About Factual Money

There is no shortage of people willing to tell you what to buy. They are on every screen and in every inbox, shouting the same three tickers, each convinced that this time the crowd is right. I have spent the better part of twenty years watching that crowd — and, more instructively, watching what happens to the people who follow it.

This is not one of those places.

For ten years I have written a Letter every week — more than five hundred of them, about how business and money actually work. Factual Money is where that work now lives: the Letters, the courses, the podcasts, and the tools I’ve built around them. It is the only place I publish.

Let me be plain about what I am not. I am not an investment adviser. I do not recommend stocks. I do not sell a portfolio to follow, and I will never tell you what to buy. I find the whole business of tips, useless. A tip lasts a day. Learning for yourself lasts the rest of your life.

So I write about the machinery instead. How strong companies create value and weak ones quietly destroy it. Why intelligent people make the same mistakes, for the same reasons, in every cycle — and how to notice when you’re about to make one yourself. Where capital erodes while everyone is looking the other way. None of it requires a tip. It requires understanding. Once you have that, no one has to hand you anything again. Thinking independently is the entire point.

The readers who stay did not come for a hot tips. They came because something they read changed how they see — and they stayed because a new unconvential idea arrives every week, and, when I find something worth sharing, a new recording. Over the years they have built companies, put their finances in order, and walked away from paths that no longer made sense. Not because anyone told them what to do. Because they finally understood what they were looking at.

The Independent Thinking Newsletter.

It Pays to Think Independently

Welcome to The Independent Thinking Newsletter, where businessman, financier, and author Marcelo Marini sets aside time from his demanding professional schedule to write to his readers—pulling back the curtain on the business and financial world to share unconventional ideas and reflections on the currents events that are shaping the present and the future, mistakes and opportunities in business, finance, and independent thinking.

Drawing on more than a decade of uninterrupted writing on these subjects, Marcelo Marini examines the realities behind companies, capital, and decision-making. In these pages, he highlights costly mistakes made by individuals and organizations, uncovers overlooked opportunities, and explores how the business and financial world actually works.

Each week, the newsletter publishes a letter on business, finance, and independent thinking. A monthly edition provides in-depth Strategic Letters, available exclusively to Private subscribers.

This newsletters are read by business owners, entrepreneurs, and investors globally, its audience includes millionaires and billionaires, global music figures, hedge fund managers, high-net-worth individuals and ultra-net-worth individuals, bankers, founders of global banks and conglomerates, and senior executives across industries.

Problems, and Opportunities

Over the past ten years, this newsletter has presented strategic perspectives that often anticipated trends in business, finance, behavior, and markets.

Here, you will find problems and opportunities many business owners and investors have yet to recognize—costly errors that erode capital, weaken businesses, and compromise decision-making.

As a longtime reader and friend of this newsletter often says:
“Mr. Marini is always 10–15 years ahead.”

About the Author

Marcelo Marini is a businessman, financier, and author. For more than 10 years, he has been sharing his weekly unconventional ideas on business, finance, and independent thinking with readers in over 18 countries.

Along the way, he have been invited to speak at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C., delivered a TedX Talk, served as Guest Consul at the Startup Embassy in Silicon Valley, and held Director, VP and Board Member positions across private and public institutions, among others.

For over a decade, his weekly writings have reached readers across more than 18 countries. Now, this is the only place where his work is published.

Reader Voices

“Notorious knowledge in the field, inspiring, awesome.” — Executive
“Rational and surgical.” — Entrepreneur
“Disciple of W. Buffett, B. Graham & M. Marini (not necessarily in this order).” — Entrepreneur, Investor
“A little weekend reading: Marcelo Marini wrote about the difference between investors thinking for themselves versus just blindly following the crowd” — The Berkshire Beat

Editorial Notes

Please note that if an article appears in another language, we kindly ask the reader to “Translate” using their browser as some articles from 2015–2020 are being remounted from our original Diaries.

This site is an Amazon Associate. Purchases made through Amazon links may earn an affiliate commission.

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Editorial Approach

The publication does not provide investment advisory, portfolio management, or any type of securities recommendations. Its focus is on understanding businesses, financial dynamics, and decision frameworks to avoid large operational and capital allocation mistakes, prevent capital erosion, and cultivate independent judgment. We are not here to tell you what to do, but to help you question assumptions—and think independently.

How to Begin

The best way in is to read. Start with the free Letters and the mailing list. When you decide you want the whole of it — the full archive, the courses, the podcasts, and the tools — the door is open.

Everything on Factual Money is for informational and educational purpuses. It is not investment advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell anything. What you decide is yours.

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