I suffer with those who trusted the Swedish Social Democrats and socialism

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

New information has emerged that the previous government, the Social Democrats and the Green Party, with the tacit support of the Left Party, have loosened the rules around the Swedish AP funds one step at a time for several years.

The strict regulations that Sweden had regarding the investment of pension money, where maximum returns have been leading for the AP funds, are today partially replaced with the possibility of investing in risky start-ups.

This has led to the current situation where a number of billions have been transferred to two limited partnerships where the Swedish pension money has been invested in risky unlisted climate start-ups.

I myself realized already in my early twenties that my chance of getting any public pension from the state pension that the Swedish Pensions Agency is responsible for was already largely non-existent and therefore I started my own pension savings in the early 1990s.

The state keeps moving the retirement age forward, hopefully I'll reach official retirement age before I die. In 2020, the age was moved forward to 62 years, and in 2022 it was moved further to 63 years. If they continue at the same pace, I will reach official retirement age and be able to receive a state pension in 2044, the same year I turn 74.

It is highly doubtful that there will be anything resembling a pension in Sweden when the world's most perfect teenager grows old if this continues.

The country backwards

For full transparency, our interest deductions we can and do in the annual income tax return far exceed the tax we pay on our savings. Although we take advantage of this, both my husband and I believe this is a system error.

In the country that is always on the wrong side of everything, they tax the person who saves and reward the person who spends.

Exactly the same way you give a penalty discount to a person who commits a crime but increase the tax rate on the one who earns more. Which has almost always been preceded by an increased work effort.

Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely not woke and think that Sweden has far too high taxes overall, even if a few individual taxes are low.

The fact that I point out a system error does not mean that I want the few low taxes to be increased.

Not the best neighbor, part 3

Since 1 January 1999, the Danish krona has a fixed exchange rate against the euro through ERM II. In practice, this means that the Danish krona is an euro in disguise.

Before 1999, the value of a Danish krona was essentially the same as the Swedish krona. Today, a Swede pays just over 1.5 Swedish krona for 1 Danish krona.

That Denmark has a fixed exchange rate against the euro has saved the value of their krona. Otherwise, Denmark's krona would also have been devalued due to the Swedish krona's difficulties in defending its value.

However, we have exported our gang crime to Denmark. Sweden and Denmark do not have a common border like Sweden and Norway. However, we have a bridge, the Oresund Bridge, which connects our countries.

I guess there are many countries that are happy that they are geographically far from us.

Many homes have an extra resident AKA their mortgage bank

The value development of real estate has meant that the bank's share of our home has decreased in recent years. In combination with amortizations made, our home is mortgaged to 25% of the current market value.

You could say that there are four of us in our household, my husband, our son, me and our mortgage bank. All with a 25% ownership. We could evict the bank entirely by paying off our mortgages but they do much more good in the stock market.

There are very few households whose home is mortgage-free, which in practice means that there are not many who own their home.

This must end, NOW

Waking up to shootings and explosions every day is frustrating. Our current government warned that it would get worse before it gets better but this is terrible.

Last night, a young man was shot dead on a sports field while children and young people were practicing soccer.

This morning, Sweden woke up to new shootings and an explosion at a single-family home that resulted in the death of a young woman from her injuries. The young woman was not the target but an innocent victim.

Parts of these gangs' "management teams" work remotely as it is estimated that at least 200 of them are located in Iraq, Turkey, Mexico and Somalia.

Not the best neighbor, part 2

Sweden can add another export product, gang crime, to its resume.

We were known for our entrepreneurial spirit with giants such as Volvo, Scandia, Alfa Laval, Atlas Copco, SKF, IKEA, Saab, Ericsson and many more.

For our music wonders such as ABBA, Swedish House Mafia, Ace of Base, Avicii, Roxette, Max Martin, Denniz Pop and many more.

For the Swedish world-famous inventions such as dynamite, the screwdriver, the computer mouse, the pipe wrench, the spherical ball bearing, the pacemaker, the zipper, the steam turbine and many more.

Again, it is their geographical location with our long common border that causes Norway trouble. Yesterday, Norway's Minister of Justice Emilie Mehl visited her Swedish counterpart Gunnar Strommer due to the fact that the Swedish gangs have expanded their operations to, among other places, Norway.

For the first time, Sweden brings deterioration instead of improvement to the world through our exports.

It's a long way to the finish line

We continue to acquire shares of Realty Income Corporation Common Stock (O). Today we bought a small number of shares in my husband's, our joint and my portfolio.

We have an incredibly long way to go to our goal of 2,000 shares, more precisely another 1,700 shares. The yield on the shares we bought today is over 6%.

For the world's most perfect teenager, we instead bought shares in a fund that invests in Swedish real estate companies, as we hope that sector has bottomed out soon.

