When you misunderstand your assignment

A Swedish trade union that has confused its mission, i.e. that they should protect the interests of their members, with Sweden's foreign policy, is the Swedish Port Workers' Union. Starting at the turn of the year, the union intends to block military equipment to and from Israel in Swedish ports, reports the Goteborgsposten.

This became clear after a vote among members of the Swedish Port Workers' Union this week. 68% of the members of the Swedish Port Workers' Union voted for blocking. The union's vice-chairman Erik Helgeson says quote "you have to do the little you can" unquote. The union's website states that they will start working on how the blockade will work after the turn of the year.

Johan Grauers, head of negotiations at the employers' organization Ports of Sweden, announces in writing that quote "the appropriateness of exporting and importing military equipment to and from other countries is a political issue, which is determined by the parliament and government" unquote. Whether Ports of Sweden, like last time when the union blocked Russian transports, will take the union to the Labor Court remains to be seen.

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Reality bites

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike the Woke movement and DEI. I would never want to get a position because I am a woman, I want to get the position because I am the most suitable candidate.

I was a big fan of the American giant the Boeing Company the Common Stock (BA) until I was informed that the company's management had adopted DEI. For several months I did not believe the American man who informed me that (BA) had chosen to embrace DEI. I couldn't believe that a company like (BA) would risk its brand, human lives and the company itself on the altar of DEI.

But after several accidents, internal problems and now the latest accident in South Korea and a grounded aircraft, I have to believe him. I have absolutely no insight into (BA) so I know nothing about management's current strategy, but I sincerely hope that by now they have identified the real problem and rehired the older and more experienced employees (men) they lost due to DEI.

A woman with the "right" values ​​in HR can never replace an older man on the shop floor with experience and knowledge of the company's products, no matter how "wrong" his gender, color or age may be on paper.

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Involuntary savings

Today we acquired a number of shares in Realty Income Corporation Common Stock (O) in our joint endowment insurance we have with Nordnet AB, which is a Nordic digital platform for savings and investments. The moment the world's most perfect husband pressed the buy button and the acquisition was completed, both my husband and I had a feeling that something was wrong.

About approximately 30 seconds the penny dropped, today the endowment insurance is subject to the yield tax. There was nothing left to do but top up the endowment insurance using Venmo to avoid a deficit.

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Happy New Year

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Christmas is over

Today I removed everything that has to do with Christmas except the Advent stars in the windows and the Christmas wreath on the front door, which will remain until St. Knut's Day.

In Sweden and Finland, we have a tradition of removing Christmas on Saint Knut's Day, which is January 13th. As much as I enjoy Christmas, it's nice when the home is restored to normal.

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It could have been worse

Yesterday I had a migraine attack that lasted 11 hours. It's been a long time since I had such a strong attack. I am very aware of what triggered the attack, I have mismanaged my diet and eaten far too much candy during Christmas. It is now beyond doubt that I am hypersensitive to sugar. Completely quitting sweets will be very difficult for me, so I choose to do it in stages.

Starting January 1, 2025, I will only allow myself to eat sweets on Saturdays, after which I hope to be able to stop completely before the summer. My parents have 2 siblings each, so I have a total of 4 aunts and uncles. Of these, 3 were alcoholics, as were my grandparents on both my mother's and father's side. The only people who haven't had or have problems with alcohol are my parents and my mother's brother. Given the addiction problems on both my mother and father's side, I'm grateful that my addiction is sugar and not alcohol.

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Money is on the way

There is only one weekday left in 2024 and we have only received 28% of, for us, the best dividend month of the year. My Google Sheet has worked almost flawlessly in 2024, the only adjustment I will make for 2025 is to add the portfolio's ingoing value as of January 1st for both SEK and USD. This feature allows me to create a chart of the value development of our portfolio value based on the first day of each month.

We should receive the dividend for Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS) and Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN) on Monday, assuming the securities desk at Nordea operates as usual. The remaining dividend for the month will most likely be credited to our endowment insurance during the first week of 2025.

Since we will now and hopefully for a long time to come be able to save part of our salary, dividends in 2025 should increase more compared to before than they did in 2024.

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A girl can dream, can't she?

I absolutely adore the Belgian Malinois breed and would love to have one more than anything else.

Luckily, the world's most perfect teenager is severely allergic to fur, which is a blessing considering that neither I nor the world's most perfect husband are the alpha male in our family, Junior is.

I can imagine how we would both be under the command of a Belgian Malinois.

