My bad

The world's most perfect teenager practice drove for several hours today with me as a driving instructor. We are lucky to have the opportunity to rent one of the three parking spaces in our courtyard. Driving the car in and out of the yard is tricky, at the narrowest point I only have 1.18 inches (3 cm) of clearance on each side.

Our previous car, an Audi A6 Allroad, I scratched once and today I did the exact same thing to our Tesla Model Y even though I've driven it in and out several times without a problem. I ended up 0.78 inches (2 cm) closer to the outer wall than I should have been and when I turned the steering wheel to enter the exit tunnel I scraped the wall. I consider this a colossal clusterfu** on my part.

I would prefer to unfriend myself while my husband just laughs and says that it's just worldly things.

We may well be at a crossroads

Although Nordnet currently outperforms Nordea, we will not sell any holdings in Nordea in favor of Nordnet until we know whether Nordea will provide the feature we are hoping for.

Until we get an answer from Nordea if we get access to the same feature with them as we can get with Nordnet, we will continue to move the money that our holdings with Nordea generate in dividends to Nordnet. If we do not get access to the feature at Nordea, we will continue to move the money from any future sales until we qualify for the function at Nordnet.

Something I prefer to avoid because of all the brokerage it will cost, but something we will be willing to do to get what we want.

Nordnet 1 - Nordea 0

Yesterday we bought a small number of shares of Horizon Technology Finance Corporation Common Stock (HRZN) and NNN REIT, Inc. Common Stock (NNN). We will not make any additional purchases this month. The acquisitions we made in July 2024 have increased our dividends by $433 on a cash basis.

In addition to still waiting for around 10% of this month's estimated dividends, we also expect foreign withholding tax for the final period this week. As this tax refund relates to parts of our best dividend month to date, it should be one of our larger tax refunds for the year. Nordnet has already refunded the foreign withholding tax, once again Nordnet is faster than Nordea.

Nordnet makes me want to dance  🎶 Faster Harder Scooter 🎶🎶🎶

Sometimes it's good to be short

When the world's most perfect teenager was 10 years old, he hated everything about smoking. Once he even approached a stranger in town and asked if she knew you could die from smoking. So that he wouldn't be tempted or succumb to possible peer pressure and start smoking when he reached his teenage years, we promised him that if he didn't start smoking we would give him a car when he turned 18.

There and then these 8 years felt very far away, but apparently I must have blinked because now there is only 1 year left. With the goal in sight, Junior has started looking at cars and wants a Ferrari Enzo or similar when at best he gets a 10 year old Renault 5.

Yesterday there was a Ferrari Enzo parked a little further down on our street. Junior was completely fascinated until he realized that his 6'2 could be a problem when it comes to getting in and out of the car. It was with malicious-joy I pointed out that sometimes it's good to be short as revenge for all the times he has heckled my 5'6.

Right now it is nice not to have any holdings in any of the companies

CrowdStrike, the software company that provides a broad security platform that includes various protections against intrusions, threats and vulnerabilities, etc. whose software update on July 19 caused a historic outage in Microsoft's systems. An outage that caused millions of computers to crash, leading to thousands of canceled flights. CrowdStrike lost nearly a quarter of its value in two trading days amid concerns about the company's operations following the colossal failure.

One of the affected companies is Delta Airlines, whose loss due to the outage is estimated at around $350-$500 million. According to CNBC's Phil Lebeau, Delta Airlines has hired high-powered attorney David Boies to seek damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft. The rumor sent the CrowdStrike stock down 5% yesterday when CNBC reported on David Boies.

I think CrowdStrike will own the outage and claim that Microsoft was not involved in any way. CrowdStrike will take one for Microsoft and let itself be sacrificed.

It's OK when they do it

For full transparency, I am politically far from the left and socialism. In the last election, I voted for the incumbent right-wing government.

Rent regulations in Sweden were introduced during World War II driven by the Swedish Social Democrats, which is the opposite of market rents. Their intention was that anyone could afford to live in Stockholm's inner city. The result was that tenants in the city of Stockholm have the same rent as tenants in suburbs and exposed area which means quote "geographically delimited places of low socio-economic status and where the criminals have an impact on the local community" unquote. The whole of Sweden applies this rental price.

One of my acquaintances, whose political home branch is on the left, dad worked as a property manager for one of Stockholm's larger real estate companies. At one point we had a discussion about the Swedish rental system where I told him that Sweden should apply market rents, something I still think.

My acquaintance was completely against this as he was convinced that he could not afford to live in his rented apartment in Stockholm's inner city, which he got through his dad's contacts. When I pointed out that he didn't get his lease legally, he got angry, just like people with a political home branch on the left always get when you catch them with their fingers in the jam jar.

