It annoys me

Tomorrow is the first day of, for us, the worst dividend month of the year. Although 2024 will outperform 2023 on an annualized basis, this year's January will underperform last year's.

Unfortunately, I forgot to save as in my Google Sheet before adjusting all the input values for 2024 so I can't see what differ between the respective holdings for each month. All I have is a total value for each month. Incredibly frustrating.

My first thought was that it was our then-holding in NewtekOne, Inc. Common Stock (NEWT) that accounted for a large portion of last year's January dividend. A check of their historical dividends showed that they paid no dividends that month.

However, I saw that their share price has fallen further since we sold off our, for us, large holding.

It's weird being the same age as old people

I just turned 54 years old. Considering how fast the last 10 years have gone by, I'm guessing the next 10 years will be even faster.

Which means before I can blink another 10 years have passed and I'm 64 years old, like the song 🎼🎼 "When I'm 64". 🎼

I have to try to slow down the aging process.

Hope for the best

On Thursday, February 1, 2024, Sweden's central bank will present the year's first monetary policy announcement on the key interest rate.

The last time Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken announced a monetary policy statement was on November 29, 2023, when they left the key interest rate unchanged at 4%.

No one expects a cut in the key interest rate on Thursday, but an indication that a cut could come in the near future.

It will be exciting to watch the partially televised press conference. For the Swedish economy, I sincerely hope that there will be some sign of a possible future interest rate cut in the near future.

It is far too "adulting" to want to watch a televised press conference from the central bank.

Good times are ahead, hopefully

We expect another smaller number of dividends this month. So far my chart is almost 100% accurate.

This year I have cleared the forecast for foreign withholding tax, brokerage, exchange rates, exchange fees and DRIPS. For this year, I've created a third chart where I've also cleared for special and supplemental dividends.

After the first quarter, I should have an indication of how close we will get to the record year 2019. That we will perform better than in 2018 is a non-issue.

Regardless of which side you belong to, it is a great tragedy

That employees of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), which is one of the United Nations (UN)'s two refugee organizations, are members of terrorist organizations in, for example, Hamas did not come as a surprise.

What is surprising is that UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini is shocked that several countries have frozen their aid to the organization. They should be shocked that they are infiltrated by terrorists instead. The first action should be to suspend all ongoing operations and identify all terrorist supporters.

Depending on the extent of the infiltration of the organization, a decision should be made whether UNRWA can resume its operations or whether it should be terminated.

I don't want to jinx it

He might be right after all, my vertigo specialist.

After living on cheese sandwiches, tea, sweets and soft drinks with a minimal protein intake for several years, I have changed my diet since late summer on his advice.

Nowadays, I start each weekday with a large portion of quark, for lunch I eat a chicken sandwich to finish with some form of protein for dinner. My dizziness is less noticeable lately, although there are days when it creates a lot irritation and worry.

That my diet was almost vegetarian was completely unintentional, I love meat. On the other hand, I have always had a difficult attitude towards food and have therefore preferred sandwiches and sweets as nutritional intake for almost my entire adult life.

The reason for this comes from the time in primary school when I was forced on several occasions by one special teacher to eat the school food even though I literally threw up. It ended up with my mother writing a note saying that I was allowed to go home and eat on the days the school lunch consisted of something that was inedible to me.

This will not be easy-peasy

Full transparency, both my husband and I come from families that are 100% ethnically Swedish. The world's most perfect teenager has never had a 100% ethnically Swedish friend. 95% of his friends are and always have been Asian. The remaining 5% of his friends are either African-American or Asian-American. 

For last week's parent-teacher conference, one of his teachers was fully booked, so I put myself on a waiting list for her. Last Friday I got an appointment for a meeting with her in two weeks.

Yesterday I informed Junior about the planned meeting. To which he says quote "Mom, prepare yourself. She's a Karen with purple hair." unquote. I have a hard time with this type of people but the offspring's academic future in this subject is at stake as she is his teacher for the next 2.5 years.

