It's the most wonderful time of the year

With barely 6 hours to spare, we managed to empty the rental premises. Now I just hope that the transport company will come as promised tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrow is the first Advent in Sweden and according to tradition, that is when you light the Advent stars that hang in the windows. Myself, I cheated and lit them right after I hung them up tonight at 10 p.m. (GMT+2).

So far I have put up four advent stars, two in the living room, one in the office and one in the kitchen. The world's most perfect teenager has asked not to have an advent star in his room, something he thinks I have complied with, he will be surprised tomorrow when I hang the star in his room. Also, I have two stars to hang in the master bedroom tomorrow. Then I'm done.

Next weekend I will decorate the Christmas tree. We have over 600 Christmas ornaments from mainly Georg Jensen but also about twenty from Swarovski. Neither Junior nor the world's most perfect husband has the slightest interest in decorating the tree, except for the top star. Since 15 years ago, it has been tradition for Junior to put up the top star.

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Grasp all, lose all

We have less than 15 hours left before the premises we rent must be completely emptied. In addition to a number of smaller products that are to be moved from the rental premises to the condominium premises, there are 12 larger pieces that are to be transported to our warehouse outside Stockholm.

After we close the store today, my husband and I will carry all the products, large and small, to the condominium premises. Unfortunately, the transport company did not have time to carry out the work today, but only tomorrow, which is why we have to carry everything ourselves.

This means that right after the Christmas lunch tomorrow, which was booked several weeks ago, we have to go home and change to first let them into the store and then drive out to our warehouse and let them in there. If I know ourselves, we will help them carry the items because none of us are built to just watch while someone else works. I can't stress enough how good it will feel tomorrow night after we finish the move and I get my life back.

The condominium association really made a misjudgment when they doubled our rent. Instead of receiving secure rental income, they will now be left without a tenant for the foreseeable future as the rental market is dead in Stockholm, especially for basement premises without windows, toilets, kitchens or functioning ventilation.

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Unexpected help

I knew the November dividends would exceed the forecast, but I did not anticipate the extra help the dividends would receive due to the weak Swedish krona. Assuming that no irresistible buying situation arises, we will try to take it easy and await the development of the Swedish krona going forward.

But our track record speaks against us, it is unlike us not to reinvest all dividends immediately which makes me doubtful that we will be able to successfully walk away from potential acquisitions, even if they are pricey.

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Maybe, maybe not

I am incredibly proud of the world's most perfect teenager who did his third of six end-of-term exams yesterday. Junior thinks he did ok on both the chemistry and math tests last week. Considering how much he studied for these exams, I sincerely hope his hard work has paid off. However, he is more doubtful about his performance on the Swedish test, which he should nail as an ethnic Swede. The remaining end-of-term exams are English, economics and physics, after which he gets a little rest.

Despite the offspring asking us to render his computer unusable Monday through Thursday and for me to follow up and sign off on his work each day as per his own wishes, I choose to believe that his, albeit forced, disciplined and hard work he has shown lately is a small sign of maturity.

Or it's like always and I can't see beyond my "mommy eyes"…

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Everything was not better before

The current performance of the Swedish krona can be compared to British ski jumper Michael Edwards "Eddie the Eagle" who finished last in the 1988 Calgary Olympics, while the US dollar can represent Finnish ski jumper Matti Nykanen who won the same event.

At closing yesterday, the current exchange rate was 1 USD equal to 11.04 SEK, which can be compared to the exchange rate on November 24, 2014, which was 1 USD equal to 7.42 SEK. Although this development is fantastic for our portfolio value, which consists of 99% American stocks, it means that we Swedes are becoming significantly poorer compared to the rest of the world.

Thanks to the "newer" online banks such as Avanza and Nordnet, which provide a platform with a user-friendly interface for private individuals at competitive prices, today it is much easier to "currency hedge" your savings by buying American or European stocks compared to the dark ages when the world's most perfect husband bought his first stock.

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What happened to professional pride

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. I deeply dislike socialism, communism and wokeism.

I am angry at all journalists with a bias that is more clearly the most hardcore Democrat or Republican politician. Their lack of hard and honest work makes me not take "news" as truth before I triple check it against other news sources, such as their competitors and social platforms like X and Bluesky. Today's "journalists" have abandoned factual and objective reporting of events to write about what they think about the events.

An example is the explosion that took place in the parking lot of al-Ahli Hospital on October 17, 2023. The Swedish "newspaper" Aftonbladet wrote an "article" the same day quoting the Hamas-controlled health minister "A hospital in Gaza City has been bombed." unquote.

In the same article, Aftonbladet refers to the Reuters quote "Several hundred Palestinians had gone to al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital to seek protection, according to Reuters". unquote. To give it extra weight, Aftonbladet follows up the Reuters quote with a quote from AP quote "Then a rocket hit the area." unquote.