We complement each other

The world's most perfect husband is significantly better at negotiating than I am. I'm not much for beating around the bush, instead I'm a doer.

Currently we have our main holdings with Nordea as they were the only ones to refund the foreign withholding tax in the near future. A function that Nordnet also has today, an advantage that Nordnet has compared to Nordea is that deposits to the endowment insurance take place in real time, which takes time at Nordea. It was the quick tax refund at Nordea that made us choose to move the majority of our money to them several years ago.

Now Nordnet has a feature that we want and qualify for with them, but this means that we have to sell the majority of our holdings at Nordea and move the money to Nordnet, something we would prefer to avoid. Because of this I wrote an email to Nordea with a request if they can offer us this function.

Before I send important correspondence, I always have my husband proofread because I am aware of my weakness of being a little too direct. As usual, I left nothing for a possible future negotiation as I consider this a waste of time. My husband softened the email and left room for negotiation.

Let the game begin!

I am looking forward to this

The world's most perfect teenager turns 17 in a month on the same day we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. As a birthday present, he wants new controllers for his VR equipment and money for stocks.

For the past 10 years, we have required that 50% of all money that Junior receives be put into endowment insurance to be invested in stocks. For the first time, he seems genuinely interested in his stock portfolio. At least once a week, together with the world's most perfect husband, he wants to go through the portfolio to see any ups and downs and upcoming dividends.

Junior still doesn't know we're "doping" his portfolio with $150 every month. A move that seems to have succeeded as his interest in the portfolio increased.

This year will be the 4th time we celebrate our wedding anniversary. We celebrated 1st and 2nd year, 10th and now 20th.

This is hard for me

Today, me and the world's most perfect husband visited my oldest cousin who recently moved. He has bought a nice house 35 minutes drive from Stockholm city. In addition to the house itself, he has 3 small houses on his plot, one of which is a guest house. He has a lot of work ahead of him before the house is in the condition he wants, but it's great.

Keeping a strict diet is difficult when visiting someone or having visitors. My ambition was to also give up cookies and buns, but that turned out to be impossible when visiting someone. Apart from today's cinnamon buns, I haven't eaten sweets or soft drinks.

According to various articles it takes up to 21 days for the worst sugar cravings to start to subside and I'm only on day 6.

I really hope this will cure my vertigo or it won't be worth it.

New times, new routines

Last night we received the dividend from Rithm Capital Corp. Common Stock (RITM). After we received this payout, there is barely 10% left of the month's estimated payouts. July's dividends will be almost exactly according to the forecast. Then begins one, for us, of the worst dividend months of the year.

However, July will perform worse than April even though we have invested all the May and June dividends. The main reason for this is that the acquisitions we made with the dividends for May and June do not have January, April, July and October as dividend months, plus that the special dividends during July have been almost non-existent.

As both the stock market and the US dollar have increased in value recently, we will not be making any acquisitions in the near future. Another decision we have made is to move future dividends we receive from our holdings in Nordea to Nordnet until further notice.

The reason for this decision is due to Nordea's unwillingness to be accommodating recently. Since Nordnet is as quick with the foreign tax refund as Nordea these days and that was the only reason why we moved a lot of money from mainly Avanza but also Nordnet, there is no reason for us to continue with Nordea.

Better late than never

In the end, Nordea managed to find our dividend regarding Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN). More than 1 week after both Avanza and Nordnet. It took three phone calls to make Nordea understand that it was indeed an error with the payment and not quote "just a day or two late" unquote. If we had had our mortgage with Nordea, I doubt they would have accepted a similar response from us.

With 3 business days left in July, only one big dividend remains for us, namely Rithm Capital Corp. Common Stock (RITM). Hopefully the Swedish krona will not strengthen against the US dollar before then.

My job is far from done

The world's most perfect teenager starts Year 11 in mid-August 2024, which means he has 3 weeks left of his summer break. So far, he has done all the schoolwork we agreed upon, with a little prompting from us.

Since boys' brains aren't fully developed until their 20s, there's new evidence pointing toward their 30s, it's our job to make sure he manages the school properly so he's ready when he's fully developed.

All students enrolled in High Level Mathematics must take an exam to qualify for this course. If you fail this test, you will be taken to Standard Level Mathematics. I really hope that all the work he has put in all summer pays off so that he qualifies for this course. Otherwise, it will be difficult to motivate him in the future.

Junior knows that school is important but he hasn't understood it yet.