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I have scruples but this is not one of them

The tech giants, "The Magnificent Seven", dragged down the stock market during the start of the third day of the Santa Claus Rally. Shortly before closing, the decline had stabilized and the Dow Jones Index had recovered slightly.

The world's most perfect teenager who received more than $300 for Christmas acquired 5 British American Tobacco Industries, p.l.c. Common Stock ADR (BTI) shares today. We have no problem investing Junior's money in tobacco, alcohol and military equipment. Scruples and stock market investments don't go together like milk and cookies.

However, we would never invest in, for example, Avanza's "feminist" fund called She Invest Sweden, whose development leaves much to be desired.

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You know you're right when they don't respond

In Sweden, there are two deductions that are common in the annual income tax return among Swedish taxpayers.

The deduction, known as RUT, covers services such as cleaning, maintenance and laundry. As a Swedish taxpayer, you are entitled to a reduction of the final tax you owe for the current income year, regardless of whether it is capital tax, income tax, etc., by 50% for the labor cost of the procured service. The maximum amount of the RUT deduction per year and person is, depending on the exchange rate, approximately $6,250.

The second deduction, called ROT, covers services such as repairs, renovations and extensions and is declared in the same way as RUT, with the only difference being that it is lower. The maximum amount is approximately $4,200 per year per person and amounts to only 30% of the labor cost.

The left in Sweden claims that a deduction is a type of benefit. But to be able to make a deduction, you must first be liable to pay tax. In contrast to receiving a benefit where there is no counter-requirement that you must first be required to pay taxes. Therefore, a deduction can never be a benefit.

When the Left is faced with the proposal to abolish all benefits and convert them into deductions because, according to their reasoning, "it is the same thing", they always choose not to respond.

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Here we go again

Yesterday was the first trading day of the year in what is known as the Santa Claus Rally. The Santa Claus Rally covers the last 5 trading days of the year and the 2 trading days after the turn of the year.

In an interview with EFN, a Swedish financial channel, Kevin O'Dowd, a stockbroker with decades of experience on Wall Street, says quote "It's a short period, but history shows a tendency for strong returns" unquote. Since 1950, the US broad stock index has advanced an average of 1.3% during this period, with gains in 77% of cases, according to statistics from Dow Jones Market Data.

Mr. O'Dowd offers several possible explanations for the historical pattern. For example, investors who want to buy shares before the end of the year, with the hope of influencing prices or just to position themselves. Two additional potential factors are Christmas bonuses leading to increased investment appetite, as well as lower activity in a market where many investors are busy with other things.

But if the stock market turbulence continues and the Santa Claus Rally fails again this year, it could be a bad omen. At least according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. A rhyme that has been found repeatedly in the book's annual edition since 1973 says quote "If Santa Claus should fail to call, bears may come to Broad and Wall" unquote.

This time, two historical references provide hope. First, it is unusual for the Santa Claus Rally to be absent 2 years in a row. Furthermore, last Christmas's failed Santa Claus Rally was not followed by a particularly weak stock market year in US.

The only piece of coal in the Christmas stocking is the statement from Federal Reserve Chairman Mr. Jerome Powell last Wednesday, quote "We’re significantly closer to neutral. From this point forward, it's appropriate to move cautiously and look for further progress on inflation. I think from here it’s a new phase and we’re going to be cautious about further cuts." unquote.

The outcome of the Santa Claus Rally remains to be seen, but it started off strong.

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A happy outcome is worth waiting for

The business meeting yesterday went well under the circumstances. To try to ease my guilty conscience about leaving Junior alone for a couple of hours on Christmas Eve, I got up an hour before the rest of the family to make my boys' favorite sandwich, egg sandwich with caviar cut into small rectangles with the edges cut off. I also made both ham sandwiches and cheese sandwiches. In addition, I had managed to remember to order mini cupcakes with Christmas motifs.

When I woke my boys up, there were candles lit in every room in the apartment and and breakfast was ready. We had time to eat breakfast in peace and quiet and open all the Christmas presents before me and the world's most perfect husband had to leave the world's most perfect teenager alone for almost 2 hours.

Now we're just waiting for a response from the condominium association, which should come before the end of January. If the response is positive, new adventures await. I have very mixed feelings about this. Although I really hope the outcome is what we hope for, I STRONGLY dislike change!

I am tormented by change while my husband is driven by them!

