Anyone having fun looking at your investment portfolio these days? Probably not so much given the S&P 500 and the MSCI World Index are both down about 9 percent this year. Let’s just say I didn’t rip mine open immediately when it came home last night.

I was appreciative of another letter sent to me from my 401(k) company last week. It was the transaction record for the automatic rebalance program I have in place. This lets me set and forget my asset allocation and not let emotion or inertia get in the way of a well-balanced mutual funds diet.

If it weren’t for my rebalancing being on auto pilot, would I have taken close to $500 from my high-flying commodities fund and put it into my ailing international fund? Probably not.

How do you manage to stay on target in a tough market?

So my cubicle neighbor Casey Common alerted me to this ironic and sad AP story earlier today about socially responsible investing stalwart Pax breaking its ethics code and investing in industries that clients explicitly want to avoid such as oil and gas exploration, gambling, and alcohol. Geez Louise, Pax, that’s why investors picked you in the first place! What’s next, are you going to give money to the NRA?

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I certainly didn’t. I had just graduated from college and was thrilled with the fact I was finally getting health insurance and making more than $10 an hour.

My friend Sarah sent me this link to a NY Magazine story about what $100,000 would have bought a decade ago. Studio on the upper east side anyone?

I wonder what type of Mpls real estate you could have found for $100,000? I was far from the point in my life where I was thinking of settling down and buying a house. Too bad my magic 8-ball failed to inform me that ten years later I would be married to my college boyfriend and living two miles from where I went to school!

Merrill Lynch financial adviser Diana Brass Gay shared with me her strategies for gifting stocks to kids. She figures many kids already have everything they want or need, so why not give them an investment that will hopefully grow. If anything, it will teach them a thing or two about the stock market. Or at least you can hope that it would.

Here are the tips she shared:

• Select a stock that reflects the child’s interests. They’ll be more likely to appreciate the gift and follow the stock long term.
• Present a certificate for the stock so the child has something to open on Christmas morning. Some firms will create a card or mock stock certificate when the original is unavailable.
• Keep the gift going all year round. Walk him or her through the company’s annual report.
• Make this a tradition by giving a different stock each year. This is a great strategy for grandparents looking to transfer wealth without heavy taxes.
• Give a stock you already own to cut down on brokerage fees or save by purchasing more stocks at a time.

Brass Gay has a number of high net worth clients and this advice may feel better tailored for that demographic. But this is affordable for anyone through an online brokerage and some companies will allow you to buy direct. The SEC has a tip sheet explaining how. A company called Oneshare.com also specializes in selling kids stocks.

I think if I were to run with this idea I’d probably buy a toy or some gear from the company to accompany the stock. I can’t see a stock certificate being a crowd pleaser for most kids.

Has anyone ever given stock as a present?

If you have as many things to do today as I do, you’ll understand and appreciate this brief multi-topic post.

On 30 big stocks: The Dow is within reach of 14,000 points. A story in today’s Wall Street Journal used a phrase that caught my eye to describe the market’s recent highs: climbing on a “wall of worry.” Do you think the market is poised for a correction? If so, doing anything about it or staying the course?

On banking: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency now has a consumer banking advice portal: www.helpwithmybank.gov, which addresses everything from how to fix errors on credit reports to banking fees and interest rates.

On mortgages: A Harris Interactive poll found two-thirds of Americans surveyed find mortgage advertising and marketing non-credible. You mean, if it sounds too good to be true it usually is?
Of the 2,383 adults surveyed, here’s what type of mortgage they owned:

No mortgage: 54%

Fixed rate: 33%

Home equity loan: 16%

ARM: 7%

interest only: 5%

No $ down: 4%

Balloon 2%

Reverse 2%

On bonds: I wrote last week’s column on the role bonds should play in a young person’s portfolio. A reader named David emailed me these interesting thoughts:

I consider my home equity to be a bond - with the dividend being what [Wall Street Journal columnist] Jonathan Clements describes as the tax-free enjoyment of living in my home. Similar to a bond, there is a downside and the upside is limited to 3-5% per year appreciation.

In addition, I would also consider Pensions to be similar to a bond as well. In particular, defined-contribution pensions (I get 5% of my gross dumped into a bond fund that pays 3-5%) are almost always invested in bond funds.

Do you own any “bonds” not bonds?