If you couldn't bear to look at your stock market investments in January, you're getting a second chance now. The mid-year statements from your 401(k), IRA, mutual funds and stock brokerage accounts start to arrive in the mail. And the news should be better, since the market has had a nice rally from the lows of early March.

So here's a great project for you -- and a perfect time of year to do it. This is the time to set up a portfolio tracking system that you can check daily, and update automatically, so you'll always have your entire investment picture at your fingertips. And it's so easy you'll wonder why you never did it before.

Morningstar portfolio

Morningstar.com is the outstanding Web site for investment information on mutual funds and stocks. Less well known is its terrific online portfolio tracking section, complete with proprietary tools that analyze your portfolio and provide advice. A good portion of the information on the site is free, but there is a premium membership that costs $174 a year (or $18.95 a month). It's worth it if you want more personalized advice and analysis for your investments.

The "Portfolio" section of Morningstar.com is the perfect place to organize and track your entire investment portfolio. You can access it from any computer or use your iPhone, BlackBerry or cell phone to access your portfolio at any time. You'll be able to see not only the current prices of your stocks and mutual funds, but also use some of the tools that let you track performance, compare with benchmarks, and check the Morningstar ratings on mutual funds and individual stocks. "Premium" members can also access the latest analyst reports and alerts directly from their PDA.

To get started, all you have to do is click on the "Portfolio" tab on the home page at www.Morningstar.com. Then you can set up one or more portfolios. This can be done by "importing" your account data as a direct download from most financial services providers and Web sites, including MicrosoftMoney and from online portfolio trackers at AOL, MSN, Quicken and Yahoo!, as well as brokerage firms such as Fidelity, ScottTrade, TRowePrice and Bank of America, and some 40l(k) plans.

Or you can simply take your latest monthly statements and directly input your securities or funds, the number of shares and your cost basis if you have it. There's even a "copy and paste" service to make this easier. (If you don't know the cost, but do have your purchase date, there is a special tool "Get Price" that will retrieve the closing price on the date of purchase.) Remember, cost basis is not as important inside a retirement account, since all withdrawals will come out as ordinary income.

You can set up more than one portfolio, and even create a "watch list" portfolio to follow stocks or funds that you're considering buying. Once you've set up your portfolio, the next step is to use the free tools that help you go beyond just "tracking" your investment performance, to help you understand the characteristics of your portfolio and warn you against over-concentrating in just one category of stocks. Continued...