Wise from experience, I know that the probability of exactly hitting the bottom is as likely as I suddenly becoming tall, blonde and curvy...

Not the best neighbor, part 1

Denmark's currency is Danish krona, Norway's currency is Norwegian krona and Sweden's currency is Swedish krona. The three currencies are very small and are classified as junk currencies.

Throughout my upbringing, the Swedish krona was stronger than both the Norwegian and the Danish. Sweden was the big brother in the Scandinavian family and Norway and Denmark were the younger brothers.

The rest of the world has difficulty distinguishing the different kronas, so both the Norwegian and Danish krona are being pulled down due to the Swedish krona's difficulty in defending its value.

When Norway found oil off its west coast and became one of the world's richest countries, we became the kid brother. Even though Norway is currently the third richest country in the world, their krona has difficulties due to their geographical location next to us. The Danish krona is also affected, but fares better as Denmark has tied its Danish krona to the euro.

Denmark and Norway would most certainly place Sweden in timeout for an unlimited time if the opportunity was given.

They got the ball rolling

Finally, Riksbanken is taking measures other than simply raising the policy interest rate in its fight to defend the honor of the Swedish krona.

Riksbanken has decided to hedge part of the foreign currency reserve by selling €157,693,000 and $665,340,000 over the next four to six months. Riksbanken's decision will hopefully act as a shock absorber and prevent the Swedish krona from weakening further.

Another factor that affects the Swedish krona is the world's concern about the indebted Swedish real estate sector. Yesterday, the distressed real estate company Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden (SBB) announced that they have an upcoming sale, which means that the company's coffers will receive a much-needed addition of $648,702,000. Analysts hope that if the picture of the real estate sector clears up, it will benefit the Swedish krona in the long run.

Regardless of the outcome of Riksbanken's sale of both € and $, I am glad that they are at least trying. As my father raised us quote "it is better to do wrong than to do nothing" unquote.

Mission impossible

During the night between Sunday and Monday, I woke up with a vertigo attack. I stayed in bed and managed to fall back asleep. When it was time to get up, the whole world was spinning.

Luckily I got an appointment with my vertigo specialist yesterday morning. He has now most likely established that I suffer from vertigo migraines and not BPPV.

A long-term lifestyle of irregular meal times, poor diet, minimal sleep combined with menopause has caused my migraines to convert to vertigo migraines. The vertigo specialist thinks that if I get my diet in order it should be enough to end these vertigo attacks.

I have to eat like a child, healthy and at regular times. It is more likely that the Swedish krona will be worth more than the US dollar than that I will succeed in this.

The consequence of crying wolf

For full transparency, my family and I are well aware of the problems caused by climate change. How these changes will affect humanity I have no idea.

Biased media as well as politicians can sometimes jump the gun by blaming climate change before the actual cause is determined. In addition to these media destroying their own brand, climate deniers are given excuses that strengthen their arguments and beliefs.

Three major disasters have been wrongly exploited by these Swedish media in a short period of time. For example, some Swedish media left out that several of this summer's terrible forest fires in Greece were arson because this did not support their bias. Instead, it was suggested that the terrible heat wave was the cause of the extensive forest fires. The heat wave created perfect conditions for the wildfires, but they needed an accelerator.

The catastrophic and horrific collapse of the dam in Derna, Libya, which occurred last month, was blamed by several media and politicians on a severe storm. The real causes of this disaster are years of neglect, a fragmented political landscape and underdeveloped systems. This disaster led to the loss of more than 11,000 lives.

This weekend, a gigantic landslide occurred in southern Sweden. An area of 1,400,000 sqft (140,000 sqm) has collapsed and large parts of European road E6 have collapsed due to the landslide. Among other things, a motorway restaurant collapsed. Fortunately, the personal injuries were minimal. Three people were taken to hospital with broken bones.

This time too, the biased media and politicians could not wait for the real cause of the terrible accident, but instead falsely claimed that the cause was a sinkhole. The landslide was caused by inappropriate earthworks and filling of excavated masses in an incorrect way together with felling. The rainy weather that was going on during the night in question caused the excavation masses to become unstable and they went off like a mud wave on the highway.

Which generation of parents stopped teaching their children to tell the truth?

Maybe I'm handling this the wrong way 😉

In times of higher interest rates, it can be appealing to increase the amortization or pay off your mortgage in full.

A possible repayment of the loans means an immediate reduced cost as well as the coming years, which in turn creates additional room for even more amortization, which further reduces the interest cost, because the interest-on-interest effect works the same in both directions.

Depending on where you are in life determines whether it is beneficial to repay your mortgage. Take my parents, for example, who are low on mortgages. Their mortgage is significantly lower than their equity holdings. My parents are considering paying off their mortgage, which I advise against.