Evolution's big miss

Almost every parent wishes and hopes that their offspring will be like them in some way. Because we parents are desperate for some kind of likeness, we accept anything, looks, way of dressing or even bad manners. 😉

Equally or even more, there is not a single offspring that in any way wants to resemble its parent. Considering how amazing the world and nature is created, this deviation should never have existed.

Even though I love my mom more than anything, I definitely don't want to look like her. Every time someone says I look like her, it sends shivers down my spine. The world's most perfect teenager feels exactly the same every time someone says he looks like his dad.

Yesterday me, Junior, my mom and Junior's cousin played golf together. When we met in the parking lot, I was struck by how much my nephew resembles his dad. I refrained from mentioning it.

🎶 I want candy 🎶 🎶

I always thought that since I've never smoked and drink maybe 2 glasses of champagne per year I'd do pretty well without ailments, but I was wrong. Mismanaging the food and eating candy and drinking soda every day for the past 30 years finally took its toll.

Since last fall, I have known that my sugar intake in the form of sweets and soft drinks affects my dizziness, but it is only now that I am beginning to understand it. I have had headaches and dizziness every day since last summer. The dizziness comes every time I go to bed at night, after 5-10 seconds it goes away.

My dizziness specialist has explained that there are several causes of my dizziness. A migraine attack, for example, can trigger a more persistent and severe dizziness than the dizziness I have and have had for the past year. To overcome this I had to change my lifestyle, something that took a year to accept.

Since Monday, I haven't eaten sweets, drank soft drinks or had sugar in my tea once. The headache got worse every day until this morning when I woke up without a headache. In addition, I have made sure to eat protein at every meal, something I have been bad at. I'm thankful we found the butcher shop with the delicious burgers so I've been eating burgers or chicken every day. My dizziness specialist says my walking of 15,000-20,000 steps per day cannot replace cardio so I will have to replace walking with cardio going forward.

But damn, I didn't know you could miss candy so much!

Flight delay vs medical delay

EU regulation EC 261, which was introduced in 2004, gives air passengers the right to receive compensation in the event of flight delays or canceled flights. The consequence of a flight being delayed or canceled is that you arrive at your final destination later than planned and thus miss a meeting, a holiday or a working day.

In 2005, a national care guarantee was introduced in Sweden, which in July 2010 became a part of the Health Care Act. The care guarantee is a statutory right which means that a region must offer care to those who are registered in the region within a certain time frame, however, you are not entitled to compensation if the care guarantee is not fulfilled. The time frame within which a patient is entitled to care is often exceeded, which many times resulted in patients dying while waiting for medical care.

That a delayed or canceled flight is penalized but that delayed medical care is not is absurd. You don't die from arriving later than planned at your final destination, which you unfortunately can do if you don't receive adequate medical care in time.

Round 3?

Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN) latest dividend with payment date 7.15.24 is still not paid by Nordea. This morning I discovered that we are also missing the most recent dividend from Horizon Technology Finance Corporation Common Stock (HRZN) with a payment date of 7.16.24. If we have not received (MAIN)'s money this afternoon, I will have to contact Nordea a third time on the same matter.

It feels like that Nordea's HR granted all employees in the securities department vacation at the same time and replaced the entire department with temps. I sincerely hope we get the dividend for both (MAIN) and (HRZN) tomorrow because I can't bear to fight anymore with Nordea's customer service which only consists of Gen Z.

I know what buttons to push

Over the past two days, my widget with the exchange rates has come in handy. Being able to see in real time with just a glimpse of the mobile screen how the value of our holdings is rising has been incredibly satisfying.

The world's most perfect husband who doesn't this feature on his cell phone has been poking at my screen time and time. To really annoy my husband, I installed the exact same widgets on both my mom's and dad's iPhones. 😂

In addition to the Swedish krona losing value against the US dollar, it is also losing value against the euro.

Critical of sources, part 2

Full transparency and agenda, I have always voted for right-wing parties.

The state-owned Swedish television (SVT) and the state-owned Swedish radio (SR)'s mission is to serve the public and is run independently in relation to political, commercial and other interests in society. Both SVT and SR are financed 100% with tax money.

The fact that most employees at SVT and SR have their ideological residence on the left has resulted in their coverage being affected, says a former employee at SVT, Jan Josefsson, in an interview in December 2023 with Swedish media Varlden idag.

The result is that Swedish citizens who only get their news coverage through these two channels were surprised when it was discovered that Biden has health problems because anything that could be interpreted as negative has always been left out by them.

Journalists used to write what they saw, today they write what they think about what they see.

I feel for them

One of our acquaintances and his wife have since 25 years used all their savings and free time to build an architect's house in a suburb of Stockholm for themselves and their family. The house is 3,100 ft²  (310 m²) in several floors with an indoor pool. Our acquaintances have always said that their house will be their retirement.

