The week's best financial advice

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial advice, gathered from around the web:

Buy stock at the grocery store

Shoppers can now buy Apple shares "along with their apples," said Robin Sidel at The Wall Street Journal. Retailers like Kmart, Office Depot, and Safeway have begun selling gift cards for small amounts of stock in companies like Coca-Cola, Facebook, and Berkshire Hathaway. The cards, which have been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, are the creation of Stockpile, a Palo Alto, California–based startup and licensed broker-dealer. Only about 14 percent of American families own stock directly, and the gift card industry is booming. Shoppers spent $93.9 billion on retail gift cards last year, up from $51.8 billion in 2005. Stockpile's cards are redeemed on its website, where they can be sold or swapped for other stock. "But aspiring hedge fund managers, beware: Any buy or sell transaction costs 99 cents."

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Medicare drug premiums going up

This year's Medicare open enrollment brings "some unpleasant news" for seniors, said Mark Miller at Reuters. Rising drug costs are driving up premiums for many Medicare prescription-drug insurance plans for the first time in several years. Premiums for the 10 most popular Medicare Part D prescription drug plans — which cover more than 80 percent of all enrollees — will rise an average of 8 percent next year, according to consulting firm Avalere Health. A "key question" for consumers looking to shop for a new plan will be whether to buy a basic plan, with lower premiums but gaps in coverage, or a more expensive, enhanced plan. Shoppers should carefully examine a plan's "formulary," or list of medicines, to see if their prescriptions are covered and whether any special rules apply.

Invest by industry, not country

Investors should care less about a company's mailing address and more about what the company actually does, said Conrad de Aenlle at The New York Times. That's the finding of a new study by Morningstar Investment Management. While it's become popular to spread out risk by buying into funds focused on regions or single countries, Morningstar says it's better to buy into a broad mix of industries. The reason: Globalization has made it less relevant where a company is based or where its stock is listed for trading. With certain sectors performing better during bear or bull markets, having a broad mix "is vital for achieving diversification."