'Real' smart: Supermodel Gisele Bundchen knows her currency baskets

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen earned $33 million in the first six months of the year. And when Bundchen signed on to do commercials for Pantene, she made an an unusual request: She wanted to be payed in the currency of her native Brazil not U.S. dollars. Early reports had said she was being paid in euros, but her manager said she was in fact being paid in real.

According to Bloomberg, "That's turned out to be the better choice. The real has risen 21.3% against the dollar this year, while the euro gained 10.4%. The real is the best performer among the 26 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg, thanks to burgeoning global demand for Brazil's commodity exports. Only the Canadian dollar has strengthened more among major currencies, up 21.8%. "

What do we make of this? Well perhaps Etrade NASDAQ: ETFC) should hire her to manage its investments -- that is if it can top the pay package Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) presents when it offers her the CEO job.

As for me, I'll be asking AOL to pay me in Shekels -- or perhaps wheat futures. If I really want to get rich, I could even ask for China Finance Online (NASDAQ: JRJC) puts.

ALSO SEE: Gisele Bundchen dumps the dollar, demands payment in euros