Compared to others, we have it perfected

During our 30 years together, me and the world's most perfect husband have worked out a system that works perfectly for us. We have never sat down and divided the household chores, it became more of a natural division over the years.

For example, our maid only comes every two weeks, so my husband vacuums and scrubs our toilets between these times. In addition to this, he also cooks all the food, except for the breakfast that I prepare. I wash, do dishes, iron and keep our home tidy.

This is an almost perfect system except for the small detail that my husband must suffer from some kind of defect. I want the sink to be completely empty, i.e. no dishes, whether clean or dirty, should be there. Furthermore, we have 2 dishwashers so there is absolutely no reason to put dirty dishes there. Regardless of the time of day, I can always, without exception, walk into the kitchen and find dirty dishes on the sink.

Although this trait drives me crazy every now and then and makes me want to bite his head off, I love him deeply, with all his faults and flaws. He, on the other hand, has a much easier life as I am completely free from any errors and shortcomings.😉

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Unions are more concerned with politics than their core business

On June 5, 2024, Vardforbundet, a Swedish Healthcare Union for midwives, biomedical analysts, radiology nurses and nurses, chose to take its members out on strike due to excessive workloads with a lot of overtime. After 64 days of labor market conflict, the strike was called off after both the union and the employer had to compromise on their demands.

Omni, a Swedish news service, wrote an article on October 28, 2024 about shortcomings in the Swedish healthcare system in 2023 with catastrophic consequences quote "Last year 100 people died as a result of not receiving care at the right level and by staff with the right skills. It shows a review of incoming lex Maria notifications carried out by the professional association Sjukhuslakarna." unquote.

On the same day that Omni reports that Swedes are dying while being on waiting lists, Vardforbundet makes a statement asking the Swedish government for permission to receive and treat patients from Gaza, which the Swedish government decline. In my personal opinion, such a statement is just a political flirtation.

Roughly simplified, politics is about putting different groups against each other. Politics is largely about distributing the tax money that is available and distributing it among all the different groups that hope to get a share of the pie.

With Vardforbundet's statement, it can be concluded that there is no health care crisis and the health care has both space and time to treat foreign citizens. Or the Vardforbundet chooses to value the lives of foreign citizens more highly than Swedish ones because it is proven that people die in both places for lack of adequate care.

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Both sleep so well it's almost provocative

On the night between last Saturday and Sunday, Sweden turned the time back one hour to standard time AKA "winter time". Usually these changes don't affect me at all but this time my body refuses to accept the time change and I've been waking up at 4:40 a.m. every morning since. The world's most perfect husband, on the other hand, sleeps like a baby.

That the time change would not affect the world's most perfect teenager in the slightest was written in stone. As a teenager, he can sleep for 20 hours straight only to wake up and then go back to sleep for another 20 hours.

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Group 2 - Q4, special dividend

In the second month of Q4, one of our holdings gives an extra dividend, no matter how small the payout, we see every extra penny we "get" as a bonus.

Hercules Capital, Inc. Common Stock (HTGC), ¢8 with payment date November 20, 2024

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All you can be sure of is that everything is changeable

10 days ago it became impossible to acquire the majority of American BDCs in Sweden. It's no problem if I want to sell them. Avanza and Nordnet stated that the reason for this "new normal" was a change in the reference data they receive for this type of securities. Both online banks load reference data from a subcontractor and it is precisely this data that they base their platform on, more precisely the MiFID II and PRIIP regulations. The process is more or less automatic.

The change meant that the securities received a different CFI code, where the shares are now classified as closed-end funds. It differs in regulatory requirements and documentation standards between the US and the EU. Since the Swedish online banks cannot provide a fact sheet according to the regulations, this means that the banks are not allowed to distribute these investment products. The result is that Swedes are no longer allowed to buy these securities.

Since before, Swedes are completely restricted from acquiring ETFs based in America due to the same reason. If this continues, there will soon be no American securities left for us Swedes to buy. It was in the nick of time that we became qualified as a professional investor with one of our banks and and can at least continue our acquisitions with them. But I feel for anyone who can't.

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Authoritarianism gets a face

Criticism of Oxfam Sweden's global equality index, which was presented on October 22, 2024, has been massive on X. In a post to the criticism, Oxfam Sweden responds to the quote "Several debaters want to discredit our global equality index by strategically taking numbers out of context." unquote. Exactly what Oxfam Sweden is accused of doing themselves.

The X-thread ends from Oxfam Sweden's side with the quote "If you are going to use the index, our method is the only way it is possible to read the index." unquote.

That sentence sums up the entire report. Oxfam Sweden could just as well have written under no circumstances can you add essential facts we chose to withhold in order to reach the desired result.

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An ongoing love story ❤️

For the current year, my Google Sheet has been working flawlessly. As we have holdings with three different online banks and stock brokers, Avanza, Nordea and Nordnet, only my spreadsheet shows a true picture of our total holdings.

