Taxes are a thorny topic to cover, even for a finance blog. A 1% saving on taxes equals 1% more in (net) returns, and we all know how hard is to increase returns even by just 1%. But taxes serve a social purpose: they are used to run schools and Read more
I recently watched a video made by an Italian content creator on Safe Withdrawal Rates and Sequence of Return Risk (even if I do not think he formally mentioned the two definitions ever). The video is done well and, as a bonus, the author shares his Python code so that Read more
A little bit more than a year ago, Andrea invited me to participate in his InCassaforte podcast after we had a brief exchange on Twitter on why it was reasonable or not to invest in bonds when rates are at zero or negative. This morning (which might not be your Read more
Inflation is like beauty. Despite thinking, or being deceived into thinking, that a universal measurement is possible, what I see is different from what you see. Last year I wrote a couple of posts on the effects of the recent inflation surge on me and my family. Other than highlighting Read more
This post was born as a quick reaction to the 2022 Golden Butterfly portfolio performance and then morphed into a collection of thoughts about portfolios, diversifiers, cash vs trend, a levered version of the Permanent Portfolio and…probably other things that will hit my brain while I perform the week-long writing Read more
If you regularly read trading/investing/personal finance stuff, there is a high chance you would, at least once, have stumbled across a title like “Hedge Funds underperform and yet continue to attract capital from investors”. At first (which means 20 years ago) the topic was interesting from a behavioral point of Read more
I had this post in my ‘queue’ for a while; I was hoping to ride a bit of the Netflix wave about the Madoff doc but I had other 3k things going, including surgery so…here we are, finally. The initial flash of inspiration came when I watched this video from Read more
The Safe Withdrawal Rate is one of the most debated concepts about retirement. Why? The human being is a creature that needs certainty. Assurance. Certitude. We cannot accept that what happens to us is simply…random. The existence of humanity itself happened by chance. And yet we created religions, God(s), philosophy, Read more
“I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or a .400 baseball hitter. But now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.” James Carville Tell me you watched The Crown without telling me Read more
In April this year, I introduced The Italian Leather Sofa model portfolio. As a reminder, here is the portfolio composition: 60% stocks (via NTSX) 40% bonds (via NTSX) 20% trend (via DBMF) 10% commodities trend (via COM) 4% Tail risk (via TAIL) -34% cash The idea behind the portfolio is Read more