My latest chart

Building charts in spreadsheets is incredibly satisfying. The attached chart below is my latest and even though I told the world's most perfect husband that this is the last one on this spreadsheet, I know deep down that's probably not the case.

The right bar in the chart shows expected dividends for 2025 while the left bar shows actual dividends. The left bar is divided into blue for ordinary dividends and red for extraordinary dividends.

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It's always a competition

I really have a hard time being grateful for the development of our dividends, I always want them to develop better. It's probably the winning mentality in me because I don't see this as money, but rather stacks competing against each other. Having received more dividends after four months than we received in all of 2017 is better than I give the portfolio credit for.

Now the hunt has begun for 2021, the second year of the pandemic. Every time I look at this chart, I am reminded of the pandemic's impact on the world.

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I take a win where I can, a loser can't be picky

Although we failed to meet our April dividend target, April 2025 was, thankfully, better than April 2023, if only marginally.

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Boy, was I wrong!

Since I overestimated the exchange rate when preparing the spreadsheet for 2025, I was confident that I would have the tolerance on my side. Not once since 2017 has my fixed exchange rate between SEK/USD been to my disadvantage, quite the opposite. However, it took no more than two months, March 2025 to be exact, before the market showed who really is in charge.

The deficit that began in March 2025 only deepened in April 2025 and will likely continue to deepen further during both May and June 2025. I will not change my fixed exchange rate, but I will swallow the bitter pill and hope for the best in the second half of 2025.

The fact that I miss the goal for April and probably also May and June doesn't take away the joy that my Google Sheet is now flawless.

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Is tax the rich left-wing language to ruin the rich?

The left in Sweden is no different from the left in other countries. The solution to all their problems is to tax the rich. Something they already do.

On April 24, 2025, EkonomiFakta reported tax revenues by income group. In Sweden, approximately 60% of total tax revenue comes from taxes on labor, primarily income taxes and general payroll tax. However, there is a big difference in how much different individuals pay in taxes, because the tax rate is progressive and increases the more you earn.

In these calculations, tax is defined as the sum of the taxes we declare ourselves in our income tax return. Most of this tax primarily relates to municipal and state income tax, capital tax and municipal property tax. Various tax deductions, such as earned income tax deductions and more, made in the income tax return, reduce the final tax on which the return is based.

In 2023, the income group with an annual income exceeding $80,000 contributed, they constitute 4% of taxpayers, with 24% of total tax payments.

The same year, the income group with an annual income below $19,900 contributed, they constitute 73% of taxpayers, with 12% of total tax payments.

Based on these facts, can one truly say that the rich pay too little in taxes, and above all, how sustainable is this? We are definitely not among the 4% with the highest annual income, but we have also started thinking about moving from Sweden as soon as the world's most perfect teenager finishes his university education. As the Swedish social contract fails, our willingness to work and pay taxes in Sweden is decreasing.

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It is not always easy to keep one's cool

The fluctuations in the USD/SEK exchange rate in recent months have been scarier than any ride at any amusement park worth its name. The portfolio may show black numbers only to show red numbers 60 minutes later even though stock prices have risen measured in USD.

According to the state-owned Swedish television (SVT), the current trend in Sweden is to sell American holdings to move the money to Sweden, something we have chosen not to do. Which is a significant factor in the inflow of capital to Sweden and thus a strengthened Swedish krona.

The world's most perfect husband and I still believe that America has significantly higher potential than Sweden and even Europe in the long term. Even if we are convinced that we are doing the right thing for ourselves and our finances, it can be worrying and difficult to keep it cool when the portfolio value drops by more than $50,000 in just a couple of hours and all news media in Sweden have BLOOD BATH as the headline for news about the American stock market.

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Group 2 - Q2 2025

This month's extra dividends are almost non-existent, so far I have only found one of our holdings, namely HTGC. Unfortunately, our holding in the named company is far from significant, but every penny is more than welcome.

Hercules Capital, Inc. Common Stock (HTGC), ¢7 with pay date May 20, 2025

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G❤️❤️gle Sheet

The world's most perfect husband has signed up for a 3-year subscription to Seeking Alpha. With this, I have changed the order of our holdings in my Google Sheet from company names to ticker names.

