It is not always easy to practice what you preach

I ended up talking to an acquaintance who has strong opinions on environmental issues. The woman in question believes that Sweden and the rest of the world must take action to mitigate the ongoing global warming.

Among other things, she complained that she has difficulty finding a spare part for her sink faucet in this throwaway society. I suggested that she contact the store where she bought the sink faucet. She told me that she bought the faucet online because it is so much cheaper there.

Given her concern for the environment, I suggested that instead of looking for cheap "disposable sink faucets," she should go to a specialty store and buy a brand name faucet. Then she will be able to buy spare parts and reduce the burden on the environment.

If looks could kill, my husband would be a widower by now...

The first eight months of the year feel like an instant

Of 2023's last four months, September and December are the absolute best months of the year if you look at dividends.

For the same reason, November is one of the four worst months of the year, plus it's generally a boring month. It's cold, dark and really just a very long haul until December which is the complete opposite.

Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, Christmas in general and the Christmas holiday in combination with the fact that December is most certainly the best dividend month of the year makes it one of the best months of the year.

I doubt my Google Sheet will ever be finished

All the connections in my Google Sheet are completely correct now. It took more than seven months to get everything in order.

I will not adjust the shares that has raised their dividend over the last months. The consequence will most certainly be that the diagram for adjusted dividends will have a too low value for the coming four months.

Because of all the errors that have been corrected throughout the year, I prefer to have the margin of error on my side for the remainder of 2023.

Another contributing factor why the outcome will exceed the forecast for the last months of the year in the previously mentioned diagram with adjusted dividend forecast is the upcoming special and additional dividends.

So that the same thing does not happen next year, I must resolve the issue with a special and additional dividend. Ideally, I would like to separate them from the regular dividends but I haven't come up with an easy and simple way yet.

I know myself, I will nag him about this

Today the world's most perfect teenager had a math MAP test. I had completely forgotten about this.

The offspring was home from school yesterday as he has a sore throat and runny nose. Despite still being slightly ill, he went to school and failed the test miserably.

The test starts with the same questions for all students and changes based on how well they solve the problems. A good student gets more and more difficult questions. After the evaluation, the students are sorted into different classes based on their prior knowledge.

Given that the offspring himself used the words "total failure", there is a great risk that he will be placed in the easiest class. For me, math is an incredibly important subject, so my whole being is filled with discomfort right now because of his failure.

Swedish households need to spread the butter ever more thinly

Sweden's GDP for the second quarter of 2023 was presented today. GDP fell by 0.8% compared to the same period in 2022, which was lower than analysts' expectations. Their expectations were that the second quarter would fall as much as the first quarter of 2023, that is, 1%.

According to the Swedish Central Bureau of Statistics, reduced goods exports and reduced inventory investments are the main reasons for the reduction in GDP.

Household consumption fell for the fourth quarter in a row. Inflation has made a clear impression on the shopping habits of Swedish households.

I am guessing that Swedish household consumption will have reached its lowest point in November and then level off. I believe it will take until the second quarter of 2024 before you start to see an increase in Swedish household consumption.

After that, there should be a light in the tunnel.

Hell freezes over before that happens

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

In the city of Stockholm, the Social Democrats are in power with the support of the Green Party.

The only reason we got an electric car is because we live in the heart of Stockholm city where there are different environmental zones. The Social Democrats and the Green Party will expand the environmental zones rather than reduce them.

Currently, the energy tax on gasoline and diesel as well as the carbon dioxide tax gives the Swedish state tax revenue of roughly $1.429 billion per year. On top of these taxes, 25% VAT is also added.

As the vehicle fleet is electrified or replaced by vehicles powered by biofuels, road pricing will become an attractive alternative when these revenues fall. There is not a country in the world that sits idly by and watches billions of revenue go up in smoke.

The Green Party makes it impossible for us to do the right thing

In Sweden, we have a reduction obligation. The reduction obligation is a law that forces companies that sell petrol and diesel to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

In practice, this means that in southern Africa, investment in land to grow export crops that are mixed into our fuels to reduce our emissions has resulted in the loss of land and livelihoods for thousands of small-scale farmers.

