Hopefully easier times await

However I calculate, there is nothing to cushion the blow, but I have to bite the bullet and accept that the outcome for June 2024 will be lower than March 2024, despite the fact that we have reinvested all the dividends we received this year. In addition, the world's most perfect husband reinvests the money he receives each month in one of his private pensions.

Hopefully, Sweden's central bank will make further reductions in the policy rate, which means that instead of paying interest, we can start saving money again. My intention is not to complain. Despite Riksbanken raising the policy rate by 4% since May 3, 2022, we have not had to change our way of life. The consequence for us was that instead of investing money in the stock market, we have instead paid mortgage interest. Many mortgage borrowers have barely had food on the table during these years.

This will come back to bite the unions, part 16

For transparency and my own agenda, my husband and I own a 2023 Tesla Model Y.

The power struggle between the union IF Metall and Tesla Motor Sweden AB (TM) has been going on since October 2023. Now another organization is trying to put pressure on (TM). Since IF Metall took its members out on strike on 27 October 2023, AMF becomes the 11th organization to try to put pressure on (TM).

This time it is the pension company AMF, owned by the union Landsorganisationen (LO) and Swedish Business Confederation, which is demanding transparency into (TM's) anti-union policy with the help of American lawyers. AMF owns $171 millions worth of Tesla shares.

AMF's head of asset management Tomas Flodén states that the company is trying to persuade other Nordic investors to support a shareholder proposal at the company's annual general meeting on June 13, 2024. The proposal means that (TM) should adopt a policy which means that they should not oppose employees who try to organize themselves into a union. AMF also wants (TM) to enter the negotiations concerning the "voluntary" collective agreement with good intentions. Tomas Flodén states that the company is "fairly optimistic" that many owners will vote for the proposal.

Personally, I hope (TM) does not give in to these pressures. Being able to legally use the help of 10 unions and now a shareholder to get someone to sign something that according to their own statutes is voluntary is an approach that most likely even makes the mafia green with envy.

It gets harder before it gets easier

I sincerely hope that the world's most perfect teenager passed his Spanish test yesterday and gets the first diploma of his life. Hopefully one of many.

Junior had failed to mention that due to having the MUN 2024 conference this Tuesday, he and a couple of his peers missed their Individual and Society (I&A) test. Since they missed the test due to the MUN 2024 conference, they were given an extended deadline to Friday 9:00 p.m. This meant that the offspring had to go straight home and complete his essay in (I&S) immediately after finishing the Spanish test. Exactly 8.50 p.m. he submitted his essay.

Tomorrow "we" start studying for his end-of-year-exams. It will be 3 very busy weeks for Junior. After that, 4 school days await, of which 1 is graduation day before he has 10 weeks of summer break. Hopefully he has then been admitted to grade 11.

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, obviously...

Yesterday we received more than half of the month's estimated dividends. We have just under 7% of the month's estimated dividends left to receive. At the same time, we sold off our entire holding in Best Buy Co., Inc. Common Stock (BBY), which was 60 shares.

Instead, we reinvested both the sale proceeds and the dividends in British American Tobacco Industries, p.l.c. Common Stock ADR (BTI) and Horizon Technology Finance Corporation Common Stock (HRZN).

That the world's most perfect teenager who has to save 50% of all the money he receives in gifts, such as birthdays, Christmas Eve and more, has managed to save almost $5,000 dollars is incredible. His best investment is NVIDIA Corporation Common Stock (NVDA) which he chose all by himself.

Junior is the only one in the family who owns (NVDA), which makes me both proud and a little annoyed at the same time. I wish I had also understood what (NVDA) is all about. I thought it was just another company developing games.

Each day he doesn't learn to drink soda is a good day

In Sweden we have fantastic drinking water. No matter where you are in the country, provided you do not have your own well, the water is clean and clear. No nasty taste of chlorine or other chemicals. In winter, the water is also incredibly cold. In summer, you have to flush the water in the tap a little longer before the water becomes ice cold.

Even before we had the world's most perfect baby, we have had glass bottles filled with water in the fridge so that even in summer we have instant access to clear, clean and cold water. This has meant that Junior has always been good at drinking water. In addition to drinking milk, he also drinks, depending on the season, between 16.9 oz (0.5 L) and 33.8 oz (1 L) water each day.

Despite turning 17 at the end of August, he still doesn't drink carbonated beverages, which pleases the world's most perfect husband and I. However, I am not naive. The window before he starts to drink carbonated beverages, which literally means soda and beer, is closing fast.