The sum of all vices is constant

After my visit to the dermatologist which ended with me having to contact another doctor to get a referral for blood lipid testing, I have now accepted that I will most likely have to give up my last vice, white sugar. This time I have time to mentally prepare and "enjoy" my last days with sweets and soft drinks.

When I get the test results, I am convinced that I must be medicated and completely abstain from white sugar and reduce saturated fat in the future. When I had to give up Coca-Cola because of my vertigo, it was decided the second I was informed of the problem. I never got the chance to "take one last".

We haven't brought home any new candy since the dermatologist gave me the bad news, but we had a lot of candy in our pantry that I've been eating ever since. I am aware that this is not the best behavior but soon I will have no vices.

I don't smoke, barely drink and will soon have to give up sweets, soft drinks and reduce saturated fat. Since the sum of all vices is constant, I wonder which vice I will pick up...

I ❤️ Florida

I miss Florida so much it almost hurts. If we had the financial conditions, we would move there immediately. This summer it will be 5 years since we were there last. I sincerely hope that we can travel there in the summer of 2025 and stay at least 6 weeks.

Apart from the obvious, the great weather, the ocean, the beaches and the shopping, I also love the mentality there. I am socially competent and talk to everything and everyone, just like my grandmother. A quality that is not always appreciated in Sweden. If I see someone with fine shoes, a nice jacket or an flattering haircut, I say so. Most of the time, the person will be happy while looking at you with a certain skepticism.

In Florida, this is how they roll. I don't know how many times I've stood in an elevator in Florida and been complimented on a pair of shoes, a bag, etc. At the same time, I know exactly how many times it has happened in Sweden, zero times.

To be perfect and at the same time completely wrong

For full transparency, I stand politically very far from the Swedish Social Democrats and its socialism plus the Green Party and its environmental movement.

Actually, me and our little family are the most perfect poster boy for the climate movement. I dare say we live more in accordance with their demands than many of them themselves.

We have bought an electric car. Not by choice, but because the municipal politicians forced us. With a fossil car, we would never be able to drive straight home but would always have to take detours because the Social Democrats and the Green Party, which govern the city of Stockholm, will close many streets in the city to fossil-powered cars from next year. We are one of the lucky ones who can walk to work so we haven't used our car in almost 6 weeks. In addition, we live very close to the heart of Stockholm city center, which makes it easy for us to use the various municipal means of transport.

Also, due to the pandemic and the ongoing economic downturn, we have only traveled by airplane once since 2020. Even when it comes to clothes, we live according to the Green Party's latest move.

The Green Party wants to stop "fast fashion", that is, mass-produced clothes at a low price. The textile and fashion industry is responsible for a very large negative climate and environmental impact, and this type of fashion in particular puts a heavy burden on the climate, according to the Green Party. They also believe that the importation of cheap clothes, mainly from countries outside Europe, is one of the major problems.

We have always bought high-quality clothes with a classic cut that last a long time. Junior bought our first and so far only "fast fashion" t-shirt a few years ago which shrunk in the first wash. We would be their perfect voters to showcase if it weren't for our political views.

When you don't see the mote in your own eye

For full transparency, I am politically very far from the Swedish social democrats, socialism and the left-wing movement.

I have a feeling that a certain type of people within the left movement have lost their way in their ideology. They have become so obsessed with ethnicity and skin color that issues of fact are not even secondary to them. In Gaza, homosexuality is prohibited and can lead to up to 10 years in prison. In Iran, women must wear the hijab or face prosecution. There are even young women who have died after being arrested for not wearing the mandatory veil correctly in Iran.

An ethnic Swedish journalist and writer living in Sweden expressed her support for Iran on social media in connection with Iran's attack on Israel on April 13, 2024. One person posted on the woman's social media quote "You call yourself a feminist and celebrate one of the world's most oppressive regimes against women..." unquote. The woman replies quote "I would praise the devil if he attacked Israel" unquote.

In my opinion, such expressions clearly show how certain types of people in the left movement have lost their moral values ​​and only focus on ethnicity and skin color. The saddest thing is that they don't realize it themselves, but instead see themselves as "good".

He's way too smart for that

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.

