What does building a portfolio mean?

A nobel prize winner Markowitz Porfolio Theory suggests that investing with an asset allocation and building a portfolio with different asset class can have a better risk-reward curve. It's also called the Efficient Frontier.

You may want to read more to learn about that :)

Having a financial portfolio means that you have different investments to meet different needs.

It’s like a soccer team or a sports team. Everyone has their role to play i.e. offensive, defensive etc.

So for example, you could have stocks, ETFs for growth, bonds for capital preservation, REITs for cashflow and insurance for unforeseen circumstances.

Having a portfolio also gives you an overview of your financial situation and can help to guide your decision making.