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.

Two wrongs make a right

There are some apps that we never allowed the world's most perfect teenager to download. The sole app the offspring is allowed to have is WhatsApp and the only reason for this is that one of his schoolmates created a group for the class.

There was a time when Junior wanted TikTok because quote “everyone else has TikTok” unquote, but we never allowed him to download the app. For more reasons than one.

We believe that TikTok is burrowing into the devices — and the brains — of teens and tweens around the world. The app’s Beijing-based parent company Bytedance provides a far less-damaging product in China that’s designed to protect their own youth, namely Douyin. The apps are nearly identical — but with one critical difference, users under 14 are required to use Douyin in healthy moderation on “teenage mode.”

Young, impressionable users are limited to 40 minutes a day between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. to ensure they get adequate sleep. Endless zombie-like scrolling is interrupted by mandatory 5-second delays. It also only shows specially-selected “inspiring” content.

The algorithm is vastly different and promotes science, education and historical content in China while the rest of the world's citizens get to watch stupid dance videos with the main goal of making us imbeciles.

A desirable tool for the Swedish central bank

The Swedish krona continues to lose value against the world's major currencies. This morning the combined value of all our holdings hit an ATH thanks to the weak Swedish krona alone.

In addition to the value of the holdings, the weak Swedish currency also affects our dividends. The result is that we get more kronas for every dividend dollar. We are still waiting for about 23% of this month's estimated dividends. Unless the Swedish central bank finds Harry Potter's wand and enchants the world to believe in Sweden and its finances and thereby strengthens the Swedish krona, the outcome will be about 2% better than the forecast.

Be careful what you wish for

Me and the world's most perfect husband decided right away when I got pregnant that the offspring would be bilingual. Our goal was for the world's most perfect teenager to speak English without a broken accent.

From preschool through 3rd grade, he attended a Swedish school with a focus on English within the tolerances allowed by the Swedish school system. Since the 4th grade he has attended an all-English school where the overwhelming majority are children of diplomats and expatriates or "expats" from around the world. For us, it is natural that he speaks English with all his friends, both those at school and online.

Young master Dewlar has a pain in one of his legs so I had booked a doctor's appointment. Since my "baby" is 16 years old, the doctor addressed his questions directly to the offspring. Junior did not know the words in Swedish to answer the doctor's questions about the pain, so he asked to speak English.

It was the first time I understood that the offspring does not have a fully functioning Swedish language, although he can speak Swedish without a broken accent. We did not anticipate that our goal for Junior to speak English fluently would come at the expense of the Swedish language.

Here comes inflation on the rise

There is still no official information about who just sent drones to the Iranian city of Isfahan. Whether it is Israel's response to Iran's massive attack on them late last week or a third party that "seized the opportunity" to increase tensions in the area is not yet clear. Regardless, oil prices are rising right now, which will contribute to rising inflation in the near future.

In addition to this, the negotiations between the Swedish landlords and the tenant association have just been concluded. Most will receive a rent increase of between 3.5% and 5.5% from 1 April 2024 and between 3.3% and 5.3% from 1 April 2025.

The consequence of the above is that inflation rises in Sweden, which in turn means that Sweden's central bank will with great certainty not lower the policy rate at the upcoming monetary policy decision on May 7, 2024.

Different degrees of hell

Life really can change in an instant.

We are fighting against a declining economy and shrinking sales figures. I considered this a huge problem until I was contacted by two close friends at the beginning of the week. One of them has had a lump diagnosed as malignant cancer and the other has had one of his children arrested by the police on suspicion of fraud.

All of a sudden my own problems feel insignificant.

This must change

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.

Although gang crime has escalated with almost daily shootings or explosions, nothing has been done to remove the "sentence discount". "Sentence discount", which is the practice in Sweden, means that you are only sentenced for the crime with the highest penalty.

Sweden's tax system is progressive, which means that you pay more in income tax the more your income rises. Which in practice means that if a criminal commits a crime, he or she is rewarded with a "discount" on the sentence, while a hard-working honest person is punished with a higher tax rate the more he or she works.

Huge amounts of invalid money

The Swedish krona continues to lose value against the rest of the world. There are several different explanations as to why.

