I'm rooting for Nordea

I was as impatient as a child on Christmas day today.

As it is the last day of the month and the majority of the remaining dividends for January were due to be debited to our endowment insurances at Nordea I logged into the account several times today to see if the set dividends had been debited to our accounts.

Unfortunately, Nordea has problems with the trading of North American shares and apparently also the dividends.

Since the IT problems are most likely due to cyber attacks from abroad, I cannot blame Nordea. I am convinced that Nordea's "IT warriors" will win in the end, albeit sooner rather than later.

They cannot be my biological parents... 😉

If my father wants help with just about everything when it comes to money, my mother wants to fend for herself. Last week she needed my help and we sat down to go through all her accounts and savings.

The fact that she, like my father, also has a several of $100K in an interest-free account does not surprise me.

However, what caused me to have a mental breakdown is when I found out that at the age of 75 she still has an intact pension insurance.

When I asked at what age she planned to start withdrawing her pension money, mum didn't have a good answer. Or even a answer...

Despite their flaws, I love them, very much.

He will age several years tomorrow

Tomorrow is a big day for junior. After 22 months, he will be allowed to remove the braces.

I am so happy for him and even happier that his post-dental braces are a fixed wire on the inside of his teeth in both his upper and lower jaw.

I have exactly the same thing, the alternative is to have a splint at night in the upper jaw and wire in the lower jaw.

Since the teeth will move back to their original position without any of these options, a fixed wire is the absolute best thing considering his age. His orthodontist has done an amazing job considering he is getting these fixed wires in both jaws.

Appearance-wise, I'll arrive with a 13-year-old and leave with a 17-year-old.

This is going to be a good day 💝

Today it's my birthday.

YMD wanted us to do something other than just eat cake. There is an indoor golf simulator 10 minutes walk from us. So it was decided that we will meet my parents there for 3 hours of golf. After that, there will be a quick lunch before we go to the offspring's usual golf practice.

Changing golf club has really been a boost for YMD. After each training session, he is full of enthusiasm and talks about both good and bad shots. Although he wouldn't admit it himself, I think he prefers when things are orderly and things are required of him.

He doesn't realize it himself, but this is an environment he is more used to because of his school's demands for behavior, engagement, etc.

A real nail-biter to the bitter end

The dividends below account for approximately 23% of our January dividends.

To break even between forecast and outcome, we need to get another $1361. However, according to my calculations, we have just under $1142 left to receive, which puts us outside my tolerance for deviation.

The biggest reason for this is that the SEK has strengthened against the USD recently, causing the cost of exchange fees and brokerage to exceed my reserve between the two currencies.

I have two options available. Either I increase the reservation between the two currencies immediately or I keep a cool head, at least for February.

Armor Residential REIT, Inc. (ARR), payment date January 30
Chimera Investment Corporation Common Stock (CIM), payment date January 31
Gladstone Capital Corporation Common Stock  (GLAD), payment date January 31
Gladstone Investment Corporation Business Development Company  (GAIN), payment date January 31
Guggenheim Strategic Opportunities Fund Common Share (GOF), payment date January 31
OFS Credit Company, Inc. Common Stock (OCCI), payment date January 31
Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC), payment date January 31

Click to enlarge

So far it's "Monopoly money"

Just like card payments weren't real money to junior when he was little, our dividends are to me. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW it's money.

But if our dividends miraculously appeared as bills and coins every payment day on the kitchen table instead of being numbers on a bank statement, I would feel differently.

For the moment, the dividends are just a tool to prove that my calculations and charts are correct.

They will be money to me when we start living on them.

Actually, I prefer cash to cards

The absolute most common means of payment in Sweden is a debit or credit card.

There are even shops that do not accept cash as payment. Which I personally think is completely absurd because it is stated in the Riksbanken's Act that banknotes and coins issued by Riksbanken are legal tender.

When the most perfect teenager in the world was about 4 years old, I would pay with money in the grocery store on one occasion. YMD grabbed my jacket sleeve and said quote "it's better if you pay with the card so you don't have to pay mom" unquote.

When we got home, I tried to visually explain to him "that we put our money in a box at the bank and when we pay something with our card, the bank takes money from our box and moves it to the bank's box".

It becomes much clearer how much you shop for when you pay with cash instead of card.

