He wants to be taller but is grateful for the height he has

One of my core memories is when the world's most perfect teenager's doctor at the time said that the offspring would be about 5'10" (178 cm) if he was lucky. A blind person could have read the disappointment on Junior's face.

With 2 months to go until his 16th birthday, he is 6'1" (185 cm). Considering that neither I nor my husband are particularly tall, it is fantastic how tall our son has become. His dream height is 6'3" (190 cm) but I don't think he'll even be 6'2" (188 cm).

I hope to wake up to ka-ching tomorrow

Never have I had to wait so long for so much. On the penultimate day of the month, we have received just under 40% of the estimated dividends for the month.

Hopefully we will have several dividends paid out tomorrow. Most likely, however, the very last dividends for the month of June will not be paid out until the middle of next week.

As eager as I am to determine that actual dividends are higher than projected, I am equally eager to reinvest those dividends to reduce the deficit that NEWT caused.

I was wrong

Riksbanken, Sweden's central bank, raised the policy rate with only 25 points. Despite the increase in the key interest rate, the Swedish krona continues to lose value against both EUR and USD.

The outcome of the exchange rate loss of the Swedish krona against EUR and USD is inflation in itself.

The only tool Riksbanken has available is a policy interest increase, which obviously does not have the desired effect. Maybe you should appoint younger people with new thinking to deal with the problem, not replace the outgoing head of the Swedish central bank with a slightly younger copy.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Finally some payouts

Today we received several payouts on our endowment insurances with Nordea. Exactly which holdings have generated money cannot be seen until tomorrow morning.

We bought a small number of both Gladstone Capital Corporation Common Stock (GLAD) and W. P. Carey Inc. REIT. Unless the shortfall caused by NewtekOne, Inc. Common Stock (NEWT) when they changed their business focus and cut their dividend is nearly wiped out by mid-year, I will have a hard time meeting the annual target.

Nobody's money

The reason I become less and less inclined to pay taxes with each passing year is because of the disrespectful manner in which they are spent.

An example is an attempt with a camel farm in southern Sweden that ended in bankruptcy and a report to Swedish Economic Crime Authority where it emerged that several millions had been stolen by the initiator. In total, they received more than $8.6 million in grants paid out over a 3-year period.

Even the gang criminals are rewarded with tax money. Each time they have been detained but acquitted in court, they have the right to request compensation. In 2022, the Swedish state paid out more than $8.4 million in damages to gang criminals.

The problem with tax money is that it is no one's money, the sender is (almost) everyone and no one…

I feel for them

Riksbanken, Sweden's central bank, will issue the next monetary policy announcement on Thursday 29 June 2023.

During the past year, Riksbanken has raised the key interest rate from 0 to 3.5%. Several actors on the financial market warn that Riksbanken will make a double increase and raise the key interest rate by 50 points.

There are yet many borrowers who still have incredibly low interest rates on their mortgages. For many of them, their interest cost will have increased more than 4 times when the mortgage is renegotiated this autumn.

Personally, I believe in an increase of 50 points as the Swedish krona is still weak against both EUR and USD, despite Riksbanken's increases in the last 12 months. That is why Erik Thedéen, head of Sweden's central bank, wants to show his resolve and will double the key interest rate.

Funny and scary at the same time

In Sweden, you must be 18 years old to have a driver's license. You can practice driving from the day you turn 16, provided you meet certain requirements.

I, the offspring and my husband must undergo supervisor training. In addition to this, the world's most perfect teenager must also take an eye examination and fill out a health examination.

All of the above is done so all we can do for the moment is just to wait for the offspring to be approved and get a driver's license permit. After that, we are ready to start practice driving at the end of August.

I can hardly wait

It is with excruciating patience that I await the end of the month. Most of our holdings have a payout date of June 30, which means we receive them in early July.

Even though it is June 27, we have received barely 20% of the month's estimated dividends.

It's been a long time since I felt such impatience, the last time I can remember that I felt this impatience was when I was a child waiting for Christmas.

Maybe it sounds like I am taking the high moral ground; I am not. The main reason for my impatience is not the money itself but the longing to see how the forecast stacks up against the outcome.