According to the offspring, he gets scolded if he forgets his eraser, while his African-American friend can forget his computer and all she says is quote "we can all forget something" unquote. Even his friend has seen through her behavior and made a pact with another student of South American descent to see which of them gets away with the most during her lessons. 

If this is true, I am of the opinion that she misbehaves with my son, his African-American friend and the boy of South American origin but for different reasons. If this is true, the offspring's friend and the third student of South American origin are the biggest losers as my son has to perform better and will gain from this in the end. While the other two are "allowed" to underperform which means they will ultimately lose out on this. Since school started this term, the offspring has sat at the front of the class far from his friends in all of her lessons.

I hope my offspring have exaggerated everything as I have a penchant for burning bridges and live by "my burnt bridges light my way" which is very costly in the long run. For the sake of my son and the other two boys, I will NOT burn this bridge.

We hope to find winners

Today we bought a small amount of Hormel Foods Corporation Common Stock (HRL). We do not see HRL as a dividend stock but as a growth stock. Instead, this is our first small attempt to broaden our portfolio to also include growth stocks.

The reason for this is that we believe that there is great potential in the stock market if you look at the development historically. Although the stock market has done very well recently, it is mainly The Magnificent Seven that has developed fantastically.

Is it really a stock market rally when it is only a few companies, The Magnificent Seven, that account for the majority of the rise. Or is it just a small number of companies performing unusually well?

We believe that there are other companies, apart from The Magnificent Seven, that have great potential to perform well in the foreseeable future.

They say history is written by the winner but in this case it could also be the loser…

This will come back to bite the unions, part 10

For transparency and my own agenda, my husband and I own a 2023 Tesla Model Y.

Recently, the media has been busy reporting on Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine as well as Israel's efforts to find its kidnapped citizens in Gaza. This combined with the fact that nothing actually happens with the power struggle between IF Metall and Tesla Sweden Motor AB (TM) means that the news value is minimal.

None of the strike action that IF Metall and their sympathizing colleagues subjected TM to has had any impact on their operations. Instead, TM has eliminated all the problems caused by the strike action and it is business as usual.

If TM were to enter into a Swedish collective agreement, it could mean requirements to enter into similar agreements in countries that are not as arranged as Sweden.

IF Metall has made this strike a symbol of their defense of "the Swedish model". To then give up the strike against TM would be an enormous loss of prestige.

The best outcome would be if the power struggle disappears from the news feed for an extended period of time, so that one side can back off a little stealthily and not appear as a loser.

Wrong way to go in my opinion

Full transparency, I voted for the incumbent Conservative government. Last year it was Sweden's central bank that drove inflation with interest rate increases, this year it will be the government's tax increases instead.

Our current government have not fulfilled all their election promises. I fully understand that some things take time to implement. What I don't understand is the increase in energy tax by ¢0.4 per kilowatt hour plus 25% VAT which the government implemented on January 1st this year. This tax increase will contribute to increasing inflation.

It is indefensible that a conservative government that promised to lower taxes instead raises both the energy tax and the standard tax on the investment account known as ISK.

I am fully aware that the Swedish government has also received increased interest costs on its national debt due to the recent year's interest rate increases by central banks around the world.

I believe that instead of raising taxes, Sweden should reduce its aid. For example, Sweden provides aid to countries that refuse to take back their own citizens who are to be deported from Sweden because of criminal acts they committed in Sweden.

That a small country like Sweden should continue to be one of the largest donors in terms of dollars and cents when the country itself is going through a deep recession is madness.

At the moment, we should think about Sweden first. Similar to when a flight attendant instructs you to “put your oxygen mask on first” before helping others. This rule is important for ensuring survival. Because if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can't help anyone else with their oxygen mask.

That time of year again

Tomorrow morning, it's time for the parent-teacher conference again.

Before the pandemic, these meetings were held at the school and you got to meet the teachers in real life. Since the pandemic, these meetings are now conducted via a platform called Meet the teacher remotely.

I think it all becomes impersonal and most importantly, I find it very difficult to read what the teacher thinks and feels about the world's most perfect teenager's school performance.