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Merry Christmas

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NOT the world's most perfect mom 💔

Even though we closed the store for Christmas and New Year last Friday at 3 p.m. (GMT+2), I have been working both Saturday, Sunday and today. In addition, it has just been decided that we have to attend a meeting tomorrow, Christmas Eve, at 10 a.m. (GMT+2), which means we have to leave the world's most perfect teenager alone for a couple of hours. I feel so bad for Junior that I feel like I'm going to break into a thousand pieces. Unfortunately, my parents are in their summer house far out in the Stockholm archipelago, otherwise I would have forced them to come over and keep Junior company during these hours.

Hopefully the meeting will be finished in time for the Christmas dinner that all 3 of us are invited to, which starts at 2 p.m. (GMT+2). It's not always easy being the child of two business owners who always have to be available for work. In the best of worlds, this will be the last time I have to ask Junior for understanding that we have to work on such short notice.

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Double-edged feelings

23 days into December, we are still waiting for more than 70% of the month's total dividends. Exactly all of our remaining dividends have payment dates of December 30 or 31, which means that this money will only be available to us after January 2, 2025.

December 2024 will be the first month in over 16 months that we invest part of our salary instead of just paying mortgage interest. Even though we save by reinvesting all dividends, it feels incredibly good to add money "from outside" the portfolio.

The world's most perfect husband, who has had one of his private pension insurance policies paid out since he turned 55, reminded me to check if I can activate any of my pension insurance policies since I turn 55 next month. Just the thought of receiving a pension scares the living daylights out of me, when did I get this old?

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Little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems

Yesterday the last Christmas present for this year was purchased. Among the things that the world's most perfect teenager has wished for Christmas are test tubes, chemical bottles, bottle caps, etc. Junior's paternal grandparents asked us if they could give him everything he wanted in chemistry for Christmas.

To ensure the quality of the products, my in-laws purchased the equipment from a manufacturer that supplies laboratories in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. His maternal grandparents will provide a room in one of the buildings next to their summer house that they will furnish as a mini-laboratory for him.

To make sure that Junior has no plans to manufacture alcohol, I contacted the manufacturer and asked if the products Junior wished for were for this particular purpose, but they reassured me and explained that the products are far too small to be used for anything other than hobby chemistry. My concern about having nurtured a bad boy at my bosom was replaced by the realization that he is a good guy.

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Win-win

At the end of last summer, the world's most perfect teenager pestered me to let him get a part-time job after school, something I opposed. The reason for my opposition was and is that I don't want anything to interfere with his schoolwork, he needs to put all his focus and time into studying to get the best possible grades.

We solved the problem by establishing a written contract with Junior where we agreed that we would pay for certain grades for school exams as well as semester and final grades. In the original contract established at the start of grade 10, i.e. last year, the grading scale on exams was 1-8, we chose to pay for grades 6, 7 and 8. For semester and final grades, the scale was 1-7 and we paid for grades 6 and 7. This year the grading scale has changed and the grading scale on exams is 1-7 while the semester and final grades were unchanged, we revised our written contract with the offspring in the fall of 2024.

This solution has been successful for our entire little family. Junior has earned more than $400 in the first semester of grade 11, exactly half of which has been invested in stocks, and we have a son who is more motivated to study and understands that a good education pays off.

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I am incredibly proud of him ❤️

The Diploma Programme that Junior attends includes 6 subjects, chemistry higher level, physics higher level, mathematics higher level, Swedish standard level, economics standard level and English standard level. The world's most perfect teenager significantly improved his school grades this semester. 

It's his first semester studying economics, so the fact that he got a 5 is very good. The fact that he kept his 5 in physics is also very good considering that he is studying physics at a higher level this semester. He raised his grades in English from 3 to 5, math from 4 to 5, and chemistry from 5 to 6. However, he lowered his grade in Swedish from 7, which is the highest value, to 5.

To improve his Swedish and gain a larger vocabulary in the Swedish language, he reads aloud from a book to me. I am a little shocked by how poorly he actually understands Swedish. This is something we need to improve quickly!!

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I will be keeping my fingers crossed

So far, we have received 30% of this month's dividends and apart from 2019, we have exceeded all previous years' dividends. In all likelihood, this year's total dividends will end up almost exactly halfway between 2018 and 2019 dividends.

Since we will be able to save $300 each month starting in December 2024 instead of just paying mortgage interest, there is a good chance that 2025 will be our best dividend year ever. If the Riksbank follows its cue from the press conference on December 19, 2024 with a final cut in the policy rate within the foreseeable future, we will be able to save even a little more.