As part of the work to maintain and raise pension levels, the government has set the target age for pension for 2029 at 67 years. The increase in the three pension-related age limits that the Parliament had previously decided on came into force at the turn of the year 2022/2023. The pension group that worked on the proposal consists of representatives from the Social Democrats, Centern, the Liberals, the Christian Democrats and the Moderates. Work on the adjustment of the retirement age began in 2020.

To have, as a decision-maker, participated in the work to raise the retirement age as late as the end of 2023 in order to demand a reduction in working hours 18 months later is unbelievable.

The fact that the Swedish social democrats who were part of the pension group now demand a reduction in working hours clearly shows how disconnected from reality the politicians are. I'm reminded of when Junior came home proudly telling me that he had been voted "most likely to be a politician" in class, to which I responded with the quote "You're a lot smarter than that." unquote.

Being at the top of the class isn't always a good thing

In December 2019, the European Council agreed on the goal that the EU should achieve climate neutrality by 2050, while Sweden has set the same goal by 2045. For Sweden, which is a small country with already extremely low emissions, an expedited climate target would not mean any difference whatsoever to the world's total emissions. On the other hand, the cost to Swedish taxpayers will be huge since Sweden must always be top of the class.

In order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, one approach is to leave agricultural land fallow, which Sweden considers to have good conditions for. At the same time, Sweden has a food strategy which means that Swedish food production must increase.

One of Sweden's climate ambitions is the reduction obligation for petrol and diesel, which was introduced in July 2018 and aims to promote the use of climate-efficient biofuels. The successive increase in the requirements in the reduction obligation for petrol and diesel was paused by the current government until 2023. Biofuels are vehicle fuels produced from renewable biomass. The raw material can come from the forest or from the field or be biogenic waste. Adapting Sweden's food strategy at the same time as additional agricultural land is left fallow or prepared for the cultivation of raw materials for biofuels is problematic.

Sweden's climate ambitions mean higher food inflation for Sweden than for the other Nordic countries.

Law of least resistance

Full transparency, I suffer from pollen allergy every spring and summer since childhood. I sneeze, my nose runs, my eyes itch and some years I even have asthma.

For being an intelligent being, man is incredibly stupid. Like everything else in the world, the trees also consist of male and female trees. The female trees sap while the male trees release pollen. For easier cleaning, many cities around the world have replaced the trees that produce sap with those that release pollen.

As a result, the cities have had a much greater pollen emission resulting in lots of and more severe allergic reactions. So instead of having a balanced nature in an urban environment, the municipal politicians chose to remove trees and plant new ones. The price for this miscalculation is paid by the residents, both with tax money and health.

A no is a no

As a Stockholmer, I am as obsessed with the weather as anyone. Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful spring day and today is expected to be even warmer. Today's temperature is expected to rise above 68°F (20°C). However, we are expected to get colder weather again next week.

Jack Frost, please understand that it's over. It's not you it's us.

The world's oldest trick

Interest in the police profession has declined in recent years and instead of identifying why and fixing the problem itself, they lowered the requirements for admission, which obviously resulted in wrong recruitment. The actions of one policewoman resulted in two murders.

It is common knowledge that men have fallen for honey traps since time immemorial. Recently, it has been discovered that policewomen and people of foreign descent have warned gang criminals about crackdowns and leaked classified information.

That loyalty to family members is strong is nothing new under the sun. Nor that men have been seduced by beautiful women for centuries. Although women and men are different, we also have many similarities, obviously. The only difference between a male honey trap and a female is that the former is beautiful and the latter is a bad boy. Which fits gang criminals like a glove.

An expensive day

The day started with us receiving the invoice for the false tamper alarm that our alarm system sent to the security company a couple of weeks ago. I was the only one in the family who woke up to the doorbell ringing on our front door at 4 a.m.

The security guard showed his ID, then asked for my ID and made sure everything was okay. After that he wanted to check every single room including Junior's room and our bedroom where they were both still asleep in their beds. After completing the round, the security guard finished and went on his way. This morning we got the bill for the alarm response, $410.

A couple of hours later, the world's most perfect teenager sent a text. He had gotten back the last science exam and managed to get the highest grade, an 8. That means we need to pay him $100, $50 of which goes into his endowment insurance. Our plan to increase the offspring's motivation to study harder by paying him for certain grades on the tests has paid off.

Thank God it's evening now, because I can't handle any more unexpected expenses today.