As I now drive an electric car, I contribute to the fact that children in the Congo live in terrible conditions when they dig out the cobalt needed for car batteries.

While people who drive petrol or diesel cars contribute to whole families starving to death as they have lost their land and thus livelihood.

Thankfully, the reduction obligation is now being questioned. Africa's need for food should not have to compete with our willingness to pay for fuel just because the Green Party decided that our emissions should be reduced at any price. Sweden's share of global emissions is 0.2 percent.

I know better

Today is the world's most perfect teenager's birthday. He turns 16 years old. Among other things, YMD wanted a wallet that cannot be bought in a store in Stockholm. As a matter of principle, I never buy anything online, but I had to this time.

Even though I ordered the wallet in good time, we still haven't received it. The Swedish postal service, PostNord, has managed to lose it. Only on Friday does PostNord consider that the shipment is gone and a complaint can be made.

Although the offspring received other gifts, it feels sad not to be able to give him everything we bought.

I have a hard time understanding how people can enjoy online shopping. I loathe it, heartily.

Never again!

Ignorance or just likes

In Sweden, we have preschools, both private and municipal. One of the municipal preschools in a suburb of Stockholm has received an injunction regarding savings requirements. This has led to them, among other things, stopping serving milk to the children.

One of Sweden's evening newspapers' online edition has an article today that Louis Vuitton's Swedish subsidiary made a profit of $25,000 per day in 2022.

For the moment there are threads on X (formerly Twitter) where less talented people make the connection that there are far too many wealthy people in Sweden because of LV's profit last year. What they completely miss is that most of LV's sales in Sweden are made up of tourists, mainly from Asia.

In addition to the fact that these consumers are entitled to a tax refund, 20% of the purchase price, because they travel in and out of countries outside the EU, Sweden lacks a so-called luxury tax on luxury products. Which makes this type of consumption even more attractive to these tourists.

I never cease to be fascinated by the inability of adults to see the whole picture. At the same time, I can be impressed by how they completely uninhibitedly expose their ignorance.

I have had the misfortune to visit the Louis Vuitton Stockholm store after these tourists have visited the store. On these occasions, LV's shelves have echoed emptier than the bread stalls of the former Soviet Union did...

Mrs. Dewlar - The Hypocrite

Tomorrow the world's most perfect teenager turns 16. The fact that we celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary on the same day will, as always, be celebrated behind the scenes.

Since tomorrow is a weekday with school and work, the offspring has chosen to celebrate his birthday today. The main reason though is that my in-laws live 125 miles (200 km) from us. That they would drive 125 miles in the dark tomorrow night is completely out of the question.

My mother-in-law keeps her home in perfect condition. In addition to booking the cleaning lady last Friday, I have washed all the towels, bathroom rugs, etc. Neither my husband nor son have been allowed to move around the apartment in the last 36 hours.

I will hang clean towels in both bathrooms and the kitchen just before mother-in-law rings the doorbell .In addition, the offspring will also have to cut his nails and clean their ears a little extra carefully before grandma's visit.

If you look up the word "eye-servant" in a dictionary, you will find a picture of me.

I seem to be on the right track

With less than a week left in August, we expect a smaller number of dividends for the month.

The remaining dividends we are waiting for are:

ARMOR Residential REIT, Inc. (ARR)

Fastenal Company Common Stock (FAST)

Gladstone Investment Corporation Business Development Company (GAIN)

Gladstone Capital Corporation Common Stock (GLAD)

Guggenheim Strategic Opportunities Fund Common Shares of Beneficial Interest (GOF)

Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC)

All indications are that the last adjustment I made to one of the connections in my Google Sheet will be the last.

This will be the first time one of the months in group no 2 falls within my tolerance of +-5%.

Group no. 1 consists of January, April, July and October

Group no. 2 consists of February, May, August and November

Group no. 3 consists of March, June, September and December

Unpopular opinion

I have a hard time with people who stick to their principles just for the sake of it.

People who see wind power as the solution to the world's electricity shortage and the only power source that can reverse the ongoing warming of the Earth's climate are wrong, in my opinion.

The few places I think wind power could be the main source of energy are individual farms in the Australian outback and similar places. But as the main source for larger communities and cities, I am extremely doubtful.