My mother is 75 years old and my father 77 years old. After 60 years, it becomes extremely difficult to be approved for new loans, regardless of how good the ability to repay is. For my parents, paying off the mortgage would make their finances impair instead of improve.

Although it is next to impossible to get my workaholic for a dad to take time off and travel, I still want them to have the opportunity.

Even if it would be to my advantage if they lock up all their money in their properties and don't spend it...

If only you could have your cake and eat it too

The advantages of a smartphone's camera significantly surpass the days when you had to carry an external camera to be able to take pictures.

The external camera meant that all the pictures from my first 30 years are exclusively birthdays, parties and vacations. Unlike the upbringing of the world's most perfect teenager, which is well documented in photos that I developed and put into albums. Although it has become increasingly less today compared to his first 10 years.

Whilst I wouldn't for the world want to replace the mobile camera, I can miss when the camera roll was sent in for development and the whole family sat on the sofa and excitedly opened the envelopes with the pictures. You got the pictures you got, blurry, bad or funny.

We continued our acquisitions

Yesterday we bought a small amount of Realty Income Corporation Common Stock (O) shares.

The price of the share started to fall on Thursday to continue down on Friday, which made us buy. We are still far from our goal of 1000 shares.

Whether our strategy for our investment in this particular company is correct remains to be seen. Rising interest rates in almost the entire world do not contribute to increasing the attractiveness of real estate companies at present. The time frame is more long-term in this holding unlike some of our other investments.

We still expect close to 60% of the month's estimated dividends, which is our third best payout month of the year. A week from Monday we get most of it, according to my notes.

I am absolutely complicit in this

The CEO of one of the public pension funds that has existed in Sweden since the 1960s has commented on the weak Swedish krona exchange rate.

A lot of the Swedish small savers prefer to invest their savings in foreign assets such as North American index funds. These purchases have been ongoing has been going on for a long time, which meant a downward pressure on the Swedish krona according to this CEO.

I agree with her conclusion. However, I will never invest in Swedish companies or funds until they are for me the best alternative.

No one cares about your money as much as you do. - Liza Dewlar

They haven't learned anything...

That the Swedish central bank, Riksbanken, would raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points yesterday was a no-brainer.

Although I personally believe that Riksbanken has failed in its mission for many years, I have to give them credit for being consistent. Yesterday's attempt to strengthen the Swedish krona was as toothless as the previous ones.

The most absurd thing yesterday was not the increase itself, but Riksbankens governor Erik Thedéen's statement in an interview. He said quote "You should continue to gain height because it could get worse" unquote.

Which literally means that Riksbanken intends to continue with its toothless increases instead of trying to find other approaches to strengthen the Swedish krona.

It must be amazing to think you're doing everything right even though the whole world is literally screaming that you're doing it wrong.

You are no longer born free

The world's most perfect teenager who, since his first year of life, has paid capital tax on his endowment insurances. Provided that he does not move from Sweden, he will pay various different taxes throughout his entire life.

Take, for example, "general pension from the State". It is money deducted from all employees' gross wages every month and forwarded to the Pensions Authority for them to manage the capital until the pension is due.

Upon repayment, the capital has been renamed "general pension from the state" and taxed even if it was your own paycheck to begin with. This refund is paid once a month for the rest of your life. However, the refund is based on the paid amount.

The old saying "born free - taxed to death" does not feel so relevant anymore...

A relationship set in stone

The object of my love has not always been constant, during my teenage years the interest could shift from week to week. When you got tired of the relationship, the then boyfriend or I could end the relationship. 

However, there is one relationship that you cannot end even if you want to, the relationship with the Tax Agency.

This means that I have been an involuntary bigamist all my life.

The monetary policy announcements are pouring in

Today, the US central bank AKA the Fed will release a new interest rate statement. The expectation is that the Fed will leave the interest rates unchanged and analysts predict a calm in the interest rate market for the rest of the year. However, there are factors that can cause concern on the stock market and one of them is rising energy prices.

Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken is to release its next monetary policy statement tomorrow. Because Riksbanken reacts instead of acting, we are at the end of the chain and will most likely have the Swedish key interest rate raised by 25 basis points.

More and more and even highly respected actors are now joining the criticism against Riksbanken's handling of domestic monetary policy, both the current and the previous one. Personally, I have been critical of Riksbanken's actions for several years.

The expectations for those who are supposed to be the best Sweden has when it comes to monetary policy are higher than that they just carry on as before instead act proactively.

Riksbanken's name literally means Bank of the Kingdom, but has been given the unattractive nickname Riskbanken, which means Bank of Risks.

Finally someone who said it like it is

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

Today came the latest audit report from the National Audit Office. It was made clear that the previous government completely failed to ensure Sweden's electricity production by shutting down 6 out of 12 fully functioning nuclear power plants just to accommodate the Green Party.