We pay for the majority of all our purchases with our AMEX card. Every evening I take all the receipts and pay for the day's purchases on our card. There are 2 reasons for this. First, I don't want to get a huge bill at the end of the month. Two, I get an idea of how much money we're spending.

He always has my back

For transparency and his agenda, we have no prenuptial agreement. In case of divorce, all assets must be divided equally.

I have the best husband in the world. I've had a bit of a guilty conscience after I bought a purse instead of saving the money.

My husband knew that I have longed for that purse for a long time. When I doubted whether I should really buy it, he even encouraged me.

His philosophy is that you have to live, not just survive.

The cyber war continues

Yesterday it was reported that Windows had problems mainly with the Outlook and Teams services. We who use the most common accounting software in Sweden, Visma SPCS, noticed other errors.

One of the operating systems that support Visma SPCS is Windows. Recurring during yesterday was that Visma SPCS stopped working. It became almost impossible to work.

It makes me incredibly angry that there are people whose sole goal is to destroy for other people. Most often, these people are incredibly talented and throw their talent away.

I know it's a myth but

Mr. Dewlar made no mistakes today with his stock purchases. He bought PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. Common Stock (PFLT) and Stellus Capital Investment Corporation Common Stock (SCM).

My better half is so much better than me at saving. I've had my eye on a handbag for quite some time and today I couldn't resist it anymore. I can't explain the allure of handbags and shoes but I really like them both.

I even have high heels in my closet that I've never worn but it's satisfying to have them…

From acorns grow oak trees

The mistaken acquisition of HRZN that my husband made last night means our remaining 2023 dividends increased by $10. No amount that in itself means anything to us financially, but which, together with our other dividends, means a lot in the long run.

We continue to make payments on our mortgage, this month it was $500. Since switching mortgage lenders we have paid off a total of $1800.

Whether we have another month with our current interest rate before Skandiabanken adapts to the recently raised policy interest rate remains to be seen. I don't really know what date they lock in our 3 month interest rate.

PEBKAC

My husband would help the offspring by purchasing a small number of Horizon Technology Finance Corporation Common Stock (HRZN).

Avanza was the only one that offered endowment insurance for minors when we started saving for juniors. 

As YMD is a minor, his endowment insurance is on both my and my husband's accounts. To have endowment insurance, you must also have a share account, so there are several accounts for each person.

After the purchase was completed, my husband discovered to his great chagrin that he had made the purchase in his own portfolio instead of our son's. The money he had in his account was earmarked for the month's tax payment.

Since Avanza is the bank where the husband has by far the least holdings and cash, he has no reserves there. It became an involuntary extra saving for him this month.

This time it's him who is "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair" (PEBKAC). My husband is always quick to tease me when I make a mistake so revenge is sweet.

The world's a little darker at the moment

Given that parts of the sites for both Nordea and SEB, which are 2 of Sweden's absolute largest banks, as well as Telia, which is one of the largest providers of telephone, television and internet services, are down, I assume that Sweden is currently exposed to a cyber war.

You are tangibly reminded of both how vulnerable a modern society is plus how dependent you are on something that didn't really exist just over 20 years ago.

Especially in my role as CFO. I am spoiled to have access to all our bank accounts in real time. I reconcile all the deposits and withdrawals every afternoon, which was impossible today. When this opportunity is taken away, it is incredibly frustrating.

The world has really changed in the last 3 years with the pandemic, a war in a nearby area and ever recurring cyber attacks.

I was wrong

With 7 weekdays left in the month, we are waiting for 44% of the month's estimated dividends.

It is a long list:

Armor Residential REIT, Inc. (ARR), payment date January 30
Chimera Investment Corporation Common Stock (CIM), payment date January 31
Gladstone Capital Corporation Common Stock  (GLAD), payment date January 31
Gladstone Investment Corporation Business Development Company  (GAIN), payment date January 31
Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc. Common Stock (GSBD), payment date January 27
Guggenheim Strategic Opportunities Fund Common Shares of Beneficial Interest (GOF), payment date January 31
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. Common Stock (KDP), payment date January 20
OFS Credit Company, Inc. Common Stock (OCCI), payment date January 31
Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC), payment date January 31
PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust Common Shares of Beneficial Interest (PMT), payment date January 27
Rithm Capital Corp. Common Stock (RITM), payment date January 27
Sysco Corporation Common Stock (SYY), payment date January 27
Two Harbors Investment Corp (TWO), payment date January 27

When I compiled these, I realized that we will not receive any dividend from Nordea until Monday, my bad.