The plan was that when they approached retirement age and the children had moved out, they would sell the house to buy a 1,500 ft² (150 m²) apartment in the Stockholm city district they wanted to live in. Unfortunately, the prices of apartments in Stockholm's city have increased significantly more than houses in Stockholm's suburbs, which means that the type of apartment they want to buy costs more than what a possible sale of the house entails.

The result is that instead of selling the house, buying an apartment and living on the surplus from the sale, they have to stay in the house. Since they have used all the money for the house over the years, neither of them has any private pension savings, the only future pension will be the state pension. Which is very small.

To have a good old age they must have access to money and the only "money" they have today is the house that has no mortgage. Because they don't have a permanent job, they will not be approved for a traditional mortgage, but have to take out a much more expensive loan with the house as collateral.

I'm not on a crusade against Gen Z, but

For full transparency and agenda, I am the mom of a son born in the latter half of Gen Z's time frame. The blame for Gen Z's inability to understand that others may know better than them lies with their parents, i.e. Gen X. To which I myself belong.

Our ambition to let them participate and make decisions too early in life has contributed to them believing that they can and know everything even though they are only about 25 years old. I can see it myself in my son and his friends, despite being only 16-17 years old. It is not easy to raise someone to believe in themselves but at the same time to be humble for someone else can know better is not easy.

When the world's most perfect teenager was a toddler, I often told him quote "because I say so" unquotes instead of trying to explain something he didn't have the ability to understand because of his young age. However, I have often heard parents trying to explain something to their toddlers who instead became confused and the situation escalated instead. We see the result of this upbringing now when a whole generation believes they can and know best, despite the fact that they are only in their 20s and cannot possibly have the same experience as a 40-year-old.

This morning I ran up against a brick wall when I contacted Nordea for the second time about the same matter. The young woman who answered Nordea's customer service today had exactly the same attitude as the young man last week. Rudely and superiorly she explained to me quote "that sometimes it takes an extra day before the dividend appears in the account" unquote. I calmly and politely replied that I am aware that it may take an extra day or two but not a week.

I tried to tell her that this is the third month in a row that there have been problems with the dividend of Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN) and that my experience indicates that there may be a fault between Nordea and their partners, but she did not want to hear about it.

There was the same problem with another stock on our endowment insurance with Nordnet last year. The fourth month I called Nordnet about the affected stock they identified the problem and took action. Since then, the dividend for the stock has worked flawlessly.

While I envy Gen Z's belief in themselves, they need to fuc**** man up and start doing their jobs before they turn me into an old bat, premature.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, part 2

The main task of the European Central Bank (ECB) is to manage the euro, to design and implement the EU's economic and monetary policy. The ECB has been responsible for monetary policy in the euro area since 1999, when responsibility was transferred from the national central banks. The goal is primarily to keep prices stable and thus contribute to economic growth and new jobs within the Union, an example is that inflation in the euro area should be just under 2%.

The ECB is jointly owned by the central banks of all EU countries. Each country's share of the ECB's capital is based equally on its population and gross domestic product (GDP). The countries that use the euro pay more than other countries.

As Europe is a continent made up of several countries, the different countries must support the ECB's common goals. This can sometimes be problematic as there are countries within Europe whose politics, history and culture differ significantly from each other.

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Unlike Sweden and other countries that have 1 central bank, America has 12 Reserve Banks. Even the continent of Europe has 1 central bank, the European Central Bank (ECB).

The 12 Reserve Banks and their 24 Branches are the operating arms of the Federal Reserve System. Each Reserve Bank operates within its own particular geographic area, or district, of the US lending to depository institutions to ensure liquidity in the financial system. This structure ensures that the reserves and decisions of the Fed are distributed across the country and that the conditions of communities from every part of the nation are considered when the Fed sets monetary policy.

By land area, the United States is larger than the European Union. If you add up all the central banks in Europe's respective countries and the ECB, there are significantly more than 12. This means that the US's 12 Reserve Banks are fewer than all of Europe's central banks including the ECB, despite a smaller land area.

I wish I had their confidence

Today, me and the world's most perfect teenager had planned to practice driving. Just as we were about to leave, a classmate called him and asked if he wanted to come along and play soccer. Junior, who wanted to both play soccer and practice driving, asked if we could pick up his school friend who lives outside Stockholm city when we were out driving. The happiness on the offspring's face when I agreed to this was priceless.