For my own part, I believe that wind power does more harm than good. Apart from the most obvious disadvantage of not being planable or storable, I dislike that the land-based wind power kills large parts of the bird life. While the offshore wind power disturbs the marine life.

If you also add that the wind power plant itself is not recyclable, the attractiveness is further reduced. Personally, I consider that wind power and solar cells are a good complement to nuclear power plants.

YES

Armand Duplantis did it. Despite enormous favorite pressure, he won world championship gold .To be so young and yet to have such a psyche is rare.

In addition to going faultless throughout the competition, he made an attempt at the world record.

What an athlete!

Right now, we made the right decision many years ago

I am glad that we decided and implemented the decision a long time ago to invest in American stocks and not Swedish.

Even though it is more difficult to invest in a market where you do not live and work, we sensed that the Swedish krona would lose value against the rest of the world. A guess that unfortunately turned out to be correct.

As weak as the Swedish krona is at present, it has never been. Although it benefits us personally in our stock portfolios with a weak Swedish krona, I hope for Sweden's sake that the krona strengthens its position vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Preferably sooner than later.

One of Sweden's major banks, Svenska Handelbanken, believes that the Swedish krona will recover by the end of 2025. They predict that 1 USD will cost 8.70 SEK compared to today's rate where 1 USD costs 11.05 SEK. Personally, I am very doubtful about this.

I'm thankful

Right now, the World Championships in Athletics are taking place in Budapest, Hungary.

Last Thursday, Daniel Stahl won gold in the discus with a fantastic throw in the penultimate round.

Men's pole vault is currently underway. I am extremely grateful that Armand Duplantis chose to compete for Sweden instead of America.

Right now it's incredibly exciting, but I'm convinced that Armand Duplantis will win world championship gold.

I am absolutely convinced that within 5-6 years his name will be as obvious as Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan when talking about the G.O.A.Ts.

We have the most perfect sons

My best friend and I intend to start a tradition with our sons. Last winter, we and our sons were at one of Stockholm's finest hotels and had Afternoon Tea. It was very successful.

Her sons especially appreciated it. The world's most perfect teenager who is seven years younger than her youngest was more accepting than appreciative. If he had to choose, he would rather be at home and play some game with his beloved VR.

Our ambition from the beginning was that this was something that would happen once a quarter, but twice will be absolutely perfect.

I had planned for my husband to fix the thermostat in our shower that is broke while we are having Afternoon Tea. Fortunately for him, the delivery time was a little longer, so he escapes.

Almost fully restored

Now I have been doing the movement which consists of 6 different positions every morning since Monday. This morning was the first time the dizziness was completely gone when I got out of bed.

Now I have to overcome the feeling of being "fragile" that remains in my body after being dizzy for almost 5 weeks.

It was 2 years between the first outbreak of BPPV and my first attack of vertigo migraine. After that, it was another 2.5 years between the first attack of vertigo migraine and my second outbreak of BPPV. I hope it will be at least 3 years until the next vertigo migraine attack.

I am incredibly grateful because, despite this, I was able to live and work fairly normally as I was not nauseated and vomited as was the case the 2 previous times.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

For full transparency, I am in favor of membership in the EU and voted yes in the Swedish referendum in November 1994.

In the 1980s, Sweden was completely self-sufficient. Since then, the degree of self-sufficiency has plummeted and it is partly dependent on our entry into the EU. 

When Sweden joined the EU in 1995, we gained access to an open market with depressed prices. Today we are only self-sufficient in carrots, sugar and grain.

This means that we import most of the food we consume. The weak Swedish krona increases the costs of all the things Sweden imports, which leads to increased inflation.

The main weapon of the Swedish central bank AKA Riksbanken in the fight against inflation is to raise the key interest rate. This "weapon" has been used for the past 11 months without the desired results. Riksbanken must start thinking outside the box.

The height of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result - Albert Einstein

I am hopeful

We have now begun our divestment of NewtekOne, Inc. Common Stock (NEWT). Yesterday we sold all of Mr. Dewlar's holdings and reinvested them in Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS).

This change increased our estimated dividends for 2023 by $402. Hopefully, we will have divested our entire holding in NEWT before the end of September.