Unfortunately a true story

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party.

During the 1940s, the Social Democrats had a social minister, Gustav Moller, who started the expression "every wasted tax krona is a theft from the people".

Between the years 2014-2022 we had a Social Democratic government that governed together with the Green Party. During these 8 years, they did nothing to improve the conditions of crime victims to receive their compensation.

Instead, criminals could receive high damages from the state due to wrongful prison terms even though they were actually found guilty of the crimes.

For example, during 2017 a criminal was awarded just over $71,500 in damages when he claimed that he was a minor at the time of the crime and was thus imprisoned for too long.

Although both of his victims were awarded damages from him, the state was not allowed to withhold this money from his damages, which were paid in full.

To this day, he has not paid the restitution to his crime victims. To top it off, it later emerged that the documentation he presented as proof of his age was most likely forged.

Mr Moller would be spinning in his grave if he could see Sweden now.

I have to be honest

There is one tax in Sweden that is low compared to the rest of the world. It is the tax on capital, assuming you have the right savings form.

Endowment insurance is a standard-taxed form of savings. You avoid profit tax and instead pay a low annual standard tax.

We have 98% of all our joint investments in the US market. These holdings are placed in endowment insurances. If you have your holdings in endowment insurance, you also get back the tax you pay abroad.

If, on the other hand, you have your holdings in a share depository, you must pay tax both in, as in our case, the USA, as well as any profit tax in Sweden. The tax refunds we get on our 3 accounts with Nordea significantly exceed the tax payments we make on the 9 accounts we have with Avanza, Nordea and Nordnet.

Consumers have their own responsibility

For full transparency, we do not deal with e-commerce but have a physical store, which makes e-commerce our biggest competitor.

A survey by the Transport Companies, an industry and interest organization in freight transport in Sweden, shows that 23 million products in e-commerce were returned last year. This corresponds to 12% of the total amount of parcels sent in e-commerce.

A lecturer in packaging logistics at a Swedish university, Klas Hjort, believes that e-commerce companies should do more to reduce returns and thus climate emissions.

When an e-commerce company takes action and, for example, suspends a woman who last year returned 92% of all her purchases with a company, SVT, Sweden's equivalent of the English BBC, provides its platform for this customer to complain that she has been suspended.

Since the e-commerce cannot provide a fitting room, the customer must order several sizes to find the right size. However, there is no excuse for people who order the same item of clothing in several sizes and colors at the same time.

I also believe that "unboxing" contributes to all returns. There are many people who want to create content for their various social media sites but neither want nor can afford to keep everything they order online. There are countless numbers of people who should question themselves instead of finding someone else to blame.

I hope it gets determinedly

Our current government is actually making a lot of good changes. Yesterday they announced that they are appoints an investigation to extend parental responsibility and that parents may become liable if their minor child becomes liable for damages.

There are far too many people who believe that society is responsible for raising and caring for their children.

I believe that children are like empty "vessels" when they are born. If I don't fill my "vessel" with what I consider to be right and true then someone else is guaranteed to do it. For me, it is incredibly important that my child grows up with values and morals that I believe to be true.

Receiving taxes is better than paying taxes

With only 5 working days left in the month, we have only received roughly 15% of the current month's estimated dividends.

This means that we will receive a lot of dividends next week, mainly at the end of the week. I thought Nordea had paid out MAIN's ordinary dividend yesterday but it was a tax refund. Which is almost even nicer to get. This time we got $188.

Happy Midsummer Eve

Today is Midsummer Eve in Sweden. One of Sweden's most loved holidays.

In the Stockholm region we will have clear blue skies with temperatures up to 80.6℉ (27℃). That the weather is this fantastic is unusual. It has happened that we had 50℉ (10℃) and persistent rain.

We will celebrate Midsummer together with our best friends who are also the godparents to the best teenager in the world. They live in one of the best suburbs of Stockholm in a villa with a pool so junior is looking forward to swimming in the pool and spending time with their eldest son who is our godson.

Despite the age difference, YMD turns 16 at the end of the summer and our godson turns 25 this fall, they are good friends. Our godson and his little brother are like substitute brothers to our only child.