All others are in the time interval 27-31 January, which means that we receive them between 29 January and 1 February.

I can handle the truth

I was hoping that the fact that Nordea's website was down yesterday was a sign that they had found and fixed the bug that means you can neither buy nor sell shares. I was wrong.

In addition to the actual revenue they lose in the form of brokerage and exchange fees, my guess is that they incur increased personnel costs in the form of overtime as they are most likely working 24/7 to solve this problem.

It annoys me that I neither receive my dividend nor can I shop. However, I will wait for the moment to call their customer service. Those who work in customer service have neither caused nor can remedy the error.

Either Nordea transfers the securities administration to another server or they have been hacked. If they were hacked, they will never admit it anyway.

Not for the faint hearted

Last night while I was waiting for the world's most perfect teenager to come home, I tried to distract myself with things instead of worrying about what might happen at the party.

Now it turns out I worried unnecessarily. There was no alcohol involved, but the offspring drank carbonated sports drink for the first time in his life.

One of the things I did to distract myself was to log into my Nordea account to see how the value of the portfolio was doing in terms of USD vs SEK. It was years ago but yesterday it happened again, the accounts with all holdings were completely empty.

Even if it had been the first time all of our holdings had been erased, it couldn't have dispelled my concern for Junior yesterday.

Being a mother hen is hard work.

I'm not built for this

What I feared on New Year's Eve became a reality today. Due to the bad weather on New Year's Eve, all the children stayed at home instead of going out.

Today Junior is at his first party ever, he's only been to children's parties before. It feels very strange to sit up and wait for him. His curfew is midnight.

It feels like it was yesterday that we got to bring him home from the hospital. I still remember the feeling of how crazy everything felt. Neither my husband nor I had even held an infant before. Now we would bring our own child home.

I must have blinked because now my husband and I are sitting on the couch waiting for our 15-year-old to come home from his first party.

As crazy as it felt then, it feels now.

I guess someone is having a bad day at work

Nordea's website has not worked since Wednesday. You have not been able to trade or sell shares.

Apart from not being able to trade, no dividend has been paid. I assume that once Nordea gets its system in order again, we and many people with us will get the a lot of payments.

It makes me even more grateful that my spreadsheet is completely up to date so I can check that we are getting all the dividends we are entitled to.

I wish Nordea could communicate something about what is going on or at least that they are having problems at the moment.

How could Mr. Johansson blame the victim?

To put things into perspective regarding the Swedish Social Democrats' 8 years in power.

On June 20, 2022, an interview with the then Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson regarding the organized diesel thefts in Sweden was reproduced by public service company named Swedish Radio.

Mr. Johansson said that merchants have a personal responsibility to protect their property, quote "– In fact, to help protect their property." unquote.

The trucking industry felt that, as the Minister of Justice, transferring responsibility for organized crime to the vulnerable companies is remarkable.

Total failure

For the sake of transparency, I have voted for the current government that took office on October 18, 2022. Before that, the Social Democrats ruled Sweden for 8 years. I put all the blame on them for the wave of violence that is now hitting Sweden.

In Sweden, you can deposit the rent with "Länsstyrelsen" (a specified local court) if there are serious errors or deficiencies in the tenancy that the landlord does not remedy. Since the only language that everyone in the entire world speaks is money, such a measure usually solves most problems.

In Sweden, in the last 24 hours, we have had 6 shootings and the use of hand grenades in suburbs around Stockholm.

The core areas of welfare are police, school and healthcare. Since we pay almost the most taxes in the whole world, top 4, to be able to have one of the world's best welfare, I feel fooled.

I wish there was somewhere I could deposit my tax dollars until the country was restored.

I might have a problem

NewTekOne Inc. Common Stock's (NEWT) future yield is rumored to be 4%. If that is true, I have a big deviation in my forecast for our 2023 dividend. The deficit will be more than $3500.

Our existing dividends are far too low for the interest on interest rate effect to save the final result. There will be no chance to save the bottom line.

Apart from this, we have decided to keep the shares with the hope that they will increase significantly in value after the transition.