This change took over 6 hours but I also managed to change the look of one of my charts that I wasn't happy with. Now the chart is exactly as I originally wanted it to be but never managed to create. Honestly, I don't know how I managed to create this chart, but I did it all by myself.

The chart consists of two bars, the right one shows our total estimated dividends for 2025, while the left one shows executed dividends where the red part refers to extra dividends. Once again, I have to give Google Sheet my praise.

The image below shows the new improved chart compared to the previous one.

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Speaking of lies and dishonesty

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. Politically, I am very far from the Swedish Social Democrats, their partner parties, communism and socialism.

Every May Day, several demonstrations are organized around Sweden by the Left. Social Democrats party leader Magdalena Andersson gave her first May Day speech in Malmoe this year. According to news reporting from state-owned Swedish Radio (SR), the Social Democrats, who are in opposition this term, want to change the pension system so that it benefits those who start working early to a greater extent than today. This statement is the exact opposite of what they actually did the last time they were in power.

The Social Democrats proudly write on their own website that on June 22, 2022, when they were in power last time, the government voted through an amending budget that increased the guarantee pension and thereby reduced the "respectful distance" between the national old-age pension and the guarantee pension.

The national old-age pension is paid on the basis of earned salary to citizens who have worked and contributed to the public sector. The guarantee pension is paid to citizens who have never worked and therefore never contributed to the public sector.

According to SPF Seniorerna, one of Sweden's largest senior organizations, the respect distance for 2025 will be as follows:

A person born in 1945 and had a monthly salary of $4,000 will receive a national old-age pension of $1,794 while a person with a guaranteed pension will receive $1,773.

If you instead were born in 1955 and had a monthly salary of $4,000 will receive a national old-age pension of $1,971 while a person with a guaranteed pension will receive $1,773.

This change was voted through exactly 88 days before the 2022 Swedish election, meaning it was among the last measures the Social Democrats implemented before being voted out. This proves what they do in power as opposed to what they say in opposition.

If you want to be certain something gets done, do it yourself

When I asked our friends for help with my resume, there was no problem in helping us since they owe us several favors and they were happy to help us back. However, it would be their daughter who created it because she has this particular skill.

The day before yesterday, my friend called me and said that their daughter is overloaded with work right now so it would be a week or two before she could even start on my resume. During this phone call, she repeated her daughter's lack of time four times. So yesterday I texted my friend and said I didn't want to put pressure on her daughter and said I was going to create my own resume.

This was the first and last time I ever asked for help.

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A revelation

My ignorance and hypocrisy have contributed to the Woke movement. The daughter of a close friend, born in 2001, has spent most of her life expressing her opinions, including those everyone knew were inaccurate, completely unchallenged with doleful consequences as a result.

My friend's intentions were "good" as she wanted to build her daughter's self-confidence and ability to stand up for herself. Unfortunately, this has led to this 24-year-old woman today being completely incapable to accept that any of her opinions are wrong.

The last time I met them, her claim was so blatantly false that I, despite my better judgment, questioned her position and countered it with facts. It all ended with her getting up and leaving the room while shouting quote "you don't understand anything" unquote.

I take full responsibility for the fact that my silence over the years has contributed to her inability to see the big picture, and if I'm being completely honest, there are probably more young people around me to whom I have done the same thing. To top it all off, my friend and I haven't spoken to each other since this happened.

However, neither I nor the world's most perfect husband have let the opinions of the world's most perfect teenager go unchallenged. He has always had to substantiate and argue for his positions.

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Sad times await

We have continued with our acquisitions and today we purchased a small number of shares in Prudential Financial, Inc. Common Stock (PRU) and VICI Properties Inc. Common Stock (VICI).

The factor that has the greatest impact on our portfolio is the exchange rate difference between the Swedish krona (SEK) and the US dollar (USD). Today, the falling SEK has increased the value of our stock portfolio even though the share prices of our holdings have decreased.

In contrariety to today, when SEK weakened, it has strengthened significantly earlier this year. This strengthening is due to Swedish small savers abandoning the American market in favor of the domestic one. Today's strengthening of the Swedish krona may be a first sign that the Swedes' sale of American investments has ended and a weakening of the krona is to be expected in the near future.