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They have completely different expectations – it's like apples and oranges

The inflation rate continues to fall in Sweden. According to Statistics Sweden (SCB) the CPI for November 2024 was 1.6% compared to November 2023 and the CPIF for the same period is 1.8%, which means that Sweden's central bank AKA the Riksbank once again misses its inflation target of 2%.

Exactly one week after the announcement by Statistics Sweden, the Riksbank announced that it would lower Sweden's policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.5%, which was in line with expectations according to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. According to the Riksbank's press release, the interest rate is being lowered quote "to provide further support to the economy and help stabilize inflation at the target" unquote.

At the same time, the Riksbank points out that the inflation and economic situation remains uncertain due to geopolitical concerns, uncertainties around trade policy and government crises around Europe, which clarifies their strategy of a more restrained strategy regarding future cuts in the policy rate. Unlike the market, which had hoped for hints of more and faster interest rate cuts in early 2025.

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Always look on the bright side of life 🎶

The Swedish krona weakened yesterday against the US dollar and would have increased our portfolio value. Instead, it didn't even work as a small band-aid as the value was literally massacred yesterday. The value of our portfolio fell by more than $16,000 yesterday as the Federal Reserve (FED) projects fewer policy rate cuts writes the Investopedia.

Additionally, we learned yesterday that an announcement that could have a major impact on us, depending on the outcome, will be postponed until next week. That means we have another week in limbo.

The positive thing is that the increased dollar exchange rate enlarges our dividends, which provides greater purchasing power and, with lower share prices, larger acquisitions.

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Community notes for the win

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government. I deeply dislike socialism, communism and wokeism.

In Sweden, many journalists within the state-owned Swedish television (SVT) and the state-owned Swedish radio (SR) have ideological sympathies to the left and this has affected the coverage. This is what the well-known investigative journalist and former SVT employee Janne Josefsson says when he is interviewed in Hotspot. Janne Josefsson says quote "People are often right in their criticism that we are one-sided" unquote.

In addition to affecting coverage, it also affects how journalists follow up or rather refrain from following up on claims made by politicians from the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party. This has resulted in politicians and legacy media journalists becoming so accustomed to being able to write and tell blatant lies without being questioned that when they do the same thing on X and their posts are marked with a community notice, they become completely hysterical and make wild accusations.

Earlier this week, a post by the Social Democratic party leader Magdalena Andersson was marked with a community notes, whereupon the political editor-in-chief of one of our newspapers, Anders Lindberg, quickly came to Magdalena Andersson's defense. Even his posts were even marked with a community notes.

I'm guessing that all the "threats" from left-wing politicians and journalists to leave X are because they can't get away with lies on that platform. If they just stuck to the truth, they wouldn't be marked by community's notes.

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Who should decide which crimes should and which crimes should not be punished?

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government. I deeply dislike socialism, communism and wokeism.

In Sweden, our current government has introduced a new law, the law on duty of information. The goal of the law is an increased exchange of information and means that employees working within municipalities and authorities must report to the police if someone is staying in the country without a permit.

The left who opposed this law nicknamed it the "squealing law" and some employees of municipalities and authorities said they would refuse to inform the police on people staying in the country without permission. These people AKA activists believe they are morally right and that the legal system is wrong and thus are above the law. However, the issue is more complex than these activists understands or wants to make it appear.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of illegal refugees, it is a crime to stay in Sweden if you do not have permission to do so. Should it be possible for a person with foreign citizenship to illegally enter Sweden and thereby commit a crime without having to be held accountable for this and hence also gain access to school, childcare and healthcare at the expense of the Swedish taxpayers? And in that case, what other crimes should be okay to commit and not be held accountable for? And above all, who is to decide which crimes are okay to commit and which are not okay to commit?

Whatever you think of it, politics is ultimately about standing different groups of people against each other since there is only a certain amount of tax money available and everyone wants it, either for themselves or others. When you provide schooling, childcare and healthcare to people who are staying illegally in Sweden, tax money is used up that could, for example, instead have saved the lives of people who literally die while waiting in line for cancer care, who are both ethnically Swedish people or people of foreign origin who have come to Sweden legally.

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Mixed bag

Historically, in the last 30 years, the Swedish krona has never been weaker compared to the US dollar than it is right now. This means that almost everything Sweden imports has increased or is increasing in price. While Swedish products have become cheaper for the rest of the world to acquire. In addition to the price increases, trips abroad have also become expensive for those who pay with the Swedish krona.

On the other hand, one of our acquaintances who is an American citizen who is employed by an American company but stationed in Sweden and gets his salary paid in dollars, has had a actual salary increase recently thanks to the development of the Swedish krona.