Unfortunately, there is much to be desired in terms of the offspring's commitment to his school work during the fall term of 2023. I guess both our son and I will be reprimanded tomorrow.

It feels as if I have been summoned to the principal's office.

Never again a fund share

We did our own little market research last year.

The market research meant that we bought shares in different funds from different fund commissioners in order to be able to compare how they developed in relation to our stock purchases.

At the beginning of December 2023, it was clear that our stocks were performing better than our fund units. We placed a sell order on all funds the next day. Within a week, all fund shares had been sold. Except for one.

At first, the world's most perfect husband thought he had missed selling the fund shares. When he tried to place a sell order, the fund shares were listed as "in the market". The fund shares were not sold until January this year, that is almost 6 weeks after the order was placed. This fund is their flagship and yet the interest was completely non-existent.

To top it all off, the price of the fund shares fell before the order was executed.

Poor month

That it is easier to save a $1 than to earn a $1 is something that they teach already in kindergarten.

Those who can bill $400 per hour don't really share that opinion but for the vast majority this is reality and it is clearly noticeable at various levels in society at the moment.

We have customers who choose not to fix dripping faucets. I know several hairdressers who hardly have any customers at all. When business is slow even for chain stores that sell coffee, you know times are bad.

In addition to the ongoing deep recession, sales are obviously affected by the fact that January's salary payment will not arrive until the end of this week. I think we'll have a slow February before business picks up again.

No one cares more about my goals and values than myself

We have more than half of our holdings in our endowment insurances with Nordea. Least of all we have invested with Avanza because there is still much to be desired when it comes to their refund of foreign withholding tax, unlike Nordea and now also Nordnet.

In our world, however, Avanza has by far the most user-friendly interface. The reason for this is most likely due to the fact that we for natural reasons don't log into their site too often and therefore escaped the data problems they've had recently.

Another thing I have missed is that Avanza, unfortunately just like many other stockbrokers, has started to include politics in their business. I am deeply tired of the gender equality index, sustainability index etc. when it comes to money investments.

I invest my hard earned money to get the best returns. How I improve the environment, equality and sustainability is best done through the choices I make in my life and how I implement those choices.

I love men ❤️

For full transparency, I am the mother of a son, married to a man, my father is a man, I have male cousins, I have male friends, etcetera. The only thing I miss is a brother and a daughter.

I'm so sick of all the manhating. It is a certain type of people who kill, abuse, rape, rob, etc. Not all men or women for that matter. Because women also kill, abuse, rape and rob.

It feels like there's already enough death and chaos in the world without half the population automatically badmouthing and hating the other half of the population just because it's the "current norm".

I know that not all men and women in my life are kind, empathetic, friendly, strong, helpful and good, but 99.9% are.

Sometimes when it rains it pours

Since the world was hit by Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020, sad things have followed one another.

As the pandemic subsided, inflation picked up at the end of 2022. To curb inflation, central banks around the world resorted to the old proven key tool, raising interest rates.

Inflation was further fueled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2023, increasing food and energy costs for Europe. Europe's natural gas imports at the time consisted of approximately 40% of Russian natural gas.

Israel's response to Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 in which Hamas killed 1,400, injured 4,800 and kidnapped 240 Israelis has caused great concern in that part of the world. Among other things, the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen is accused of having carried out a series of attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November 2023.

A consequence of this is that approximately 18 shipping companies have chosen to divert their ships around South Africa to reduce attacks on their ships. This entails an additional ten days of travel time and negative consequences for trade and increased transport costs.

Taking advantage of the ongoing unrest in the area, Iran launched a missile and drone strike against Pakistani territory in Baluchistan near the border between the countries on January 16, 2024. According to Iran, the target was an Iranian Sunni extremist resistance group. Pakistan responds a day later also militarily, with attacks in Iran, and states that it was done in search of Pakistani resistance fighters.

Boring sounds like a good option now.

They only see as far as the ends of their noses

Another example of some who in their quest to be good became evil are some leaders of Europe.