Unfortunately, the air has completely disappeared from the air cushion I had in my Google Sheet in the form of the exchange rate difference. This means that we will not exceed the forecast until the krona has weakened further compared to today's exchange rate.

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When did taking responsibility become unfashionable?

As long as politicians and journalists, regardless of citizenship, ethnicity, or party affiliation, do not take responsibility for their lies and dishonest news reporting, fake news will be able to thrive without the slightest resistance.

Personally, I am incredibly grateful that Elon Musk acquired X, thereby paving the way for tweets that expose past lies and dishonest news reporting. Claiming you never said something becomes impossible when someone link or post screenshots of past posts that shows the opposite.

It's incredibly satisfying when someone posts a screenshot or a link in a thread where the person who wrote the original tweet wrote something that is the exact opposite of what they wrote or said previously. I loathe people who don't take responsibility for their lies or dishonest news reporting.

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The world's worst secret

The people, exclusively mothers, that I have talked to about the sadness of the world's most perfect teenager prioritizing friends over us attest that he will "come back" to us within a few years. BUT what if he doesn't! Besides, as it feels today, I won't survive these "few years" to come before it happens at best.

How have parents before us survive this, and why hasn't anyone said how terrible it is? Is it because no one would have children if they understood this grief before?

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Tops one list but doesn't even qualify for the other

According to sources such as the Fortune Global 500 and other financial analyses, the ten largest companies in the world by revenue, based on the most recent information (primarily fiscal year 2023 or 2024) are:

Walmart (United States, Retail), revenue: ~$648 billion  

Amazon (United States, Retail/Technology), revenue: ~$574 billion  

State Grid Corporation of China (China, Energy), revenue: ~$530 billion  

Saudi Armco (Saudi Arabia, Oil & Gas), revenue: ~$495 billion  

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) (China, Oil & Gas), revenue: ~$430 billion  

ExxonMobil (United States, Oil & Gas), revenue: ~$413 billion  

Apple (United States, Technology), revenue: ~$394 billion  

UnitedHealth Group (United States, Healthcare), revenue: ~$371 billion  

CVS Health (United States, Healthcare), revenue: ~$357 billion

Volkswagen (Germany, Automotive), revenue: ~$348 billion

If we instead choose to list the ten largest companies in the world by market capitalization as of early April 2025, based on the latest available information, the list changes. Market capitalization figures are given in trillions of USD and reflect values ​​from sources such as Forbes, Statista, and posts on X, with data primarily from the first quarter of 2025. We get a different result.

Apple (United States, Technology) - ~$2.96 trillion 

Microsoft (United States, Technology) - ~$2.73 trillion  

Nvidia (United States, Technology) - ~$2.47 trillion 

Alphabet (United States, Technology) - ~$1.85 trillion 

Amazon (United States, Retail/Technology) - ~$1.83 trillion 

Meta Platforms (United States, Technology) - ~$1.27 trillion 

Berkshire Hathaway (United States, Conglomerate) - ~$0.97 trillion

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (Taiwan, Semiconductor) - ~$0.93 trillion

Tesla (United States, Automotive/Technology) - ~$0.89 trillion

Broadcom (United States, Semiconductor/Software) - ~$0.82 trillion

Of the ten companies with the largest market capitalization, 40% of them produce only Ones and Zeros. Simply selling a service, such as advertising on their platforms, creates nothing but money for its owners. After the desired “click,” there is no product to sell on a secondary market or pass on to the next generation. The fact that manufacturing companies do not dominate the list of companies with the largest market capitalization is a clear sign of our times.

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An aging population

The current growth in the U.S. population aged 65 and over, driven by the large baby boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, is unprecedented in U.S. history.

By 2026, the number of people under 18 is still expected to slightly outnumber those over 65, with estimates suggesting around 76.5 million children under 18 compared to around 60–62 million adults over 65. The exact transition point depends on variables such as fertility levels, mortality rates, and immigration, but current data suggests it is a few years away. According to Census Bureau projections, the number of people 65 and older is expected to exceed the number of people 18 and younger sometime between 2029 and 2034.

With this in mind, we have previously invested in Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. Common Stock (OHI) and intend to invest in Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated Common Stock (HR). Whether it will be with private money or part of the remaining part of our company's purchase sum remains to be seen. Maybe it will be both accounts.