The biggest failure the previous government made was to implement the effect tax whose only task was to make nuclear power unprofitable so that the previous government could use that as an argument to dismantle half of Sweden's nuclear power park.

Personally, I am extremely happy that the previous government is blamed in the audit report, although I would much rather have kept our nuclear power plants.

I root for the Swedish krona

Yesterday we received two special dividends paid out on our endowment insurances with Nordea.

They were Blue Owl Capital Corporation Common Stock (OBDC) and Golub Capital BDC, Inc. Common Stock (GBDC). OBDC made a special dividend of ¢7 and GBDC made a special dividend of ¢4. Although it may seem like small change, all contributions are most welcome.

Given that the Swedish krona loses value every day, the Swedish spending power is significantly weakened. Personally, we are extremely grateful to have all our holdings in the North American market.

All other assets we have are dropping like a stone in value compared to the rest of the world thanks to the Swedish krona's inability to protect its value on the world currency market.

The cold and the dark have come

Yesterday there was no doubt that autumn is here. Every year I am equally surprised how summer literally gives way to fall overnight.

Last Sunday, when my husband and I were out walking, it was warm and sunny. An absolutely perfect late summer day. We even had to take off our sweaters.

Yesterday it wasn't as nice. The air was cold and chilly. I was dressed the same way and was freezing throughout my morning walk that I always take before work.

Given where I am in life given my age, I shouldn't freeze. Where is my interior furnace when I need it...

They didn't keep their end of the bargain

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

Being a citizen of a country is a type of business relationship. One's obligations as a citizen of Sweden according to the contract are to be a good citizen and contribute to society. This is achieved by working and paying one of the highest taxes in the world. In return, the state must provide school, healthcare, care for the elderly and a safe and secure society.

Due to the fact that the previous social democratic government with the support of the Green Party allowed both gang crime and organized crime to grow so strongly in the last 8-10 years, means that the state is not keeping its part of the contract.

In a country with 10 million people, the news headlines on a Monday morning should not be:

Shooting at apartment door

Explosion at single-family home

Young man found murdered in forest lot

Sweden has completely changed compared to 10 years ago. Action must be taken against gang crime and organized crime. The sentence must be longer and the penalty discount must be abolished.

Otherwise the hard working and well-behaved citizens will leave the country and the result will be disastrous.

There are many reasons for a celebration next year

Our son was born on our 3 year wedding anniversary while our oldest godson was born on our 4 year anniversary.

Our godson's turns 25 next month, which means that my husband and I have been together for 29 years.

Next year we celebrate 30 years as a couple, 25 years as engaged and 20 years as married.

We are extremely bad at celebrating our days of significance for several reasons. Since the birth of our son, we have not celebrated our wedding day properly once, leaving that day entirely to the celebration of the offspring.

I will make sure we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

It looks good, for now

The link to the new sheet in my Google Sheet where I specify special and supplemental dividends seems to work as it should.

More than 56% of September has passed and we have received less than 9% of the month's estimated dividends. Tomorrow we will most likely receive several dividends.

We continue to monitor all monetary policy announcements from Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken with great interest.

I believe that Riksbanken will most certainly raise the key interest rate, which in turn affects the yield tax, at the next monetary policy announcement on September 21.

The yield tax on our endowment insurances will still be lower than the tax refund on our foreign withholding tax in the event of a possible increase of 25 points.

Selling off our holdings to pay off the mortgage is still a bad option. The dividends exceed the interest cost many times over. Should the stock market lose value, we end up in a significantly worse situation.

I hope it's temporary

I have a feeling that the world is still suffering from the consequences of Covid-19. A lot doesn't quite work as it should.

In my professional life, there are a number of suppliers who before the pandemic always delivered high-quality products, unlike today when there are products in every delivery that have to be returned due to various errors. The cost of these returns must be huge as I assume our store is not the only one in the world affected by this increase in defective products.

I suspect that the factories that closed due to Covid-19 and fired all skilled personnel are having problems finding knowledgeable labor. The result, combined with worldwide inflation, is inferior products at higher prices.

On a private level, I have several friends and acquaintances who have had a changed work environment due to the fact that remote work that arose during the pandemic has been partially permanent afterwards with negative consequences.

Among other things poorly staffed workplaces with impaired interaction between colleagues as a result. In the past, people went into the colleague's room and interacted with each other directly to prevent possible clashes or conflicts with double bookings, etc.

Today, instead, you have to coordinate team meetings or conference calls, which above all costs more time but also money. Instead of a 15 minute interaction, it can take hours before everyone is in place.

The increase in people suffering from burnout has increased and I believe that deteriorating work environments with poorer accessibility between colleagues is a contributing factor.