I always have a flower wreath on my head with real flowers in the Swedish colors, blue and yellow.

Tax money at work...

Our current government decided at the end of last year to waive the previous decision that Sweden's aid should amount to 1% of gross national income (GNI).

Despite the scrapped one percent target, Sweden is still at the top as a donor, only Luxembourg surpasses us. For 2023, our aid will end up at 0.88% of GNI.

This decision by the government has been called, among other things, "slaughter of aid".

The so-called "Infocom-project" was reduced from $13,330,350 to $1,720,045 was one of the areas named in this "slaughter of aid". The "Infocom-project" is an information project that aims to inform the Swedes about the aid money.

That the construction of letting a spending target govern the amount of aid has been destructive for aid, among other things with directors-general finding it a challenge to get rid of all tax money (TT, October 24, 2017).

Another reduction

Every time I get a notification from Seeking Alpha, I check the upcoming dividend against my Google Sheet. As soon as I discover a discrepancy, I correct my document.

Last morning I discovered that one of our holdings, Two Harbors Investment Corp (TWO), is cutting its dividend by 25%.

From $0.68 per share on an annual basis to $0.45 per share per year. Fortunately, we only have an extremely limited number of shares in this company.

The overall picture we have of our holdings via Google Sheet combined with Seeking Alpha is fantastic.

Winter is coming

I woke up to the sweet sound of ka-ching.

It was the Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. Common Stock (TSLX) supplemental dividend of ¢4 that was credited to the account.

Whether it was worth waking up for ¢56 is extremely doubtful. It seems increasingly likely that it will snow on Midsummer.

The Swedish Social Democrats - The soap opera

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party.

In February this year, it was discovered that one of the Social Democrats' own organizations, ABF in Botkyrka, had been infiltrated by gang criminals. This was denied by the Party and the then municipal councilor, Ebba Östlin, was forced out of office and replaced by Emanuel Ksiazkiewicz.

During the early summer, other social democratic members in Botkyrka, a suburb of Stockholm, sounded the alarm to the Social Democratic Party about severe disproportion within the municipal party. They have informed the Party that the new board wants to lift the freeze on contributions to ABF Botkyrka.

There are leaked audio recordings that prove this, according to Aftonbladet, one of Sweden's newspapers. On this audio recording, the chairman of the leisure board, Robert Aslan, can be heard saying that it is important that the writing for the subsidy freeze remains. On the same audio recording, the new chairman of the board, Emanuel Ksiazkiewicz, can be heard advocating for a removal of the subsidy freeze.

Emanuel Ksiazkiewicz defends himself by saying that the audio recording is just one of many meetings.

It will be exciting to see if the Social Democrats manage to silence this this time as well.

Money money 🎼 money 🎼

I hate the saying "good things comes to those who wait" because it's always being told to you when you absolutely don't want to hear it.

The dividends for June have been so meager so far that it feels more likely that it will snow on Midsummer's Eve, which is the day after tomorrow, than that we will even reach the month's forecast. We still have many ordinary, special and supplemental dividends to receive so I expect we will exceed the forecast, by a good margin.

As it is Midsummer Eve on Friday in Sweden, our banks are closed, which means that tomorrow is the last chance before the extended weekend to receive dividends.

Own your own fault

As the extent of H&M's lack of control over their textile recycling chain is revealed, all these "Karen's" also come to light.

To play down their own guilt in these gigantic mountains of clothes that mainly affect citizens of the third world, now comes demands from "Karen's" around the world that we have to use our garments several times before they are recycled and for the clothes to be of good quality.

The thing is that H&M's business concept is to provide fashion garments at a low price and everyone knows that low price and quality do not go well together.

It's time for "Karen" to stop blaming others and take responsibility for herself.

You get what you pay for

Last week it was discovered that H&M in Sweden (Hennes & Mauritz B (HMB)) hired a company for their textile recycling that did not properly manage its commitments.

Admittedly, H&M paid the company for a service that was not fulfilled according to purchased commitments, but I would bet my life that the service was competitively procured where the cheapest option was contracted.