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🎵 Here come all the emotions at the same time 🎶🎶

In situations like this, your nerves and your ability to keep a cool head are really put to the test. Even if we don't have all of our savings in the stock market, all of our savings that we have invested are on Nasdaq. I am fully aware of the risks we are taking and why, and even though it is turbulent right now, I truly believe it will pay off in the long run.

For example, we were and are very well aware that the current US President Donald Trump ran for election on a number of promises, such as tariffs and the deportation of illegal immigrants. Promises that the American people, given that he won both the popular vote and the electoral vote, want to see fulfilled. Complaining then is not okay, especially as a non-American. We could have sold everything and either waited out the trade war that everyone knew was coming or chosen other markets.

What I do hope for is that the Supreme Court upholds the 1930s court decision – “Humprey’s Executor” – which limited the president’s ability to fire independent agency officials on political grounds. Firing Jerome Powell now would likely plunge America into an even deeper recession than the one that is likely already underway. Personally, I think the best thing for President Trump is for Jerome Powell to remain as chairman until his term ends in May next year.

This way, President Trump will be able to use Jerome Powell as a scapegoat for the recession and shift the focus away from the fact that it was actually the tariffs that triggered it all.

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Walking on eggshells

An increasingly strong Swedish krona and falling share prices led us today to consider that there was a buy position in the following company in which we invested part of our company's cash.

Capital Southwest Corporation Common Stock (CSWC)

LTC Properties, Inc. Common Stock (LTC)

NNN REIT, Inc. Common Stock (NNN)

Simon Property Group, Inc. Common Stock (SPG)

Despite these acquisitions, we still have a significant portion of the purchase sum in cash. The fact that we don't live in the market we invest our money in has its problems, the main one being that we aren't there and can feel the atmosphere in the society. We believe America may be heading into a recession, which makes us extra cautious with this money.

Whether this caution will pay off or cost us money remains to be seen.

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There's a first time for everything

Today, for the first time in my life, I asked a friend for help. Everything else I've been exposed to I've solved on my own or together with my husband. Among other things, I have created a Google Sheet that I "programmed" to retrieve information from Google Finance without ever studying programming. Which says more about Google Sheets than about me. This spreadsheet handles all of our holdings and their dividends across our five different banks.

However, everything came to a complete halt when I was about to create a resume for the first time in my life. No matter how much I googled and struggled, I couldn't create anything that even came close to being called a resume.

Luckily, a daughter of one of my best friends studied marketing and possesses that very knowledge. Plus, the world's most perfect husband has helped this particular family several times with plumbing problems, which made asking for a favor much easier. I have compiled my 35 years of working life and emailed it to my friend, so now I am waiting for her daughter to come back with a graphically clear and nice resume for me. When I get it, I will, for the first time in my life, actively look for a job.

There is always a first time for something, even at the age of 55. I seem to be having a lot of those moments right now.

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Q1 2025 is almost more than all of 2017

The development we had between 2017 and 2018 will never happen again, unless we win the lottery. 😉

However, I sincerely hope that we pass 2019 this year, which should happen assuming that the Swedish krona does not become stronger than it is today and that none of our holdings lower their dividends.

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Right on track, for now

The chart below shows that my calculations are correct. With the recent strengthening of the Swedish krona, my reservation for exchange rate differences has been completely erased, which means that further strengthening of the Swedish krona will affect future calculations.

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Extra money

We received significantly more extra dividends in March than I expected.

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Good enough

Due to the strengthening of the Swedish krona against the US dollar, my expectations that March 2025 would be our best dividend month ever were not met. Despite this, I am still pleased with the outcome of March.

The decline in stock prices has allowed us to expand our holdings to a higher yield, which will reward us throughout the rest of the year, assuming the stock market does not collapse.

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Dodged a bullet

The timing of when we received the purchase sum for the sale of our condominium premises could not have been better. If the deal had been completed a month earlier, we probably would have had time to invest most of the money in the stock market, just before the carnage would have begun.

In addition to the actual slaughter of the stock market that has occurred in the aftermath of the trade war due to tariffs, the Swedish krona has also recently strengthened significantly against the US dollar, which is affecting our portfolio value more than stock prices.