It's me, not them

I've felt guilty for spending Christmas Eve with our best friends instead of my parents for the past two years. My parents have not been alone on Christmas Eve, last year they spent at my youngest sister's house. Our best friends, despite their young age, are orphans.

Many people say that you should take the opportunity to spend time with your parents while they are still alive. Every weekday I call both mom and dad plus I see them both at least once a week. In other words, I exist in their everyday life. I've decided not to feel bad that we haven't celebrated Christmas with them.

Unfortunately, that is easier said than done.

Catch-22

I have 2 pension insurances and my husband has one that we still pay into. In one of mine you have to buy mutual funds. Although I can sell and choose other funds, it is not something I do more than maybe a couple of times a year.

In the second pension insurance, I choose which shares to buy myself. Each premium payment is like a deposit, if I choose to refrain from making an acquisition for a month, the money will remain as liquid assets. My husband's pension insurance works the same way as my last one.

I don't mean to sound rude and ungrateful in any way, but investing this money isn't nearly as much fun. This is due to several reasons, but mainly because it is pension money.

That is money we will get when we are OLD. It's almost the same feeling I have about our home insurance, it's good to have but the best thing is if you never need it.

I don't want to get old but the alternative is to die and I don't want that either.

Anyway, yesterday we bought a total of 100 shares of Gladstone Capital Corporation (GLAD) in these pensions.

Interest on interest

Yesterday we bought a total of 125 shares in Gladstone Capital Corporation (GLAD). That purchase resulted in our estimated 2023 dividends increasing by approximately $103, assuming no dividend reduction.

The ex-dividend date is today, so we will receive dividends on these acquisitions as early as January 31. These acquisitions consist 100% of dividends we received during January. Once again we get to enjoy the effect of interest on interest.

GLAD's current yield is 8.28%, if nothing changes we intend to continue acquiring GLAD. We have a long way to go to our goal of having 1000 pieces in each portfolio.

Anyone who says age is just a number is lying

From being able to eat as much candy as I want without gaining weight to suffering weight gain is not my definition of fun. To nip in the bud, I'm in my second week of only eating candy on the weekends and forcing myself to drink water every day.

I misjudge distances so I walk into door jambs and desks all the time, my body is full of bruises. My husband has the same problem.

The person who coined the phrase "age is just a number" must have been a youth provoking his parents.

On the right track

With barely half of January left and about half of the month's dividends as well, I can see that we are on the right track.

I did a rough estimate of the remaining dividends for the month and concluded that we may miss the target by $70. Which would be within the tolerance I have set up.

I have to keep track of the dollar rate because I use it as a tool to adjust for brokerage and exchange fees. Recently the $ has lost value against SEK, if this continues I will have to adjust that value, but hopefully this change in value is temporary.

I can hardly wait until the beginning of February when all the January dividends are booked and I can see the final result.

Is all money tax money?

For transparency and my own agenda, both our household and business use moderate electricity. Any financial support regarding the electricity will be minimal for us.

There is an infected debate going on in Sweden regarding financial support due to the unusually high electricity prices. Both households and businesses must be reimbursed.

"Svenska Kraftnat", a state-owned company, has been commissioned by the government to use the revenues from the congestion revenues for this purpose. You will get back part of the electricity cost you have paid.

The debate is about the fact that there are those who believe that tax money is being lost and that the well-off receive subsidies from the state in this way.

I do not share their opinion. This is not tax money but revenue in a company, albeit a state one. It is only when the company in question has completed its annual accounts and their profit has been determined that the tax on the profit is determined.

With that approach, all revenue in a state-owned company should be tax money. How should the costs in such a company be financed? And where will it end?

A good day is a tax refund day

According to Nordea, they shall refund the foreign tax every six weeks.

Yesterday we received the first repayment of the year in 2 of our endowment insurances, mine and our joint. In total, we received $600.

We are still waiting for tax refunds in the other two endowment insurances, mr. Dewlar's and mstr. Dewlar's.

Insider buying

I was happy to read that the employees of NewTek Business Services Corp. Common Stock (NEWT) have bought 6% of the company. This means that they have strong faith in the company's future.

We hope that the value of the share will increase significantly after the transition to becoming a bank and financial holding company.

We have changed our view on NEWT from being a dividend stock to (hopefully) becoming a growth stock.

Time will tell

For transparency and my own agenda, we have mortgages.

Depending on how the Federal Reserve acts around the policy interest rate, it will affect Riksbanken's actions on February 9.