Changed behavior

The Baby Boom Generation, 1946-1964, saved diligently throughout their working lives. A lifestyle that they gradually changed as they approached retirement age by starting to consume. The children and grandchildren of the Baby Boom Generation, Generation X and Millennials, have a completely different lifestyle.

These generations are more focused on consumption than saving. At the same time, society has also changed and a lot of consumption takes place today with expected future income in the form of consumer loans. The "air cushion" that previous generations gave the financial system by limiting the money supply with savings that pushed down the interest rate is gone today.

Instead, the supply of money is unlimited because of all the "artificial" money fed into the system in the form of consumer loans.

This will come back to bite the unions, part 15

For transparency and my own agenda, my husband and I own a 2023 Tesla Model Y. I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the Left Party's tacit acceptance and the Swedish unions that are not really needed anymore because the Swedish laws are in favor of the employee. Also, I don't like the approach of the unions.

The conflict between (TM) and IF Metall has been going on for 6 months and so far 10 other unions, have been the subject of sympathy measures. The latest union to join the conflict between IF Metall and Tesla Motor Sweden AB (TM) is Unionen.

Unionen is Sweden's largest union for civil servants in the private labor market. The sympathy measures mean that the company, DEKRA Industrial AB, which has an agreement with (TM) regarding inspections of vehicle lifts, pressure vessels and other equipment needed for the Tesla cars to be used, may not be carried out.

After DEKRA Industrial AB has been drawn into the conflict, several members of Unionen have applied to leave the union. However, exits are not granted as long as the workplace is withdrawn in sympathy measures during an ongoing conflict. All according to Unionen's statutes. Given the way the conflict has developed so far, this will be a very protracted conflict.

The end result will mean more collective workers being laid off. A high cost for a voluntary collective agreement.

Everything is going according to plan

I'm afraid to jinx it but so far the forecast for 2024 looks good. Unfortunately, it was determined today that Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS) will not make an additional dividend during June 2024. This will hurt our chances of 2024 being by a margin our second best dividend year ever.

Hopefully the bars for the outcome will exceed those for the forecast every month for the rest of the year. Both in the adjusted chart and the unadjusted one.

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I am more than satisfied

The reason why the executed dividends in my chart where I have excluded all extra or supplemental dividends are higher compared to the calculated ones is solely due to the exchange rate change between SEK and USD.

This month it was in my favor, next month it might be the other way around. This is my most important chart because the more accurate it is, the more accurate my forecast is.

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I am satisfied so far

Yesterday we got the last dividends for April 2024. A consequence of us selling off some holdings last year and buying others was that the dividends schedule changed.

January, April, July and October 2024 have deteriorated compared to the same months in 2023. The difference between January 2023 and 2024 was 8%, while April was only 2%. Unfortunately, the forecast shows that the difference will increase between July 2023 and 2024.

If I compare the first 4 months of the year with the same period last year, we have received more dividends this year.

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Mission failed

Last night the whole family was at the theatre.We were invited by the world's most perfect neighbor. We saw the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov which was written in 1901. The show, which started at 7 p.m. didn't stop until after 10 p.m. The theater didn't have any food that Junior liked, so we got home around 11 p.m. was the world's most perfect teenager ravenously hungry.

The world's most perfect husband cooked for the offspring while I snuck into the office and worked. After my husband fed Junior, he found me in the office and exclaimed quote "Are you sitting here? I thought you were sleeping on the couch!" unquote.

I only had one light on because I know he doesn't like me sneaking in and working at 11 p.m. My hope of being done before the offspring had finished eating was dashed.

We were lucky this Walpurgis Night

Yesterday was the first true spring day of the season with an evening temperature of 59°F (15°C) and a fantastic evening sun with blue skies. That this first spring day coincided with Walpurgis Night was unlucky. The combination of bonfire, sun, warmth and the fact that the schools are closed today, May 1, was a perfect storm for a rowdy Walpurgis Night with a lot of alcohol among young people.

The world's most perfect teenager who was in a suburb of Stockholm with one of his best friends and his grandmother came home early. The organizers of this bonfire had missed the ignition fluid so after a 70 minute delay Junior got tired of waiting and went home. My husband and I didn't even make it to Riddarholmen before the offspring was home again. As soon as the bonfire on Riddarholmen was lit, we went home to young master Dewlar.