Furthermore, some of the Swedish politicians have started talking about replacing the Swedish krona with the euro and given how quickly Sweden decided to join NATO, we may well have the euro in Sweden sooner than one might think.

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Hate to burst your bubble

I was closer to 38 than 37 when I became a mother for the first and only time, and the absolute last of all my friends, sisters, and other relatives. What no one told me was that motherhood, besides all the love, also came with a darkness. For me, it wasn't until I became a mother that I felt the power of real raw worry. A feeling that has been my constant companion ever since.

The individuation process for the world's most perfect teenager, who turns 18 at the end of the summer, which clearly began a while ago, had completely escaped me. Until last week when my husband, Junior, and I visited Helsinki for a couple of days. The offspring had absolutely no interest in hanging out with us; instead, he wanted to discover Helsinki on his own.

I'm not mild giftedness, I know that children sooner or later start to break free from their parents, but I was completely unprepared for it to actually happen. The grief I have been carrying for the past week has been clear and distinct. Just as I could burst into tears at any time when Junior was a newborn, I have been crying for the past week. None of my loved ones have prepared me for this grief. Instead, everyone has said that it's so nice when the children grow up and move out and get their own lives back. I've always felt sorry for these parents who don't want to be with their children, but now I understand that this is a kind of protection against the grief.

The children growing up is truly bittersweet, of course I want Junior to grow up to be an independent, fully functioning and logically thinking adult, at the same time I miss my child who was dependent on me.

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Can go either way

Yesterday I bought a small number of shares of Pfizer, Inc. Common Stock (PFE). The reason we continue to trade shares in (PFE) is that we strongly believe in the company in the long term.

However, we have chosen to wait with our investments in our company because President Trump will hold a press conference today on the occasion of his designation of April 2 as "Liberation Day", when several previously postponed tariffs will come into effect according to the Swedish news newspaper Dagens Nyheter. It will be exciting to see how the market will react.

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April fools day

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

Yesterday, a young Swedish man with a YouTube channel pulled one of the absolute best April Fool's jokes I've ever seen. Before performing the prank, he did everything by the book and obtained all the necessary permits. He even spoke to the security guards who were on site to eliminate the risk of third parties being exposed to any kind of danger.

In Sweden, there is a domestic hamburger chain called Max. This hamburger chain was recently rocked by a scandal. On February 18, 2025, it was revealed that the hamburger chain Max is seriously deficient in its hygiene routines.

Among other things, it was revealed that the toilet seat is washed in the dishwasher among household utensils, scrub buckets are used for both cleaning and storing milkshakes, old salads are relabeled and hamburgers that have been in a warming cabinet for far too long are served, according to Swedish Radio.

Yesterday morning, the young YouTuber had parked a Tesla outside a Max restaurant located in Sodermalm, a district in Stockholm. This particular district is notorious for being full of climate activists, people who follow the woke movement, and other like-minded people. The Tesla had a piece of cardboard over the license plate that read "Max ❤️ Tesla", reports the newspaper Aftonbladet. He had also displayed 2 roll-ups with the same text on the sidewalk on either side of the entrance to the restaurant.

The same article also states that Max's hamburger chain, in its eagerness to appear good, unlike Tesla which is evil..., chose to follow its belief system (BS) and reported the prank to the police as they do not want to be associated with Tesla. Thank God, Tesla, which has more to lose by being associated with a company with questionable hygiene routines and bad morals and ethics, could see the humor in it all.

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This money is earmarked for lower risk-taking

Tonight, Swedish time, we plan to start investing the money we received for your condominium premises. We opened an endowment insurance for the company some time ago. We will be significantly less risk-averse with the company's money than we are with our private money.

After both the world's most perfect husband and I have read a book written by Bombmattan, we have come to the mutual decision to adopt his strategy to some extent when investing this money. It will be exciting to compare the development of these investments against our private ones. Of course, we must take the exchange rate into account because our private investments were made at a time when the Swedish krona was stronger than today, even though it has strengthened significantly recently.

Even though we know which companies we will invest in, the actual timing of the purchase may change as a lot is happening in the world right now.

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I want a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Sweden

Even though Sweden already has far too many departments, currently there are 367, there is one I really want, namely DOGE. I can only imagine how much tax money, that is, my money, is being wasted.