For every bag of clothes that you hand in to an H&M store, you get a digital bonus discount of $4 and 200 membership points as a thank you for your help. For which you can buy additional items of clothing. H&M offers this service in all its stores around the world.

To check how this recycling works, a couple of journalists mounted 1 air tag in 10 pieces of clothing and handed them in to different H&M stores.

Certain items of clothing were sold on the second-hand market both in Europe, India and Africa, some items of clothing also ended up in giant landfills consisting entirely of clothing, for example in Africa.

H&M knows you can't pay for a Hyundai and get a Bentley...

I'm a loser and I know it

Both myself and my spouse have received our tax refunds for the 2022 income year.

We usually make a share dividend every year in one of our private limited companies. Instead of getting a big back tax the following year because of this stock dividend, I always pay a higher income tax on all our salary payments instead.

I have allowed this extra tax payment to continue despite the fact that, due to the pandemic, we have not been able to make any share dividends in recent years. This has resulted in us receiving a considerably higher tax refund than normal in recent years.

At the same time as it is nice to have a larger amount of money paid out, even if it is one's own, I feel like a loser as I lent our money to the government for free.

I ❤️ a good confirmation

In order to have total control over any deviations regarding the individual dividend occasions compared to my spreadsheet, I have created a portfolio in Seeking Alpha's app.

As soon as the next dividend is set, I get a notification from the app that I compare with my spreadsheet. Next month will be the first month where I double check all dividends.

Today I received confirmation that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. Common Stock (BXMT), Ladder Capital Corp Class A Common Stock (LADR) and Starwood Peoperty Trust, INC. Starwood Property Trust Inc.'s (STWD) upcoming dividend is completely in phase with my Google Sheet.

Part one is done

Today is the end of school, which means that the world's most perfect teenager finishes ninth grade. With primary school completed, high school and college remain.

Although YMD is used to there always being a few who change schools at the end of each term, this time will be a bit special.

They are a group of friends of about 12 teenagers, both boys and girls, who have been hanging out together for the past few years. Unfortunately, only 4 continue in the same school after the summer. Most of them have parents who have received new assignments in other parts of the world.

I'm guessing it will be a bittersweet day for him.

Last trembling days in grade 9

When I met my husband almost 29 years ago, I was very clear that I neither cleaned, cooked nor wanted children. To this day, I still don't understand why he stayed.

I still remember the day when, 13 years later, he asked if I hadn't changed my mind regarding children. From absolutely not wanting to have children, I was completely changed when the offspring was born.

The day before yesterday Junior went on a 3-day school trip. I sincerely hope I can sleep tonight as I only slept 3 hours last night. Words cannot describe how much I miss him.

He called earlier this evening and told us about everything they had done so far. Among other things, they went kayaking today. While I am happy for his happiness, I am sad because I miss him. Thank God he's coming home tomorrow.

More air which I will need

I have discovered 2 more holdings that have a higher dividend than what I entered in the spreadsheet.

In the case of Realty Income Corporation Common Stock (O), it's about $1.38 on each dividend occasion. The amount is negligible but since it is in our favor I will let the error remain. Regarding the holding in TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. Common Stock (TPVG) it is $38.6 on each dividend occasion.

It is now beyond doubt that the outcome will exceed the adjusted chart forecast. In addition, there is a high chance that the outcome will also exceed the forecast for the unadjusted chart. Almost halfway into June, we've only received about 20% of the month's projected dividends. We will get some payouts in the next few days but most of the payouts will come at the end of the month.

Additional air in the air cushion

Two of our holdings have increased their dividends in 2023. They are Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN) and Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC).

At the beginning of the year, MAIN had a monthly dividend of ¢0.225, which from July they will increase to ¢0.23. During the same time period as MAIN, OXLC raises its dividend from ¢0.075 to ¢0.08.

I will not adjust my spreadsheet for these changes. Instead, I will use these small increases to reduce my deficit.

My little helper

My spreadsheet helps me keep track of whether we get all the dividends we're entitled to.

Every time I discover, which happens more often than you might think, that we are missing a dividend, I always wait 10 days before contacting the bank.