In contrast, it was quite chaotic in another suburb of Stockholm, where hundreds of young people had gathered who were heavily intoxicated. Finally, police in the area posted a post on Instagram where they quote "Out of consideration, we urge ALL parents who have a youth out tonight to contact your youth and bring them home" unquote.

All of a sudden he cares about how he smells

The world's most perfect teenager has bought his first perfume. The choice fell on Dolce&Gabbana Light Blue Summer Vibes, which has a medium strong scent. However, the world's most perfect husband thinks it's way too strong, but he doesn't tell Junior that.

These days my spouse uses Clinique Happy which has a fantastic scent, but when I met him his favorite was Dior Fahrenheit. Whose scent in my opinion is one of the strongest.

Walking the fine line between genius and insanity

Mine and my husband's safety philosophy is a bit higher than the Average Joe's. A security concept we use that I've written about before is that we never just open the front door when the doorbell rings. It is only after we have ensured that we really know the person who rings our front door that we open the door.

Also, all possible online orders are always collected at the delivery point. If something can't be left at a drop-off location, they may leave the package outside our front door.

In addition to this, there are certain branded clothes that Junior is not allowed to wear outside the home. There is nothing that would make me risk him being robbed, beaten and humiliated just because he wears clothes the criminals want.

Finally, in today's digital world, share certificates are no longer sent in paper form by our online banks. In order to be able to substantiate our holdings after a possible future cyber attack against any of our online banks, I print out a summary of our holdings on each endowment insurance in each bank at the end of each month.

All this may seem paranoid, but rather safe than sorry.

Not all changes are good

Today is Walpurgis Night and finally the weather has improved considerably. Walpurgis Night is a very old tradition and used to be all about scaring away witches and bad spirits by lighting big fires (majbrasor – bonfires) for protection and making a lot of sounds to scare off evil forces. We will go to the bonfire at Riddarholmen, as we have done several times before.

Sadly, the world's most perfect teenager will not be joining us today. He is going to a bonfire outside Stockholm together with one of his best friends and his grandmother who lives there. This year will be the first time we don't watch the bonfire together.

Thanks, Dad and Grandpa 😒

This morning I had an appointment for laser removal of a Seborrheic Keratosis aka age wart. As soon as I sat down in the visiting chair, the doctor fixed his gaze just below my right eye. He asked if I have high cholesterol and before I could answer he continued quote "You have Xanthelasma which are yellow spots which are cholesterol formations and are often caused by high blood fats." unquote. My grandfather was medicated and my father is medicated for high cholesterol.

Instead of simple laser removal of an age wart, it became a much bigger deal. First, I have to check my blood lipids and as soon as today's laser removal has healed, I also have to remove my yellow cholesterol formations. Otherwise, they will grow bigger. Since this laser removal has to go deeper into the skin, I will need stitches afterwards. Depending on what the tests show, I will most likely need cholesterol medication, just like my grandfather and father. Not quite what I expected when I woke up this morning.

Some genes you don't want to inherit.

I haven't decided what I think about AI

The self-driving truck will change the priorities when it comes to truck manufacturing. Today, priority is given to safety and comfort for truck drivers. Since the truck cab is the driver's workplace, there are both legal and financial reasons to make this place in the truck as attractive as possible. When the AI starts driving the trucks, I assume that the order of priorities will change, the emphasis will be on transporting the goods undamaged and that it is safe for people and the surroundings.

Personally, I feel a greater resistance to self-driving taxis even though logically they should be safer than a taxi driven by a person. Especially for young women, the risk of being subjected to a rape or a robbery is drastically reduced.

Assuming the taxi doesn't get hacked.

Have children, it will be fun, they said...

The world's most perfect teenager and I have changed our routines regarding his homework. Today was the first time Junior would work according to our new routines.The plan is for the offspring to do the homework on his own and then go through the homework with me and explain what he did and how he thought.

According to Junior, he "misunderstood" our agreement and "thought" we were going to do the homework together. The outcome became that the offspring read the poem "I Woke Up" to me. Then we talked about the poem and its meaning, both the literal and the figurative. YMD then wrote his thesis. His homework consists of another 5 poems on which he must write a thesis.

He has promised that both reading and thesis regarding poem no. 2 will be ready when I get home from work tomorrow so he can explain to me what he did and how he thought. I hope this goes according to our plans as we will be doing this every day all week. Studying English poetry every night all week after work is not something I long for.