I cannot for the life of me understand the people in America who oppose this department and its actions. Not wanting to ensure that the money the state takes in from you through various forms of taxes does not disappear into various forms of fraud and the like is beyond my comprehension. In my world, you are either one of those who commits fraud or otherwise appropriates tax money that you are not actually entitled to.

Because it can't be about jealousy, can it?  That some people have succeeded better than them and they can therefore only think about "taxing the rich" regardless of where the tax money ends up?! I believe there are several variables that underlie these people's aversion to DOGE. In addition to the above, I also believe there is a huge lack of knowledge about how it really works among these people.

As a resident of one of the world's highest taxed countries, I'm really tired of seeing my hard-earned money wasted on things like a camel park, a cloned Christmas tree, a pink boulder, the list goes on and on.

Just the knowledge that even Iraq's former Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari collected child and housing allowances and income support in Sweden while he received a salary from the Iraqi government shows how easily the Swedish state is deceived.

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The Swedish krona is inexplicably strong given the current economic climate

A strong Swedish defense industry, together with increasingly high inflation, is slowing the prospects for future policy rate cuts. The less Sweden lowers its policy rate, the more the Swedish krona can strengthen against other currencies, says SVT's economic commentator Alexander Norén. The combination of Swedish inflation, together with the geopolitical situation and uncertainty about US tariffs, has caused the Swedish krona to move sharply.

For example, €1 cost 10.99 SEK on March 6, 2025. It was the first time in two years that the euro fell below 11 SEK. On the same day, $1 cost 10.19 SEK, which should be compared to 10.80 SEK the week before. The development can be partly explained by the fact that the chance of further policy rate cuts in the near future from Sweden's central bank AKA the Riksbank is now considered extremely unlikely.

In addition, the outside world believes that there will be more investments in Sweden and that more goods and services will be purchased from Sweden, not least because there will be major defense investments in Europe and Sweden has large defense companies that export. Sometimes a few signals that the Swedish krona is undervalued can be enough to start a positive spiral that Sweden seems to be in right now.

If you want to be a little conspiratorial, you can suspect that there is an underlying agenda between Sweden and the EU to strengthen the Swedish krona ahead of a rapid transition to the euro in Sweden. Who knows, maybe Sweden will replace the Swedish krona with the euro in the near future.😉

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What am I going to do with all my free time?

March is one of the best dividend months of the year for us. Due to our extremely extraordinary workload, I haven't entered a single dividend for March into my Google Sheet yet, compiling it will be a huge task.

Thankfully, from now on we will only work Monday through Friday, and it will be a privilege to have weekends off. Sitting in my office for an hour or so on a Saturday and/or Sunday to handle occasional supplier invoices that come in over the weekend cannot be called work.

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Future stalkers

Since we have worked fifteen days in a row between eleven and twelve hours a day, it was only on Friday evening that we had time to make two investments. The choice fell on Golub Capital BDC, Inc. Common Stock (GBDC) and Hercules Capital, Inc. Common Stock (HTGC).

Starting tomorrow, we plan to start investing the money we received from the sale of our condominium premises. We will minimize the risk with this money to begin with. Our plan is to start taking bigger risks in a year or so withwith the money we will receive from future dividends. The initial investment itself should be hedged as much as you can hedge money in the stock market.

In the best of worlds, I get a job within a couple of months and my husband does well with our investments so we can be financially independent in good time before the world's most perfect teenager finishes his future university education and heads out into the world to work.

The goal of everything is that in the future we will be able to follow him out into the world and live in the same city as him.

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Uncharted territory

Today was the first Saturday in over twenty months that the world's most perfect husband and I had a Saturday off that wasn't a holiday or a vacation day. I thought I would have a more euphoric feeling when the sale of our condominium was completed, but instead I have a feeling of emptiness.

The last four weeks have been incredibly hectic, we sold significantly more inventory than we expected. Sales during March amounted to more than a quarter of last year's entire turnover. Apparently one of our customers had posted in a group on Facebook that we were having a 50% sale on the entire inventory, so people from all over Stockholm flocked to us.