For us personally, the weak Swedish krona is in our favor if I only consider our investments because 99% of our investments are placed in US dollars. December is likely to be our best dividend month in all of 2024 and the exchange rate differential is, albeit a small, a contributing factor.

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They don't practice what they preach

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government. I deeply dislike socialism, communism and wokeism.

A Social Democratic Member of Parliament Magnus Manhammar, who pushed the issue that everyone should fly less, has flown more than 34 times between Blekinge and Stockholm, which is a distance of 321 miles (516 km). The reason for these many flights is, according to Magnus Manhammar quote "It is because the train communications are terrible" unquote writes SVT Nyheter.

Of Sweden's 349 members of parliament, 75 of them have annual or clip cards for domestic flights. There is no information on how often they use the cards.

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I'm not complaining, just stating the facts

As a Swedish citizen and resident, I have absolutely no opinion on which presidential candidate the American voters chose on November 5, 2024.

Although President Trump will not take office as the 47th President of the United States until January 20, 2025, it feels as if President Trump and his administration have already taken office. When America is being written about, whether on social platforms or in Legacy Media, it is President Trump that is being written about. Neither the left nor the right mentions President Biden and his administration.

One, in my opinion, amazing outcome of the result of the November 5, 2024 US presidential election is that it feels like the Woke movement is on its last legs, thank God.

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Inescapability

Yesterday, I and the world's perhaps not the most perfect student were called to a meeting at his school. It was his Swedish teacher who had asked for a meeting, and not digitally but physically! I had a big lump in my stomach when I left for the meeting. The offspring was just as nervous, if not more so.

After the meeting we were both in a daze, but I have to give her credit for a well prepared meeting with useful information. In addition, Junior got a lot of homework that he has to do during the winter break.

Junior who has ignored Swedish because quote "I won't stay in Sweden so I have absolutely no use for it" unquote understood after the meeting that he has to improve his performance radically in the next 18 months, if for nothing else, he needs the points from the subject to his future university applications.

Given that he is improving his grades in Maths HL, Chemistry HL, Physics HL and English this semester, I know it's just attitude and not a learning problem.

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Awaiting the established data

In a couple of hours, Statistics Sweden (SCB) will publish the Swedish inflation rate for November. On 5 December 2024, Statistics Sweden reported that according to preliminary statistics, CPI inflation for November 2024 was unchanged at 1.6% from the previous month. For CPIF-XE (CPIF excluding energy), the preliminary inflation rate in November was 2.4%, which can be compared with 2.1% in October. Which it's highest level in six months after the Swedish central bank AKA Riksbanken decided to increase the pace of interest-rate cuts to support the ailing economy, writes Bloomberg's.

Whether the established figures deviate from the preliminary ones remains to be seen. The probability that Riksbanken will lower the policy rate on the 19th of December 2024 has decreased significantly.

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New game rules

The world's most perfect teenager is done with all his first end-of-term exams for this time. The way he has studied for these exams is exactly how he must plan and execute his studies for the rest of his student life. I have been a bit worried that the work and time he put in would not be reflected in the result, but it turned out not to be something I needed to worry about, IF I disregard his performance in Swedish.

Throughout Junior's upbringing, I always joked that without threats, bribes and lies, I would not have been able to raise him. But since Junior only has 18 months left in high school and then, hopefully, university studies, it's a whole new ballgame. My 3 key words threaten, bribe and lie must be changed to support, motivate and help.

This will be an "exciting" ride for everyone involved.

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I really like to be in control

In the chart where I exclude all special and supplemental dividends, the difference between the forecast and outcome bars increases slightly the more of the year that has passed. The reasons for this are several variables, for example I do not adjust during the year if a company increases its dividend by ¢2 or less. This adjustment is made only once a year, at the turn of the year.

However, the absolute main reason why the outcome exceeds the forecast for November is the recent strengthening of the US dollar against the Swedish krona. In my spreadsheet I have a fixed exchange rate of 1 USD equals 10 SEK which is in my favor. The fixed exchange rate that I set is like an air cushion that adjusts for, among other things, exchange fees.

As long as the bars in this chart are the same height or the result is slightly higher than the forecast bars, I know for sure that my Google Sheet of future expected dividends is showing the absolute lowest value we will receive.

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Complete and utter failure from everyone involved

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government. I deeply dislike socialism, communism and wokeism.

In 1976, civil service responsibility was abolished by the then social democratic government in Sweden.