Shutting down and even, as in the case of Sweden, demolishing existing reliable, cheap and clean energy such as nuclear power in favor of gas and coal has proven to be very costly. Partly financially, environmentally, but also from human suffering.

The power supply for Europe's citizens has become expensive and unreliable in recent years, resulting in increased living costs and in some cases unemployment..

The world has had increased emissions of greenhouse gases as many countries in Europe have had to restart their existing coal power plants in their attempts to secure their power supply when they closed their nuclear power plants.

Most of all, however, is the human suffering suffered by the people of Ukraine. That Russia chooses to invade Ukraine when Europe has become dependent on Russian gas is, in my opinion, no coincidence. I think Russia assumed that Europe would turn a blind eye because of its dependence on Russian gas.

That it was a gigantic mistake to shut down or even demolish fully functioning nuclear power plants is obvious because several countries now intend to build new ones. In addition to the decision-making politicians, the Environmental Movements owes a great debt to all of this. I wonder if everyone who contributed to the shutdowns fully understands what they have caused?

Some of my workers (stocks) did very well

One of the recognized strategies is to never allow a single holding to exceed 5% of the portfolio's value.

Yesterday was a good day for us with a solid (in relation to the portfolio value) holding in Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN). Our holding in MAIN represents more than 11% of our portfolio value.

Yesterday, MAIN issued a reverse profit warning. Near record for Q4 2023 and record for full year 2023. It is likely that MAIN will announce a special dividend for Q1 2024 with a payment date of March 2024. Hopefully the special dividend is the same size as the one distributed in December 2023.

The policy rate affects everything in a society

The Swedish CPIF began to increase during the end of 2021 to literally rush during the second half of 2022.

It took until May 4, 2022 that Riksbanken announced that they were raising the key interest rate from 0% to 0.25%, which was the opposite of the then Riksbanken Governor Stefan Ingves's statement as recently as April 2021 quote "Riksbanken estimates that the key interest rate will remain at 0% until 2024" unquote. Riksbanken then carried out 7 further increases to finally top out with a policy rate of 4%. Our current Riksbanken Governor Erik Thedéen, who took office on 1 January 2023, carried out 4 of these 7 increases.

In my opinion, much of the blame must be placed on our former central bank governor Stefan Ingves for the deep recession we are in right now. The way he handled his task of reaching the 2% inflation target created a perfect storm for Sweden's citizens. Despite applying negative interest rates during a boom, he failed to meet the inflation target in 201 of his 204 months in office. Stefan Ingves was late in his decisions and schooled in a different spirit of the times.

A recently published survey commissioned by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority called Financial well-being and general health in Sweden shows that almost every third adult in Sweden has had or is having difficulties paying their current bills in the past year.

I will win this challenge

Since January 8, 2024, I have not eaten sweets or drunk soft drinks. The world's most perfect husband doesn't drink soda but beer. At the same time I stopped drinking soda, he stopped drinking beer.

We weighed ourselves the day before yesterday and he had lost about 8 lb (4 kg). I myself weighed exactly the same as on January 8. If I haven't lost sat least 1 lb (0.5 kg) by the next weigh-in I will ignore this challenge.

But if I know my husband, this challenge won't last very long. Sometimes, it's almost too easy to win.

They had good intentions, but…

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. 

Due to Covid-19, Swedish companies in 2020 could request a postponement of the payment of taxes. A total of 61,000 companies chose to take advantage of this postponement. The majority of these companies have paid their taxes, but 22,000 companies still owe more than $382 million. Many deferments are due and just under $41.8 million has been turned over to the enforcement agency for collection. The IRS estimates that approximately $142 million will never be paid.

I fully understand our previous government's willingness to help entrepreneurs during a crisis, but at the same time you have to keep in mind that in Sweden, taxes become personal in the event of bankruptcy and never fall due.

The entrepreneurs who requested and were granted a deferment will never be debt-free. So the government's goodwill became a disservice.

Hopefully he has learned a lesson

The world's most perfect teenager had a bad start to the day.