Next week we will begin the work of sorting out and preparing the sale of remaining inventory. After that, I have to put together a CV and start looking for a job for the first time in my life. Since we will invest the entire proceeds from the sale of our premises, the company's equity portfolio will be almost exactly the same size as our private equity portfolio. This will mean that the time required for our equity holdings will double, so we have decided that my husband will devote all his time to our investments for the rest of 2025 to begin with.

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We managed to make a couple of acquisitions anyway

Despite the enormous workload we have had and thanks to the fact that Nasdaq is open late in the Swedish evening due to the US being six hours behind in terms of time, we have been able to make a lot of acquisitions. All purchases were made in Hercules Capital, Inc. Common Stock (HTGC) in both our private and our corporate endowment insurances.

Due to lack of time, I haven't even been able to do one of my favorite tasks, namely entering the executed dividend into my Google Sheet during March. This is a task I will prioritize immediately after we have completely emptied the premises, which should be completed on Friday next week when the handover takes place.

The strengthening of the Swedish krona in recent weeks means that March 2025 will most likely not surpass March 2024, which has so far been our absolute next dividend month.

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Free at last

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy work-related, including longer opening hours in the store since it has been full of customers at closing, but today is the last day we are officially open. After that, we will start packing up what's left of the inventory and later next week we will move it out to the industrial property that my parents own. The feeling of knowing that today is the last day I have to work in the store is liberating.

There are so many genuinely mean people that half would be enough. These people have no problem treating store staff like trash. I have lost count of the number of times customers have come into the store and treated both our staff and us extremely badly and derogatory. Not having to integrate these types of people will do wonders for our mental health.

At the same time, it's scary to think that in a week I'll be "unemployed" for the first time in my entire working life. Since we have only sold the premises and none of our companies, I will still be working with all the administration for our three companies and my dad's consulting firm. Which means in practice that I will still have work to do, albeit less.

Fortunately, apart from the purchase price for the premises, we have balanced profits in our companies that cover our salaries for the rest of 2025, so I have several months to look for a job.

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Almost done

Yesterday I filled out my, my husband's, my mom's and my dad's income tax returns for 2024. I filed Junior's income tax return earlier this week, so now it's only my late uncle, who passed away on January 2nd of this year, whose income tax return I have left to do.

Of these five returns I have filed, four of us are getting money back on our taxes while my dad had to pay $11,450 in back taxes. The reason for this is that his company is a general partnership, unlike ours which are limited liability companies, which in practice means that he personally has to pay the tax for the established profit in the company, unlike a limited company where the company pays corporate tax. Because of this, my dad has to make an extra tax payment every year at this time of year.

The only thing left before I'm done with this year's income tax returns is for my dad, as the next of kin, to contact the Swedish Tax Agency to get login details for my late uncle's tax return information so I can complete and submit his tax return as well.

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As many Swedes leave the American stock market, we hope to increase the pace

We have received some of the March dividends and hope for more tomorrow. The combination of last week's stock market crash and a stronger Swedish krona has significantly improved buying opportunities for us.

Hopefully tomorrow we will have enough energy and, above all, time to go gunning for some good acquisitions in the coming days in contrast to last week's failure. All last week, both my husband and I fell asleep on the couch and were woken up by the teenager when it was time to go to bed. This sale is killing us.

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We are having a sale for the first and only time ever

We have now had a sale for exactly six days. Since we wanted to give something back to our regular customers who have shopped with us for seventeen years, we chose not to advertise that we would be having a sale. As a result of GDPR we are not allowed to keep records of existing customers without their consent. Due to this we have chosen not to have one and therefore could not notify them. Instead, we put up signs in the store windows with the word sale and 50%.

On the first day, sales tripled compared to a normal day. Day two was hysterical, apparently a couple of customers had tagged us in their Facebook groups and it went completely crazy. I've always laughed at how women are portrayed in comedies when there's a sale in a store with a firm belief that this is far from reality. I was wrong, the women literally took products out of each other's hands when they saw that the person holding the item was not going to buy it but was going to return it to its place on the shelf.

So far, the sale have been incredibly successful, we have about a third of the stock left. I hope tomorrow continues in the same way.

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Mini vacation

The world's most perfect teenager is still set on becoming a chemical engineer and hopes to be accepted to Aalto University.