I have all the information I want except how much money we originally invested. That data disappeared when we chose to sell off large parts of our holdings in Avanza and Nordnet in 2018 in favor of Nordea due to their then by far the fastest refund of foreign withholding tax. When I made the transfer, I made the fatal mistake of canceling two of our endowment insurancies with Avanza and thereby losing most of the information about our original deposits.

At the end of the year, I will supplement my Google Sheet with the closing value in 2024 of all our holdings in both SEK and USD to get statistics on the holding's increase or decrease in value over the upcoming years.

Otherwise, my spreadsheet is perfect, for now…

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Suddenly it happens

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike socialism and communism. I have always voted for right-wing parties.

I am not a big advocate of social media but it has its benefits. Thanks to social media, the criticism could not be silenced and the state-owned Swedish television (SVT) had to eat humble pie.

Yesterday, SVT announced that they are choosing to postpone the TV series with the artist and activist Stina Wollter at an undetermined timeframe. For people who only get their information from SVT, this decision must have been very surprising considering that less than a week ago Eva Beckman, program director at SVT, defended Stina Wollter in one of SVT's news programs.

Since then, private individuals have informed SVT that Stina Wollter made an additional post after the previously mentioned and now deleted post. In addition to this, there is also a forwarding post, of a similar nature.

Basing one's view of reality on the news flow from the Swedish MSM aka Legacy media is equated to mouthing the daily need for protein from bulk confectionery.

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Same result, different approach

Most central banks in industrialized countries have a gold reserve that is part of the total foreign exchange reserve. The reason for this is that gold has a historical role in the monetary system.

Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that the BRICS unit will be quote "40% backed by gold and 60% backed by reserves in member currencies" unquote. The BRICS unit is essentially an attempt to link oil to gold instead of the US dollar. The creation of the BRICS unit may be a way to try to circumvent possible future sanctions and to reduce the influence of the US dollar.

It will be interesting to see how the West will let this play out. Will they continue to allow BRICS to use gold as net settlement asset which will bid up the gold or will they implement USD sanctions against BRICS to make them stop using gold which will also bid up the gold. Either way, the result is the same in the short term.

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The attack ended

The DDos attack against Nordea ended late last night. DDoS is a type of attack that is very difficult to protect against, but simply explained, the goal of such an attack is generally to overload a website or a server, making the website temporarily unavailable to legitimate users. Using a botnet, consisting of up to millions of devices, the attacker can create a large number of calls to a computer system. The calls are made simultaneously, causing the service or system being attacked to overload and lock up. Actually, a DDos attack is not a serious threat, because the systems inside are never threatened. I suspect that since Nordea had to publicly confirm the attack yesterday and admit that they failed to ward it off, it ended.

My own little conspiracy theory that Nordea in particular has been exposed to these DDos attacks may be that Nordea, which previously had its headquarters in Sweden and then moved it to Finland, is the respective countries' relatively new NATO membership.

Regardless of my wild guess, late last night we acquired a small number of shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Common Shares of Beneficial Interest (BXSL). Despite the fact that the Swedish krona lost 0.57% against the US dollar and we thereby forfeited some purchasing power compared to the opening value, we chose to carry out the acquisition.

With the upcoming US election, I think we will hold off on acquisitions for the next few days and see how the US dollar plays out. Another factor influencing our most likely forgoing acquisitions in the near future is the ongoing confrontations in in the Middle East and West Asia.

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Attacks come in many forms

One of our banks, Nordea, is subject to an overload attack, a so-called DDoS ​​attack, on Friday evening. The online bank and the app are affected by this overload attack and the login page is completely down. The problems apply to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, according to Nordea.

Nordea has been exposed to several overload attacks in the past month, which has led to, among other things, slower digital services for customers. At the bank's report release a few weeks ago, CEO Frank Vang-Jensen told a Swedish business-oriented daily newspaper, Dagens Industri, that the attacks had become bigger than before.

I personally believe that most banks are exposed to this type of attack as I increasingly experience that the banking apps are becoming slower. Because of this, there were no acquisitions for us today.

AI generated image with Grok     

This could have gone badly

Yesterday I heard something unpleasant from a close friend of mine. She and her family live in the same area as us, just a little closer to downtown. My friend works from home while their teenage children are at school and her husband is at work, which means she is home alone during the day. My friend has a habit of never locking the front door.

The day before yesterday she thought she heard the front door opening, but since no one in her family would be home for several hours, she dismissed the sound. 5 minutes later she heard a noise again, she left her office and called quote "is someone here?" unquote whereupon an unknown man in his 30s came out of her son's room.

The man walked over and grabbed my friend's arm, who was first paralyzed and then screamed at the top of her lungs. Whereupon the man pushed my friend to the floor and ran away. The police were at my friend's place within 15 minutes of her calling. Unfortunately, the police said the chance of finding the man is minimal, but a police report was made.