Today was the first time he would be allowed to go directly to the sports hall on his own without having to go to school to meet the teacher and other students. This gives him an extra 30 minutes in the morning.

When I asked where his sports shoes were, he went completely white in the face. He had forgotten them at school.

So instead of being able to relax on the couch and take it easy, he had to rush off to school to get his shoes and then get to the sports hall as quickly as possible.

A few are better than none

The World's Most Perfect Husband had identified Hormel Foods Corporation Common Stock (HRL) as a good acquisition. Because of that, we bought a small number of shares in HRL last night.

Today, HRL received a buy recommendation, which is likely to lead to a rising share price and falling dividend yield. How many more shares in HRL we have time to acquire before we consider the opportunity lost remains to be seen.

In addition to the acquisition of HRL, we also purchased a small number of shares of NNN REIT, Inc. Common Stock (NNN). A side effect of these acquisitions is that they strengthen our worst dividend months which are February, May, August and November.

Next month is our worst dividend month of the entire year. It will be exciting to see how much better this year's February performs compared to last year's February.

I really hope for the best

So far this year, my Google Sheet has been almost completely accurate. As of today's date, we have received approximately 50% of January's expected dividends and they are almost exactly in line with my calculations.

If my chart showing our expected dividends vs. dividends paid after deducting special and supplemental dividends is completely accurate by month-end, I'll be very pleased.

In my other two charts, the outcome should be higher than expected in all months except January. During January, expectations and outcomes should be almost identical. In the chart where I have not taken into account sales and acquisitions made during the current year, the difference should be greater than in the chart where it has been taken into account.

The difference between the two different charts should increase each month to culminate in December, assuming all connections are correct.

Good but not good enough, apparently

Sweden's inflation figures for December 2023 were published yesterday.

The Swedish CPI fell to 4.4%, which meant a decline from November's 5.8%. This resulted in hopes from various actors that Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken will not only leave the policy rate unchanged at the next monetary policy announcement on February 1, 2024, but perhaps even lower it.

I do hope that Riksbanken does not lower the policy rate this time, but instead takes it coolly and awaits future inflation figures. It is always better to think before and act accordingly. If Sweden's inflation continues to fall, it may be time to lower the policy rate at the next monetary policy announcement to be held on March 26, 2024.

Despite December's good inflation figures, the Swedish krona continues to fall against both the US dollar and the euro. So it seems that there are more people with me who think that Riksbanken should take it coolly.

How stupid can you be?

For several reasons I do not shop online. Mainly because I have a huge control issue and want to know exactly what I'm buying, be it food or clothes and everything in between. Also because I'm generation X and you can't teach an old dog new tricks...

A positive consequence of being Generation X is that we learned to pay for everything like music, movies and more. Unlike Millennials who instead learned to steal and were not taught to do right for themselves. Generation Millennials are now in their 40s and they are continuing their beaten path.

Many stores have changed the manufacturer's part number to their own part number in an attempt to avoid losing sales to online sales. I've even been in a store where a Millennial asks the store assistant for help ordering the product online instead.

Today when I visited a small convenience store, a person from the Millennial generation was standing in line ahead of me to pick up his package. The Millennial thought the package was far too small to contain the mirror he ordered and paid for online.

He even asked the man handing out the package if he agreed with him that the package was far too small. The man replied quote "I have no idea what you ordered" unquote. It felt like the Millennial thought he was in a store buying a mirror and didn't really realize he was in a convenience store to pick up a package that (hopefully) contained a mirror he had already purchased from a third party.

Remote work

For full transparency, I work partially from home.

When I make or receive a phone call, I make sure that no background sounds such as a spouse, a child or a pet can be heard. I do this because I myself loathe when I contact a manufacturer, wholesaler, customer service etc and you can hear children screaming or dogs barking in the background.

Working remotely became the norm for obvious reasons during Covid-19. I fully understand that employees wanted to continue afterwards. Being able to shorten the travel time to and from work to under one minute, start the washing machine or dishwasher, walk the dog and more was of course incredibly time-saving.

