1999 www.sitrib.com ~ Skiers sty) The Motley Fool Our Mission: To Inform, to Amuse, and to Help You Make Money Slow But Steady The Fool- Take Teaching — In the 1930s, my husband inherited $506. We were poor as church mice atthat time (along Retailers Get Roughhoused You’ve with many others), but I suggested to him that weinvest it in General Telephone stock. Afterall, It’s tough to see a company presents. You may be overlooking a powerfulgift idea, though: what you don’t have you don’t miss. We received the dividends for many years, when even the lit- have a great year and go no- where because of market forces. financial independence. tle bit it paid helped us get along. But when ee our feet, we started reinvesting the dividends. General hone became That’s probably what happened to Bed Bath & Beyond in 1999. GTE, and the $500 is now worth $15,000. — Pauline Wood, Vero Beach, Fla. The Foo! Responds: That’s a great example of how investments The home furnishings grew sales 33 percentto $1.3.. billion “can grow overtime, even through Great Depressions and stagnant * periods in the stock market. While your money might have grown personal even more rapidly invested in some other companies, it still grew an impressive thirtyfold. GTE has advanced about 140 percentin the colleagues last five years. Do you have an embarrassing lesson learned the hard way? Boil it down to 100 words (or less) and send it to The Motley Foolc/o My Dumbest Investment. Got one that worked? Submit to My Smartest Investment. If we print yours, you'll win Fool's cap! Pol full of steadily appreciating ee ote eae actually cost you nothing, As the oldtw goes, ls batiar to teach a man to fish then to hand him a flounder. The same is true for finance. We’re all betteroff if we take the time to eecccoces NameThat Company learn more aboutinvesting and the stock market, instead of pinning our hopes on a lottery windfall or a hot stock tip.If finance and investing. (Some good o those by Peter aand Fool co-founders David and Tom Gardner.) * Help some neighbors discover the many benefits of the Internet. Show them yourfavorite sites, and how they can study companies and even track their stock portfolios online (at wwwfool.com, for ). * If you don’t feel like you’ve given a gift until you’ve spent ‘Tis my season, some money, considergiving a in a sense, given that share of stock. Your child might I go by “ELF.”But | enjoy owning a piece of PepsiCo deal mainly with oil, and watching it grow. Your you’re still near the on-ramp. brother-in-law might appreciate nottoys. | also own Give yourloved ones a nudge a share of Home perfume and pharma- ° toward it, too. Here are some This season, think about giving ideas. ceutical operations, . the gift of financial independence. * Form an investment club among hundreds of ° Pee e cece cer ce eee se cece rene ceeeeeeeeecoscccsceosoee businesses that | have my’ LAST WEEK'S TRIVIA aa handin. | was bom on Bastille Day, 1939, when a gas | woes Founded ete eae chy at Saint-Marcet, in Aquitaine. . You've probably notheard of me, but you should have.I’m one of France’s largest companies, with 1998 revenuestotaling nearly $38 billion. Earlier this year | agreed to mergewith fellow giant TotalFina to becomethe world’s fourth-largest oil company. Who am |? "ll be entered into from where it started. The company, which increased sales in stores open a year or longerby 9 percentso far this year,is facing a negative return in 1999, Also putting pressure on the stock have been fears about interest rates and from powerhouses such as Mart. lookatthe fish it swims with, The specialty retailer sector got pounded in 1999, ae about17 percent, according to Ae Poorte ln that fightBea Beth & Beyond outperformed. mes srytheenewertece” as nique, Prescriptives, ins, Bobbi Brown essentials, Tommy Hilfiger, jane, Donna Karan and Aveda. In 1953, my “Youth-Dew” was the first bath oil that douBed asspele | began being traded only in 1995, ea Sypeat rede WasPereeas ce ae Dumbest (or Smartest) Investments (up to 100 oo and your Trivia entries to Fool@fool.com or Knowive answer? Send it to us with Foolish Trivia on a to to end the year down a smidge Mentzer, who Ld Har Uncle’ anieane utyee and beach clubs. Her hi assure my Success, and field was dcvered in France, Be 31 percent. Yetits stock is poised drawit eo oe Baerga bleentagthesral attn: TT sty Fou. ridualfinanciial advice. ee ecccccccccccces ©Copyright 1999 The Motley Fool/Dist. by Universal Press Syndicate free cash flow for the latest quarter. Fortunately,investing is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. For a sharp company in a dowmn- on-its-luck sector, check out Bed Bath & Beyond. (forrelease 1223799) Good news: it's a color inkjet printer for only $79. Even better news: ie from Xsron DooaPrint C8 cstorlaigespriaton + Op to ppm block & white, 2.8 ppmceler. ° Priat at up to 1200 1 600dpl. + Indtvidual Ink tanks save meeey. + Suet $79 after $55 mati-in rebate. THe DMT Company |