It is what it is

Yesterday was when we should have received dividends paid on our endowment insurance with the award-winning bank Nordea.

Although one of the awards Nordea won is "The Best Consumer Digital Bank", we do not know what yesterday's transactions are about until today.

Today became a great day because yesterday was a tax refund day! On our endowment insurance with Nordea, we received $146 yesterday.

She did the impossible

For full transparency, I had a great upbringing with parents who loved us deeply and did everything for us.

My mother was a housewife for my first 17 years. My workaholic father did his part by providing resources, money as vehicles.

She is the world's most perfect mother and still does everything for us three children. She picked up and dropped off us three kids and our friends from all the activities we engaged in, sports as entertainment.

Despite her "work" as a housewife, she has always been completely uninterested in cooking with the result that she is absolutely useless at cooking. Whether it's genetics or the environment that made me exactly the same is unclear.

I have to give her credit for getting the world's most food-loving dog, our labrador, from begging at the dinner table. Unless it was takeaway of course...

If they don't see it, it doesn't exist

The daily shootings and constantly recurring explosions at the entrances to mainly apartment buildings are a gigantic problem in Sweden.

I am not fully familiar with Sweden's gang crime, but according to different newspapers, it is an ongoing split in one of the gangs that is the main reason for the sharply escalating spiral of violence.

That children, as young as 10 years old, are part of criminal gangs is a direct consequence of the fact that you cannot be held responsible for crimes committed before the age of 15 in Sweden. This has led to many children being lured into the gangs.

For the criminal gangs, this is a win-win situation. A 10-14 year old is significantly cheaper to hire to store, transport and deliver both drugs and weapons. With the result that people as young as 13 have been executed.

There are of course several reasons why this type of crime has able to develop and thrive in such a short time in Sweden. One of the reasons is that for many years politicians stuck their heads in the sand and almost hoped that this would be a temporary problem.

Do we really get the politicians we deserve...

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

Our current conservative government has appointed an inquiry to propose a ban on marriage between cousins. The aim is to create a regulation that counteracts oppression of honor and marriages entered into as a result of pressure or other influence.

Aside from the social problems of oppression and clan building that cousin marriage can and often does, there is one more factor to consider, the medical one. Marriage between cousins can and does cause severe genetic complications in children.

A former minister in the previous social democratic government wrote on X, former Twitter, that this is quote "a genuine bullshit question" unquote.

A serious and well-read journalist whose father was born in Morocco and mother in Sweden makes a post in the former minister's thread on X with a reference to a British journalist with Pakistani roots whose family has suffered from genetic complications and her documentary on the BBC.

The former minister who in a previous thread about nuclear power plants at X wrongly claimed that the drama series Chernobyl would be a documentary is now making the same wrong claim again. Regarding the journalist's reference to the documentary regarding cousin marriage, she replies quote "when I myself referred to the Netflix documentary..." unquote.

This woman who has been a minister 4 times under 2 social democratic governments has still not understood the difference between a drama series and a documentary.

Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes

I've always been skeptical of relationships where you don't share a bedroom because of a core memory from my childhood. I was 13 years old when I understood for the first time that there are adults who do not share bedrooms.

One of my friends' parents had separate bedrooms and then and there I formed an inner image that separate bedrooms equals loveless relationship. Which in their particular case was also consistent with the truth. They divorced a number of years later.

My absolute best friend and her husband have separate bedrooms. The reason for this is that her husband snores something quite unbearable.

I've never been able to understand what it's like trying to sleep next to a person who snores until tonight. My husband has come down with a cold causing him to snore, loudly! After waking up to his snoring and trying to go back to sleep for more than 2 hours, I gave up and am currently sitting on the couch.

Despite this experience we will never have separate bedrooms but my understanding that others can have it has increased, significantly.

I have to call my BFF tomorrow and apologize for all the times I questioned whether snoring could really be that bothersome.

It's a lost call

Sweden's inflation numbers for August 2023 were presented today.

The consumer price index (CPI) for August ended up at 7.5%, which can be compared with July's 9.3%. The main reason for the reduction is that energy prices were lower during August.

Since Sweden is not self-sufficient but imports a lot of food mainly from Europe, Sweden will continue to lag behind in terms of inflation compared to the rest of Europe. Caused entirely by the weak domestic currency.

I am still convinced that Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken will raise the policy rate on 21 September.

Similar to previous increases in the policy rate, which has been Riksbanken's approach to try to defend the Swedish krona, Riksbanken will continue on the path taken.

Personally, I am sure that Riksbanken's attempts will be completely fruitless. The Swedish krona will fall more than a skydiver.

Do not fall in love with your holdings

One of the people the husband met during the weekend golf trip is a friend of 35 years. During all these years, they have shared their experiences from investments with each other. Since it had been 4 years since the husband had been on this trip last time, they had little to catch up on.

