Robert Brokamp

Where are the best places to retire and all the stock turmoil under the market surface?

You're listening to the Saturday Personal Finance Edition of Motley Fool Money.

I'm Robert Brokamp, and this week I invite fellow podcast regular Matt Frankel on the show to discuss a report published by The Motley Fool that asked people which factors make for a good place to retire and then identified the counties that are more likely to have those factors.

But first, a few headlines that jumped out to me from this past week.

As I'm sure you've seen, it's been a volatile year for the stock market, or has it?

As of this taping on Thursday morning, the S&P 500 is down around 3% for the year.

But if you look under the hood, you can see why it feels like a market of extremes.

As highlighted in a March 13th Axios article by Emily Peck, 57 stocks in the S&P 500 are up by at least 20% and 47 stocks are down by at least 20% based on data published by the Bespoke Investment Group.

Five of the 11 major market sectors are down for the year so far, with the worst being financials, down 10% partially on fears about the private credit market.

And in a reversal of what we've seen for much of the past few years, the stocks of many tech-oriented companies have been foundering.

The iShares Expanded Tech Software Sector ETF, ticker IGV, has dropped 20% so far in 2026.

Of the six sectors that are in positive territory this year, the clear winner is energy, which is up 30%.

What's an investor do?

Well, one step is to make sure you're sufficiently diversified.

I've mentioned on the show before that we at The Motley Fool believe you should own at least 25 stocks, but in his recent quarterly call with premium members, Motley Fool co-founder and CEO Tom Gardner suggested that numbers should be moved up to 50 stocks.

Tom pointed out that the market is still richly valued and an internal tool we've created suggests that the S&P 500 will provide slightly below average returns over the next decade, but perhaps with higher levels of volatility.

Diversification can help you ride out the bumps and, in Tom's words, commit to being a lifelong investor.

Of course, diversification isn't just about stocks.

It's also about holding some cash and bonds, especially if you're getting closer to your goals.

This brings us to our next item, which is an article on the ThinkAdvisor website written by David Blanchett, Michael Finca, and Wade Pfau, three of the nation's leading retirement experts who have each been guests on this show in the past.