For this reason, we have booked plane tickets for a mini-vacation to Helsinki. One of the reasons for this trip is that we want Junior to have the opportunity to see Aalto Campus before he decides to apply there next year. The main reason, however, is that I and the world's most perfect husband want to ensure that the university is located in a safe part of Helsinki.

Fortunately, Finnair uses aircraft from the manufacturer Airbus for this route. After all the accidents with Boeing and their chosen DEI strategy, I prefer Airbus to Boeing nowadays. For the teenager who is a little afraid of flying, it was almost a dealbreaker that we flew Airbus.

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I'm tired of our tax money being misappropriated

At Sweden's largest airport, Arlanda, the Swedish Customs and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency carried out two joint inspections last year, according to the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

These operations prevented incorrect payments of nearly $550,000 and resulted in refund claims of just over $420,000. The frauds discovered consisted of passengers who received sickness benefit, parental benefit and activity compensation on incorrect grounds. This has now resulted in both authorities deciding to expand their cooperation.

In addition, the Swedish Tax Agency has decided to carry out special inspection operations against sham separations in the spring of 2025, that is, people who have separated according to the population register but still live together and through this fraud are entitled to various compensations such as housing allowances, livelihood support, etc. Sham separations are another example of fraud that has been discovered through increased inspections in recent years.

Because these frauds are so widespread, I would like to see the above-mentioned control efforts become permanent and ongoing. I would also see it as positive if these crimes were subject to harsher punishments compared to what they have today.

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Looking good

It is incredibly satisfying to see how the dividends develop. As early as next month, this year's dividends will have exceeded the entire 2017 dividends.

Assuming none of our holdings cut their dividends this year, it is already set in stone that 2025 will surpass 2024 and then we still have nine months of dividends left to invest.

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Future concerns

2025 continues to outperform its predecessors, but the forecast points to March 2025 dividends coming in at $200 lower than March 2024. The only thing that can save us is that I missed noting a possible extra dividend from one of our holdings or that the Swedish krona immediately loses more than ¢10 in value against the US dollar.

This really bothers the competitive person in me. It's always a competition.

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Nothing exciting

Not a single one of our holdings paid any special and/or supplemental dividends during February, so the values ​​in the chart below are exactly the same as the charts where I do not take extra dividends into account.

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Still on track

Due to the enormous workload over the past ten days, it took me significantly longer to finalize the results for February's dividends. The marginal strengthening of the Swedish krona against other currencies, including the US dollar, at the end of February was within the tolerance for my forecast to be correct.

As the Swedish krona has strengthened further this month against the US dollar, there is an imminent risk that we will not meet the forecast for March.

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Has the carnage ended?

The value of our portfolios has fallen more sharply and faster than a ski jumper during the Olympics who misses the landing. As we have started selling our inventory in the store, we have had neither the energy nor the time to follow the stock market meticulously during this period of time. Since we are dividend investors and not growth investors, the daily stock market trend is not entirely decisive for us. The most important thing for us is that our holdings do not cut their dividends.

Yesterday I started an endowment insurance with our latest digital investment platform, Montrose by Carnegie, and today I made my first acquisition. Since we are not registered as a professional investor with Montrose and therefore do not have access to all instruments such as EFTs and BDCs, we chose to acquire Stellus Capital Investment Corporation Common Stock (SCM).

The reason we choose to open an endowment insurance with Montrose is that they are the first in Sweden to offer direct refund of foreign withholding tax. According to the newspaper DI Montrose's partner is Movestic. Initially, we will only make smaller acquisitions on this platform until we see how user-friendly the app is, how well the foreign withholding tax refunds will work, and how high the brokerage fee is.

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This is going to be too exciting

The US dollar has lost a little in value compared to the Swedish krona during February 2025. This means that our dividends for January will be marginally higher compared to the dividends for February after they have been converted to Swedish kronor.

The reason for this is because I set a fixed "exchange rate" in my Google Sheets during January for the entire year that I will not change, assuming no major change occurs, which means that it will be a bit "tight" to reach the forecast for February this time.

So far, the numbers show that I will miss the target by just under $30, which may be considered negligible by many but certainly not by me. How close I get to my goal depends entirely on the exchange rate applied by our respective banks when they pay out February's final dividends.

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