We went to our friends’ house this weekend for dinner. The conversation turned to individual stocks– Turkish shipping, water indexes, profiting from beleaguered financials, Yahoo.

I was mostly a listener, mind you. I have little extra money to throw at the slots, I mean stocks. And I doubt I have the time or dedication to monitor individual companies in order to make smart bets.

But I must admit that I was intrigued by the conversation. Both friends said how much they learned from their small brokerage accounts about industries and global trends.

Plus I recently interviewed a financial adviser who suggested that people my age place too much emphasis on long term savings, forgetting about the need for flexibility a la a short-term taxable account.

Should I buy some stocks? Stockpickers out there, share your tips.

I just finished writing a story for Sunday about the stock market and as I researched and wrote I couldn’t help but chuckle and about the metaphors we poor writers use to try and make the darned market interesting to a large audience of people who just don’t care to read third-quarter recaps.

Here’s a list. Feel free to add more.

• A storm and other weather events (a tornado, tsunami, etc)

• A roller coaster

• A plane crashing or soaring or flying through turbulence

• A boat veering off course or sinking, or sailing pretty

• A mountain to climb or slide down

• A theater production– with a dropping curtain

• End of an inning or other sports related period (sports and stock market language is surprisingly similar to me…although duh, Kara, both are about winners and losers)

My award for the best-stock-market-metaphor-that-I-saw-in-the-past-week goes to CNNMoney.com senior writer Alexandra Twin, who wrote in her story 3rd quarter: Whew, it’s Finally Over that:

For many people, the third quarter was roughly the equivalent of trying to run from the house to the storm shelter in the middle of a tornado. And just when the shelter’s food stock was running low, Ben Bernanke and the Fed gang delivered a supply of canned goods.

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?

Leave it

The Dow is having its worse day since shortly after Sept. 11th, 2001 thanks to a less than positive