Unlike us who always lock the door and activate the perimeter protection as soon as the whole family is gathered, they didn't even lock the front door before. Considering the circumstances, my friend is doing relatively well.

Is this the best Sweden has when it comes to economy?

Economic activity was almost unchanged in the majority of US districts since early September. This is what the Federal Reserve writes in its regional economic report, the Beige Book, which was published on Wednesday evening. Only two districts reported moderate growth, while almost all districts saw a decline in manufacturing activity.

In Stockholm, Sweden, the recession is literally visible in the streets and squares in the form of the economic measure of downtown pedestrians. In recent months, the number of pedestrians and visitors in the various stores has decreased significantly in the last 7-10 days before salary payment. I can't remember any previous recession that was as physically visible as this one.

Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbank must keep its promise in the press release on September 29, 2024 quote "If inflation and economic prospects hold, the interest rate can also be lowered at the two remaining monetary policy meetings this year. A reduction of 0.5% at one of these meetings may be relevant." unquote.

Considering that Riksbanken has missed its inflation target of 2% in the last two months by almost 50%, it should be a "non-question" to lower the policy rate by 50 points at the next monetary policy meeting. Unfortunately, Riksbanken's track record shows that they are extremely cautious, I call it harmfully cautious, and my fear is that Riksbanken's actions will further deepen and prolong the current recession.

Sweden's two most recent governors of Riksbanken are opposites, the former applied negative policy rate in a boom while the current one applies a high policy rate during a recession.

Then we're up and running

Thanks to being classified as professional investors, today we were able to make our first acquisition of a stock we did not have access to before, Barings BDC, Inc. Common Stock (BBDC). The company pays out $1.04 spread over March, June, September and December, their current yield is 10.6%.

We've had our eye on this company for a while now and it was gratifying to be able to make a first acquisition.

Power can be intoxicating

UN Secretary-General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres' visit to Kazan to attend BRICS Russia 2024 has met with criticism from Ukraine and its allies. According to Stewart Patrick in a interview in Euronews yesterday, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Guterres' visit could be an attempt to negotiate a peace deal. Guterres shares some of BRICS' concerns about the representativeness of international institutions, continues Stewart Patrick. However, Patrick said it would quote "probably not be well received in Western capitals, because it could be seen as legitimizing Vladimir Putin's policies," unquote. Spokesmen for Guterres did not respond to a request for comment.

That UN Secretary-General Guterres chooses to participate in BRICS Russia 2024 when he previously declined Ukraine's invitation to the first global peace summit held at the Burgenstock Resort in Switzerland on June 15-16, 2024 does not improve his reputation.

In addition, Guterres has been declared persona non grata according to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a rare diplomatic designation. The reason for the declaration is that the UN Secretary General has not condemned Iran's missile attack against Israel in strong enough terms. Guterres, for his part, said he condemned the attack.

If Mr. Guterres fails to negotiate a peace deal at the ongoing summit, his credibility could take a serious hit.

You can't eat the cake and have it too

In Sweden, there is often talk of women's traps, i.e. women who perform various unpaid tasks at the expense of paid work. At the moment, there is talk in Sweden about the differences regarding men's and women's different pensions. What is always mentioned in discussions like these is that the woman always takes greater responsibility for the home and above all the children at the expense of career, salary and future pension.

The variable that is missing for the discussion to be fairer is that many women do not want to share the parental leave. They want to be the "main parent". Several of my acquaintances and friends, for example, refused to share parental leave. A number of them said that quote "this is my time, I will not share" unquote.

Parental leave in Sweden amounts to 480 days of paid leave, which is financed with tax money. If a parent wants to hand over any of their parental days to the other parent, a maximum of 180 days can be carried over, that is, 60 days cannot be handed over to the chagrin of many. If a parent has sole custody of their child, all 480 days belong to that parent.

A display that they are not alone

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin gathered 20 countries for the 16th BRICS summit, which runs from October 22-24, where Russia hopes to pave the way for "a new world order". Russia states that the ultimate goal of this new world order is to no longer allow the West to dominate. The West has done much to isolate Russia from the world community since it invaded Ukraine. BRICS is seen as a counterweight to the West and claims to represent "the global majority".

One of Russia's goals with the summit is to convince the other countries to adopt an alternative to the dollar for global payments. Cross-border payments are a major problem for Russia, and the dominance of the dollar gives the US enormous power over global trade. Russia hopes to form an alternative to the West's international payment system BIC and thereby also make the Western sanctions less effective.

BIC (Business Identifier Code) is an international standard for securely identifying a bank. BIC, which is sometimes called SWIFT address or SWIFT code.

The BRICS represent 45 percent of the global population and about 28 percent of the global economy. Therefore, in theory, BRICS should be able to be a leading player in the world, but in practice it is much more difficult than that, say experts. China and India in particular have a very strained relationship, and are sometimes closer to attacking each other than cooperating.