When we had picked up his schoolmate and were on our way back to Stockholm city, I asked his friend if he also practice driving. The school friend who originally comes from India moved to Sweden as recently as 2 years ago was born in October 2008, which means he can earliest start practice driving in October this year. But according to him, there are no problems because he can already drive a car, except for the "technical". Although his school friend is 1 year younger and grew up on the other side of the world, he and Junior are exactly the same, they can and knows everything. 😂

You don't wish this on anyone, neither the victims nor the wrongdoer

We were one of the companies affected by the Wannacry ransomware virus in 2017. It was one of the weekend staff who opened an email he wasn't supposed to. The memory is still fresh of all the problems the virus caused.

That time 300,000 computers in 150 countries were affected, the day before yesterday 8.5 million computers were damaged in CrowdStrike's IT crash. Reportedly 1% of all the world's Windows devices. 

Among those affected are airlines, airports, banks, companies, exchanges, payment systems, television broadcasts and many more. CrowdStrike is said to have identified and isolated the problem and that action has been taken. How long all the recovery work will take cannot be predicted because some systems do not automatically recover but require manual restarts, which means that problems are fixed at different speeds.

I highly doubt CrowdStrike will survive the probably astronomical damage likely to be required once all the recovery work is done.

I am on call 24/7

My dad called last night at 9:20 p.m. and was frustrated. According to him, his fictitious portfolio on Seeking Alpha that I created for him the other day was completely gone. Luckily, he and mom were in their summer house, which is 90 minutes by car outside of Stockholm, otherwise he would not have called but stood outside our front door instead.

Since my dad's IT skills are completely non-existent, I solved the problem by hanging up and calling my mom on FaceTime instead. With mom's phone pointed at dad's screen, I could easily guide dad to his portfolio. The problem was that when he opened the app it was the page "Ideas" that appeared instead of "Portfolio" and my dad immediately assumed that his portfolio was gone. It doesn't matter how many times I've shown him how he might need to switch pages in the app. It's like it only goes in one ear and out the other.

So while the technology, video calling, enables me to help him, it is the same technology, apps, that creates these problems for me.

I want to choose myself, not be forced

Could a waning interest in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) among investors be a sign that investors are beginning to understand that ESG does not put food on the table and a roof over their heads?

Our main bank, Nordea, has several ESG analysts employed who helps companies that Nordea plans or already invests in to strengthen their sustainability (Environmental). Taking responsibility for, among other things, working conditions, employee rights and diversity (Social). As well as assisting the corporate governance in the companies whose task is to function as a control mechanism in matters of bribery and corruption, tax, remuneration to the top management, shareholders' voting rights and internal control (Governance).

If I had to decide, Nordea and all other banks would assist the companies with possible financing, be a sounding board for issues related to the core business, etcetera. Not forcing the company to shift focus and assets from its core business to picking low-hanging fruit that doesn't add value to my investments.

If I want to invest according to ESG, there are several alternatives that fulfill that purpose. On the other hand, if I want to steer clear of investing according to ESG, I should also have that option.

The currently most significant factor is identified

Last Thursday, the stock market first opened up and then closed down. Before the stock market turned down, our portfolios managed to reach ATH calculated in both SEK and USD.

In a comparison between Thursday's ATH and today's value of the portfolio calculated in USD, the development is -1.521%. However, the comparison between Thursday's ATH and today's value of the portfolio calculated in SEK is instead -0.2587%.

Since the entire holding is in USD, any exchange rate movement, up or down, becomes more essential to the value of the portfolio than any individual stock price. This year, the last two weeks of April and the first week of May were the weakest time period for the Swedish krona so far. This contributed to the dividends we received during that time period being higher compared to the corresponding weeks in January and February 2024.

The larger the portfolio, the more important the exchange rate becomes.

Magically delicious! 😋

In our almost 30 years together, there is one thing that the world's most perfect husband and I have never shared the same passion for, namely food. My husband has always loved to eat, vegetarian, fish or meat doesn't matter. He eats everything.

I myself am quite picky and prefer simpler food, for example pancakes with raspberry jam. However, I really wish I ate lobster, it looks so good but tastes so bad. Instead, I eat sweets and snacks daily. But since we found the butcher shop with the dry-aged beef tenderloin, I have taken the initiative to go back there several times. To my husband's big amazement.

Today we ate hamburgers made from dry-aged sirloin steak and entrecôte. I topped the burger with crispy bacon and cheese. When the world's most perfect teenager utters a subdued quote "oh" unquote throughout dinner, you know it's good.

Someone had a bad day at work today

Today, like yesterday, The Dow closed down. Mainly thanks to CrowdStrike which fell sharply after its worldwide IT disaster which received colossal media attention.

I'm not convinced that CrowdStrike and its employees agree with the phrase "there's no such thing as bad publicity". Regardless, they have managed to make almost every person on earth familiar with their brand and business. Not bad for a day's work.