Following the Reuters and AP quotes, a statement from Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal quotes "The masquerade at al-Ahli Hospital is unprecedented in our history. Although we have seen tragedies in recent wars and days, what occurred constitutes tonight a genocide by all definitions I am speechless." unquote.

Aftonbladet does not write anything about the fact that it was not an attack from Israel but a failed launch from Hamas that hit the hospital, which was discovered soon after except for a small addition in the original article the next day.

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We may not be cool, but the weather is

I've been sleeping better the past few weeks except for this morning. When it was 4:50 a.m. (GMT+2) I chose to get up instead of just tossing and turning in bed. The snowfall that started yesterday managed to stay on the ground during the night, which meant that I woke up to an albeit thinly snow-covered Stockholm today. Considering we're 2/3 into November, I can't complain.

My hope is that the thin layer of snow melts away while the cold persists and creeps far into the ground so that a deep frost forms in the ground. This would reduce the number of ticks. In recent years, the snow has come early and laid like a lid on the ground and acted as a blanket, which meant that the frost did not form properly and the ticks could survive the winter.

The reason I woke up so early today is because the world's most perfect husband was snoring, something he does if we've been to a party or if he's very tired. It would have been much cooler if we had been out partying yesterday but the sad truth is that we are really tired from all the physical work of emptying the storage.

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This is more fun in the spring than in the fall

We live in an apartment and even though we have two storage rooms, we have chosen to keep our car tires at a tire workshop outside Stockholm. The weather has been mild all autumn, which made us drag our feet for the tire change this time.

Only last week I got around to making the appointment and had a reservation this morning. On the way out to the tire workshop it started to snow in Stockholm so our timing was involuntarily perfect.

I'm incredibly grateful that my husband and I don't change the tires ourselves. Just the thought of standing out in the cold and changing tires is horrible, especially this time when my body is already aching because we are emptying the storage we rent for our business.

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It's too late to turn back now

The premises where we have our business is a condominium, which means that we own it and that the condominium association cannot raise our fee without raising everyone else's fee by exactly the same amount per per sqft (sqm). In addition, we rent a storage room from the condominium association where the rent is twice as high per square meter (sqm) compared to our premises.

Our premise is located on a street corner at one of the better addresses in Stockholm and have double entrances, double toilets and double kitchens. The storage is located in the basement with 1 entrance and lacks a toilet, kitchen, window and ventilation.

We have rented this storage room for more than 17 years and even when a water pipe broke in a neighboring storage room a couple of years ago and flooded our storage room, we did not contact the association and demand compensation. Instead, we took care of the damage ourselves.

This may have been a mistake on our part and led the condominium association to believe that we want to rent the storage room at any price because they chose to terminate our lease this spring. Attached to the termination, we also received a new lease with doubled rent. The double rent increase made us turn down the new lease and now we have to vacate it.

Me and the world's most perfect husband have been packing and carrying products for almost 2 weeks, yet we are not half way there and only have 10 days left to complete the job. The pain in arms, knees and hands is indescribable.

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I am completely clueless

As the world's most perfect teenager is studying the first year of the IB Diploma Programme, so am I. On Friday morning, Junior has his first of a total of six end-of-term exams, first up is mathematics.

On several occasions during the evening's study, I nodded and confirmed that I was completely on board and understood everything he was talking about. All I could hope for was that I was nodding in the right places because I didn't have the faintest idea what he was talking about, he lost me on eigenvalues ​​and eigenvectors.

I am an easy learner and had very good school grades, in fact the highest grades in my class despite skipping school many days during high school, but the math Junior is studying now is way beyond my level of knowledge.

Tomorrow he (and I) will study chemistry because the end-of-term exam in chemistry is on Friday afternoon right after the math exam.

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Bad in more ways than one

Just over a week has passed since the world's most perfect teenager came home and with a big smile on his face declared that he intends to study at a university in Canada after he finishes his high school education.

The immediate realization that Junior could live 6 time zones away from us within 22 months shocked me. Knowing how quickly the last 17 years have gone by made me realize that 22 months is as short as a visit to the restroom. As the worst of the initial shock wore off, I came to a new realization.

It is only 2 weeks since we paid the invoice for the upcoming spring term and after this payment there would only be 2 invoices left for the offspring's schooling as he planned to study at the Swedish university KTH, the Royal University of Technology, which is paid for by the Swedish tax payers.