But since I will do anything, short of cheating, to help him succeed in his studies, I will study English poetry every night next week.

Different ways to plan your financial future AKA retirement

An acquaintance of the world's most perfect husband who is a trained electrician and runs a small electricity company chose a different path than us many years ago. When my husband and I each started a pension insurance 30 years ago, he and his wife chose instead to buy a house that needed extensive renovation. In all these years, they have rebuilt the whole house and even added a couple of floors.

The house was supposed to be their "retirement insurance," which is a no-brainer when you're in your 30s. But when you are approaching retirement and you have to sell your home to free up capital, it is not so easy. If you sell your home, you have to buy a new one, and you're not always willing to downsize. Plus the housing market may not be what you expected.

A "snapshot" of our choices right now shows our option as the better one, while a future "snapshot" may show a completely different picture.

Pleasant problems

As the last day of the month approaches, we still have almost 17% of the month's estimated dividends left to receive. For the past few days, the value of our total holdings has hit ATH almost every day, sometimes several times every day. At one point the value of the holdings increased by well over $4,000 in less than 1 hour.

For our part, it is mainly the exchange rate between SEK and USD, but also that the share price of a couple of our larger holdings increased at the same time. Continuing acquisitions when the portfolio is at ATH is not easy.

Whether we choose to pile up the money or find other shares worth buying remains to be seen.

Dishonest reporting

A news program on a channel owned by Swedish state television, the newscaster said quote "Israel's latest play out is to call off its planned ground offensive against Rafah in southern Gaza provided Hamas releases the hostages" unquote. The definition of play out is the first card or an unexpected move. Neither definition of play out fits in this context, as Israel has initially said it is suspending its offensive against Gaza in exchange for the hostages.

The same news program was equally dishonest earlier this week when it chose not to translate verbatim a speech by the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he spoke about future deportations to Rwanda. Mr. Rishi Sunak said England intends to deport illegal immigrants where the news program omitted to translate the word illegal.

Words or the lack of words matter.

The feeling of unease is constant, only the product changes

As a youngster, there were certain things I was never comfortable putting on the checkout belt, like menstrual pads and birth control. For many years I did everything I could to avoid shopping for these things during the busy times. Yesterday afternoon me and the world's most perfect husband visited a grocery store that we don't usually shop at.

We have the world's most perfect neighbor who is the same age as our parents. We have lived in the same condo building for 14 years and he has always spoken highly of this store and always shops there even though it is further away than the much bigger and more modern stores.

I am childishly fond of punch pralines and my husband equally fond of chocolate-dipped foam bananas. Every time we go into a grocery store, we look for these candy bags. These candy bags were popular when we were kids, which is literally half a century ago. When I put the candy bags on the checkout belt, I got the same feeling of awkwardness.

Obviously there will always be things I'm not comfortable shopping. I wonder what will be next, prunes?

Waste of tax money

A company that over a 9-year period built a battery factory in northern Sweden has, despite $846,500,000, still not managed to get the project taken to its conclusion. During the same time period, the company has received $84,650,000 in support from Swedish tax payers. At the same time, 2 ongoing projects with the production of green steel in the same part of Sweden receive approximately $93,100,000 from Swedish tax payers.

Using tax money on these extremely unsafe projects instead of improving infrastructure and more in an attempt to attract prosperous companies is a waste of tax money.

The chance that a claim will come true increases with time

The World's Most Perfect Husband has been reading a blog for more than 10 years. The man who writes the blog is intelligent, well-read and knowledgeable. For the most part, he is right in his analyzes and claims. There is, however, a claim that he has, with the obstinacy of a fool, emphasized for many years, which still hasn't occurred, that Sweden has a housing bubble.

A housing bubble is a run-up in home prices fueled by demand, speculation, and exuberance that bursts when demand falls as supply increases. Due to a total of 8 policy rate hikes by the Swedish central bank since May 2022, the aforementioned scenario should have occurred by now if Sweden had a housing bubble. No mortgages have been terminated prematurely and no homes have been sold at executive auction. In addition, it must include multiple mortgage borrowers.

To claim that a housing bubble was predicted, the time period cannot be infinite. Because, if there is no time limit, there is a good chance that what you claim will come true, sooner or later. For exemple, I can confidently say and be right that America will have a female president since it will happen, sooner or later.