The Swedish krona lost further value against the US dollar today. Unfortunately, I have no idea exactly what this weakening is due to. For some reason, the world's confidence in Sweden and the Swedish economy is weak.

So even though the DOW fell hard today, our portfolio did not lose significantly in value due to the weakening of the Swedish krona.

I'm so stupid

When the world's most perfect teenager talked about his future plans and that they possibly involved a move to Switzerland, it felt natural because Junior right now wants to work in finance and as a banking and financial center, Switzerland is a hub.

Yesterday it emerged that the offspring has a new girlfriend, who is of Swiss origin. While I thought Junior was maturing and and thinking about his future career choice, he is thinking about something entirely else.

The world's most perfect husband laughed until tears rolled down his face when I told him.

Sometimes experience beats youth

I called Nordea yesterday and asked for the dividend from Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN). The young adult man who answered had the exact same attitude that Junior can have when he thinks he knows everything. As with Junior, my word was not enough, I had to prove a number of facts to get the young adult man to open a case.

I have previously made the mistake of accepting what the bank staff in customer service said and thus lost several days, most recently we had to wait 2 weeks for the money.

While I think it's amazing and I can envy the confidence that many young men and teenagers have, that same confidence can drive me crazy. If only for once they could accept that an old lady actually knows more than them.

🎶 I want it all 🎶 🎶

While I always want to invest all my surplus, I have also seen a handbag that I want. Before we were blessed with the world's most perfect offspring, I often bought designer handbags, which means that today I have almost a bag for every occasion.

These days I always have to have my reading glasses with me. I don't have a purse that's the perfect size for a pair of reading glasses, a pair of sunglasses, a cell phone, and a small key ring. All my bags are either to big or to small. However, Dior has the most perfect bag for this purpose.

I've been saving up for this bag and finally have the money, unfortunately the bag is out of stock at the moment. The longer time goes by, the more tempted I become to ignore the bag and invest the money instead. The person who encourages me the most to buy the bag is the world's most perfect husband who thinks you have to live too, not just save.

My hero ❤️

The world's most perfect husband has done a fantastic job with the shower mixer. After another 1 hour of work today, not only did he manage to adjust the shower mixer so the cover just fit, it looked better and got a more secure seal than before.

It might be because I'm married to a craftsman, even though he hasn't practiced the profession for 20 years, and saw him in craftsman clothes every day for our first 10 years, that makes me not being attracted to men in craftsman clothes in the same way as 90% of the world's other female population. But yesterday and today my soon to be 57 year old husband was super sexy when he installed the shower mixer.

The old shower mixer was 14 years old and really needed replacing as it was not a thermostatic mixer. Finally I can shower without the water swaying.

Family first ❤️

The world's most perfect teenager was incredibly happy to be 6'1 (186 cm) and was convinced that he would not grow any more. On one of the door linings in his room, we have noted his height and the date we measured throughout his upbringing.

Junior has been eating like a horse for the past few weeks and every time he has eaten this way it has almost always resulted in him getting taller. It turns out my soon to be 17 year old son has grown over the summer and is currently 6'2 (188 cm). I really hope he's fully grown now because especially me, 5'6 (168 cm), but even Junior's dad, 5'10 (178 cm), is starting to look ridiculously short next to him.

Every time I look at our smart, kind, intelligent and tall son, I wonder how we could be blessed with this amazing offspring.

Riksbanken needs to man up

For transparency and my own agenda, we have mortgages. Me and the world's most perfect husband have always considered that a policy rate below 2% is neither right nor healthy for a country. We have always lived as if the mortgage interest rate should be at least 4% and the difference between 4% and the real interest rate we have invested in stocks. Therefore, the interest rate increases of recent years have not affected our disposable income.

The fact that inflation for June was 1.3%, which is 0.7% below the inflation target of 2%, means that experts and economists claim that Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken should make a double reduction at the monetary policy statement in August, i.e. 50 points. If inflation for July also ends up below the inflation target, criticism and demands on Riksbanken will increase.

Personally, I think they held off on a cut at the June 26, 2024 monetary policy meeting to get access to two months of results before they need to make a decision. That way, they have both belt-and-braces.

As is traditional, Riksbanken reacts instead of act.

Junior's thinking of Switzerland and I dream of Florida

The advantage of waking up early, 5:10 a.m. (GMT+2), I get time to myself so I can work for an hour or two without it affecting the day's activities even though I'm actually on vacation. I've always had the ability to fall asleep anywhere and anytime without a problem. All of this changed with menopause, although it has gotten better lately. So far I've worked every single day of my vacation except for 3 days, one of which I was in bed with a migraine that only subsided when I threw up.