The most important thing for Putin, however, is that the summit in Kazan sends a clear signal that he is not isolated, writes the BBC.

Today was a good day

Today we were approved as professional investors with one of our banks. We were asked earlier this summer if this was of interest to us and we had to read up on what it would mean. We concluded that it will benefit us and accepted the proposition.

According to information, we should now be able to acquire shares that we were not allowed to buy before.

Statistics can be distorted

Oxfam Sweden quote "We are a global organization working in 79 countries to save and improve people's lives - for an equal future." unquote.

In the Development Finance and Oxfam October 2024 report presented yesterday, they claim that Sweden has fallen 14 places in 4 years in the global equality index "Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index" (CRII), which is produced by Oxfam in collaboration with Development Finance International ( DFI).

The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index ranks 164 countries according to policy decisions and their effects on inequality. The index is based on three areas that are crucial to reducing economic inequality: tax policy, investment in welfare and workers' rights.

Unfortunately, Oxfam's analyzes are flawed. For example, their tax index is a subjective mishmash where they confuse the wood for the trees. When Oxfam ranks tax policy from a gender equality perspective, they choose to rank the countries below as follows:

Kyrgyzstan, place 6

Burkina Faso, place 39

Chad, place 42

Benin, place 45

Congo, place 54

Sweden, place 114

Switzerland, place 142

This ranking gives legitimacy to question whether Oxfam is serious about their work or whether they have an ulterior agenda and want to push a certain ideological line.

The minivan AKA loser cruiser

For transparency and my own agenda, my husband and I own a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The main reason why we bought an electric car is that we live in central Stockholm and the Green Party has banned fossil cars on many streets in the centre.

With electric cars, even suburban soccer moms have been given the opportunity to drive fast cars. For example, Tesla's Model Y Long Range can be equipped with 7 seats. The car's performance means it takes 4.8 sec from 0 to 60 mph (5 sec from 0 to 100 km/h). All of a sudden, the suburban soccer mom with the car full of kids can outrun the single guy in his Porsche.

I, who promised myself long ago never to own a suburban soccer mom car, suddenly drive one and not even a proper one but just a 5 seater. With this clarity my new goal has become to convince my husband to buy acceleration boost for our Tesla. So far, both my husband and son have used their veto against me. Apparently, 4.8 sec from 0 to 60 mph (5 sec from 0 to 100 km/h) "is fast enough for me".

Small children small problems - big children big problems

Yesterday the world's for the moment not most perfect teenager and two of his friends were going to sleep over at a fourth friend's house. Junior and I picked up his friends and I then drove all the boys to the friend's house where they would spend the night. The guys have done this twice before this year and it has worked perfectly.

I had the uneasy feeling I always have when he's not home and told myself I must trust him, especially since he hasn't done anything in the past to make me distrust him. He turns 18 in 10 months and then becomes an "adult" according to Swedish law.

My husband and I were woken shortly after midnight by our burglar alarm going off. It was the offspring that had come home. My husband checked that everything was ok with Junior and came back to bed. My husband didn't mention Junior's condition last night when he came back to bed because he knows me too well and knew nothing good would come of it there and then. This morning the offspring admitted to me that he drank alcohol yesterday.

Now the world's most perfect husband and the world's most measly teenager have gone for a walk. The husband will explain to our young man how things work, i.e. you do NOT drink alcohol. Although both my husband and I understand that this is not the last time, Junior NEEDS to know that it is not ok.

SVT must let go of its bias

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike socialism and communism. I have always voted for right-wing parties.

Once again the state-owned Swedish television (SVT) has shown evidence of their clear bias and connection to the Left. In the fall of 2023, after Hamas attack on Israel, the artist Stina Wollter, best known for being the daughter of one of the biggest actors in Sweden, Sven Wollter, wrote a post on Instagram where she spread anti-Semitic claims and conspiracy theories. A post she later deleted.

Quote "Anyway, I don't know how it is with you, but don't you wonder how much needs to be revealed in order for the media to start writing a little more systematically about what is happening in Israel/Palestine.That Israel systematically took organs and skin from dead Palestinians, that they falsified "evidence", that they lied about "beheaded babies" and rape, that they killed their own at the festival from helicopters, that they were the ones who dug tunnels under the Alshifa hospital, that the violence the killing and annexation of homes and land escalated in the West Bank, that thousands of children are killed, that Gaza is razed to the ground beyond recognition, that places that should be protected under martial law are bombed, that Israel's regular death raids, torture and terror, occupation apartheid and control of the Palestinians are illegal we already know..." unquote.

That SVT chooses to give Stina Wollter her own TV series barely 11 months later shows very poor judgement. The criticism against SVT has been massive and their damage control extensive. Eva Beckman, program director at SVT, defends the choice of Stina Wollter in a news program and Martin Vardstedt, supply manager for culture at SVT, responds in an e-mail request from the news paper Expressen quote "We have made a program series with Stina Wollter because she has over 30 years of experience as an artist, has worked as a crochet teacher, done thousands of interviews on the radio and has a long-term commitment to issues concerning the body and our relationship to it" unquote. 