I sincerely hope that all of next month's special and supplemental dividends will have clearly reduced my deficit between forecast dividends vs. realized dividends.

She told on me...

This morning I visited my son's school. I had a meeting with the principal and one of his teachers.

His current school year, grade 10, is designed to prepare students for the IB Diploma Programme.

He has had Spanish as enrichment since grade 6. The school has changed the conditions this year, which means that junior cannot read both Swedish and Spanish.

For both me and my husband, this felt as if the offspring's Spanish studies had been completely useless. Hence the meeting this morning.

The school was very accommodating and we worked out a plan whereby YMD will go to school 1 extra hour each week to study Spanish on his own during grade 10, with the support of a Spanish teacher.

In May next year, he will be able to take a test that will give him a Diploma in Spanish that he can state in his college or university application.

Since the offspring would not accept the plan if it is my idea, we agreed that the principal would present the plan as if it were her idea entirely. The first thing YMD asked me when he came home from school was why I have extended his school hours?!

She ratted me out immediately!

7 is more than 1500

The MSCI World index includes roughly 1,500 companies, with approximately 2/3 of all companies having a performance lower than the index's return of 19%.

7 companies account for 50% of this year's rise regarding the MSCI World of 19%. These companies are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.

The development is led by Nvidia with a return of 212%, followed by Meta and Tesla with a return of 140% and 89%, respectively.

At sector level, diversification is even worse. The technology sector makes up 20% of the total MSCI World Index and accounts for half of this year's rise.

Wonder what will happen in the future when 7 companies make up the entire world economy in one way or another.

In Sweden there is a children's program named "5 ants are more than 4 elephants" but in this case it is "7 ants are more than 1500 elephants"...

A good day 💰💰💰

The day before yesterday was a good day. We received the tax refund at Nordea.

So far, the family's joint portfolio at Nordea has received $2,030 in tax refund. The estimated tax refund for the same portfolio for all of 2023 is $2,818.

The tax refund for the aforementioned portfolio for 2022 was enough for more than 70% of our total interest expenses for the same year after the 30% deduction you are allowed to make in the tax declaration.

This year, the entire year's estimated tax refund is not even enough for the first quarter. If we add up all tax refunds and dividends and compare with the interest cost, it is absolutely not profitable to pay off our mortgage.

I would have to clone myself

Having a child in school is a full-time job. I'm not exaggerating, just today I received more than 15 messages.

In addition to the school using Managebac, parents and parent groups use both Classlist and What's Up.

Having to control 3 platforms is set up for failure. Even though I have 6 years of experience in this, it happens that I miss something on some platform. How parents with two or more children manage to keep track of  everything is beyond me.

Admittedly, we may work a little more than most, but that should be compensated  by the fact that we only have one child. If it continues like this I may have to stop working to become a stay at home mom...

Knowledge before pleasant

According to my Vertigo specialist it is not vertigo migraine this time but BPPV. He performed a series of mechanical movements with me, trying to get the "debris out" in the lower arch of my right ear.

Unfortunately, it didn't fully work. The dizziness is still there. Now I have do a serie of movements every morning before I get up until the dizziness is gone.

If the dizziness hasn't disappeared by Monday, he asked me to come back for a new appointment.

Given my ailments, I am colossally grateful for his immense knowledge of vertigo as there is much to be desired when it comes to his social skills, or rather total lack thereof.

They have their own currency

Teaching children to manage money in Sweden is not easy. The main reason for this is the lack of cash in our society. It is becoming more and more unusual for shops to accept cash as a means of payment.

There are adults who find it difficult to control their expenses when shopping with bank cards. Compare that to being a kid with no personal finance experience whatsoever.

They receive a bank card with a certain amount of money which should be enough for a certain period of time, such as a weekly or monthly allowance.

I have come in contact with several parents of teenagers whose children have Robux, which is Roblox's in-game currency, as a reference when they are going to buy something.

For example, a friend's son was interested in a pair of Adidas shoes before realizing they cost 3,200 Robux.

I was a child in an easier time when money was the primary means of payment. The money I had access to was in my wallet where I could easily and clearly see exactly what I had available.