We will most likely not leave Sweden this summer, although there is much to be desired when it comes to the weather. Hopefully we'll go away one weekend to play golf with Junior. I would have preferred to go back to Florida, USA, but there is no financial room for that right now. There is no place in the world where I felt more at home than in Florida.

Despite this, I have no desire to sell holdings to travel, the portfolio must be allowed to grow strong so that we can stop working if the world's most perfect teenager chooses to leave Sweden for higher studies. Since he carries my heart around, we "must" move if he moves.

Here we go again

Yesterday we received the dividend regarding the Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN) dividend with payment date 15 July 2024 in our endowment insurance with Nordnet and today in the endowment insurance with Avanza.

Tomorrow I have to call Nordea and ask them to troubleshoot (MAIN's) dividend, again. This will be the third month in a row that (MAIN's) dividend at Nordea has not been paid out as it should. Nordea must have changed partners because up until 3 months ago the payments worked flawlessly.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If they're happy, I'm happy

My parents are incredibly happy with their fixed portfolios in Seeking Alpha where they can track their holdings in USD. Today both mom and dad called us and were independently equally happy about the Seeking Alpha app.

Mom even sold one of her mutual funds that she had in a traditional stock and mutual fund account. I think she is starting to understand exactly how much money she pays in mutual fund fees to her bank every year. In addition to these fund fees, there is now also a capital gain when selling the fund units.

The money will be moved to her endowment insurance and invested in US stocks, when an acquisition opportunity arises.

It is a luxury to have a handy husband

Right after elementary school, my husband went on to become a plumber and worked with it in another life many, many years ago. Although it has been more years than I can count since he practiced the profession, he is talented and generally handy. Today he changed our shower mixer in the bathroom. 

Unfortunately, he discovered during the course of the work that the builder who built the house we live in cut corners, a lot. Since my husband is a perfectionist, he had to correct all the faults. 4 hours later, all that remains is the installation of the new cover, which is by far the easiest part of the process, and according to the manufacturer, has exactly the same dimensions as the original cover. When he unpacks the cover, he finds that the new one is 0.7874" (2 cm) shorter than the old one.

Thank goodness we have another bathroom. This will be a problem for tomorrow.

Sometimes you have seen beyond yourself

In their recently presented annual report, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) experts present their analyzes of the financial imbalances in the world economy and how the world's currencies are valued. They believe that the Swedish krona is currently the world's most undervalued currency, minus 17% according to the REER gap measure.

The real effective exchange rate (REER) is the weighted average of a country's currency relative to an index or basket of other major currencies.

The IMF's economists believe that if you look at the Swedish economy and what the Swedish krona should actually be traded for, the krona's exchange rate is unjustified weak. Swedish economists also believe that the Swedish krona is out of balance with economic fundamentals.

For us personally, a weak Swedish krona is better because all our holdings are in USD. Despite this, I hope for the Kingdom of Sweden that the Swedish krona is strengthened.

He almost always makes better decisions than I do

I refrained from making any acquisitions today while the world's most perfect husband bought a small number of Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC). Actually, he is already "fully invested" in (OXLC) while I have many stocks left to buy before I'm done.

My husband had already saved more than me before he turned 55 and had one of his pensions paid out in a lump sum and another that pays a couple of $100s every month for 10 years. I will never catch up on his savings depending on several variables. One of them is that I chose 65 years instead of choosing 55 years like him. 

Unfortunately, the conditions of the pension are that acquisitions must be made in certain funds, which means that the performance will not be as good as if I had invested them in individual stocks. To minimize the damage, I follow these funds closely.

Passing 2019 will feel good

At the end of August, this year's dividends will be larger than 2021's dividends. Hopefully we will have passed 2020 dividends by the end of September, although it is highly doubtful. After that, we have to wait until the turn of the year to see how much better 2024 will be compared to 2018, 2022 and 2023.

I have absolutely no reason to complain about Covid-19 because none of our loved ones died in the pandemic. My father's mother passed away at the turn of the year 2020/21 with Covid-19, not because of Covid-19 at the age of 96.

But sometimes I can think about what our dividend history would have looked like without Covid-19.

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This will be painful

Today our holding reached ATH in Swedish krona as well as in US dollars. The development of our portfolio in the last 3-4 days is almost ridiculous, the value has increased every time we have logged on. Rising stock prices in combination with a strengthening of the USD against the SEK that affects the entire portfolio causes the value of the portfolio to go bananas.

This cannot go on indefinitely though, there MUST be a recoil soon. So I'm going to take a chill pill and hopefully be able to refrain from making any investments and instead wait for the recoil.