Although I don't think Junior will qualify for university in Canada, the current situation means completely new conditions for us, there are not 2 invoices left but 10…

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Reality bites

On November 12, 2024, Dagens PS Media AB, a Swedish business-oriented online newspaper, reported that Volkswagen's investment manager, Sven Fuhrman, is leaving Northvolt's board. Northvolt confirms the defection but says it is in dialogue with Volkswagen about a replacement.

Volkswagen is Northvolt's largest owner with 22% of the shares. In addition, Volkswagen is the majority shareholder in the truck manufacturer Scania, one of Northvolt's most important customers.

Northvolt's CEO, Peter Carlsson, has said on previous occasions that he is concerned about the company's future and that the company needs to lock an additional $837,000,000 to secure the company's future. On September 17, 2024, a Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter (DN), reported that the current Swedish government has no intention of giving more tax money to Northvolt. Personally, I think this has contributed to Volkswagen leaving Northvolt.

The same procedure took place when Vattenfall, a European energy company, decided to temporarily pause the development of the Svenska Kriegers Flak offshore wind project earlier this fall, because investment terms AKA tax money were not available.

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?

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Nobody who says they want to pay extra tax means it

I am so heartily tired of hypocritical people who live in Sweden and pay one of the world's highest tax burdens according to Wikipedia, who say or post on various platforms that they want to pay even more in taxes. It is entirely possible to pay a voluntary tax in Sweden and it is not even particularly difficult.

According to Swedish law, the Swedish Tax Agency, Sweden's equivalent to the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS), may not charge an individual an extra tax, not even if the individual himself wants it. However, there is a loophole that was described in a Swedish newspaper, SVD, back in 2015.

The only thing anyone who wants to pay extra tax needs to do is pay the extra tax in cash. You put the money in an unmarked envelope and put the envelope in one of the Tax Agency's special declaration boxes.

The money cannot then be booked against a specific individual and will end up in a balance account for seven years before being added to the state's coffers. It is extremely rare that someone pays additional tax in unmarked envelopes, but it has happened. Internally at the Swedish Tax Agency, the anonymous donations are called "conscience money", which indicates that it is NOT the people who want to signal goodness who make these donations.

Personally, I want to pay less tax, mainly because the enormous amount of tax money Swedish taxpayers pay every year enables the enormous waste and irresponsible way politicians treat the Swedish tax money. For example, the Swedish Left Party donated Swedish tax money in 2023 with the help of the Swedish aid agency SIDA to the Palestinian organization DFLP which participated in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Something that even the state-owned Swedish television (SVT) had to report on despite their high number of employees of both environmental and left-wing activists.

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A newcomer to the portfolio

We have acquired a smaller number of stocks in Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund Common Stock (MSDL). Trading American stocks with Swedish money is incredibly expensive at the moment. The number of companies worth buying for us is decreasing every day thanks to the extremely weak Swedish krona.

An advantage of a weak domestic currency for us personally is that dividends increase in cents and dollars, while the disadvantage is that acquisitions become more expensive. Personally, I think the Swedish krona may recover temporarily only to lose further value in the future. Today, 1 USD costs 10.98 SEK.

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This fall has been magical, weather-wise

This season, winter has delayed its arrival in Stockholm. Unlike last season when we already had snow for more than 1 month at this point. In addition, we have had several days with blue skies and bright sunshine.

Next week the snow is coming according to the weather channels, so I made an appointment to change to winter tires on the car next week. We always wait as long as possible, but since we are going out to the Stockholm archipelago next weekend where the lacing may be substandard, we couldn't put it off any longer.

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Universities cannot change fast enough in my opinion

For full transparency, I am politically very far from the Swedish Social Democrats, The Swedish Left Party, The Swedish Green Party, socialism, communism and wokeism.

As much as I wish the woke revolution met its Waterloo on November 5th, I agree with Bloomberg that it did not. However, I am convinced that it has been a wake-up call and hopefully clears out the most absurd values ​​that the movement embraced in recent years during its hopefully former glory when no one dared question the most baroque claims for fear of being disowned by loved ones or cancelled thereby losing their income.

The landslide victory won by the Republican Party seems to pave the way for leaders around the world who now dare to openly show their distaste for Woke, such as US Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and his Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio. In Europe, among others, Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of Britain's Tories, is expected to intensify her war against Woke. Even in Sweden, we have recently noticed a change in values ​​since the current government took office 2 years ago.

For example, the current government has changed the law so that an immigrant who has committed a crime and avoids trial or is a fugitive from the Swedish legal system cannot become a Swedish citizen, which was possible under the previous Social Democratic government.

Although there is a change afoot, there is a long way to go, The Guardian made a big deal out of assuring its staff on the night of the US presidential election that they had therapists available according to Bloomberg. That companies like Walt Disney Co. and Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV's Budweiser has backed away from public statements about the Woke movement is being primarily due to poor returns. Yet some companies don't seem to learn from this. The latest is Harley-Davidson, Inc., which is in danger of meeting the same fate as Disney and Budweiser.