SVT maintains that the TV series will be broadcast.

The amount of money is less important, how it was acquired is more important

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

The value of money is relative. Money which has been preceded by hard work and sacrifices has a significantly higher value than if it was received through inheritance, lottery winnings, grants, etcetera.

An article in the newspaper Affarsvarlden makes it clear that companies that receive a lot of support from politics pay higher wages but have lower productivity. Only the availability of tax funds can enable such a combination, something that should prompt reflection on, for example, the investments in Northvolt and the green transition in general.

Subsidy capitalism can be said to be a subset of political capitalism, which is primarily about usurping public funds in the form of grants and credit guarantees. Randall G. Holcombe summarizes the dilemma, quote "The real entrepreneurs in the political process are lobbyists and interest groups who find opportunities to usurp privilege, which reduces the efficiency of the public sector." unquote.

A clear example of such an influential individual is Northvolt's founder Peter Carlsson. I can promise that Peter Carlsson values ​​the 17,658,000 dollars he personally received from the sale of shares in Northvolt at the end of last year compared to the 88,290,000 dollars that the previous Swedish government has financed Northvolt with.

Easy come, easy go

Today, the portfolio's value has reached ATH calculated in both Swedish krona and US dollars. If it is because the market in recent days has priced in a possible future win for ex-president Donald Trump in the upcoming US election based on the latest betting odds, the aftereffects could be bad.

Forbes has an article on how "Trump's Polymarket Odds Top 60%: How Election Betting Markets Differ From Polls". An approximate 60% betting odds does not correspond to a 60% to 40% lead for Trump in opinion polls, but rather indicates that the election bettors expect Trump to win about 60 out of 100 election simulations.

Poll-based election models are almost exactly split, with statistician Nate Silver's model giving Trump a 50.2% chance of winning compared to 49.5% for Harris, while FiveThirtyEight gives Harris a 53% to 46% advantage. National polls lean in Harris' favor, with Real Clear Polling's latest weighted data giving Harris a 49.2% to 47.7% advantage. What drives the dramatic change in odds despite mixed survey data has not been determined.

Nate Silver, who advises Polymarket, wrote last week that it's possible that a Trump-leaning demographic on the sites could skew the data to reflect stronger Trump odds than is warranted by the data. Polls attempt to map smaller groups that are representative of the broader American voter population across race, age and other demographics.

If there is a Trump-leaning demographic on the sites to skew the data to reflect stronger Trump odds than the data warrants, the value of our portfolio will drop faster than Legacy Media's credibility on November 6, 2024.

Good and bad news

I had completely forgotten that Gladstone Investment Corporation Business Development Company (GAIN) was going to make a big irregular dividend this month. It was a pleasant surprise to log into the bank for the purpose of acquiring additional shares of Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS) and to see money that I did not expect.

We bought a number of shares in (FDUS) and are approaching our first milestone of the number of shares we intend to own in (FDUS). In addition to (FDUS), we also bought a small number of shares in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Common Shares of Beneficial Interest (BXSL).

To my dismay, I discovered that two of our holdings have cut their dividends, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc (ARI) and Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. Common Stock (BXMT). Neither (ARI) nor (BXMT) is one of our larger holdings, rather the opposite. (ARI) cut its dividend from ¢35 to ¢25 and (BXMT) from ¢62 to ¢47.

The world's most perfect teenager laughed until the tears flowed

The world's most perfect husband literally hates going to the barber. The main reason for his dislike of sitting in the barber's chair is how time-consuming it is according to him. Something that he himself does in 5 minutes takes 40 minutes is not ok with him.

For 20 years now, he has been using a hair trimmer with very successful results. Last night he asked me to just trim the neck a little quickly. Normally my husband sets the trimmer to 0.83 inches (21mm) and cuts all the hair, but yesterday he got the idea that I should freehand trim his neck.

In short, my husband has never had hair this short before…

Do not throw good money after bad

For transparency and my own agenda, I strongly dislike our previous government, the Social Democrats with the support of the Green Party and the tacit acceptance of the Left Party, who ruled Sweden for 8 years. At the last election, I voted for the current government. It was the previous government that went to bed with Northvolt and invested enormous amounts of tax dollars.

According to Bloomberg, is the battery developer and manufacturer Northvolt extremely close to arranging financing for a $271,500,000 bailout that would reduce the risk of bankruptcy if the money is arranged this week. Two Swedish pension companies, the pension giant AMF and the state AP funds, may consider investing even more of the pension savings to save Northvolt. Since before, the two companies have invested $724,100,000 of the Swedish pension savings money. Money at risk of being lost in a bankruptcy. Any word that contains green in any form is kryptonite for politicians and people who handle tax dollars.