Most recently, it was Nordnet that had not paid our dividend from Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC). We cannot be many shareholders in OXLC in Nordnet because no one else had contacted Nordnet, which means that they always distrust me from the start. Once it's established that I'm right, the same phrase always comes quote "we've had a technical error, thank you for taking the time to address it" unquote.

Some lack the ability for logical thinking

There are few things that upset me more than when you have a discussion with someone and the person in question does not understand the difference between receiving housing benefit and deducting interest expenses on their income tax return.

Being allowed to make a deduction in the income tax return for certain expenses is not a grant. For this line of thinking to be correct, all the money a person earns must belong to the State. Only then can a deduction become a grant.

Making such a deduction in your income tax return for expenses that the state has given us citizens the right to do only means that the state does not take the part of your earned income that it is not entitled to. 

That there are educated people who take this view in all seriousness just shows once again that this country is completely marinated in socialism.

The content of "The Talk" has changed

For full transparency, even though I, my husband and YMD are 100% ethnically Swedish, Junior has not had a single 100% ethnically Swedish friend in his entire life. Some of them have a Swedish mother or father, while the vast majority of his friends come from other parts of the world. Mainly from Asia.

This means that the offspring do not "see nationalities". Needless to say, he sees that everyone looks different, but he doesn't connect it to different parts of the world. The fact that he speaks English and has always spoken English with his friends becomes another factor that contributes to the fact that he does not see people as "foreigners" but as Swedes regardless of origin.

A recent survey by one of Sweden's daily newspapers shows that gang criminals are usually children of second-generation immigrants.

I had to explain to my son that there are certain types of people he must stay away from. That it's mostly guys in both lower and upper teens and how what clothes they usually wear. It may sound rough and unpleasant, but you can often see who belongs to the gangs.

I really want him to understand the danger without put everything under one roof. The talk about flowers and bees has taken on a different content.

Sweden is broken 💔

Sweden has huge problems with gang crime at the moment. Pretty much every day you wake up to news of someone or a few have been shot and and that residential properties have been subjected to bombings.

Our previous government said time and time again that the risk of a third person being affected was microscopically small. Unfortunately, the previous Social Democratic government got this issue wrong as well.

Yesterday afternoon, four people were shot in the square in a suburb of Stockholm. One of the people, a 15-year-old gang criminal, died. The other three injured persons are a 15-year-old youth and a man and woman between 40-65 years of age.

The day before yesterday, an 11-year-old boy who was out cycling was hit by a 27-year-old man who turned out to be a gang leader. The 27-year-old man was under the influence of drugs at the time. The boy died from his injuries. Directly at the scene, there was a fight when henchmen of the gang leader threatened witnesses. The police had to use tear gas on the spot.

This is not the first time that third parties have been injured in gang shootings. A couple of years ago, a 12-year-old girl was shot dead by a stray bullet in a gang shooting.

Regardless of what anyone with their political sympathies on the left says, we did not have this type of crime.

Last mistake, I hope

I found another error in my spreadsheet. In one of the summaries I had mistakenly added an entry twice. That missummation combined with the forecast vs the outcome for both NLY and OHI explains the deficit for May.

However, I can find no explanation as to why both NLY and OHI underperform in the outcome compared to the forecast so strongly. I will look more closely at these holdings a little later.

Happy 6th of June

Today, June 6, is Sweden's National Day.

Since the world's most perfect teenager first comes home from his friend's grandparents' summer house late tonight, my husband and I will celebrate this day by ourselves for the first time in 16 years. Words cannot explain how much I miss my son. If this is what it feels like when he's away for 3 nights, I don't even want to try to imagine how it will feel when he moves out of our home sometime in the distant future.

Until junior comes home tonight, we will wave the Swedish flag and celebrate Sweden.

I want it to be perfect

Five days into the year's next most lucrative dividend month, the money has started to enter the account. Roughly 38% of the month's total dividends have a payment date of the last June.

My spreadsheet is getting more and more accurate. The last adjustment I made was Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. Common Stock (CGBD) where I had the number wrong.

In the spreadsheet I had ¢0.44 per payout, which I had to adjust down to the real figure of ¢0.37. They did a supplemental dividend of ¢0.07 in March and will do an exact same supplemental dividend this month.