Changing this corporate landscape to a, in my opinion, healthier landscape will take time but will be significantly faster than the change of the universities. The problem with universities is that they are central institutions that control entry to most well-paid jobs. Academics have shifted significantly to the left in recent years, as a survey by the Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, shows, with only 1% of academics calling themselves conservative.

Universities have institutionalized progressivism by creating specialized subjects (Black Studies or Women's Studies), thereby creating a growing class of academic administrators who tend to be even more progressive than academics. In all likelihood, most universities will make occasional strategic retreats in response to the recent US presidential election to clarify their "institutional neutrality". Although this being a great and much-touted victory in the reshaping of the culture, it is only a single victory and not the end of the war.

Considering the world's most perfect teenager will hopefully be studying at a university within 22 months, this reshaping can't come soon enough.

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We'll see how long he can last

The first week of the new approach to the study routines of the world's most perfect teenager is over. We removed several cables from his computer on Monday morning and thus rendered it unusable as per his wishes. He has spent this week's afternoons, apart from today's, at one of Stockholm's largest libraries where he studied for the upcoming End of Term Exams. However, Junior's motivation decreased with each passing day.

Today he got his cables back and was able to reconnect with his friends on the gaming platform. The laughter that seeped out of his room this evening has been like a soothing balm for my heart. In our agreement that we entered into last Saturday, it is included that he must study for at least three hours both Saturday and Sunday this week.

Although Junior's motivation has waned as the week has gone on, he has understood the benefit of being able to take it easy when he comes home from the library after a day's work well done. In contrast to before when Junior made up all sorts of excuses to postpone the start of studies which always resulted in late nights and guilty consciences. On Monday morning we will remove the cables from his computer again.

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Group 3 - Q4, special dividend

The special and/or supplemental dividends in the last month of the year are almost in line with the extra dividends in March 2024. If the US dollar maintains its grip on the Swedish krona, December will surpass the record month of March, both in terms of ordinary and extra dividends. The companies below are those that pay out a special and/or an supplemental dividend during December 2024.

Crescent Capital BDC, Inc. Common stock (CCAP), ¢7 with pay date December 16, 2024

Capital Southwest Corporation Common Stock (CSWC), ¢5 with pay date December 31, 2024

Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS), ¢18 with pay day December 27, 2024

FS KKR Capital Corp (FSK), ¢6 with pay day December 19, 2024

Gladstone Capital Corporation Common Stock (GLAD), ¢40 with pay day December 18, 2024

Golub Capital BDC, Inc. Common Stock (GBDC), ¢5 with pay day December 13, 2024

Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN), ¢30 with pay day December 27, 2024

New Mountain Finance Corporation Common Stock (NMFC), ¢1 with pay day December 31, 2024

Blue Owl Capital Corporation Common Stock (OBDC), ¢5 with pay day December 13, 2024

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. Common Stock (TSLX), ¢5 with pay day December 20, 2024

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Big kids big problems, little kids little problems

Yesterday the world's most perfect teenager wanted to talk to me. It turned out that Junior had not been truthful with us. The amount of time he spends watching Shorts videos on Youtube is significantly greater than he has previously indicated to us.

His intention with the conversation yesterday was to ask for help because he had realized that he does not have the self-discipline to give up Youtube on his own. We decided that the world's most perfect husband will remove the necessary cables from Junior's computer between Monday morning and Friday morning every week.

So that Junior won't be distracted or tempted to use any of the other computers we have at home and just concentrate on his studies, we agreed that Junior will go to one of the bigger libraries in Stockholm city every Monday to Thursday to study. In addition, Junior must write down all notes in a notebook instead of on the computer, which must be marked with the day's date and my signature every night.

Hopefully, I will only need the monitoring of the application of these routines for a short time until they become a way of life. In order for Junior to achieve his goal of studying at a university in Canada, he must be able to implement this in his life and make it a lifestyle.

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Whether restrictions prevail or not remains to be seen

Both Avanza and Nordnet, which no longer offer their customers BDCs, have rightly received harsh criticism on various platforms. If you are to believe everything people write on the various platforms, Nordea is the big winner as most write that they intend to leave Avanza or Nordnet in favor of Nordea.

An online rumor says that Avanza is working with its supplier of these securities on the production of a document that removes the ban on buying these securities. A rumor Avanza has completely refrained from commenting or even mentioning. Since before, Swedish citizens and residents are not allowed to buy American ETFs.

Investing in a BDC requires you to be well read and knowledgeable about the company, such as whether it is an "externally or internally controlled" company. The structure on which the company is run can have a major impact on the cost situation, an internally managed BDC is a company that hires its own staff to manage the company's customers, capital and strategy.