Founded in 2016, Northvolt was up and running on December 29, 2021 when they produced their first lithium-ion battery. With full production lines and staffing, the facility expected to produce 60 GWh of batteries with 3,000 employees. During the first three quarters of 2023, the factory output was 79.8 MWh. 

Even the world's most perfect teenager understands that continuing to invest in Northvolt is like going to the vet with a roasted chicken.

At some point, the right behavior must be rewarded

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

In Sweden, there is a very popular form of savings called Investment Save Account (ISK). ISK is an account type where you can easily save in funds, shares and other securities without having to declare sales and dividends.

Instead, an annual standard tax is paid. You pay 30% tax on the standard income. For the income year 2023, the standard income was 2.94% of the capital base. The capital base, i.e. the holding of ISK, is taxed at 30% of the value. The result is that the tax is 0.882% of the value of the holding, the capital base, because 30% of 2.94% is 0.882%.

Starting next year, the current government has decided that the first $13,500 will be tax-free in ISK accounts and endowment insurances in Sweden. This has caused one of the parties in opposition, the Left Party, to go ballistic. Instead of seeing the benefits of that Average Joe being able to save up a $13,500 buffer, all the Left Party sees is a tax loss.

The Left Party consider that not everyone can save up a buffer of $13,500, which they say makes this tax cut unequal and unfair. I would add that not everyone wants to save up $13,500. Why does the Left Party always want to reward those who don't want to do the work and take responsibility for their own future at the expense of those who do?

How did we end up here?

Our shop is located on one of Stockholm's avenues, where the driving lanes are separated by trees and grass. Last week it rained non-stop for 48 hours and the ground was thoroughly saturated. After the first day, the soil could not absorb the water and the soil became muddy and waterlogged.

During the afternoon of the second day of rain, staff from the city's parks department came by and began watering the lawn, despite ongoing rain and waterlogged ground.

The fact that the ground was watered despite water-saturated soil after almost 38 hours rain was because the measure was planned.

Logical thinking has completely ceased.

Sweden's central bank will most likely disappoint

The Swedish inflation rate according to CPIF (Consumer Price Index with fixed interest rate) was 1.1% in September, which is a decrease from August when it was 1.2%. The information is in line with SBC's preliminary inflation figures that came a week ago. According to price statistician Filip Hellberg at the Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB), the reason why inflation fell in September is that fuel prices have fallen. It is also in line with the average forecast among analysts, according to Bloomberg's compilation.

The fact that CPIF was again lower than Sweden's central bank AKA Riksbanken's target of a CPIF inflation of 2.0% increases the pressure on Riksbanken to lower the policy rate by 50 basis points on November 7, 2024.

Central Bank Governor Erik Thedeén confirms that the quote "Inflation has come down and shows signs of stabilizing. Inflation forecasts has stood up quite well over the past six months." unquote. At the same time, Erik Thedeén repeats that right now there is a lot of focus on CPIF where energy prices are excluded as they move a lot and are assumed to be shaky going forward. Energy prices have fallen by almost 30% in the past year and CPIF are very sensitive to energy prices, continues Erik Thedeén.

Erik Thedeén also emphasizes that there is no mechanical formula for Riksbanken to use when deciding on changes in the policy rate, it is an overall assessment. The Governor of Riksbanken concludes by saying that the forecasts for the policy rate, the so-called interest rate path, are not a promise. Quote “There is still considerable uncertainty. Among other things, geopolitical developments can affect inflation and make further cuts unreasonable." unquote.

Personally, I think that Erik Thedeén and his colleagues have already decided that they will not lower the Swedish policy rate by 50 points and that the warning about a geopolitical development and the exchange rate of the krona is only a way of trying to excuse themselves.

It is not my or SVT's business to tell Americans what is best for them

The Swedish MSM is doing its utmost to portray Donald Trump as the evil one and Kamala Harris as the good one. As a resident and citizen of Sweden, I am far too poorly versed in American politics to have any opinion on who is the best America.

It's unbelievable how many Swedes who completely lack basic knowledge about the party leaders in the eight political parties that make up the Swedish parliament are all of a sudden experts on the 2 American candidates.

In a report on February 11, 2020 before the primary election in New Hampshire, the US correspondent from the state-owned Swedish television (SVT) Stefan Asberg said quote "Our friend Joe Biden" unquote.

SVT, which is 100% tax-financed, ambition is quote "to review and portray the issues that are important to you. SVT operates in the service of the public and is run independently in relation to political, commercial and other interests in society." unquote.

Two steps forward, one step back

Yesterday was payment day for our single largest holding, Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN), it is also one of our single largest payouts. Since we live in Sweden, there is a delay of anywhere from 1 to 10 days before we receive the dividend.

(MAIN) which together with Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS), Realty Income Corporation Common Stock (O) and Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. Common Stock (TSLX) make up just under 35% of the portfolio's total holdings.