You can't be right when you're wrong

We have been at a loss as to whether we should sell some holdings. All indications from the outside world point to there being only one way forward for the stock market and that is down.

One of our better friends works as a stockbroker and he advises us to sell off some of the holdings at least. We have decided not to sell off any holdings in favor of a bank account with cash.

Personally, I do not believe in a stock market crash but a distinct downward correction. Saying that the stock market will go down is among the easiest things to say because sooner or later it always goes down. Backing it up with an exact time frame is more difficult.

The expression mainly used by those shorting stocks is quote "I was right but early" unquote is actually incorrect. To be able to say you were right, you also have to have the time frame right as well.

Swedish media is a bit late in the day

The decision to go deeper into trading was probably not fully thought out. In addition to immersing myself in companies we have invested in and companies we intend to invest in, I made the mistake of also immersing myself in other people's opinions about the stock market's prospects in the near future. Which was a big mistake.

The reaction time between different players differs in the market. For example, only now is Sweden's media paying attention to the fact that Michael Burry sold almost all of his holdings a year ago.

My feelings about Michael Burry are mixed. While earning the epithet "Michel Burry - the man who predicted 30 of the last 2 stock market crashes" one cannot ignore the fact that he was one of the few who predicted the financial crisis of 2007/08. There has also been an embarrassing silence from his Twitter (X) account after his tweet on November 22, 2022 quote "You have no idea how short I am".

A wish scenario

The weak Swedish krona is currently holding up the value of our portfolios. Because even though our shares have fallen recently, the value of the holdings has remained exceptionally high.

Next month is one of the three best dividend months of the year, so a strengthening of the Swedish krona at the end of September would be very welcome. In combination with a weaker stock market. After that, it is allowed to grow stronger again. Only to do the same thing again in December…

I just want it to end

The dizziness does not go away, but rather has gotten worse. I have an appointment with my vertigo specialist this Monday at 8am.

Mornings are the worst, it takes me almost 1 minute to get to a sitting position without collapsing. Then all the time during the day I have a feeling of falling every time I move my head up, down or sideways. Ideally, I should have my head fixed in a straight upright position.

I sincerely hope he can fix this on Monday. Usually just getting an appointment makes me feel better, but not this time.

This has been going on for almost 4 weeks so my mood is not the best. The world's most perfect husband is not having the time of his life at the moment...

Many new impressions

The world's most perfect teenager has now had two days of school in his new school building. The class he is in consists of 17 students, of which 7 are new arrivals.

When we got home from work after his first day of school, he was already in bed and asleep even though it wasn't even 7pm.

The school building was originally a teaching facility for the first 100 years and then converted into a conference facility. For the last 7.5 months, they adapted the building's 100,000 square meters (10,000 square meters) for the school.

During the opening speeches from both the school's and the landlord's representatives, it was emphasized how well the work had gone and that it was almost complete. I have more than 15 years of experience in the construction industry and could visually determine during the tour that they are significantly further from completion than what was stated.

For example, the school cafeteria is not completed. As a solution to this, the school must provide prepaid cards to each student. Unfortunately, the school has not received enough cards so returning students have had to arrange lunch themselves so far this week.

Despite everything, I am grateful that the school was given access to the building.

Poorly gifted or just stupid...

That Sweden's inflation was driven by rampant electricity and fuel prices is a fact. Even Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken states this on its website.

The fact that Sweden's central bank has had negative interest rates for several years despite the boom has not improved the conditions.

Sweden had a socialist-led government with the support of the Green party during the period October 3, 2014 through October 18, 2022. This means that the current government has been in power for just under 10 months. Nevertheless, there are well-educated people who seriously claim that ongoing inflation in Sweden is the current government's fault.

Not being able to admit that the previous government is to blame for the rampant inflation that started last year just because that's the party you voted for is madness.

Due to the lack of our own oil wells, we have to import both oil and fuel, which have become significantly more expensive due to the depreciation of the Swedish krona against both € and $. To add insult to injury, the previous government raised both the reduction obligation and the tax on fuel.

In addition to this, the previous government also decided on the introduction of the effect tax, which resulted in 4 of Sweden's fully functioning 12 nuclear power reactors becoming unprofitable and decommissioned, which resulted in electricity shortages with skyrocketing electricity prices as a result.