Whereas an externally managed BDC outsources these tasks to an external, third-party, management company for a fee. Generally speaking, it is cheaper to run an internally managed BDC compared to an externally managed one. An externally managed BDC often has costs that correspond to approximately 30 – 40% of the turnover or 4 – 4.5% of total assets. A well internally managed BDC can run its business at just over half of that cost.

The main reason for using externally managed BDC is that you get a much simpler and more flexible infrastructure, you don't need your own analysts, HR, managers or large offices. Everything is outsourced to a third-party company, which effectively means that the company is basically just an "umbrella" made up of its invested assets. Unlike an internally managed BDC that has these features in-house.

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I could almost see his Viking blood burning inside him

On my paternal grandmother's side we are native Swedes, on my paternal grandfather's side we are Walloons and on my maternal grandmother's and grandfather's side we are Vikings. Unlike the world's most perfect husband who comes from Viking blood on both his mother's and father's side. This means that you should not bug him too much.

Since my husband is one of the most meritorious in his line of work in Sweden, he always has to take care of the customers who refuse or completely lack the ability to understand. Last week a man came into our store and wanted to buy a "hole reduction".

The man had bought a kitchen sink from one website and a kitchen mixer from another website. Due to a lack of knowledge, the man had assumed that all sinks and kitchen faucets are compatible. Something he became very aware of when he received his products. The hole in the sink was far too large in relation to the mixer.

Because of his bad purchases, the man was in a very bad mood before he even entered our physical store. Furthermore, the man had decided that there "must" be a hole reduction to buy. So when my husband informs him that there is no such thing as a "hole reducer", the customer completely loses it. He raises his voice and scolds my husband for something he has bought from another dealer outside Sweden.

When my husband informs him that he didn't shop with us (we don't even have an e-commerce store) and he has no reason to argue with us, the customer gets even worse. At that point my husband asks the man to leave our shop. Fortunately, the customer realized that my husband was approaching full-scale Viking mode and left.

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I am satisfied with the development

The forecast for all completed and upcoming dividends for 2024 shows that we will end up almost exactly in the middle between 2018 and 2019. The worse the Swedish krona develops compared to the US dollar, the better for us.

If today's exchange rate holds for the rest of the year, this single variable increases our dividends by several hundred dollars.

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A completely unnecessary compilation

I haven't decided if I'm going to keep the compilation below. All I know is that I will continue to compile the data until March 31, 2025. However, this will be the last time I report this.

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The numbers are on track

Group 1 months underperformed throughout 2024 compared to 2023. When I was able to finish October 2024, it was found that the last month of the year in group 1 had also failed.

My previous forecast stands, there is a high probability that group 1 will perform better already in January 2025 compared to January 2023 and thus also January 2024. There are 6 weeks left in the year and December is currently just $130 short of being the absolute best dividend month of the year. Assuming there is an acquisition opportunity or opportunities in the coming weeks, it should be a done deal.

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Family First ❤️

Today is Father's Day in Sweden and the world's most perfect teenager will celebrate his dad with a pair of slippers that I bought on his behalf, without his knowledge. It is times like these that it becomes clear that I am the only woman in our small but perfect family.

Neither Junior nor the world's most perfect husband are very good at recognizing milestones. For example, we haven't celebrated Mother's Day once without me having to arrange everything myself.

Although I sometimes wish my guys were a little better at paying attention to the days of significance, I wouldn't trade them for all the tea in China. Despite their faults and flaws, they are my guys and I love them more than words can describe.

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No news agency will follow up on this

The US organization The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which is intended to support US citizens and first responders to ensure that America as a nation works together to build, maintain and improve their ability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate any hazards, like all other agencies, organizations etcetera have been infiltrated by activities.

Yesterday it was discovered that a female supervisor employed by FEMA has been fired after she advised both verbally and in writing in a chat group that their disaster relief teams should avoid homes with signs supporting former President Donald Trump while working in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

CNN writes that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell called the employee's actions quote "reprehensible" unquote. Deanne Criswell made a post on X in which she writes, among other things, quotes "This was reprehensible. I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct." unquote.

The problem is that if there is one activist who feels so confident in her employer's values ​​that she even puts orders for actions in writing, there are bound to be more. Despite AP News, BBC, CBS News, CNN, FOX News, NBC News, PBS, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, USA Today and many more, both international and national news agencies covered the news yesterday, FEMA is guaranteed to find no more activists and news agencies will write nothing more about it.

With high probability, this can lead to further polarization as the activists may feel safer knowing that the media and their employers have their backs.