Uppsala, which is Sweden's 4th largest city, is currently being shaken by a huge scandal. An 84-year-old woman who is dependent on home care has been raped by a man hired to take care of her. In the autumn of 2023, the woman named Elsa reported to a manager in the home care service that the man in question had exposed himself several times in front of her.

Despite this, the municipality of Uppsala, which is governed by the Social Democrats, took no measures but let the man continue to work. In the spring of 2024, the man raped Elsa. After this came to light, further cases of rape against the elderly carried out by people employed in home care have been reported.

Today there will be a demonstration in support of Elsa outside the city hall in the city of Uppsala. Organizers Charlotte Wall and Maria Mattsson Mahl say quote "We want to give people an opportunity to gather to mark against the municipality's politicians and officials" unquote.

However, today's demonstration is opposed in several ways by, among others, the high-ranking social democratic politician Agneta Gille, who demanded that the organizers delete the criticism of the municipality from the demonstration and replace it with a protest against the "gender order" and "men's violence against women". Something the organizers will NOT comply with. In addition, Uppsala Municipality wants to move the demonstration away from Uppsala City Hall and for it to be held on a weekday afternoon instead of a Saturday.

Personally, I think that the main reason why the Uppsala municipality tried to cover up the incident is because the man in question is of Somali origin and that everyone responsible in the whole chain is afraid of being accused of racism, which means that these spineless people rather sacrifice an elderly and vulnerable woman than to risk exposing themselves to criticism and accusations.

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Good but next year will be better

This year, 8 of the year's 12 months will outperform 2023, the underperforming months being January, April, July and October. Although we still have more than 10% of the year's total dividends to receive, it is already determined that both January 2025 and April 2025 will outperform 2023's dividends.

Although it is tempting to acquire stocks whose dividends are paid out in these particular months, this variable will only matter if the choice is between 2 stocks that we cannot distinguish in any other way.

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I love my charts

When we redirected our portfolio this summer, we lost momentum in our dividends. Despite this lost, 2024 will be our second best dividend year ever. In all likelihood, the final result for 2024 will end up almost exactly between 2018 and 2019. Assuming we can continue to reinvest all future dividends for next year, 2025 will outperform 2019 by a good margin.

With Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken lowering the Swedish policy rate in recent months, we will finally be able to start monthly savings again, starting this month. Even though we can only save $200 each month, that is significantly more compared to November 2024 which was $0. As we have qualified as professional investors with one of our banks, all future savings will be placed in this bank.

Although the year's best dividend month remains, we are almost at the same level as the annual total for 2022.

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It looks good

Finally, Nordnet seems to have solved the problems with the dividends from Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC). The dividend for November was paid within a time frame that is perfectly acceptable. Had I not prioritized our previous rental premises, I could have closed November even earlier.

The strong US dollar gave our dividends an extra boost during November. December will be our best dividend month for the whole year, provided the exchange rate does not change.

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My dad never disappoints 😉

My father never comes to our home without bringing me documents for his accounting. The worst was probably the year before last when he put documents among the Christmas presents. Tonight, my husband had promised to help my dad invest close to $20,000. As a "thanks for the help" dad brought me a number of documents so it was just a matter of opening the office again.

I'm finally catching up on all the work I had to put aside while we had to prioritize the rental space last week. This is the first night this week that I'm closing the office before 8 p.m.

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Praise and criticism

The world's most perfect teenager still has problems with his mother tongue, both educationally and conversationally. Last Friday, when we were in the middle of emptying our former rental premises, I received an email from Junior's Swedish teacher. She's worried about his grades going forward and wants us to take action before it's too late.

I was ready to drop everything to go to school right away but she doesn't have time until next week for an appointment. Both I, my husband and the offspring himself are determined that all three of us must help him with his Swedish skills.

Yesterday was significantly better school-wise for Junior. The school sent him an email in which they wrote that he is 1 of 25 students selected by the school's science department to represent the school in the Noble Prize Youth Seminar organized by the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar.

The fly in the ointment is that he misses his Swedish lesson that day.

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I still think Northvolt AB will go out of business

The problems in the Swedish battery company Northvolt AB and its subsidiaries do not seem to end.

The reason why one of the subsidiaries, Nortvolt Ett Expansion, was declared bankrupt on October 8, 2024 was, according to the then CEO of the parent company Peter Carlsson, "to stop the expansion in Skelleftea, which in turn was a consequence of the group's deep financial crisis" writes the state-own Swedish television (SVT).