One explanation is that small currencies such as the Swedish krona tend to weaken in times of financial unrest with great uncertainty such as exchange rate developments.

Another is that the world's trust in Sweden has decreased due to the major problems with gang crime. The world's increased knowledge of the escalated gang crime has reduced the inclination of foreign companies to establish themselves in Sweden.

A third is that confidence in Sweden's coins and notes is low because Sweden's central bank replaces them too often. For example, the Swedish 100-krona note, which is roughly equivalent to $10, has changed its appearance 3 times since 1965. The last time Sweden replaced its coins and banknotes was in 2016. With each exchange, the previous coins and notes become invalid.

The value of invalid Swedish coins and notes lying in various nooks and crannies around the world should be enormous, while a US dollar is always worth a dollar. Sweden and large part of the world have a lot to learn.

You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs

Just over 4.5 years ago, we had made a big decision that would have a big impact on our work situation. 5 weeks later, Covid-19 struck and the plan was put on hold. When the pandemic finally released its iron grip on the world, we intended to resume the previous plan.

Instead of being given room to breathe and resume the plan, the world was thrown into rampant inflation. Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken chose to fight inflation with the only weapon they know, the interest weapon. The increased policy rate drove inflation further and pushed Sweden and many other countries into the currently ongoing deep recession.

Several years later and enough broken eggs to feed a small regiment, the world's most perfect husband has resumed our plan. Should the world suffers another setback, we must try to accept that the universe is trying to tell us something and abandon our plan for good.

Back to school

The world's most perfect teenager doesn't have many weeks left in the IB Diploma Program (DP) preparatory year (or grade 10). Junior's math teacher was the first to announce which chapters and worksheets he needs to memorize for his end of year exam.

I have to help the offspring who still lacks the understanding of the importance of school and doesn't have enough will or knowledge to put together a plan for how he will have time to study enough in all subjects for his end-of-year exams.

The amount of math homework Junior and I have to work our way through to brush up on his math skills is nothing compared to the two poems we'll be trying to decipher tonight.

Out on the other side

Several years later and both the world's most perfect teenager and I are nearing the end of puberty respective menopause. The worst emotional storms have long since subsided. To be completely honest, neither Junior nor I were particularly affected by our respective conditions. Something that the world's most perfect husband might have a different opinion about.😉

The only thing the offspring and I have different opinions on is his commitment to the school. It feels like it's easier to change the rotation of the earth than to make a 16-year-old understand exactly how important studying is to his future.

Reality knocked

In Sweden, it has been understood the wages should increase every year, regardless of how the companies or the employee have performed. At the same time, the value of the Swedish krona has steadily fallen. This development was bound to implode sooner or later.

The nominal wage increase was 2.5% between September 2022 and September 2023. If you subtract inflation, you get the real wage increase. Since inflation has been kept at a low level for most of the period 1995-2021, real wages have increased by an average of 1.8% a year. 

During the last two years, together with high inflation, we have had a negative real wage trend.

Dishonest intentions, from both sides

Full transparency, neither I nor anyone close to me disposes of a rental apartment. In Sweden, you must have permission from the landlord to sublet your rental apartment.

If you sublet your rental property without permission, it is grounds for termination of the rental agreement. When you sublet a rental apartment, you may not charge a higher rent than you pay yourself, with the exception of a 10% surcharge if the apartment is furnished and additional fees for, for example, electricity and internet.

Despite that, there are many who use their rental apartment as a source of income and charge double the rental cost from their sublet tenant. In Sweden, we have a tribunal, the rent tribunal, which has the task of trying rent and rental disputes.

The rent tribunal consists of a chairman who is a lawyer and two members. One of the members has previously been a tenant and the other member has experience in managing apartment buildings. In this way, both parties are represented. The rent tribunal now warns that they do not have time to deal with all errands. A record number of sublet tenants reported their sublet landlords last year.

I am of the opinion that anyone who sublets their rental apartment without permission should lose their rental agreement. At the same time, I'm of the opinion that anyone who reports their sublet landlord to the rent tribunal just to try to take over the lease should end up last in the housing queue.