But there are also negative consequences of remote work. In addition to the fact that the actual response time when calling some companies that still practice remote work has become longer, I feel that their skills and knowledge have decreased.

I experience that companies that have their employees gathered in an office have a faster flow of information as experience feedback takes place in real time as the employees overhear both possible problems but also solutions when they move around the company's premises. I also feel that these employees feel more like part of the company they work for.

When you prioritize yourself over the citizens

I think we will have a long winter this season in Stockholm. The first cold and snow came already in November last year and it is only getting colder and more snowfall.

On Monday, according to meteorologists, the temperature will drop to 8.6°F (-13°C), which is cold considering that Stockholm is made up of islands and thus surrounded by a lot of water.

There is still much to be desired when it comes to snow removal in Stockholm. I have given up hope that those who rule in Stockholm municipality, the Social Democrats and the Green Party, will shift the priority from bike lanes to sidewalks and roads instead.

The only sidewalk that is cleared of snow is the one outside Stockholm's city hall, which is the workplace for those who govern the city, Social Democrats and the Green Party with the Left Party's tacit acceptance.

Birger Jarlsgatan on 3 January 2024. Sidewalks on the left and cycle path on the right.

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City hall on 4 January 2024. Sidewalks on the left and cycle path on the right.

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This will come back to bite the unions, part 9

For transparency and my own agenda, my husband and I own a 2023 Tesla Model Y. Personally, both my husband and I sincerely hope that Mr. Elon Musk does not give in to the union. Also, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the Left Party's tacit acceptance.

The power struggle between the union IF Metall and Telsa Motor Sweden AB (TM) looks set to reap its first victims. If one ignores when a former social democratic party leader and Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Lofven, last autumn made a statement in which he condemned TM for not having signed the "not so voluntary" collective agreement. His credibility was destroyed when it turned out that even his own employers lacked the "not so voluntary" collective agreement.

On October 27, 2023, IF Metall began its strike against TM. Since then, unions in both Denmark and Norway have joined the strike.

Yesterday, the company Hydro Extrusion Sweden AB notified 20 employees as a direct result of them being taken out on strike by IF Metall. Of the company's 610 employees, 50 are on strike by IF Metall. The company manufactures special parts, so-called crash boxes, for Tesla cars.

IF Metall's contract secretary Veli-Pekka Saikkala says quote "This notice cannot be blamed on the conflict. We see it as a way to put pressure on us to lift the blockade." unquote. IF Metall has offered to pay conflict compensation for the employees affected by the blockade to avoid notice of dismissal. Hydro Extrusion has according to Veli-Pekka Saikkala quote "not been interested in that solution" unquote.

I understand that the company rejects conflict management that only compensates salary costs for affected employees. The company still has costs for premises, administrative staff, insurance etcetera.

It remains to be seen how many more collective employees will lose their jobs due to IF Metall requiring a "not so voluntary" collective agreement for its 6-8 members who are employed in TM.

Obviously, you are less protected with a collective agreement.

We are hoping for the best

One of our employees had a stroke during his last week of vacation last summer. We thought his recovery would be fairly quick, but the stroke turned out to be worse than the doctors initially thought. At best, he starts working again after the summer.

As our desire is for him to be able to return, we have not replaced him. Hiring a temporary worker is out of the question, mainly because no one with the cutting edge skills needed is prepared to take a temporary job. Hiring someone could mean that we instead become redundant after the summer and that is not a situation you want in the middle of a downturn.

Both my husband and I were prepared for our workload to increase this autumn even before the holidays, but for an entire different reason. Losing this colleague added to that load considerably.

All we hope for is that he makes a full recovery. He and his wife have a fourteen-year-old who is far too young to have to worry about her father's health.

Our list will never be complete

December was, just as predicted, our absolute best dividend month for the whole of 2023, in contrast to February, which was the worst.

Given that January's dividends are fairly large, the month's upcoming acquisitions should have a chance to affect February's dividend more than a ripple on the surface.