Small problems in a world of big problems

My hope that Capital Southwest Corporation Common Stock (CSWC) would announce a possible extra dividend in June was dashed yesterday. At best, there will be an announcement on Monday, otherwise it is likely that CSWC will not make an extra dividend in June.

If CSWC doesn't make an extra dividend in June, I hope it's not an indication that my other holdings that tend to have the same dividend patterns are following in their footsteps.

History repeats itself

The term yuppie was coined in the 1980s and was used as a derogatory title for young businessmen who were considered arrogant, undeservedly wealthy and obnoxious. Today we have influencers. An influencer is someone in a niche or industry with influence over a target group. Influencers have specialized knowledge, authority or insight on a specific topic.

However, the biggest influencers only showcase their own luxurious lifestyles on various platforms and have a large part of their income through advertising links. Sometimes to products they sold their name to. Many times they are perceived as the yuppie as arrogant, undeservedly wealthy and obnoxious.

Due to the absence of cell phones and social media, the yuppies' only option to show off their lifestyle and stand out from the crowd was to be extravagant. Hence the eye-catching luxury cars, clothes, watches and more. One difference is that the yuppie was usually a man, while the influencer is usually a woman.

Is the influencer an evolution of the 80s yuppie?

The lack of sun causes increased electricity costs

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike socialism and 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.

The previous government chose based only on political decisions to close 6 out of 12 operating nuclear power plants. The result of these political decisions is that Sweden has an overloaded and unreliable electricity grid that has to be reinforced from time to time with coal-fired power plants, instead of the previous clean, stable and cheap electricity.

In addition to still having to wear a warm jacket, hat and gloves, the absence of the sun this "spring" also brings other problems. There are many homeowners who have installed solar panels to lower their electricity costs and thereby also reduce the load on Sweden's already overloaded electricity grid, not having received any of the normally calculated hours of sunshine.

Spring has abandoned us

Luckily the temperature stayed above freezing last night so instead of snow we got rain. For once, I'm happy about the inability of meteorologists to make the right forecast. Today I am, so far, relatively satisfied with the weather, even if the risk of snowfall today is not completely over yet.

I prefer today's 34°F (1°C) and rain any day of the week to the forecast's 30.2°F (-1°C) and snow. According to the latest forecast, it will still be until Thursday of next week, which is May 9, 2024, before we get 59°F (15°C) and partly cloudy skies.

Monopoly money > Swedish krona

Today we acquired a small number of Realty Income Corporation common stock (O). A purchase we really should have waived considering the Swedish krona's basically non-existent purchasing power against the US dollar.

There is still close to 30% of the month's estimated dividends remaining. Most likely, we will not invest this money until the Swedish krona has strengthened. Currently, Monopoly money is almost worth more than the Swedish krona.

An announcement by Capital Southwest Corporation Common Stock (CSWC) tomorrow regarding an extra dividend in June 2024 would be very welcome.

Enough is enough

Jack Frost, I can't take much more! Tonight Greater Stockholm will receive 0.8-2.7 inches (2-7 cm) of snow. This MUST be the last snowfall of the season.

My parents, who are 76 and 78 respectively, cannot remember winter being this long, ever. Almost every single person I met today has expressed their immense displeasure with the weather.

A few clowns short of a circus

For full transparency, I am politically far from the left and socialism.

Gang crime has a firm grip on Sweden. A major source of income for these gangs comes from the sale of various drugs. The left claims with great zeal that it is exclusively people from affluent areas, they call them party junkies, who can afford to buy drugs and thus bear the blame for this drug trade.

In Sweden, the vast majority of cultural figures identify themselves as left-wing. This weekend the magazine Elle Sweden had its annual gala. This gala has for several years had a compere who even has written on her social media ACAB, all cops are bastards.

A party leader who is part of our current right-wing government even had her invitation revoked a couple of days before the gala 2 years ago. The reason for this was that the party leader in a radio interview wondered how it was that 100 policemen were injured instead of 100 Islamists in connection with several riots around Sweden due to a previously authorized demonstration where a Quran was burned. Because of this interview, the compere demanded that the party leader's invitation be revoked.

Now it has emerged that several participants at this year's Elle gala openly took drugs during the weekend's gala. With this, it became clear that they and Sweden's cultural personalities also make up the drug trade's target group.