The person in question invested in a Swedish company that went public in 2005 at an introductory price of $38. The company that is now called Sileon AB (sileon), formerly Paynova, is a global tech company that enables banks, financial companies and large traders to run BNPL under their own auspices.

In the years that passed, my husband received feedback from his friend that the company's share price was steadily falling and that new issues were carried out. They have almost made a new issue every year since 2007. Add that the market price today is approximately 99% below the introductory price.

The company's history of completed new share issues:

2007 - $ 2.426M

2008 - $ 1.924M

2009 - $ 2.091M

2010 - $ 0.836M

2013 - $ 1.924M

2014 - $ 5.856M

2015 - $ 1.756M

2016 - $ 1.924M

2017 - $ 2.760M

2018 - $ 1.003M

2019 - $ 2.091M

2020 - $ 1.840M

2021 - $ 4.015M

2022 - $ 5.856M

2023 - $ 2.760M

Every single person in the whole world had ripped the Band-Aid off long ago but not my husband's friend.

Early on Saturday morning after countless beers my husband hear his friend murmurs quotes "they promised that last time would be the last"...

Do they just give out prizes randomly?

Nordea has been ranked first in several categories in the Global Finance Awards 2023 among others in the categories "The Best Consumer Digital Bank, User Experience (UX) Design, Mobile Banking App, in Sweden for 2023".

Our experience with Nordea is not quite in line with their awards.

Nordea is the only one of all our banks where one's entire holdings can "disappear" from the depository for a few hours to several days.

Dividends, buy orders, sell orders, deposits, tax payments etc. are only specified the following day. This means that you do not know which transactions have been carried out until the next day.

A transfer to the endowment insurance from the private account in Nordea takes at least 30 minutes up to hours. With other banks, the transfer takes place in real time.

You cannot email Nordea but must call them, preferably via their app. Obviously the Global Finance Awards must have Nordea's app otherwise I don't know how they could tell Nordea "the good news"...

This work of art has not gone down well

According to an article in Illustrated Science, scientists have clarified the nervous system of plants.

Quote “They talk to each other, recognize relatives and have a memory. Plants have advanced senses and a study shows that the green geniuses detect attack and damage using the same neurotransmitter as mammals." unquote.

Currently, the artist Charlotte Gyllenhammar's artwork Die for you installed 30 years ago can be seen as a reinstallation in the middle of Stockholm's city with the addition Die for you/Take root.

Click to enlarge

When it rains it pours

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

The problems continue for the former Social Democratic political expert at the Ministry of Social Affairs and former CEO of Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget in Norden AB (SBB) Ilija Batljan. This time it is his ownership company that has suffered a downgrade.

Scope Ratings lowers the credit rating for Ilija Batljan's ownership company Ilija Batljan Invest six notches to CCC from BB+.

Ilija Batljan Invest is the largest owner in SBB with 8.3 percent of the capital and 31.6 percent of the votes.

Scope Ratings states as the reason for the downgrade quote "Ilija Batljan Invest's rapidly deteriorating liquidity to insufficient and with it an increased risk of suspension of payment, in addition to deteriorating governance" unquote.

The company's loan-to-value ratio increased from 50% in May 2023 to 91% at the end of August.

Scope Ratings also claims that the latest transactions, which are partly so-called "fire sales" and opportunistic acquisitions, have significantly reduced the market value of the company's holding portfolio.

I hope I'm wrong

The European Central Bank's (ECB) next interest rate announcement will come on Thursday. The market is divided into two almost exactly equal parts as to whether the ECB will leave interest rates unchanged or implement an increase.

The ECB's three most important parameters that form the basis of their reaction function are underlying inflation, inflation expectations in the medium term and that the monetary policy pursued is having a good effect.

Personally, I believe in an increase of 25 points mainly because of the ongoing inflation which is still far too high plus the monetary policy conducted has not had a good enough effect yet.

My wish, however, is for the ECB to leave the policy rate unchanged, which might make it easier for the Swedish central bank, Riksbanken, to do the same.

At least we're doing something

For full transparency, my family and I are well aware of the problems caused by climate change. How these changes will affect humanity I have no idea.

Our little family does what we can to minimize our carbon footprint. We walk instead of taking the bus, subway or car whenever possible. We lived without a car for almost 7 years. We sort our rubbish and we buy quality clothes and have them for a long time. We do not change mobile phones every year, but use them as long as they are functional. However, we travel when the opportunity exists.

The weekend golf trip that my husband took part in was done by boat and bus. This is an annual golf trip organized for 30 years between the husband and his childhood friends. The competition has grown and participants have been added.