America's inflation numbers were much better for December than Sweden's so hopefully Fed will be humane in its increase.

If Federal Reserve wants to ensure the decline in inflation and continue to downshift with a 50 basis point, Riksbanken will probably raise the policy interest rate by 0.5% instead of 0.25%.

In such an outcome, our monthly savings will be over and our mortgage interest expense will be $1800.

Our conditions for the mortgage change a few days after the next announcement from Riksbanken. Until then, we will continue to pay back as much as we can at our mortgage.

We are still within budget for our mortgage after the possible 0.5% increase.

Google Sheets ❤️

I really love compiling data in my spreadsheet.

My latest diagram that will show how each stock purchase increases future dividends is currently my favorite.

Depending on how well I managed to estimate the cost of brokerage, exchange fees and shifts in $, the light green and dark green columns should be equal on December 31, 2023.

In the best of worlds, the dark green column will be higher than the light green due to mainly special dividend. That monthly and quarterly dividends, such as GAIN and SCM, increase their returns will also affect actual outcome.

Click to enlarge

How to fall from first place

When I follow up on all our dividends in Google Sheets, it becomes clear that Avanza does not at all keep the same pace as, first of all, Nordea and then Nordnet.

There is only a few days between Nordea and Nordnet, while we are still waiting for several dividends at Avanza. From having Avanza as number 1 on my banking list, they have fallen down.

Avanza still has the best user interface, but Nordnet is on the tail, with Nordea closing in, fast.

Besides the obvious, having a functioning website, which Nordea didn't have when we started transferring money to them, is a very important factor in how quickly you get access to your money.

Including both tax refunds and dividends, both Avanza and Nordnet have no chance against Nordea. If you add that Nordea has really improved their website, they are currently my favorite bank.

A good look is not always enough.

To avoid working myself to death

Due to the cost of brokerage, exchange fees as well as the value of the $ not being static, I had to adjust for them for on something so as not to administer myself to death.

I solved this by taking height for the value of $. My calculated value for $ is about 5% lower than the actual. Whether this estimate deviates too much from reality remains to be seen.

I will take the final result for January with a pinch of salt as I made various adjustments during the month. February will be much fairer. The most exciting thing to see is whether my calculation for future dividends is correct, which February will show.

Halfway there

Up until today, we have received half of the estimated dividends for the month.

If all calculations are correct, next month will be the last time our dividends will not reach the same amount as one of our monthly salaries.

Which means we will have 3 salaries every month from March 2023.

The goal is to have 4 salaries every month but there is a long way to go. Patience is a virtue.

Interest on interest

Since Nasdaq is closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, next Monday, we decided to buy a smaller number Horizon Technology Finance Corp. Common Stock (HRZN).

It is the Ex-dividend date for HRZN on Monday and in order not to miss next month dividends we had to buy today even if I would prefer to wait until Monday when we expect to receive further dividends.

This small purchase increased our estimated dividend for 2023 by $145.

Since HRZN is a monthly dividend, we will be able to reinvest the dividend of this acquisition several times during 2023.

Incompetent decision makers

Today we received the figures for the inflation trend during December 2022 in Sweden. It was not a cheerful read.

In December 2022, the inflation rate was the highest throughout the year. Measured according to consumer price index (CPI), it was 10.2 percent.

We will probably see the light in the end of this tunnel in April when we get the numbers for March. This is because inflation is measured against the same month of the previous year. Since inflation had picked up in March 2022, inflation for March 2023 will most likely have slowed.

The main reason for the rampant inflation in Sweden and the rest of Europe is the extremely high electricity prices.

Apart from the most obvious area of use, heating, electricity is needed to a greater or lesser extent for just about everything. The baking of the bread, the preparation of ready meals, the manufacture of clothes etcetera all require energy in some way.

The fact that many of Europe's countries have become dependent on natural gas mainly from Russia and Iran is due to the governments ruling at the time who chose to dismantled large parts of their energy self-sufficiency. That they enabled this hybrid war is indefensible.

🎼 Oh happy 🎼 day

Another one of the holdings that DELIVERS!

This time it's Stellus Capital Investment Corp. Common Stock (SCM) increasing its return, they declared $0.1333/share monthly dividend from prior dividend of $0.0933. A rise by 43%.