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Everything is developing according to plan

In the chart below, where I have excluded any special or supplemental dividends, it would be ideal if the forecast vs outcome bars are exactly the same height for all months. However, this is a utopia depending on several variables, inter alia exchange rate changes and the fact that the dividend may be increased or decreased during the year.

At the beginning of the year, I set a fixed exchange rate and dividend that I do not change during the year, provided that the dividend is not reduced during the year. This means that with a high probability, the forecast vs outcome bars will diverge more and more as the year goes on.

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An expensive day

Thursday morning I had an appointment with the dental hygienist. So that it does not affect my working hours, I always make sure to have the first appointment in the morning, 7.10 a.m. Both my dental hygienist and dentist belong to the same clinic in Solna City, which is just outside Stockholm City. Even if it takes about 90 minutes to go there and 90 minutes home, I never take the car as the way back to Stockholm City can take over 2 hours in rush hour traffic. At the same time, I enjoy walking in the morning, although perhaps not as early as 5.40 a.m.

I had a large overbite in the past which I corrected with braces and major jaw surgery almost 20 years ago. Because of this, I have a bonded retainer in both my upper and lower jaw that I have to wear for the rest of my life. During these almost 20 years, I have had to book an appointment with an orthodontist at regular intervals in recent years to refill the glue.

When I was at the dental hygienist, the glue came off one of the front teeth in the lower jaw when she was cleaning around my retainer. Even though it's been almost 20 years, the pain is much greater than you think when the tooth detaches from the retainer. Luckily my orthodontist had an appointment the same day so it was just a matter of going from one clinic to another, literally.

If nothing unforeseen happens, it will be 6 months until the next visit, when I first have an appointment with the dental hygienist and immediately after the dentist.

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Every little helps

October's dividends and the world's most perfect husband's pension compensation resulted in various acquisitions during the month. However, not enough to change the appearance of the chart of our holdings, see below.

Given the recent cut in the policy rate, starting at the turn of the year, we will be able to invest $180 with each paycheck instead of just paying mortgage interest. Not an astronomical amount but significantly better than $0.

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The politicians are the cause of the contempt for politicians

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.

I do not make an assessment as to whether it was right or wrong to receive the large number of immigrants who came to Sweden in the 2010s in this post, but only state the facts and their consequences without having a ready business plan for infrastructure or self-sufficiency. However, I judge all politicians who chose to ignore the warnings that came the following years and through their behavior betrayed both the immigrants and Sweden.

Sweden, under the then social democratic government, in the 2010s received a large number of people who could not read let alone have any form of education.

On October 21, 2021, Roger Haddad (L), then vice-chairman of the labor market committee and labor market policy spokesperson, wrote an editorial in the newspaper Arbetet, which is part of Sweden's largest trade union Landsorganisationen (LO) media house. Mr Haddad was and is a member of the Liberal Party (L) which at the time of the editorial was part of the Social Democratic government.

In his editorial, Mr. Haddad writes that quote "The government has failed in its main mission, to deal with unemployment. The EU's lowest unemployment target is well on its way to turning into the EU's highest unemployment rate, with over 186,000 people in long-term unemployment. A large percentage of these are foreign-born, who, due to high thresholds and a failed integration policy, have not entered the labor market." unqoute.

This was something that Annicka Carlsson, then operations coordinator at the employment agency in Filipstad in Sweden, pointed out already in August 2019. In an interview with the state-owned Swedish TV (SVT) regarding the high unemployment rate among immigrants from countries outside Europe, which at the time amounted to approximately 80% in Filipstad, Mrs. Carlsson said quote "there is no demand for foreign-born illiterates, but there is a demand for labor" unquote.

That then, as one of the social democratic press secretaries, Emma Fastesson-Lindgren, wrote in a tweet in November 2024, where she accuses the current government of not doing enough to reduce the huge unemployment that her party has helped to create, is dishonest.

In order to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future, one must be able to see and above all acknowledge the entire course of events, both for future immigrants and for Sweden.

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Finally

In the end, Nordnet managed to pay out the dividend from Oxford Lane Capital Corp. Common Stock (OXLC) regarding October 2024. One of my closest friends who also has (OXLC) with Nordnet contacted them this time.

What is more sadder than having to contact Nordnet about this matter every month is Nordnet's response, that they always nonchalantly say that the dividend has already been paid. Once you get them to understand that the last payout refers to the previous month, it takes a couple of days for the payout to happen. Finally, a message will appear that payment has been made.

I once waited more than two weeks before contacting them which shows that Nordnet has no internal control to flag non-payments but relies on the holders to contact them. Which is completely understandable the first month or two, but certainly not six months later.

The first few months I was indulgent but these days I just get annoyed, mainly by their nonchalant response. The fact that both Avanza and Nordea pay out this dividend without you having to contact them shows that it is entirely possible if you want.