Having 4 holdings make up so much of the portfolio value is risky but for every month that we reinvest our dividends and the world's most perfect husband invests his pension he gets from his private pension insurance reduces their influence on the portfolio. As long as we do not continue our acquisition in any of them.

The Swedish krona (SEK) has strengthened compared to the end of April/May 2024 when 1 US dollar cost SEK 11.02, which can be compared to today's exchange rate of 1 USD = 10.43 SEK. The exchange rate difference affects all holdings without exception. My Google sheet clearly shows the difference in actual money from month to month due to the exchange rate fluctuations.

The recent strengthening of the Swedish krona reduces the value of our portfolio calculated in SEK. The value today is lower than July 2024 when the portfolio reached ATH in SEK, despite the many acquisitions we have made since then.

Yesterday our portfolio reached ATH in USD.

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Group 1 - Q4, special dividend

The declared extra dividends in the first month of Q4 are meager. Only 2 of our holdings choose or have the opportunity to make an extra payment.

Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. Common Stock (CGBD), ¢7 with payment date October 17, 2024

FS KKR Capital Corp. Ordinary share (FSK), ¢6 with payment date 2 October 2024

Gladstone Investment Corporation Business Development Company (GAIN), ¢70 with payment date 15 October 2024

MSM needs to stop turning a blind eye

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

The biggest difference between right and left politically is, apart from political values, that the left now always uses violence. Yesterday another pro-Palestinian demonstration was held in Sweden and once again a journalist was completely unprovoked attacked by demonstrators and had his nose bone cut off.

After the demonstration, the organizer, United Front for Palestine, chooses to make a post on Instagram where they deliberately lie about how the attack took place. It is not the first time that a journalist has been abused by organizers within the Pro-Palestine movement. Then as now, the assault is recorded on both pictures and videos by the police's surveillance cameras.

At the same time, I read that another person has been arrested in connection with a Trump rally in Coachella, California, on suspicion of intending to shoot Donald Trump. It is the third time that Donald Trump has been subjected to an assassination attempt.

Why is the left so violent and why isn't the MSM writing about this?

When you don't practice what you preach

I am completely enthralled by the Slow Horses TV series on Apple Tv+. When I read that the creator and show-runner of the drama-thriller is Will Smith, I was completely surprised that the American actor and rapper also created TV series. I told the world's most perfect husband and thought nothing more of it.

At dinner yesterday, my husband asked where I had read that Will Smith had created Slow Horses. I replied quote "in the credits of an episode" unquote. Then my husband burst out laughing and informed me that it is the British stand-up comedian, producer, screenwriter, novelist and actor Will Smith who created the TV series.

The person who is most happy with my lack is the world's most perfect teenager, since I am very careful that he not only source checks all material, but also finds out the agenda of the source, because everyone, including me, writes about what we think about what we see and not what we see.

I will be hearing this for a long time!!!

Teenagers are amazing creatures

That the world's most perfect teenager is about to become a young adult is becoming clear. From literally being able to go to school in his pajamas if we hadn't banned him to not wanting a cap so as not to mess up his hairstyle happened in a short amount of time.

Besides his hairstyle, perfume has become an important part of his life. This summer, Junior bought his first own perfume with his own money, a summer scent that he has used extensively since then. At the beginning of the week, when he and some friends were in central Stockholm, he bought a new perfume, a winter scent.

The latest perfume smells amazing in normal amounts, but the offspring completely drowns himself when he perfumes himself. We have taught him on several occasions to use a moderate amount of perfume, but for a teenager it takes more than a thousand occasions before he has assimilated the information. This week it has been a bit extra difficult with the right dosage as Junior has a cold and can't smell anything. At the same time, he wants to make sure he smells good.

I could literally track his way to school like a tracking dog…

The power ran out

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

That Northvolt, a Swedish battery developer and manufacturer, stands on the precipice of ruin is not only due to DEI, although their ambition in February 2021 was according to Katarina Borstedt, recruitment manager, quote "To create an equal industrial workplace based on gender" unquote.

The total tunnel vision of the politicians as soon as the word green transition is uttered and a CEO whose main characteristic is to ask for tax money, not to build a battery factory, have also been strong contributing factors. Tomorrow, Northvolt must pay the tax debt of 26 million dollars or the company risks bankruptcy.

The company name Northvolt which I guess is a combination of North because of the company's flagship factory in located in northern Sweden and volt which in Swedish means voltage has been nicknamed Novolt, no voltage.

He seems to be right

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

The American giant that, like many other companies, organizations, political parties, individuals, etcetera, has been seduced by the Woke movement, has once again hit big problems. The American giant is Boeing Company (The) Common Stock (BA) which has just announced the layoffs of 17,000 employees worldwide, representing 10% of its total workforce according to the Wall Street Journal.