They choose not to see the fact

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

I have an acquaintance who is a hard core socialist. Our discussions never derail and we become enemies but we agree that we can never agree. However, she has helped me understand how a socialist thinks.

When a situation arises where a socialist reasoning fails, they choose to refrain from acknowledging the fact. Most often she dismisses the whole thing with quote "I haven't read about it" unquote and then indirectly means that it never happened.

This summer I was prepared for her to resort to her usual excuse and had several different reliable sources, one of which is the media she herself chooses to get information from.

She read the article and first said my factual part was incorrect and referred to the article she had just read. She interpret the article in her favor only until I pointed out her misinterpretation of certain words. Whether her misinterpretation was deliberate or not, I actually don't know. Then she became silent.

We are still acquaintances and have hung out several times. However, I avoid talking politics with her, I have realized that it is not possible to objectively or honestly discuss certain things with a certain type of people.

July inflation numbers

Sweden's inflation for July 2023 amounted to 6.4%, which is 0.1% lower than Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken's forecast.

Although inflation is still high, I am grateful that it did not exceed the different forecasts. Riksbanken's next monetary policy statement will be announced on 21 September 2023.

Hopefully, today's report can contribute to Riksbanken settling for an increase of 25 points. The number of mortgage borrowers who have loans with fixed interest rates of 1.5-2.25% to be renegotiated in October is huge.

I suffer with all these households who will have their biggest expense doubled from one month to another.

🎵 Money, money, 🎵money 🎵🎵

Half of August has passed but we have only received 25% of the month's estimated dividends.

Today is MAIN's payment day. Hopefully we will receive MAIN's dividend on Nordea already today. It takes a few extra days for Avanza and Nordnet to pay out the money.

Don't really have time for this

The migraine attack already started last night. I fell asleep in front of the TV already before 8pm. The world's most perfect husband gently woke me up just before 10pm. Then I mostly felt very tired, washed myself and went to bed and immediately fell asleep.

Woke up the first time around 2am with a headache, managed to fall asleep only to wake up again an hour later. So it went on until 5:30am. Fortunately, the pain was not extremely bad and for the time being has subsided. I hope my dizziness goes away now.

Today, me and the world's most perfect teenager are going to visit his new school building. It is located approximately 15 minutes' walk further away from the school's main building. The building was erected in 1880 and was used as a teaching facility for the next 100 years.

1982 one of Sweden's largest trade unions, with the help of the Social Democrats, had the opportunity to buy the building and used it as a conference facility until last year. Then the offspring's school got the chance to rent the building. We have seen pictures and I have to admit that it is incredibly beautiful and typical of the time.

It will be an incredible lift for the students in grades 6-12 who were previously housed in different types of office rooms. Now it will be a real school building again. YMD is lucky to only have to spend 4 years in the horrible premises. Preschool activities and grades K-5 are housed in the school's main building, which the school owns.

Now I hope that both the headache and the dizziness won't give me more problems than I can handle during the day so that I can work and visit his school without much trouble. I am thankful that the attack was milder than normal and came during the night. I don't have time to be sick now.

Minor clashes may occur

Tomorrow we open the shop after being closed for the holidays. Although we have been working during the holiday, it will be more  regulated starting tomorrow.

Due to the management decisions we made in the spring, both mine and my husband's workload will be higher than normal up to and including the turn of the year. When my husband and I changed our work situation 7 years ago and we started working at the same premises, we had some running-in problems. We are both used to leading and distributing the work, so there were some conflicts.

It is now that the boundaries and routines we laid the foundation for in recent years will come into their own when we will work much more side by side until the turn of the year. Everything would be so much easier if our business motto was "Happy wife - Happy life"

I'm not naive

Last Thursday we made one of the worst choices you can make when it comes to finances. We chose to buy a new car. The last time we owned a car was 6 years ago. Then we had an Audi allroad A6.

Due to the fact that we live and work in the same neighbourhood, we chose to sell the car as we used it so rarely. We drove 2485 miles (4000 km) in the last 3 years we owned the Audi. Since then we have walked, taken the bus, subway, commuter train, taxi or rented a car.