Most interesting, however, will be the new diagram. I sincerely hope that I have all the variables correct so that the diagram will be completely accurate.

For a large portion of December's dividends, we purchased NNN REIT, Inc. Common Stock (NNN), which is the latest company we intend to acquire. Even if we only got a few, it's a start.

Husband happy with alone time

We always close our shop between Christmas and Epiphany because pretty much everyone in the local area is away on holiday. In total, the store was closed for a 17-day period.

This time period included Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Epiphany and a "regular Sunday", meaning the store was closed for 10 working days.

This week almost half of all our customers have said quote "good for you to take some time off" unquote. I never mention that I have worked 14 of those 17 days in the office, instead I am touched by their concern for us. I admit that I did not work 8 hours per day, but at least 3 hours per day.

In order not to lose time with my son, I took the opportunity to work while junior did his math assignments. To be completely honest, I think my husband appreciated the time when I worked and the offspring studied...

Business as usual

The world's most perfect teenager met me in the hall, gave me a hug, told me he loved me, went into his room and closed the door. So apparently he must have done pretty well in math class, even if he doesn't want to admit it.

When I asked if we had solved the logarithms correctly, he replied quote "both yes and no" unquote. My husband, also the father of the offspring, told me to let it go and take the little recognition I got.

Life with teenagers

Because there's more to be desired when it comes to the world's (perhaps not) most perfect teenager's school grades, he's had to do maths exercises every day, except for Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, throughout his Christmas break.

The first day of school after the Christmas holidays was Tuesday and "luckily" mathematics was on the schedule. When we got home in the evening after Tuesday's work, I asked if the offspring had done the math exercises we agreed on. I got a no followed by a long explanation that his math teacher would be explaining logarithms starting Thursday this week.

Since I KNOW Junior is as smart as he is lazy, I decided he and I would look through the chapter and get an idea of what it was all about. The teenager immediately protested, saying that he doesn't understand and really doesn't want to learn how to solve the math problems the wrong way.

After about 1 hour of arguing and bickering, we got started. Another 1 hour later we began to understand how to solve the different logarithms. In the end, we had solved the problems together.

Today his first lesson is math. If I'm greeted with a hug and an immediately closed door to the teenager's room tonight when I get home from work, I've done a good job. Otherwise I'll be met by an angry young Master Dewlar who will explain in his "best" way how we've got everything about logarithms wrong.

Having a typical defiant 16 year old constantly argue with me while trying to learn how to solve logarithms in a language other than my native language at almost 54 was a near death experience!

Final result of the year

In total, the executed dividends exceeded those expected for 2023. The only reason for this is all the special and supplemental dividends that we were given during the year. Without them, we would have been well below our expectation for 2023.

Not only because of NEWT but also because I didn't take into account exchange fees, foreign withholding tax, brokerage, exchange rate differences and DRIP's.

I am hoping that my new chart will be much fairer and without the swings that my previous charts have had due to the previously mentioned variables. Below are the final charts for 2023.

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Missed target

We missed the goal of exceeding 2018 dividends by just under $1400.

Since we sold off our bad acquisitions (in our opinion) last year, we will outperform 2018 this year assuming none of our holdings make a "NEWT" change in both business focus and dividend rate.

I have added another chart in my Google Sheet where I exclude all special and supplemental dividends. Additionally, as the year progresses, all values for the remaining months of the year are adjusted as acquisitions or sales occur. My hope for this chart is that the forecast and result bars will be the same height for each month throughout the year.

The chart below shows how our dividends have developed since 2017. The pandemic made a lasting impression.

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Crossed the finish line

Finally, we have received all dividends for 2023. The last paid dividend of the year 2023 referred to our holding in Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Preferred Stock Shares (OXLC) on Nordnet, a Nordic digital platform for savings and investments.

In recent months, I have had to call Nordnet and ask for our dividends regarding OXLC. Each time they say they will look into the matter and email an answer. On each occasion, Nordnet has paid out the dividend regarding OXLC within 24 hours, without providing any explanation. They just keep bury their heads in the sand.