Since patience is not my strongest personality trait, I have probably invested every available dollar before the market closes today.

I am blessed to still have them alive

Today we had my parents visiting. They wanted the help of the world's most perfect husband to buy stocks. Dad has been investing in stocks with my husband's help for years, while Mom has chosen not to. Mainly because my mother once worked at a bank and was indoctrinated by the bank about how good funds are, especially the bank's own funds. I won't belittle the performance of my mom's funds, but compared to my dad's stocks, they don't stand a chance.

So less than a year ago my mom asked if we couldn't help her too. Since then we have helped them both regularly, usually in connection with having dinner together. Today we serve the world's most perfect teenager's favorite meal, dry-aged beef tenderloin, raw fried potatoes and red wine sauce.

A perfect evening.

Blondes doesn't have more fun

I've had blond hair for a little over a month now and I really hate it. Unfortunately my hairdresser is on holiday and won't be back until the end of August which means I will be blonde at the family reunion. Every time I look at myself in the mirror I feel invisible.

It will be nice to be brunette again, which is my natural hair color. Or was before the gray hairs started to appear. I wish I had the same strength as my youngest sister who grew out her formerly black hair and is now naturally gray. Both me, my younger sister and our mom dye our gray hairs. Dad has been bald for many years.

I do hope that Junior takes after his dad and grandad who both have a lot of hair.

Times like these, it's nice to decide for yourself and not be dependent on someone else

Tomorrow, according to the world's most perfect husband, we will receive dividends from about 15 different holdings.

Given the recent developments in the stock market, we will most likely not invest the dividends immediately, but see how the market develops. At the same time, I want the money to start working as soon as possible, a classic catch-22 moment.

I see every dollar in the account as an animal in a cage, instead of being in its natural habitat, the stock market.

He will undeservedly be perceived as overbearing

The summer in Sweden has, apart from a few days in May and June, been classically Swedish. The last few days the temperature has fluctuated between 68°F (20°C) and 77°F (25°C). The evenings are really chilly, dropping to around 62°F (17 °C).

I really hope that the weather will be better in mid-August when we will have a big family reunion with my mother's side. Mum and dad have invited everyone to their summer house, in total we will be over 90 people. I have never met most of them as many of them live in northern Sweden. The world's most perfect teenager believes that his total collection of relatives consists of 4 cousins, 3 aunts and 4 grandparents. That my mother's side includes about 80 will be a surprise.

I know from experience that it can be difficult to understand what people from northern Sweden say, because of their dialect. There is a lot to be desired when it comes to Junior's Swedish, he still "Swedishizes" English words when he doesn't know what they are called in Swedish. I'm not sure how my relatives from northern Sweden will perceive my son when he will most likely ask them to speak English instead.

We are a good team

One of our acquaintances has all her savings, and it is a considerable sum, in one of the Swedish big banks' own funds. She has invested in their high-risk fund for several years, but decided to reduce her risk a couple of weeks ago.

To reduce her risk-taking, the entire holding had to be sold and then reinvested in a fund with lower risk. In addition to the management fee, which is based on the entire amount and paid monthly, the bank charged brokerage for both the sale and the acquisition. The total cost of the brokerage was more than $10,500.

I'm incredibly grateful that me and the world's most perfect husband have this interest together and don't rely on banks.

This will come back to bite the unions, part 17

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

The power struggle between the union IF Metall and Tesla Motor Sweden AB (TM) has been going on since October 2023. The basis for this conflict is that TM does not want to sign a collective agreement with IF Metall.

It is voluntary for companies to sign collective agreements. However, an employee organization can take industrial action to obtain a collective agreement, which is why voluntariness is not always real. If there is no collective agreement, it does not apply to any working conditions. Then the rules of the law apply instead.

Since October 2023, several other unions, both national and international, have joined IF Metall and taken sympathetic measures towards TM in various ways to make it more difficult for TM to conduct business in Sweden.

Now it turns out that one of the unions, Unionen, which is on sympathy strike with IF Metall against TM, does not itself have a collective agreement for its members.

The hypocrisy is monumental.

Why hate someone based on their gender?

As a mother of a son, wife of a man, and daughter of an older man, I am sickened beyond words by people who routinely speak ill of boys and men. The vast majority of boys and men are great people. Of course there are mean boys and men but just as many girls and women are just as mean.

If you have to complain and talk bad about boys and men as a woman, the least you should do is fact-check your post before writing. I read a post by a woman who wrote the following to a picture of the coronation of King Charles III quote "What a beautiful photograph of white male privilege and entitlement. Sums up who rules our country." unquote.

She had apparently missed that Britain's head of state for 134 of the last 200 years has been a woman.