ABOUT ME#

I was born in a village deep in the Italian countryside, long enough ago that my earliest memories go back to the magical nights of Totò Schillaci at Italia ‘90. I was good at maths in school, so I was told I should get an engineering degree, which I did. Once I entered the workforce, I ran into the inconvenience of having to invest the savings sitting idle in my bank account, and I made two discoveries. The first was the world of passive investing, through the books of Bogle, Malkiel and Bernstein. The second was the early FIRE movement in its most radical incarnations, Early Retirement Extreme (ERE) and Mr Money Mustache (MMM). After reaching my long-coveted FU money, I softened my positions and I am keeping my corporate job while waiting for something to happen.

My life as an investor was a genuinely simple affair for many years: after reading Bernstein’s famous “Four Pillars”, I spent 15 years invested in a plain 100% equity portfolio made of 2 ETFs: 60% S&P 500 and 40% Europe. Fate was kind enough to grant me the longest bull market in history, but nothing lasts forever, so I decided to start de-risking after the pandemic. Helped by rising rates since 2022, I am building my bond tent to settle on a 70% equity / 30% bond portfolio. In preparation for retirement, I became an avid reader of the Early Retirement Now (ERN) site, in particular the SWR and Options series. I am cautiously experimenting with short-vol strategies — more for the pleasure of learning something new than out of any need for extra returns.

For anything at all, you can write to: thetabruv@gmail.com.