Important day is coming up

At the end of August this year, the world's most perfect teenager turns 17 on the same day we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. That our only child was born on our wedding day is cool. For natural reasons, this is the most important day of the year for us.

Since Junior has one week longer winter break at the expense of one week of his summer break, school starts 2 days before his birthday and our wedding anniversary, otherwise I would have planned a mini vacation for just the 3 of us.

It's up to me to arrange something special for this day because the world's most perfect husband may not be the world's most romantic husband. 😉

There is one thing we don't agree on

My upbringing shifted from very poor economic conditions to average. It was only in my upper teens that our financial conditions improved. This has created an inner insecurity in me.

My goal image of when we are financially secure differs significantly from the world's most perfect husband's.

"To much isn't much enough" - Lisa Dewlar

Let's hope for the best

Provided that the companies follow the previous timetable, any announcements about possible extra dividends during June will be made shortly. If the companies listed below perform as well or nearly as well in Q1 2024 as they did in Q4 2023, our odds increased for 2024 to be our second-best dividend year ever.

Approx. declare day corresponds to the declaration date for the extra dividend in the same period last year.

Capital Southwest Corporation Common Stock (CSWC), approx. declare day, April 26

Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS), approx. declare day, May 1

Hercules Capital, Inc. Common Stock (HTGC), approx. declare day, May 2

Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN), approx. declare day, May 1

New Mountain Finance Corporation Common Stock (NMFC), approx. declare day, May 8

Blue Owl Capital Corporation Common Stock (OBDC), approx. declare day, May 10

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. Common Stock (TSLX), approx. declare day, May 8

Tax money NOT at work

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike socialism and 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.

The Workers' Education Union (ABF) is part of the labor movement. ABF is Sweden's largest student association with around fifty member organizations and around sixty organizations with cooperation agreements. The Social Democrats (S), the Left Party (V), the National Organization (LO), Sweden's Social Democratic Youth Association (SSU) and Young Left are some of our member organizations.

ABF's operations are financed for the most part with grants from the state, region and municipality AKA tax money. A smaller part of the funding comes from participants and member organizations.

ABF in Uppsala county introduced at the turn of the year 2023/2024 a 6-hour working day, to be compared with the previous 8-hour working day, with the salary for full-time employees maintained. The ABF department predicts that the shortening of working hours will make a big difference to the staff's well-being and at the same time strengthen the department's public education work and community mission in Uppsala County.

According to information from ABF, the business will not be affected by the shortened working hours, which in practice means that the business had too many staff before the shortened working hours as you can reduce the working time by 25% without the business being affected.

Which is easy when the business does not need to support itself but is financed with tax money.

High-handedness or just plain dumb...

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike socialism and 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.

As recently as May 2022, our previous government decided to raise the normal retirement age from 65 to 66. The reason for this was to prevent pensions from becoming lower in line with the increasing average life expectancy.

At the beginning of February this year, the Social Democrats chose to come up with a proposal for shorter working hours with maintained pay, similar to a model found in the Netherlands. How this will be financed is unclear.

That the Social Democrats as late as May 2022 after almost 8 years in government needed to raise the retirement age to barely 2 years later in opposition means that the economy has improved so significantly that this proposal can be put forward can be interpreted in different ways.

Either they think that our current government in a paltry 2 years with the prevailing recession and rampant inflation has succeeded in the impossible, to strengthen Sweden's economic position. Or they are weakly gifted, unable to add or subtract.

I still ❤️ Google Sheet

With 8 days left in April, we still have about 30% left to receive of the estimated dividends. After the last adjustment where I separate the extra dividend from the regular one, my forecast is almost perfect. What can cause the forecast to be misleading going forward is that the exchange rate between the Swedish krona and the US dollar changes significantly since I have chosen to have a "fixed" exchange rate in my spreadsheet. All the numbers point to 2024 being our second best dividend year ever.

Share sales and share purchases made at the end of last year entailed a redistribution of our dividends. January, April, July and October will underperform on a monthly basis compared to 2023. However, the difference between January 2023 and January 2024 was greater than the difference between April 2023 and April 2024 will be.

Depending on which stocks we acquire in the near future, there is a chance that the difference between July and perhaps mainly October could be completely wiped out.

Most people think I exaggerate my actual working hours

When I meet people who don't know someone who owns their business or an entrepreneur, I'm always amazed at their complete lack of understanding of how hard people like us actually work. Whether it's Saturday, Sunday, Christmas, Easter, birthday, wedding anniversary, etc. doesn't matter, there's always some work that needs to be done.