They have set the dividend for February, March and April 2023. That means we got a bonus of $129.

I am more than pleased.

It was still worth buying

The share price of Gladstone Investment Corp. Business Development Company (GAIN) did not exceed the limit of what Mr. Dewlar deemed too high for acquisition, so he bought another 40.

It will only be from February that it will be clear in my calculation how much we increase future dividends with each acquisition for 2023 due to the downward adjustment I did for NEWT a bit into January.

All changes are "eaten up" in January by this adjustment.

Someone gets the evil eye

Mr. Stefan Ingves who is the head of our counterpart to the Federal Reserve, Riksbanken, is leaving in the near future after holding the post for 17 years.

The government's mandate to Riksbanken that inflation must not exceed 2% has been fulfilled during 3 of the 204 months that mr Ingves has been head.

During these 17 years, mainly the Social Democrats have been in power in Sweden. The current government took office just over 3 months ago.

When Stefan Ingves announced his resignation, he received harsh criticism for the way he ran Riksbanken during all these years.

On site in Stockholm, 170 international dignitaries are currently participating, including the chief executive of Great Britain's central bank at Riksbanken's international symposium.

It was during a television interview for the American television company CNBC at this ongoing gathering that Mr. Ingves chose to move the issue of the debt from Rikbanken to the government.

Quote: "I have said time and time again that the debt level of Swedish households is far too high and that the doomsday will come when interest rates rise - and now interest rates are rising." unquote.

I myself have been critical of Riksbanken having a zero interest rate during the boom, more than once.

Gave me food for thought

Yesterday when I picked up my son a day early for the dentist appointment we had a conversation on the way.

He is studying an extended study plan because he has chosen Spanish as an extracurricular studies. Only those students who have chosen a language for extra studies have an extended study plan.

Yesterday he regretted choosing language because the other students, who in addition to normally finishing earlier than him, had their extra choice canceled yesterday.

I explained that it is an advantage to have a third language when he applies to university or college. 

He thinks that anything he does now will only benefit him later in life. Right now it's just a nuisance.

When I thought about it later in the evening, I understood him completely. He is absolutely right.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he can elude it now. I have to figure out a way to motivate him now.

Best start to a Tuesday

Gladstone Investment Corp. Business Development Company (GAIN) declares monthly dividend of $0.08/share, in line with previous.

Since I had already taken this into account in all my calculations, it makes me extra happy. Our holding in the company is minimal, we own a total of 360 shares divided into 3 portfolios.

As icing on the cake, they also distribute a special dividend in March that corresponds to the entire first quarter.

Currently, the company's yield is 7.35%, which is very good. Unfortunately we don't have that much cash right now, we hope the share price doesn't skyrocket before we get this week's dividends.

So far so good

After my husband finally managed to drag himself out of bed, I was finally able to enter his dividends as well.

This is (hopefully) the only month that the column for outcome is as high as forecast. Starting in February, the outcome column should always be slightly higher than the forecast in this chart.

Although there is a long way to go I am hopeful, we are still waiting for 3 of the biggest payouts of the month.

Below is a snapshot of the month's payouts so far.

Click to enlarge

Hope for the best

Every day I search for information about NewTek Business Services Corp. Common Stock (NEWT) has announced something about upcoming dividends. I want to make sure I didn't enter a too high value in my spreadsheet for them. 

As we have a large holding in that stock, the full-year calculation for them will weigh down the result.

One of my charts will not adjust down so it will most likely show red numbers for the rest of the year if there is too much of a difference between my estimate and the dividend paid. Then my only hope is that one or more special dividends at the end of the year to save the bottom line.

I couldn't wait

I woke up at 04:30am and couldn't resist getting up and logging on to Nordea. Altria Group Inc. (MO) accounted for most of yesterday's dividends, but Merck & Company Inc. Common Stock (MRK) and PepsiCo Inc. Common Stock (PEP) contributed a smaller amount.

Yesterday's dividends were far too small to invest. I hope that this week's accumulated dividends make it worthwhile to make an acquisition at the end of the week, taking into account both brokerage and currency exchange.

When I was still awake, I took the opportunity to check the company's email and of course there were invoices waiting to be taken care of. After I took care of the invoices, I entered the dividends into my Google Sheet and was in a better mood.

