---
aliases: ["2025 Financial Review"]
Is A: Project
Belongs to: "[[25q4]]"
Advances: "[[responsibility-personal-finance]]"
Status: Open
Owner: "[[person-luca-rossi]]"
---
# 2025 Financial Review

## Overview

This project conducts the annual financial review — assessing the investment portfolio established in [[24q1-set-investing-framework]], evaluating business profitability, reviewing spending patterns, and setting financial targets for 2026. The review covers both personal finances (investment portfolio, savings rate, emergency fund) and business finances (revenue, expenses, margins, and tax optimization).

The 2025 review is particularly significant because it is the second year of the investing framework, providing enough data to evaluate whether the strategy is working as intended. The business has also grown substantially, meaning cash management, tax planning, and reinvestment decisions are more complex than in the early days. The review is scheduled for December 2025, with outputs informing both personal financial planning and business budgeting for 2026.

## Goals

- Review investment portfolio performance against benchmark (MSCI ACWI) and rebalance if allocation has drifted more than 5% from target
- Calculate the full-year savings rate and compare against the 20% target
- Analyze business revenue and expenses: total revenue, margins, and year-over-year growth
- Assess tax efficiency and identify optimization opportunities for 2026
- Set 2026 financial targets: savings rate, investment contributions, and business revenue goals

## Key decisions

- **Annual review, not quarterly.** While the investing framework includes quarterly check-ins for allocation drift, the full financial review (business + personal + tax) happens annually. Quarterly is too frequent for strategic financial planning and creates unnecessary anxiety about short-term market movements.
- **Business and personal finances reviewed together.** As a solo business owner, the line between business and personal finances is thin. Reviewing them together reveals the full picture — business revenue minus expenses minus taxes equals the pool available for personal savings and investment. Separating the reviews would hide the dependencies.
- **Tax optimization as a first-class concern.** Italian tax law for individual businesses is complex, and proactive planning can significantly reduce the effective tax rate through legitimate deductions and timing strategies. Working with an accountant to identify opportunities before year-end rather than discovering them retroactively.

## Notes

- The investment portfolio has been on autopilot since [[24q1-set-investing-framework]], with automated monthly contributions of 20% of net revenue. Preliminary review shows the portfolio is performing in line with the benchmark, which is exactly the goal of passive investing — matching the market, not beating it.
- The savings rate for 2025 is tracking at approximately 22%, slightly above the 20% target. This reflects increased revenue (sponsorship growth) without proportionally increased spending. The business has natural operating leverage — more subscribers and sponsors does not linearly increase costs.
- [[person-marco-bianchi]] is reviewing the tax optimization section, as he went through a similar analysis for his own business last year. His recommendation to prepay certain expenses in December for tax timing purposes is being evaluated.
- Business revenue has grown significantly year-over-year, driven by the rate increase from [[25q1-rate-increase]], new sponsor verticals, and podcast sponsorship revenue. The detailed revenue analysis will feed into [[25q4-2026-sponsors]] for setting 2026 pricing.
- The emergency fund (6 months of expenses in a high-yield savings account) remains fully funded. No need to adjust — the original sizing from the 2024 framework still covers the current expense base with comfortable margin.
- One area for improvement: better tracking of business expenses by category. Currently using a basic spreadsheet. Considering a proper accounting tool for 2026, especially as the team grows and expense categories become more varied.