Today, for example, I did all the salaries, reported them to the Swedish Tax Agency and ultimately entered them in the accounting. Since almost all invoices today are sent via email, I receive invoices every day of the week. So when the salaries was done I also entered the invoices we received today in the accounting. Tomorrow morning when I wake up there will be new invoices in my email.

The alternative, however, would be terrible. If we do not receive invoices, we have not had to replenish the stock, which in turn means that we have not sold anything.

They are too disinterested to even protest

Considering our crazy work schedule, it will be nice to have an extra day off at the beginning of next month, namely May 1.

Sweden's national day, June 6, only became a public holiday in 2005. In order for Sweden not to have too many public holidays, one holiday had to be deleted. The choice was between Pentecost and May 1 and it was decided that Pentecost would lose its holiday status.

Personally, I think May 1 should have been the loser. Mainly because its importance today is only symbolic given how protected the employee in Sweden is today with many laws and regulations. But also because the interest in demonstrating for better working conditions is very low among the workers even though it is a public holiday. If they had to use 1 of their 25 statutory vacation days for this the whole movement would implode.

Which would be the only right thing since it only lives via its "artificial respiration" AKA public holiday.

No mother of the year award, again

Today, the world's most perfect teenager will spend a few hours at school to help with a project and earn some SA hours. To be honest, I didn't listen properly when the offspring asked me to wake him up today for this. So just to be safe I woke him up at 8 a.m. which didn't fall on fertile ground as he isn't supposed to be at school until 1 p.m.

Luckily, being the teenager that he is, he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow again.

Spring is not coming

The cold refuses to let go of Sweden. According to the meteorologists, the cold will last until the end of the month. Today's temperature in Stockholm is 34°F (1°C). That there can be a setback during April with one or two days of cold is normal, but this year it is just the opposite.

The first snow of the current season already fell on October 19, 2023, although it melted when it reached the ground. Swedes are known to talk a lot about the weather and this is the reason.

Spring will most likely be very short this time.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it just may be a duck

There is no word that I detest more than most politicians seem to love. Every time someone says challenge, they actually mean problem but want to play down the size of the problem, always with their own agenda.

Sometimes they are the cause of the problem and therefore want to minimize the size of the problem by calling it the milder word challenge.

Other times, they does not want to reduce their own ability to handle the problem and therefore instead want to reduce the size of the problem.

Then there are others who are woke and equate themselves with the previously mentioned without understanding that they are actually presenting themselves in a bad light.

Man up and call it by its real name, a problem.

Sweden, the country that is marinated in socialism

For full transparency, I strongly dislike socialism.

Several unions in Sweden also have opinions about the proposed tax-exempt basic level. The union SACO, believes that the proposal "increases the complexity" of the tax system. What they mean is not quite clear, but one argument could be that in a family with several family members, you could distribute the savings in an account for each person and thus increase the tax-exempt basic level for the family as a whole.

Another union, LO, believes that the proposal costs far too much money in the form of lost tax revenue. In order for the proposal to be a "cost to the state", it must be assumed that the money first and foremost belongs to the state. Only then, and only depending on how I choose to spend this money, can this become a cost to the state.

To clarify LO's reasoning, if I forego a minor pleasure such as a visit to the cinema or the like and instead save $85, I become a cost to the state in the form of reduced tax revenue under this proposal.

No person becomes financially independent with a holding of $25,000

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike socialism and 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.

Our current government has put forward a proposal that is being criticized by 2 body considering proposed legislation, the Swedish National Financial Management Authority and the Economic Institute. The proposal involves introducing a tax-free basic level of $25,000 in a savings form named ISK.

Today, 2,500,000 Swedes have an ISK account with a median savings of $6200. If you save $85 a month and manage to get an average return of about 8% per year, you'll have about $28,500 after 15 years of saving.

That the proposed tax-exempt basic level happens to be close to the median annual salary after tax is most likely no coincidence. The goal of the proposal is to promote increased savings and perhaps an attempt to implement a mindset that it should be a goal to try to get an annual salary saved.

Allowing people to have a year's salary saved with money that has already been taxed once in the form of income tax to be able to have a buffer for unforeseen costs should be a non-issue.