This is in the midst of the machinist strike which has been going on since 13 September 2024, while (BA) warns that the ongoing strike will mean further heavy losses. According to reports, the strike is estimated to cost $1 billion each month. The company also issues a profit warning. A loss of $9.97 per share is expected in Q3 2024. Which is significantly worse than analysts' estimate, which had been for a loss of $1.19.

(BA)'s planned launch of the new 777X aircraft model, already several years behind schedule, will now be further delayed and development of the 767 freighter will be suspended.

Negotiations with the striking Boeing employees, who number about 33,000, broke down this week. The strike has caused the production of aircraft to largely cease. There is no doubt that the current global situation with ongoing inflation control measures, recession and general unrest in the world with many ongoing wars is affecting the company.

At the same time, I am convinced that management's past embrace of DEI has created huge problems within the company and may be its downfall.

Revolution devours its own children

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

One of Swedens biggest union is the national organization (LO) which is a central organization that coordinates 14 different unions. According to its statutes, LO is a Social Democratic organization. From the beginning, LO's members' party affiliation was 100% Swedish Social Democrats or the Left Party (formerly the Left Party Communists).

During the last decade, however, party affiliation among LO's members has begun to shift. In 2014, 70% of the members' party sympathies belonged to the Swedish Social Democrats or its partner parties, the Green Party or the Left Party. Today, 10 years later, that figure has dropped to 40%.

This has raised the question of whether it is morally correct for LO to donate 543,000 dollars of its members' membership fees to the Social Democratic Party. This discussion has been held previously but never before by LO's chairman Johan Lindholm. Johan Lindholm took the initiative to question whether it is correct to donate money to the Social Democrats when its sympathies has dropped so sharply. Johan Lindholm continues the quote "It's time to look at it" unquote regarding the donation in question.

Personally, I think that LO hopes that it will be enough to keep the boat from not rocking for the next twelve months. After that, LO will have to walk the talk in order not to lose more of its members and thereby risk its own financial future. Money is the only language that is literally spoken by everyone.

The gap between outcome and original forecast only increases, as it should

As much as I love my charts, these two are starting to feel irrelevant. Despite my current disinterest in these charts, I will continue to save them as the actual updating happens automatically in my Google sheet. However, I will create another chart for the extra dividends to clarify how they change from month to month and from year to year. It will be another tool in our valuations of future acquisitions.

There is one type of payouts that I do not keep statistics on, the foreign tax refunds. They are reinvested in the same way as dividends. So far we haven't had to take a single penny out of our portfolios. For every dividend and tax refund that is reinvested, our holdings and future dividends increase, which hopefully means that within a couple of years we can stop working and live on our dividends.

If Covid-19 had not occurred, according to my early calculations, we would have already been able to live on our dividends. Investing money in the stock market is a big risk, of which Covid-19 is a clear example. Fortunately, we are "fairly" young and could "easily" change our mindset and realize that we will have to work for more years than we had anticipated, even though we have currently worked significantly more working hours than the Swedish senior citizen done throughout his professional life.

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I miss my grandma 💔

We have now passed the dividends of the pandemic years. Every time I look at this chart I am reminded of how empty the streets of Stockholm were in 2020 and 2021.

Since we didn't lose anyone near or dear to Covid-19, apart from my 96-year-old paternal grandmother who passed away with Covid-19, one of my saddest memories from those years is an occasion when me and the world's most perfect husband were walking through the largest indoor mall in central Stockholm and all the shops were closed and we were almost completely alone.

We will pass 2018, 2022 and 2023 at the end of December. There will be a bigger gap between 2023 and 2024 than there was between 2022 and 2023.

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A very narrow surplus, but a surplus nonetheless

It came very close to a tie between September 2023 and September 2024. My latest calculation from last month showed that it will be until January 2025 before group 1 surpasses its 2023 dividends.

The recent reductions in the Swedish policy rate and hopefully another upcoming reduction on November 7, 2024, we will be able to start saving money again instead of just paying mortgage interest. This change, however small, will help make sure group 1 surpasses 2023 dividends next year.

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The red numbers were expected

The development of our dividends continues according to plan, for better or worse. All groups perform completely according to my expectations. Even group 3, which underperforms, delivers according to my calculations.

Group 3 will underperform throughout 2024, mainly due to the large extra dividends we received during March 2024. It will only be in the comparison between December 2024 and March 2025 that the development will show black numbers instead of red. Provided that we do not sell off any holdings with payment dates in March, June, September or December in favor of any of the other months of the year.

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A sight for sore eyes

I was contacted yesterday by an employee at Nordnet who actually did what he promised. During the day today, I and probably the rest of the Swedes with holdings in Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC) at Nordnet finally our dividend per 9.30. With this, all dividends for September are paid and I was able to close the month.

It is pleasing that the forecast in the chart where I exclude extra dividends almost exactly matches the outcome. Minor deviations between the months will always exist due to the currency difference. Due to the recent strengthening of the Swedish krona against the US dollar, the actual exchange rate came very close to my fixed exchange rate that I set in my chart during September.

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