My husband does not go along every year due to the fact that the trip sometimes conflicts with work. It had been 4 years since he last attended and was looking forward to seeing old friends he hadn't seen in years.

He came home from the trip and and was concerned about some of his friends. A few of his friends have anxiety and believe they will soon die due to climate change.

When my husband pointed out that they will die of old age and not climate change, one of them called him a climate change denier. Then my husband asked what he is doing to reduce his carbon footprint and thus try to reduce climate change. It turned out that he take no action at all.

This is the result of irresponsible journalism. Journalists use disaster headlines to get clicks, not to save the world.

In Sweden, the journalists have suggested that the large fires in Greece this summer are due to climate change. Nature cannot self-ignite at 105-120°F (40-50°C). In contrast, the nature becomes dry and burns much more easily and violently.

The Swedish press has completely withheld the fact that Greece has imprisoned several people who started many of these fires. Easily explained, nature can only start burning by lightning strikes, people's carelessness or intentionality and accidents.

It's going to be a long ten days

I am so excited. According to all my calculations, September should be the first month that our deficit, seen on an annual basis, falls.

Depending on how much the deficit drops determines whether there is even a chance to catch up. December should be as good as September in terms of the special dividends, maybe even better.

A third of September has already passed and so far we have only received about 6% of the estimated dividends for the month.

It will take almost another 10 days before we see any payouts worth the name.

He who laughs last laughs best

The world's most perfect teenager wanted a sibling for a short while when he was younger. He soon noticed that we felt guilty every time he brought this up.

This was a weapon that was far too tempting for him to pass up. For years he used this against us in an impressive way, objectively speaking.

An uncle of my husband has recently remarried and his new wife is a retired gynecologist. Apparently, medical development has come so far that having children at my age and condition is quite possible nowadays.

We have absolutely no desire to expand our family with more children, we have literally already created the world's most perfect child.

However, we couldn't resist playing him the same way he's played us all these years.

Additional money

I have missed that Blue Owl Capital Corporation Common Stock (OBDC) is also paying a special dividend during September of $0.07. All the special dividends during September will be a proper addition.

While waiting for the world's most perfect husband to come home from his golf trip, I have compiled the extra dividends paid for 2023.

If the blue bar together with the red in the chart below exceeds 50%, it means that paid dividend has exceeded estimated dividend.

Click to enlarge

Much resolves itself naturally

My husband and I have never sat down and divided the household chores. Over the years, it has resolved itself naturally. Mainly by taking care of what bothers you the most.

For example, my husband is completely unconcerned if the whole home is a total mess. It is rather that he prefers the home to be a little messy.

I myself am the exact opposite. The natural result of this is that I am the one who puts everything away and does the laundry.

However, I am completely uninterested in food. I could easily live on fast food and sweets, which I have also done for periods of my life. The only time I managed my diet was during my pregnancy.

In the same way that it is natural for me to keep order in our home, my husband does all the cooking. The consequence is that when the husband is away for a couple of days, the offspring and I only eat takeaway.

My husband has always been able to walk to work, while for many years I had to drive to work. Since it was always me who drove the car, it was natural that I made sure we changed between summer and winter tires on time. It was also my task to ensure that our cars service record was up to date.

In addition to my husband cooking all the food, he cleans all the water traps in the home. It's something I absolutely refuse to do.

These household chores are the only ones where one of us takes more responsibility.

To be completely honest, I must add that we have a maid who comes every two weeks.

Tired but unable to sleep

Being 53 years old and so dependent on the world's most perfect husband that I can't sleep when he's not home is pathetic. It's 4:23 am local time and I'm watching a rerun of a quiz show.

I wish I had the ability that all teenagers possess, namely to be able to fall asleep anytime, anywhere. Instead, I realize that it is far too early to start a washing machine as we live in an apartment building. Starting the dishwasher is equally out of the question.

Unfortunately I was up late last night working so I don't even have any work to catch up on.

Turn a blind eye

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

The then socialist government with the support of the Green Party shut down 6 of Sweden's 12 nuclear power plants during the previous term. At the time, representatives from the then government took credit and proudly said that they taxed nuclear power to make it unprofitable. Something they do not admit today.

Personally, I believe that a mixture of hydropower, wind power and nuclear power is needed. I am aware of the negative effects the various energy sources have on the environment.

However, the Green Party only talks about the problem with the nuclear waste and the risk of a serious accident that could lead to the release of radioactive substances. They completely ignore the fact that there are risks and problems with wind power.

The wind turbine blades are constructed from a composite material, glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP), which consists of an insoluble 3D network of glass fiber and plastic which is complicated to recycle. That the glass fiber breaks and spreads over large areas of land and ends up in the animals in different ways. Among other things via their food.

That the lightning conductors are sometimes installed incorrectly and in lieu grounding the wind turbine instead makes them a magnet for the lightning.

