SHORT INTERESTS: TIPS, TRENDS, OBSERVATIONS

That’s “Saving and investment for higher education” in Chinese. If you’d rather say something in Spanish, “Ahorres vs. inversiones.” That’s “Savings vs. investment.” It’s what State Street Research is saying in its investment education program to help Spanish- and Chinese-speaking Americans become more informed investors.

The Boston mutual fund firm is offering customized mutual fund prospectuses, brochures, customer service support and World Wide Websites in both languages.

The materials were written by real writers of Spanish and Chinese, rather than translated word-for-word from banal English. The headline comes from Chaos Y. Chen of the Asia Society in New York.

Wash behind your ears

Putnam Investments is looking to mom to get employees to invest in 401(k) plans, reports InvestmentNews sister publication Pensions & Investments.

The Boston money manager has sent the plans it sponsors a three-minute video starring four ethnically diverse maternal persons in their 60s dispensing such advice as “Don’t talk to strangers,” “Don’t roll you eyes at me,” “Don’t forget to call when you get there” and, more to the point, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” The admonitions are interspersed with cards encouraging workers to join the retirement plan.

At the end, the ladies’ bridge club appears together, chanting “I’m so proud of you.” Left unsaid: your room is still a mess.

Know your adviser

In sporting news from Old Blighty, a 56-year-old stockbroker at a London firm has gone to ground after losing $30 million or so of colleagues’ money.

No, broker Hugh Eaves didn’t bet on the Bury soccer team, although he did invest enough millions of his own to boost it to First Division status. Instead he put his mates’ money in derivatives, with the all-too-usual result.

He told the BBC that he’d contemplated suicide, but decided to come clean instead.

The money came from bonuses paid him and his pals when the former Union Bank of Switzerland took over of their then-employer, Phillips & Drew. His co-workers asked him to administer the fund, which they thought was invested in bonds in a Swiss bank account.

Oh, yeah: Bury did so badly this season that it’s back in the Second Division.

Profits up, pay down

Nvest LP directors last year trimmed chairman and CEO Peter Voss’ annual cash pay 5.7%, or $141,500, to $2.36 million. Nvest is the publicly traded limited partnership which manages Nvest Cos. LP, the Boston-based money management unit 48% owned by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Mr. Voss — who holds identical management posts at Nvest Cos. — received a $527,500 salary, plus a $1.83 million bonus in 1998, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The pay cut contrasts sharply to the near 37% pay hike he received in 1997, which also included Nvest stock options worth another $1.2 million.

Nvest Cos.’ operating profit rose 18% to $164.5 million in 1998. Managed assets grew only 8% to $135 billion — substantially under the company’s 1997 25% asset growth.