Now we feel it was time to own a car again. One factor that was decisive is that the world's most perfect teenager turns 16 at the end of the month and then gets to start practice driving.

From previously only owning Audi cars, this time we chose a Tesla model Y. The choice of an electric car instead of a petrol or diesel car is only due to the fact that we live in the middle of Stockholm's inner city, where there are different environmental zones that affect which cars can be driven where. I do not consider the choice of an electric car to be a sign of concern for the environment, on the contrary.

An important part of the car's battery is cobalt. There is cobalt to be mined in Sweden. Instead of allowing the extraction of this cobalt in a democracy with lawes and rules, the Green Party has chosen, through its balance of power under the previous government, to ban the extraction of cobalt in Sweden. The consequence is that cobalt is extracted mainly in the Congo, where children are exploited under terrible conditions.

So aside from contributing to the exploitation of children in the Congo, further environmental destruction and incurring higher costs, I look forward to getting a car soon.

Dishonest journalists

It is not the first time, and certainly not the last, that journalists use doomsday headlines.

One of today's front page headlines in one of our evening papers is "The experts on the new covid variant: "On the way to take over"". In the article, which is locked, it is stated that the new variant Eris is harmless, even for the risk groups.

Since the majority of readers only read headlines, they get the impression that the pandemic is on again. Especially many younger and older people. In my opinion, many journalists have blood on their hands with all these end-of-the-world headlines.

What happened to factual and objective?

Window dressing

Greeniron H2 Ltd is a Swedish listed company whose intention is to change the steel industry by replacing coal with green hydrogen powered by fossil-free electricity, water and heat becoming our primary emissions.

The company states that they have not been able to reach an agreement with Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB), which is 100% owned by the Swedish state.

Instead of buying high-quality iron ore from LKAB's mines 932 miles (150km) away, the company will buy inferior iron ore from mines in Brazil and Canada. Which is literally on the other side of the world. Despite the long hauls, the company claims the steel it will produce will still be "fossil-free".

Unfortunately, they are as hypocritical as the environmentalists, as evidenced by their latest procurement. The company deviates from its business concept of green steel in favor of cheaper iron ore from Brazil and Canada. The environmentalists deviate from their ideology in the same way when they shun nuclear power and its incredible environmental benefits.

One values money and the other emotions. Both claim that they have the best interests of the environment, but when it comes down to it, they only think of themselves.

I thought I was home free

When we were in Portugal I had a vertigo attack. Much milder than the one I had on February 2, 2021. The difference between this attack and the previous ones is the length. The previous two attacks lasted a week while the latest is still ongoing several weeks later.

Every morning I have to sit up carefully or I collapse. Once I'm up, most days are symptom free provided I don't bend forward or make quick movements.

I hope that the reason for this is that I almost completely gave up both soft drinks and sweets when we went to Portugal. Before we left I ate sweets daily plus I drank soft drinks (Sprite) almost as often. Another contributing factor may have been that we played golf in 87.8℉ (31℃) heat.

If this hasn't stopped within a couple of weeks, I have to contact my dizziness specialist again, unfortunately.

Half full or half empty

NewtekOne, Inc. Common Stock (NEWT) is approaching our sell price. Hopefully we will have sold off NEWT before Christmas and reinvested the money in other companies.

The forecast for the year's total dividends places 2023 in the middle of our statistics. Both our fourth best and fourth worst dividend year.

Because I always want to win and see this as a failure, the glass is half empty for me. My husband who always tries to always be positive sees the glass as half full.

Our "MAIN" engine

Finally, Google Finance has the right currency on PennantPark Floating Rate Capital Ltd. Common Stock (PFLT).

The chart illustrating the family's joint holdings clearly shows that Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN) is our largest holding. In addition to being our largest joint holding, we also have MAIN in our own respective portfolios.

Every time MAIN makes a supplementary dividend , it leaves a clear impression on our dividends for the month in question.

I haven't decided yet whether to report all special and supplemental dividends separately next year.

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Be careful what you wish for

The world's most perfect teenager begins to discover the disadvantages of being taller. He is 0'1.575"

(4 cm) from being tall.