Initially, the bankruptcy trustee estimated the debts at $169,000,000-$253,000,000 but the bankruptcy filing shows that the debts amount to $582,000.00 while the assets are only $109,000,000. At the same time, the parent company Northvolt AB continues its struggle to survive.

On November 21, 2024, the company announced that it and a number of its other subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States to secure financing while implementing a restructuring.

Personally, I am grateful that the current government has not chosen to add additional tax money to the company. That the company 4 to 1 Investments, which was created in 2021 jointly by the pension funds AP 1-4 under great secrecy to be able to invest in unlisted holdings, has invested $489,000,000 of the Swedish pension owners' money in the parent company Nortvolt AB is bad enough.

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We made it

Finally, we are done emptying our rental premises. During the last few hours last night, I neglected to make sure I was lifting or carrying properly, which is costing me in the form of terrible back pain today. The pain in my back is almost surpassed by how relieved I am that it's all done now. All I can hope for now is that the worst of the pain subsides until tomorrow, when it's time for a normal work day. We have carried out this work while it was business as usual.

Next week the world's most perfect teenager has his last two end-of-term exams, physics and English. I have had a hard time motivating the offspring to study for the Swedish exams and always get the response quote "I will never use it" unquote. I have finally made him understand that the points he gets in Swedish are extremely important in the final calculation of his upcoming grades to qualify for the university he wants to attend.

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It's the most wonderful time of the year

With barely 6 hours to spare, we managed to empty the rental premises. Now I just hope that the transport company will come as promised tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow is the first Advent in Sweden and according to tradition, that is when you light the Advent stars that hang in the windows. Myself, I cheated and lit them right after I hung them up tonight at 10 p.m. (GMT+2).

So far I have put up four advent stars, two in the living room, one in the office and one in the kitchen. The world's most perfect teenager has asked not to have an advent star in his room, something he thinks I have complied with, he will be surprised tomorrow when I hang the star in his room. Also, I have two stars to hang in the master bedroom tomorrow. Then I'm done.

Next weekend I will decorate the Christmas tree. We have over 600 Christmas ornaments from mainly Georg Jensen but also about twenty from Swarovski. Neither Junior nor the world's most perfect husband has the slightest interest in decorating the tree, except for the top star. Since 15 years ago, it has been tradition for Junior to put up the top star.

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Grasp all, lose all

We have less than 15 hours left before the premises we rent must be completely emptied. In addition to a number of smaller products that are to be moved from the rental premises to the condominium premises, there are 12 larger pieces that are to be transported to our warehouse outside Stockholm.

After we close the store today, my husband and I will carry all the products, large and small, to the condominium premises. Unfortunately, the transport company did not have time to carry out the work today, but only tomorrow, which is why we have to carry everything ourselves.

This means that right after the Christmas lunch tomorrow, which was booked several weeks ago, we have to go home and change to first let them into the store and then drive out to our warehouse and let them in there. If I know ourselves, we will help them carry the items because none of us are built to just watch while someone else works. I can't stress enough how good it will feel tomorrow night after we finish the move and I get my life back.

The condominium association really made a misjudgment when they doubled our rent. Instead of receiving secure rental income, they will now be left without a tenant for the foreseeable future as the rental market is dead in Stockholm, especially for basement premises without windows, toilets, kitchens or functioning ventilation.

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Unexpected help

I knew the November dividends would exceed the forecast, but I did not anticipate the extra help the dividends would receive due to the weak Swedish krona. Assuming that no irresistible buying situation arises, we will try to take it easy and await the development of the Swedish krona going forward.

But our track record speaks against us, it is unlike us not to reinvest all dividends immediately which makes me doubtful that we will be able to successfully walk away from potential acquisitions, even if they are pricey.

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Maybe, maybe not

I am incredibly proud of the world's most perfect teenager who did his third of six end-of-term exams yesterday. Junior thinks he did ok on both the chemistry and math tests last week. Considering how much he studied for these exams, I sincerely hope his hard work has paid off. However, he is more doubtful about his performance on the Swedish test, which he should nail as an ethnic Swede. The remaining end-of-term exams are English, economics and physics, after which he gets a little rest.

Despite the offspring asking us to render his computer unusable Monday through Thursday and for me to follow up and sign off on his work each day as per his own wishes, I choose to believe that his, albeit forced, disciplined and hard work he has shown lately is a small sign of maturity.

Or it's like always and I can't see beyond my "mommy eyes"…

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Everything was not better before

The current performance of the Swedish krona can be compared to British ski jumper Michael Edwards "Eddie the Eagle" who finished last in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, while the US dollar can represent Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykanen who won the same event.