What applied then does not apply now

When something works flawlessly, we have an idiom in Sweden which, if translated literally, is: "runs like the train". But given how rarely the train arrives on time, the idiom no longer matches reality.

Being referred to by an idiom that includes "runs like the train" is more of an insult nowadays than a compliment.

Take, for example, the offspring's train journey yesterday. In total, the trip consisted of 2 parts. The first part went smoothly, the train left Stockholm on time and arrived in Gothenburg on time. The last part which was a 1 hour journey ended up being more than 2 hours late. If you could fly to the boys' final destination, we would have bought plane tickets instead.

Bread crumbs are better than nothing

Junior and his friend arrived safely yesterday at his friend's grandparents. He was very thoughtful and texted me as soon as they arrived.

Today he called and I could hear in his voice that he was a little homesick. The first instinct was that I wanted to confirm his homesickness and talk about how much we miss him and love him. However, I restrained myself and led him into fun thoughts and that he should enjoy himself as they will be returning to Stockholm soon.

For the first time ever, I am happy to receive notifications about his card purchases. They have become my breadcrumbs that allow me to follow him from a distance.

Additional unaccounted dividends

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. Common Stock (CGBD) makes a supplemental dividend during June of ¢0.07.

Adding up all the extra dividends we're affected by in June and adjusting for the exchange rate, DRIPS, brokerage, exchange fees and my "straight" dividend according to previous months' results, our accumulated shortfall should end up somewhere between $100 and $205.

In order to have control over all extra dividends, I have activated Google Alerts. Since this is the first time I've used Google Alerts, I've cast a wide net. As I learn to understand how Alerts work, I hope to narrow the net so I don't have to read EVERYTHING about special and supplemental dividends regarding North America.

I can sense the light at the end of the tunnel

At the beginning of the year, I thought the chart below would be the one I would obsess over the most.

Unfortunately, NewtekOne, Inc. Common Stock (NEWT) with its changed business focus and dividend plan brought it down at the beginning of the year. For the moment, any acquisition becomes just a way to reduce the damage.

I sincerely hope that the damage caused by NEWT will be barely visible by the end of June 2023. Only then will the chart below be fun to follow.

Click to enlarge

I am dissatisfied

After we received all the dividends for May, it turns out that we missed the month's target by just over 20%. I will evaluate what is the biggest reason for the month's deficit next week.

I sincerely hope that the special and supplementary dividends coming in June reduce the deficit for the first half of the year between forecast and outcome. As of the end of May, the accumulated deficit is $1,069 based on the January-May 2023 period. The forecast is established on the first of each month based on purchases and sales made during the previous month.

Click to enlarge

Two sides of the same coin

I really dislike having my office at home.

Since I have my work email linked to my mobile to always be available, I pretty much check my email during every commercial break when I'm sitting in front of the TV in the evenings to see if I've received any email that needs to be taken care of. Being brought up to never put things off until tomorrow, I go back to work a number of times every night. As a CFO, this is truly a nightmare.

However, I discovered that as a mother it can be a blessing. Young master Dewlar will go by train together with one of his closest friends to southern Sweden to visit his friend's grandmother and grandfather today. As this is the first time the offspring will travel alone without any of us adults, I am nervous and sleep poorly. At 3am I gave up and sat down at my desk and worked instead. Three hours later I have finished work and am waiting to wake up the world's most perfect teenager as his friend picks him up at 7.15am. As Junior is happy as a clam, I absolutely do not want to show my concern. So it's game face on!

Politicians, morality and tax money part 6

For full transparency, I am politically very far from the Swedish Social Democrats and socialism.

I can't really let go of the crash with Samhallbyggnadbolaget i Norden (SBB). SBB is one of the stock exchange's companies with the most owners, approx. 350,000. Of these, approximately 300,000 are small investors.

Many of them are a bit older who in some cases have invested all or a large part of their savings in the company. To top it all off, some of them only have a few years or even no years left in their working lives.

With my heart, I empathize with all these small investors. With my my brain, I feel no sympathy for the people who once again trusted a Social Democrat to look after them and their money.