I sincerely hope he doesn't grow to 6'3" (190cm) which is his dream height. Currently, he is 6'1" (186 cm). According to the pediatricians in Sweden, boys reach their final height at the age of eighteen to nineteen. Junior turns 16 at the end of the month.

We have not traveled since the turn of the year 2019/2020 due to the pandemic. This year we got away. We traveled to Portugal for a fortnight.

As there are three of us, we cannot fit in one hotel room. Neither my husband nor I are comfortable with our son having his own hotel room so we booked a suite. The extra bed provided by the hotels left a lot to be desired. Both hotels we stayed at are 5-star.

Our son was too tall for the bed, his feet sticking out. My husband and I laughed so hard that the tears flowed.

Never fully on vacation

Actually, I've been on vacation for almost 4 weeks now. Of these days, I can honestly say that I had approximately 8 days completely without work, the other days have included work to varying extents.

Just today I have worked more than 9 hours. Tomorrow looks to be just as extensive. As of Sunday evening, the vacation is officially over. My husband has also worked, although to a lesser extent.

July's results is in

Unfortunately, the result became the complete opposite of what I foretold would happen.

I have to go through all the connections and calculations again.

The error or errors must be found before the end of the year.

Next year WILL start with completely fair numbers.

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Forlorn hope

The fourth best dividend month of the year just got better. Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS) has decided to pay a special dividend of $0.10 and a supplementary dividend of $0.21 in addition to the ordinary dividend of $0.41.

A surplus calculation I have made of this month's upcoming dividends shows that my existing deficit will not be reduced this month. Plus I was wrong, MAIN's supplemental dividend will not come this month, but only next month. If my deficit has not decreased by September 30th, all hope of succeeding in erasing the deficit is completely gone.

We have a cool son

The private IB school that the world's most perfect teenager attends consists mostly of children of diplomats, children of expats and children of people who are CEOs of listed companies in Sweden.

The offspring belong to the extremely unusual group of all-Swedish children who do not belong to any of the above-mentioned groups.

The older the children get, the more they start comparing themselves to each other. Our son has good self-confidence and is one of the popular children in the class.

They ask each other what their parents are working on to clarify their "own status". We are in the plumbing industry. When they asked the offspring what his parents do for a living, he said quote "My dad fixes toilets." unquote.

He is still one of the popular kids.

Vattenfall wasted 471,000,000 tax dollars

For full transparency, I am politically very far from the Green Party and its politics. However, that does not mean that I do not understand that we are facing a climate change. I am in favor of nuclear power which is reliable, fossil-free and, above all, planable.

The Social Democrats have always been completely dependent on the Green Party's support in order to govern. A demand from the Green Party's side was that nuclear power should be phased out in Sweden. Together they introduced the effect tax.

Tax on thermal power in nuclear power reactors, as the effect tax was formally called, was introduced in 2000 shortly after the electricity market was deregulated. Instead of taxing for produced power as before, the nuclear power companies were taxed for the electricity that was theoretically possible to produce.

With the third increase in the effect tax, they succeeded in making Sweden's clean, cheap and reliable nuclear power unprofitable. During 2015 the government also replaced 2 people in the management of the state-owned company Vattenfall. Along with the management change, a change of course could be implemented, so-called "informal governance". "It means that you tell your state company what you want from them." All according to Lise Nordin, former energy policy spokesperson for the Green Party.

Our current government understands that nuclear power is an important factor in being able to meet all climate targets. In the spring, they voted to replace parts of the anti-nuclear board at Vattenfall.

Although wind power is subsidized via the electricity certificate system, it is not profitable. Inflation has led to a project that Vattenfall invested $471,000,000 becoming unprofitable before it is even completed. Vattenfall has calculated that it is cheaper to take the loss of $471,000,000 instead of completing the offshore wind farm outside the coast of England.

It's easy to shop with other people's money.

These are new times

It is clear that the world's most perfect teenager misses both school and his schoolmates. He would never admit it though.

His two best friends left when we got home from Portugal earlier this summer. One of them will come home on Monday.

When I was little, you barely got to say hello before the phone would be handed over to one of the siblings when the parents made an international call to a relative. The offspring and one of his friends are on the phone for hours via What's Up while simultaneously playing a little game together over the cell phone.