This is going to be too exciting

The US dollar has lost a little in value compared to the Swedish krona during February 2025. This means that our dividends for January will be marginally higher compared to the dividends for February after they have been converted to Swedish kronor.

The reason for this is because I set a fixed "exchange rate" in my Google Sheets during January for the entire year that I will not change, assuming no major change occurs, which means that it will be a bit "tight" to reach the forecast for February this time.

So far, the numbers show that I will miss the target by just under $30, which may be considered negligible by many but certainly not by me. How close I get to my goal depends entirely on the exchange rate applied by our respective banks when they pay out February's final dividends.

AI generated image with Grok

An apology in advance to Junior's future wife

The fact that the world's most perfect husband and I were a little older when we became parents for the first and only time has most likely contributed to us spoiling the world's most perfect offspring. My husband had just turned 40 and I turned 38 almost to the day exactly 5 months after Junior was born. Our son has never lacked attention, on the contrary, sometimes I think we almost suffocate him with all our love and support.

My husband and I have always worked a lot, the only luxury we have consistently allowed ourselves is that we eat out a lot. Everything from McDonalds to Operakallaren in Stockholm. Junior was always with us until he reached his mid-teens and had long since grown tired of eating out. At that point I gave up and let him stay home instead, my husband always cooks for him either before or after we get back.

Nowadays Junior has taken the whole situation a step further and with our tacit consent has sometimes written notes with specific requests about what he would have for dinner. Which we fulfill most of the time.

For this reason, I would like to apologize in advance to Junior's future wife for any diva behavior he may have, it's all our fault.

AI generated image with Grok

They're just not wired like the rest of us

For transparency and my own agenda, both my husband and I belong to Gen X while our son is Gen Z. I don't know if the behavior described below is only practiced by the Swedish Millennials or if it is an approach by the Millennials all over the world.

According to the Workplace Health Report 2024, people under 30 have twice as much short-term absence compared to their older colleagues, reports SVT Nyheter. Short-term absence means that you are away from work for periods shorter than fourteen consecutive days on at least six occasions during a year.

What we hear from employers is that they perceive that employees are taking sick leave for reasons other than illness. It could be that you have been up all night gambling or have broken up with your partner, something that the older generation would never be home from work for, says Charlotte Valleskog, chief psychologist at Feelgood, one of Sweden's leading health companies.

Thankfully, Gen Z seems to have adopted a completely different attitude than their predecessors, the Millennials.

AI generated image with Grok

Uh oh

In the Swedish pension system, the individual controls part of his pension money by being given the opportunity to choose a fund in which this specific part of his pension money should be invested. The world's most perfect husband, who usually has 100% control over his investments, has missed that the specific fund he chose many years ago changes during the year he turns 56. 

The equity fund he chose, AP7, is transitioning from initially being a 100% equity fund to gradually transitioning to being a mixed fund consisting of 67% fixed income funds and 33% equity funds. My husband discovered this yesterday when he received the annual information sheet from the pension authority. He demonstrably missed this information last year because he turns 58 in August this year. His disappointment with himself was noticeably palpable.

He immediately logged into his retirement account and sold off his entire holdings in favor of another fund manager who is not making this change. When I chose to invest my part of the pension money, I did not choose any of the AP funds, which means that I am not affected by this.

AI generated image with Grok

It's always a competition!

The world's most perfect husband who has absolutely no need for bags and shoes and thus saves much more money than I do becomes extra clear every time we get our salaries paid. The struggle within me between a new pair of shoes or investing the money in the stock market is not as predictable as it should be.

My husband thinks it's enough for one of us to save, but then the competitive person in me is triggered even more. Currently there is an internal struggle going on inside me between investing the money or buying a pair of sneakers from the Dior brand.

I always wear proper shoes because I had Hallux Valgus surgery on both my feet at a young age. I usually wear sneakers from the Asics brand, but I'm starting to feel the need to become more feminine, which can most certainly be attributed to my age.

Swapping my Asics for Dior would make a big difference to my outfit and hopefully make me feel more feminine.

AI generated image with Grok