I suspect the judge was not objective

Outside the town of Solna, which is located just outside Stockholm, a number of climate activists carried out an action in 2022 on E4 (European route 4). The action caused a disturbance that led to an ambulance on duty to get stuck in traffic.

The district court convicted the activists of sabotage and disobedience to law and order. The Court of Appeal acquitted them of sabotage as the Court of Appeal considers that the disturbance caused by the activists was not serious enough to be considered sabotage.

I consider the activists lucky that no one died. The next time these activists carry out an action, and they will, and someone dies, I hold this judge responsible for that death. Sweden must get rid of all activists who have infiltrated the judiciary.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Sweden's inflation figure for March 2024 is lower than many, including Sweden's central bank, expected. The expected 2.7% became 2.2% according to CPIF.

Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken has previously announced that they intend to lower the policy rate either in May or June. There is, however, one factor that causes Riksbanken a great deal of concern, the exchange rate of the Swedish krona.

When the inflation figure was published, the Swedish krona further lost value against the US dollar. When the inflation outcome is this low, you might have to accept a slightly weaker Swedish krona.

If we have high inflation, it can be difficult with a weak krona, because then import prices will be higher. If we have low inflation, it is difficult with a strong krona, because then inflation can be too low.

It has become bigger

My hidden jewel has grown bigger and stronger over the years. In my spreadsheet, I have chosen to only include the net dividend, which actually gives an incorrect result as I exclude the tax refund. I have and will never, to the chagrin of the world's most perfect husband, change this approach for several reasons.

Mainly because I can never be 100% sure that America and Europe will not choose to end this cooperation at some point in the future. Also, because I enjoy having a hidden asset.

🎼🎼 What doesn't kill you 🎼 makes you stronger

The value of most of our holdings dropped with the announcement that US inflation rose more than the market had priced in. At the same time, the US dollar increased in value against the Swedish krona, so the value of our portfolios is almost intact.

At times like this, our portfolios almost act like a currency account and retain value. The times, and there have been many, that both our holdings and the Swedish krona lose value at the same time is incredibly mentally exhausting.

I wish I had paid more attention

The world's most perfect teenager has a big English exam left before the end of the school year. Considering how he performed on his last English test, he really needs to nail this.

Unfortunately, this test involves deciphering poems, which is neither mine nor Junior's strong suit. Things I learned in school that I thought I would never use turned out to be useful.

The only thing I learned in school and never had any use for before is deciphering poems, until now.

Extended time frame

Before Covid-19, I was confident that we would reach our financial goal by December 31, 2024, which would have meant that Mr. Dewlar would have the option to stop working if he so wished. Instead, the pandemic caused us serious financial damage and extended the time to our financial goal by at least a couple of years.

In addition, one of our portfolio "engines", NewtekOne, Inc. Common Stock (NEWT), made a change in business focus and cut its dividend significantly in 2023. This too caused us considerable damage.

In total, I think that Covid-19 and NEWT mean a delay of at least 3 years. Even if it's a setback, it's at least 4 years less than another blogger I read.

It will be a good day regardless of the outcome

Me and my BFF have signed up for a flea market next month where we're going to try to sell a bunch of stuff we've collected over the years.

We have been living in a smaller 1370 sq ft apartment for 14 years and have not accumulated anywhere near what they have due to her and her family living in their 4200 sq ft house for 27 years.

It is a so-called car boot sale and you can choose to use a car, pick-up or van. Since this flea market is outdoors and not in a parking garage, I chose to borrow one of Dad's vans instead of using our Chevy Silverado pick-up.

My BFF is great at baking buns and cakes, so if the sale fails, it will be the longest and best Swedish fika of the year.

A failure

The world's, perhaps not at the moment, most perfect teenager failed miserably with his English essay. The highest grade he could have received on the essay is 8 and the lowest is 1.

The whole class failed because the highest grade in the class is a 4 and the lowest a 1, which in itself is completely uninteresting to me. Junior's grade is a 3.

Getting a grade 3 took a toll on the offspring. So hard that he was sitting at his desk rewriting the paper to understand what he had done wrong when we got home from work yesterday. This was the offspring's first grade 3 ever.

It took such a toll on him that he went to bed already at 8:30 p.m.