Below are the charts for the first ten months of the year, where the top chart shows forecast vs outcome for the year's executed dividends where I have not made any adjustments regarding acquisitions or sales made during the year.

The bottom chart shows forecast vs outcome for the year's executed dividends where adjustments for acquisitions and sales have been made during the year. Both charts include all special and or supplemental dividends made during the year.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Few surprises

The various monetary policy decisions and news poured in yesterday. First up was The Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB) which published its "fast CPI" for the second time. SCB states that inflation rose faster than expected. CPIF for October rose to 1.5% compared to 1.1% in September. An increase to 1.3% was expected according to Trading Economics. The CPI also rose more than expected, landing at 2.1%. Inflation unchanged at 2.0% was expected. The outcome means that inflation is below Riksbanken's inflation target of 2% for the fifth month in a row.

Secondary out was the Swedish central bank AKA Riksbanken which lowered the Swedish policy rate by 50 points, which was completely in line with expectations. This was the biggest change in more than 10 years. Erik Thedéen, governor of Riksbanken, who always warns of uncertain times, specified this time that the various tariffs that the newly elected US president promised to introduce on products manufactured outside America during his election campaign could lead to increased inflation.

However, the problem that arises when you have shouted "Wolf!" at every previous press conference and used every superlative in the dictionary is that it becomes harder to get your message across when it really matters.

Finally, it was time for the American equivalent of the Swedish central bank, the Federal Reserve, and its chairman Jerome Powell to also fulfill the set expectations and lower the US policy rate by 25 points. In addition to Riksbanken and FED, the Bank of England also lowered its policy rate by 25 points yesterday, from 4.75% to 5%.

Countries all over the world have been struggling with rising inflation and more countries aside from the US and Sweden are starting to see results. That the world would have to fight against unusually high inflation after the pandemic was already clear in 2020. In addition to the fight against inflation, many countries, including Sweden, are still suffering from shortages of certain products as a result of the pandemic when China completely shut down their country. I really hope that all the companies that said they intend to move their operations either home or to other countries fulfill on their promises.

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Good intentions do not excuse bad results

Grossly simplified, politics is ultimately about pitting groups against each other. Politicians control the distribution of tax money and decide not only which groups get to share in tax money, but also how much they get. This creates contradictions between the different groups. An example of this is the pension payments.

In an interview, Anna Pettersson Westerberg, director general and head of the Swedish pension authority, says quote "The Swedish pension system is fundamentally based on reasonable principles - that every krona earned gives a higher pension. The changes of recent years have meant that the principle of living income and the drive to work have eroded." unquote.

In Sweden, we have a state basic allowance that compensates those who have worked part-time or not at all, and the number who receive it is quite high. More than 60% of all pensioners receive some form of basic support. For example, of the Swedish citizens aged 66 and over, 14% of them receive a guaranteed pension.

The guarantee pension is a basic protection in the general pension which is for those who have had means, little or no income from work during their life. It is mainly based on how big your income pension is and how long you have lived in Sweden, but also your marital status.

The Swedish pension is part of the salary cost and in reality a deferred salary. Then paying out money to people who never deposited money into the system will be unsustainable in the long term. As long as the number of pensioners who withdraw money through guaranteed pensions is small and does not affect the other pensioners by more than a few cents, people accept it. But when cents turn into hundreds of dollars, the situation becomes completely different.

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Let's hope that Riksbanken acts maturely next week

Speaking of the Swedish policy rate, according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, all Swedish major banks' experts agree that there will be a so-called double reduction next week. The last time this happened was July 3, 2014.

Swedbank was the first to declare in its Ranteblad for October as early as September 30, 2024 that it expects Riksbanken to lower the policy rate by 50 basis points.

Handelsbanken was significantly later with its forecast and wrote on October 29 that it expects a reduction in the Swedish policy rate by 50 basis points.

Last up was SEB, who only wrote on November 1, 2024 that they are predicting a 50 basis point cut in the policy rate next week. In addition to these major Swedish banks, Den Danske Bank and DNB also agree to this scenario, continues the newspaper Expressen.

As a counterweight to this, Swedish central bank governor Erik Thedéen has on several occasions warned of the risk of taking a double interest rate cut for granted. Sometimes Riksbanken's (re)acting can be experienced as a defiant 3-year-old, let's hope they have their big pants on next week.

Personally, I think that Riksbanken is "forced" instead of a voluntary reduction by 50 points this time mainly because they are aware that their measures take time before they work and that if Sweden's inflationary trend is not broken soon, Sweden may experience deflation.

