Build a retirement portfolio that works without you

A crisis such as Chennai's 2015 floods, the Spain-Portugal power outage of April 2025, or a prolonged Internet disruption can cut an investor off from managing their money for weeks. The Hindu reports an unverified social-media account of an investor who travelled nearly 2,000 km from Madrid to Italy just to execute a single trade during a blackout.

The story underscores a core question: what happens to a portfolio when the owner is absent? Investments that require daily monitoring, such as swing trades, become a risk when the investor cannot access a broker's app or phone. A long-term retirement portfolio should ideally require no action for a month or more.

The Hindu advises investors to test each holding by mentally switching off all devices and asking what happens if they do nothing for 30 days. If the answer is nothing, the investment is sound. If it demands a decision or a button press at a precise moment, the investor has discovered a hidden dependence.