Nordea being Nordea

Today we received some small dividends on our accounts with Nordea. As Nordea has a delay on its transaction history, it will be until tomorrow before I can fill in the data in the spreadsheet.

The good news is that we expect dividends every day until January 15th. Also, the SEK has strengthened against the $ in recent days, so the dividends are well timed.

It will be magical to be able to sit on the couch with my husband and update the spreadsheet with both dividends and acquisitions.

I will not win the Best Mom Award

Today YMD had an appointment with his orthodontist. The world's most perfect teenager lets me come along on the visits, mostly so he doesn't have to keep track of the return visits.

When we got there, there was already a mother and her 15-year-old son in the waiting room. We were sitting waiting for our turn when a dental nurse walked by. She stopped at our place and asked what we were doing there. I replied that YMD has an appointment today. She replied, I don't think so. The other mom in the waiting room couldn't even contain her laughter.

It turned out that we are a day early. The worst part is that this is not even the second time this has happened, but the third time!

The first time the offspring was 5 years old and was invited to a children's party. The party was supposed to be at a friend's house from kindergarten whose parents I didn't know very well. There was a bit of a tense atmosphere when Junior and I rang their doorbell one day early. It was no easy-going the next day.

The second time, YMD was 11 years old and was invited to his first bowling party. That time we were only 2 hours early, so we got to walk around the area.

The fun part is that we get to do it all over again tomorrow...

How we ended up where we ended up

My husband and I come from what used to be called the economic middle class, roughly simplified, sprung from the old working class often with better material standards than the working class. We grew up in the same suburb of Stockholm, which was typical of the economic middle class.

Through a lot of work, savings, risk-taking and a bit of luck, we managed to buy an apartment in the best part of Stockholm's inner city. I went to all viewings in the area of Stockholm we wanted to live in for more than 1 year. I spoke to every real estate agent, shook many hands and signed up to countless lists. 

We bid on a number of condos but always lost the bidding. We were in the middle of a bidding when another realtor called me and asked if we were still looking for a new home.

He had an entire property with 20 newly built apartments to be sold. The project was classified as new construction, although the house dates from 1890. In the case of new production, all prices are fixed, so it is first come, first served.

For some reason he called me first and within 2 hours we had signed the contract. That's the story of how we ended up among the upper class. All my preconceptions were proven wrong. You have to look for nicer people.

Exciting times for the offspring

Today the most perfect teenager in the world begins his winter golf training. Last fall he auditioned for another club and today is the first training session with them.

I know the offspring is a bit tense and nervous before the first training session.

Luckily, he goes to a school where students come and go, so changes are part of everyday life. YMD is one of the very few students in his school who is not an expat or a child of a diplomat.

As each semester ends, new students start and others leave, so he's used to making new relationships. I hope he can benefit from these experiences today.

Junior thinks it's nice that training is on Sundays so he doesn't have to rush from school to be on time. I'm also happy because now I get to come along, previously my mother drove him to practice.

Maybe it's the magic of Christmas

I wrote on October, 28 2018 that one of the reasons I like the weekends is that the stock market is closed.

This is a qualified truth, anyone who invests in an international stock market knows that the value of our portfolios fluctuates even during weekends because the exchange rates are never "closed".

The value of our portfolios can increase or decrease by 3% from the time we go to bed until we wake up. All depending on how the SEK performs against the $.

Since the currency hits the entire portfolio, there is no stop, neither up nor down. Waking up to a $10,000 increase is a good start to the day, the opposite not so good.

Recently, the SEK has remained reasonably stable against the $.

The worst affected have started to give up

Telework, which is a consequence of the pandemic, caused the demand for houses to increase significantly. Many people wanted to live in a house and have access to their own garden, as they spent almost all of their time at home. The result of this was that many people paid far too much for their houses.

Hemnet is Sweden's most popular housing platform and a meeting place for brokers, housing sellers and buyers. In the first week of this year, there are more than twice as many houses for sale on Hemnet, compared to the same period last year.

Housing prices in Sweden have continued to fall in December, more so for houses compared to condominiums. Since the top listings last spring, housing prices have fallen by almost 17 percent. This is a direct consequence of the increased interest rates and rampant electricity prices.

I suspect that the next group who may be forced to sell their homes are those who are at high risk of being laid off in the coming recession. The Swedish Economic Institute assesses that the Swedish economy will enter a recession in 2023, while I claim that we are already there.