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Exciting times await

Next week will be eventful in more ways than one. The outcome of the US presidential election will have a major impact on the Swedish krona's exchange rate, even if the market has already started to "price in" one of the candidates, reports the Swedish online newspaper Dagens PS Media AB.

Provided that a winner is decided on Tuesday or possibly early Wednesday morning Swedish time (GMT+2), Sweden will have one day's rest before the next important decision is published, namely the Swedish inflation figures for October and the Swedish centralbank AKA Riksbanken's decision on the policy rate.

The Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB) published for the first time last month a so-called "fast CPI", which is published about a week before the determined result. This time the "fast CPI" for October is published on 7 November 2024 at 8 a.m., while Riksbanken publishes its monetary policy decision including the policy rate on the same day at 9.30 a.m., i.e. 90 minutes later. I assume that SCB and Riksbanken exchange information with each other, which is not obvious in Sweden where strict secrecy prevails between the various authorities.

For example, the Swedish newspaper Expressen revealed that an internationally wanted gang leader and also one of Sweden's most feared criminals voluntarily contacted the Tax Agency, Sweden's equivalent to the IRS, and announced his whereabouts and received help with important documents. The newspaper's review also shows how the authority has long ignored several alarms about the notorious gang leader.

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Simplify, don't complicate

Avanza and Nordnet, which have stopped their clients from acquiring BDCs citing the PRIIP rules as a reason, have upset many Swedish investors, who are now abandoning both Avanza and Nordnet in favor of Nordea, which has not yet stopped these companies.

The PRIIP Regulation is a European regulation that aims to protect investors by requiring detailed information documents to be provided for certain investment products. These documents, known as KIDs (Key Information Documents), provide a standardized summary of the product's characteristics and risks, facilitating comparison and understanding for investors. The documents must be provided in the local language, in our case Swedish.

According to Avanza, BDCs are currently not compatible with PRIIP regulations due to differences in regulatory requirements and documentation standards between the US and the EU. The fact that neither Avanza nor Nordnet can provide such a fact sheet in Swedish, despite all the user-friendly and easily accessible AIs available, makes me believe that the EU wants some kind of information that the American BDCs do not have to provide in their fact sheets according to the domestic regulations. For Swedish online banks and stockbrokers to compile this information in their fact sheets, it becomes financially unsustainable and the product is instead removed from the assortment. In this way, Europe may have reduced the flight of European money to America.

Instead, Europe & the EU should reduce their focus on refugee flows, energy crises, wars etcetera and shift that part of their focus to future visions such as America or China to prevent white flight and loss of skills. Gone are the days when a strong brand meant you would be a humanitarian superpower, now is the time to pay for the party.

For this, Europe needs to shift its focus to its own citizens to prevent their willingness to pay taxes to wane completely, because then the really big problems for Europe begin.

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I must learn to be content

Aside from Rithm Capital Corp. Common Stock (RITM) is just breadcrumbs left over from October dividends for us to receive. Taking into account (RITM) dividends, by the end of October we will have passed the ingoing value of our estimated dividends for 2024, assuming we do not increase our investments during the year.

The result of us reinvesting all our dividends and the world's most perfect husband investing his monthly pension payment is that all the dividends we receive in November and December will be in addition to the expected outcome of the 2024 dividends. We are closing in on 2019's record dividend, although there is still a long way to go. Depending on how next year develops, we currently have good conditions to touch the outcome of 2019 at the end of next year.

I wish I was better at enjoying the moment than always wanting to move on, everything is a competition. The dividends we receive, despite being equivalent to almost 2/3 of our net salaries, are not "money" to me, they are simply tools to reach the next milestone, which is to pass 2019. I haven't set a final goal yet because I don't know when I will feel financially secure. This insecurity is due to the fact that my upbringing was very financially insecure for several years.

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The decision is not for the rest of the world to make, it is the Americans

I have absolutely no opinion on who America should elect for its president this coming Tuesday. Since I neither live in nor am a citizen of America, I have no right to judge their choices or tell them which candidate I think is best for them. The choice is theirs and theirs alone.

However, what I have opinions about is how the Swedish MSM AKA Legacy Media presents the two candidates. The state-owned Swedish television (SVT), which is financed 100% with tax money, should present the two candidates objectively and equally. If, against all odds, former President Donald Trump were to win the US presidential election on Tuesday next week, it would be like a lightning bolt from clear skies for 95% of the Swedish people because of SVT's media coverage.

SVT portrays and quotes Kamala Harris flatteringly, while Donald Trump is portrayed and quoted unfavorably. For example, SVT chose the following quote from the vice president "The American election stands between libertarian values ​​and chaos and division." unquote. While SVT instead chose to quote the New York Times and their factual review from a rally in Las Vegas by the former president "Donald Trump's conclusion: A lie or untruth every minute".

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