Personally, I wonder if the wind farms can affect thunderstorms. In a thundercloud, negative charges accumulate in the lower part and positive in the upper part. When these giants stand on a huge area and act like a colossal electric whisk, it should affect the negative and positive charges in a thundercloud.

He mumbled something about not being 20 anymore

The world's most hungover husband called after he finished his round of golf. I have to give him credit that he made it all the way around the course considering the way he sounded. It goes without saying that he didn't win the contest.

I myself brought the offspring downtown to buy him new clothes. There is nothing YMD hates more than buying clothes. So that I managed to get him to buy 2 hoodies and 1 pair of pants is a bigger accomplishment than my husband completing the entire golf course despite being hungover as hell.

Some of them do not live as they teach

For full transparency, I am politically far from the left. I have a close relative who is gay and close friends who is a rainbow family.

An another friend of mine who is a grandmother helps her son and daughter-in-law babysit their daughter once every two weeks. To prepare her granddaughter for preschool, she visits the "open preschool", which is a meeting place for children and adults where trained educators work.

These "open preschools" are tax-funded and limit the number of visitors so it's first come, first served. On one of these occasions there was a note on the door saying that on this particular day only rainbow families were welcome so my friend and her grandchild were turned away.

It's fascinating how some of these inclusive people are the only ones who can exclude others and get away with it. If it had been the other way around, the media would have gone through the roof.

What these families miss is that they are excluding themselves through this procedure. I know there are many rainbow families who do not think this is a good approach.

Play it safe or not play it safe

Although many of our holdings' share prices have fallen recently, the value of our portfolios is still near an ATH. This is only due to the weak Swedish krona in combination with the strong US dollar. One of the reasons for the strong US dollar is Russia's invasion of Ukraine which has contributed to a huge rise in the US dollar in the world market.

However, according to Bloomberg's dollar index, the US dollar is now falling in value internationally. How deep the expected fall for the US dollar will be depends, among other things, on how the economies of both Europe and China develop. Add to that an expectation that FedEx's current policy interest rate will remain at today's value for a longer period of time.

For the American economy, a fall in the dollar would be positive. The expensive exchange rate causes many international buyers to avoid American products and services such as software services, food, steel and so on.

Whether the Swedish krona strengthens or follows the expected decline of the US dollar remains to be seen. Because of all the uncertainty, I feel like I might as well flip a coin.

I always want them with me

The world's most perfect husband is away all weekend at a golf tournament. He won't be home until Sunday.

I hate it when he is gone. I distracted myself for a few hours this evening by getting to work on finalizing the 8/31/2023 accounts for two of our companies. At the same time, I'm happy for him because I know he's having fun.

I feel the same way about our son. Too many parents say that they are longing for their children to move out. If I had my way, the world's most perfect teenager would live at our home until he is the world's most perfect 50-year-old...

Dark times await Sweden

More and more people are beginning to agree with the criticism of Riksbanken's actions, or rather lack of action and more reaction.

Riksbanken is still convinced that old truths still apply. Despite the fact that there is a new world economy. An example of the new economy is how multinational companies have relied on their slim warehouses which is a result of Just In Time (JIT).

In my opinion, Riksbanken is guaranteed to raise the policy interest rate on September 21, 2023 by 25 basis points only to do the same thing again on November 23, 2023. Unfortunately, experience shows that this measure will not strengthen the Swedish krona, but will accelerate the negative spiral that Sweden is in.

The image of Sweden has deteriorated in recent years with daily explosions and shootings that in some cases have hit third parties. This has contributed to the fact that the world's confidence in Sweden has plummeted and thus also the Swedish krona.

Instead, the Swedish government should take control of the financial system and try to improve the image of Sweden in the outside world in order to increase confidence in Sweden and, by extension, the Swedish krona. However, this will be a long and arduous road for the small Swedish currency.

Among other things, the Swedish government can communicate that the Swedish banks are well managed and prosperous.

He did well

Yesterday's walk to the hospital for the blood test went beyond expectations. We had a really nice time. His usually grumpy morning mood was barely noticeable.

He usually gets several jabs in both arms before they have enough blood. Yesterday when he sat in the chair the nurse says quote “I see you have scarring here from previous needle sticks. It won't affect the blood itself but you will feel a little more pain" unquote.

Maybe not the best comment right before she's about to stick the needle in his arm. I watched my son stiffen and become worried. Despite everything, it went surprisingly well this time.

The worst was the time when it took more than 90 minutes, the first nurse gave up and the second finally squeezed out all the blood via a poke in his finger instead. When my son got up from the chair, he was 9 years old at the time, his shirt was completely wet with sweat all over his back.

After this occasion, I have always made sure that he gets to go to a special sampling where they are specialists in needlesticks.