At closing yesterday, the current exchange rate was 1 USD equal to 11.04 SEK, which can be compared to the exchange rate on November 24, 2014, which was 1 USD equal to 7.42 SEK. Although this development is fantastic for our portfolio value, which consists of 99% American stocks, it means that we Swedes are becoming significantly poorer compared to the rest of the world.

Thanks to the "newer" online banks such as Avanza and Nordnet, which provide a platform with a user-friendly interface for private individuals at competitive prices, today it is much easier to "currency hedge" your savings by buying American or European stocks compared to the dark ages when the world's most perfect husband bought his first stock.

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What happened to professional pride

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government. I deeply dislike socialism, communism and wokeism.

I am angry at all journalists with a bias that is more clearly the most hardcore Democrat or Republican politician. Their lack of hard and honest work makes me not take "news" as truth before I triple check it against other news sources, such as their competitors and social platforms like X and Bluesky. Today's "journalists" have abandoned factual and objective reporting of events to write about what they think about the events.

An example is the explosion that took place in the parking lot of al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, 2023. The Swedish "newspaper" Aftonbladet wrote an "article" the same day quoting the Hamas-controlled health minister "A hospital in Gaza City has been bombed." unquote.

In the same article, Aftonbladet refers to the Reuters quote "Several hundred Palestinians had gone to al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital to seek protection, according to Reuters". unquote. To give it extra weight, Aftonbladet follows up the Reuters quote with a quote from AP quote "Then a rocket hit the area." unquote.

Following the Reuters and AP quotes, a statement from Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal quotes "The masquerade at al-Ahli Hospital is unprecedented in our history. Although we have seen tragedies in recent wars and days, what occurred constitutes tonight a genocide by all definitions I am speechless." unquote.

Aftonbladet does not write anything about the fact that it was not an attack from Israel but a failed launch from Hamas that hit the hospital, which was discovered soon after except for a small addition in the original article the next day.

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We may not be cool, but the weather is

I've been sleeping better the past few weeks except for this morning. When it was 4:50 a.m. (GMT+2) I chose to get up instead of just tossing and turning in bed. The snowfall that started yesterday managed to stay on the ground during the night, which meant that I woke up to an albeit thinly snow-covered Stockholm today. Considering we're 2/3 into November, I can't complain.

My hope is that the thin layer of snow melts away while the cold persists and creeps far into the ground so that a deep frost forms in the ground. This would reduce the number of ticks. In recent years, the snow has come early and laid like a lid on the ground and acted as a blanket, which meant that the frost did not form properly and the ticks could survive the winter.

The reason I woke up so early today is because the world's most perfect husband was snoring, something he does if we've been to a party or if he's very tired. It would have been much cooler if we had been out partying yesterday but the sad truth is that we are really tired from all the physical work of emptying the storage.

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This is more fun in the spring than in the fall

We live in an apartment and even though we have two storage rooms, we have chosen to keep our car tires at a tire workshop outside Stockholm. The weather has been mild all autumn, which made us drag our feet for the tire change this time.

Only last week I got around to making the appointment and had a reservation this morning. On the way out to the tire workshop it started to snow in Stockholm so our timing was involuntarily perfect.

I'm incredibly grateful that my husband and I don't change the tires ourselves. Just the thought of standing out in the cold and changing tires is horrible, especially this time when my body is already aching because we are emptying the storage we rent for our business.

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It's too late to turn back now

The premises where we have our business is a condominium, which means that we own it and that the condominium association cannot raise our fee without raising everyone else's fee by exactly the same amount per per sqft (sqm). In addition, we rent a storage room from the condominium association where the rent is twice as high per square meter (sqm) compared to our premises.

Our premise is located on a street corner at one of the better addresses in Stockholm and have double entrances, double toilets and double kitchens. The storage is located in the basement with 1 entrance and lacks a toilet, kitchen, window and ventilation.

We have rented this storage room for more than 17 years and even when a water pipe broke in a neighboring storage room a couple of years ago and flooded our storage room, we did not contact the association and demand compensation. Instead, we took care of the damage ourselves.

This may have been a mistake on our part and led the condominium association to believe that we want to rent the storage room at any price because they chose to terminate our lease this spring. Attached to the termination, we also received a new lease with doubled rent. The double rent increase made us turn down the new lease and now we have to vacate it.

Me and the world's most perfect husband have been packing and carrying products for almost 2 weeks, yet we are not half way there and only have 10 days left to complete the job. The pain in arms, knees and hands is indescribable.

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