Listener Questions: How Do I Create a Diversified Portfolio?

Retirement Answer Man

Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®

Education, Investmentmanagement, Saving, Self-improvement, Careerplanning, Retirement, Business, Lifeplanning, Investing, Retirementplanning, Financialplanning, Retirementpodcast

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Roger Whitney breaks down how to create a diversified portfolio by explaining the core principles of diversification and asset allocation, then answers listener questions on topics like using allocation funds, shifting from the S&P 500 to total market funds, and strategies like buy, borrow, die. He emphasizes that while diversification reduces unnecessary risk, asset allocation is the most important decision—especially in retirement, where portfolios should be structured into three buckets: contingency, liquidity, and growth—to balance stability, income needs, and long-term growth.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

(0:00) Building wealth for retirement and investment strategies.

RETIREMENT TOOLKIT

(01:27) Basics of asset allocation and diversification.
(02:38) Explanation of unsystematic and systematic risks.
(06:26) Risk management and modern portfolio theory.
(09:08) Key components and decisions in portfolio construction.
(13:12) Key takeaways and practical advice.
(16:10) Importance of contingency, liquidity, and growth funds.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

(18:20) T-Bone asks a question about asset allocation funds
(26:55) An audio question about portfolio diversification
(33:44) Michael asks about the ‘buy, borrow, die’ strategy
(39:55) Listener shares a suggestion for what to do with a t-shirt collection

ROCKING RETIREMENT IN THE WILD

(40:55) Dennis shares that two years into retirement, he’s happy without a defined “purpose,” pushing back on the idea that retirement needs one.
(43:22) Tim and Tammy embrace a flexible “pre-tirement” lifestyle, teaching remotely while traveling, volunteering, and exploring all 63 U.S. national parks.

SMART SPRINT

(45:22) Review your asset allocation and clearly define your contingency, liquidity, and growth buckets.

CONCLUSION

(46:09) Roger ends with a heartfelt reflection on loss and gratitude, reminding listeners to cherish meaningful moments.

REFERENCES

Note: The opinions expressed are for informational purposes only and should not replace personalized advice from licensed professionals.

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you're trying to build your wealth for retirement, which you probably have been doing for
0:04.4	decades, it's pretty straightforward. Start investing as early as possible. Control costs,
0:10.8	invest tax efficiently, buy a portfolio, contribute consistently, and then allow the power of
0:18.2	compounding to work for you over decades. And you've probably
0:21.8	have been doing this. But when you're near or in retirement, you really have to look at all
0:28.8	this with fresh eyes in order to have confidence to go live a great life. And that's what we're
0:33.1	going to talk about today on the show. Hey there. Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement,
0:40.9	but to have that confidence and clarity so you can lean into your life and rock retirement.
0:47.1	My name is Roger Whitney.
0:48.3	I'm a practicing retirement planner with 35 years experience, co-founder of Retire Agile. And we're going to talk about how to build a
0:58.2	diversified portfolio for retirement. We have some listener questions that we're going to
1:02.9	answer. Before we answer those questions, we're going to do a retirement toolkit to explain what
1:07.9	we mean by diversification and asset allocation.
1:12.6	So you have a base knowledge of that.
1:15.8	In addition to that, we have a rocking retirement in the wild story and we'll answer some of your
1:19.7	questions.
1:20.7	Oh, that's a lot of stuff to do.
1:22.1	So let's get this party started.
1:33.6	Okay, before we get to the questions on that we have from listeners, let's set a baseline level of knowledge on what is acid allocation and it will include diversification in there
1:39.1	because I think it's important. It may be a topic that you knew at one point but haven't
1:43.9	revisited in a while. It may be something that you've never really one point but haven't revisited in a while.
1:45.1	It may be something that you've never really conceptually understood.
	...

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