Dear Mr. Berko: Mother and I have been reading your column for over 20 years. We don't have much money, but after 55 years of marriage we have managed to save a few dollars and raise four good kids. We have a $33,000 certificate of deposit coming due next week and the best yield we can find is 4.2 percent. But I discovered from a friend that STEN Co. is offering 14 percent on a two-year note that we can buy through a brokerage called Sumner Harrington Ltd., a member of FINRA. What is FINRA? Please tell me what you think of this investment and if it is OK to invest in it through Sumner Harrington. The extra 10 percent interest would be a very welcome increase in income for us. — R.R., Jonesboro, Ark.

Dear R.R.: In 1852, loggers built a dam on Minnehaha Creek that segued into the village of Minnetonka Hills on the shoreline of Lake Minnetonka, which was formed by glacial melting during the last Ice Age. Between 1860 and 1890 dozens of bucolic villages like Excelsior, Wayzata, Deephaven, Orona and others followed. So one of the nicest things about STEN Corp. (STEN-$1.25) is that it's home-ported in Minnetonka, Minn., about 18 miles due west of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Founded in 1978, STEN is an unusually diversified company. It used to be called Oxboro Medical International then changed its name to Sterion Inc. and in 2005 changed its name again to STEN Corp. STEN provides vehicle inventory loans for dealers, purchases auto loan installment contracts, makes short-term consumer loans, has check-cashing services, bill-payment options, wires money and owns a scattering of used car lots. STEN also makes a line of sterilization containers and filters used by hospital, clinics and surgery centers. I guess that these activities dovetail quite nicely for CEO Kenneth W. Brimmer and CFO Mark Buckrey, who manage STEN and motivate its 53 dedicated employees.

Revenues for the last 12 months were just under $10 million, losses totaled $3 million and it's been a long, long time since STEN has posted a profit. However the company believes it has costs under control and expects to begin posting profits late this year and through all of 2009. Management claims STEN has 2.5 million shares outstanding, enterprise value of $14 million, $11 million in debt, a book value of $2 a share and $490,000 in cash.

STEN's hometown boasts a population of about 49,000 people with an estimated median household income in 2005 of $76,000, which is a little bit higher than the $35,000 median household income of your hometown, Jonesboro, Ark. So I would suggest that you allow the citizens of Minnetonka to invest their money in those three-year, 14 percent notes offered by STEN. Brimmer and Buckrey are certainly upstanding Minnetonka citizens and STEN has been a part of that community for more than 30 years. So I'd rather the good people of Minnetonka, where this column is not published, take their chances with those notes than the good folks in Jonesboro, where this column is published, and where I can boast that I know lots of people.

STEN hasn't made a pfennig, penny or peso since the Civil War and I think the risk-to-reward ratio is too high for the lovely, retired couple you seem to be. Certainly, any business that must pay 14 percent to borrow money lacks even an unsatisfactory credit rating. Apparently, the First Minnesota Bank of Minnetonka, Bremer Bank of Minnetonka, Wells Fargo of Minnetonka, and US bank of Minnetonka are reluctant to loan STEN a few million. And according to several sources, neither the Genovese Family Bank nor the Falcones are willing to put their money on the line for STEN. So why should you?

Those notes are as liquid as stone, Standard & Poor's won't rate them and even the ZIA, or Zambezi Investment Authority, suggests that the STEN notes are "a patently unacceptable investment risk." Please take my advice and stay very far away. But if you happen to visit Minnetonka, I recommend that you purchase a pair of Minnetonka Double Bottom Cowhide Driving Moccasins. They've got a special longwearing nub bottom, cushion insoles and glove soft leather. I bought a pair six years ago for $47 and they make them in my size 13, which is hard to come by. In fact I can't wait till mine wear out so I can purchase a second pair.

Oh, by the way, FINRA is an acronym for Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an organization of wanna-be financial advisors from life's last parking lot whom no brokerage firm would hire. So they have three career choices: 1. Become assistant under-managers in the french fry section of Burger King. 2. Work for Perdue Farms chasing loose chickens on the freeway. 3. Take employment with FINRA, whose responsibilities are well suited for mildly incapacious employees.

When a FINRA guy/gal visits a local stock brokerage office they're trained to get attention by making noises like a moose coughing up a turtle shell. It's quite impressive at first. Because they come from Lum & Abner Land and need a diagram to lick their lips, we don't pay much attention to them. But they like to buy candies for the ladies in the office and pick up bar tabs after the market closes because it makes them feel like one of the guys.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, FL 33429 or e-mail him at malber@comcast.net. To find out more about Malcolm Berko and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.