• Blog
  • Podcast
  • Collabs
  • Coaching
  • Resources
  • Donations
  • Cashback Offers
  • About Me

Personal Finance

Personal Finance

Three lessons from the UK pension fund crisis

I know, I do not write that much lately AND my last post was on the same topic. I promise you, I am not obsessing over this matter (even if some days I have to provide almost hourly updates on where UK rates are…); in fact, I was mid-way writing Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsOctober 13, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

Factor Diversification

It has been a while since I wanted to write about the “low vol” factor. The reason is pretty simple, look how it performed in the last year (white line is the biggest LowVol ETF listed in the US, the blue line is SPY): I invest in LOWV, the UCITS Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsSeptember 25, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

Growth from Failure

I discovered Kris Abdelmessih on Twitter and his substack The Moontower not a long time ago. The more I climb the tower, the more I find him a fascinating person to follow. He arrived both at the best and the worst possible point in my life: being a parent of Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsSeptember 15, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

What I learned about giving financial advice* to others

*This post is 100% fiction, even more than past ones. Nothing here is financial advice, please use your own judgment about reading from a rando on the internet that does not update his About page for ages. A week ago, the girlfriend of one of my best friends had to Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsSeptember 2, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

Enjoy now, Retire (a bit) later: Sabbatical musings

Do you know the frequency illusion? It is a concept in psychology that describes, for example, once you purchase a new car you start seeing it everywhere. It is also called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon but well, I guess “frequency illusion” was a better idea from a marketing point of view. Last Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsAugust 8, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

Two years of leverage

The importance of establishing your investing decisions on Excel models instead of ‘feelings’ or opinions, reminder #452. It took me more than a week while working on a post titled “one year of leverage” to realize that, actually, I opened the Interactive Broker account in 2020 and not 2021. I Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsJuly 28, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

Model Portfolio Quarterly Update

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

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsJuly 20, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

The attempted murder of the 60/40 Portfolio

Growing up, I did not care much about Guns n’ Roses and yet it was impossible to avoid this t-shirt: Kill Your Idols is a saying of advice to artists of all sorts to eliminate the behaviors or styles of their “idols” or what they took influence/inspiration from (Urban Dictionary). Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsJuly 13, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

The evolution of Target-Date funds

If you landed on this blog, you probably know what target-date funds are and why they are one of the preferred instruments to save for retirement. They are designed to be a simple, one-stop solution for savers. The concept is straightforward: pick the fund that matches your desired retirement date, Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsJuly 1, 2022 ago
Personal Finance

Mortgage costs to the moon

I struggled a bit with a post this week. Week…that’s my ideal goal, write on a weekly basis but as you can see, I am usually behind schedule. I am preparing a post around the “glidepath” but I cannot find the right angle to write it. Plus, I got busy Read more

By TheItalianLeatherSofa, 3 yearsJune 20, 2022 ago

Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 14 15 16 … 24 Next

Join the Community

Please wait...

Thank you for sign up!


  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Collabs
  • Coaching
  • Resources
  • Donations
  • Cashback Offers
  • About Me
Hestia | Developed by ThemeIsle