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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An apology in advance to Junior's future wife

The fact that the world's most perfect husband and I were a little older when we became parents for the first and only time has most likely contributed to us spoiling the world's most perfect offspring. My husband had just turned 40 and I turned 38 almost to the day exactly 5 months after Junior was born. Our son has never lacked attention, on the contrary, sometimes I think we almost suffocate him with all our love and support.

My husband and I have always worked a lot, the only luxury we have consistently allowed ourselves is that we eat out a lot. Everything from McDonalds to Operakallaren in Stockholm. Junior was always with us until he reached his mid-teens and had long since grown tired of eating out. At that point I gave up and let him stay home instead, my husband always cooks for him either before or after we get back.

Nowadays Junior has taken the whole situation a step further and with our tacit consent has sometimes written notes with specific requests about what he would have for dinner. Which we fulfill most of the time.

For this reason, I would like to apologize in advance to Junior's future wife for any diva behavior he may have, it's all our fault.

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They're just not wired like the rest of us

For transparency and my own agenda, both my husband and I belong to Gen X while our son is Gen Z. I don't know if the behavior described below is only practiced by the Swedish Millennials or if it is an approach by the Millennials all over the world.

According to the Workplace Health Report 2024, people under 30 have twice as much short-term absence compared to their older colleagues, reports SVT Nyheter. Short-term absence means that you are away from work for periods shorter than fourteen consecutive days on at least six occasions during a year.

What we hear from employers is that they perceive that employees are taking sick leave for reasons other than illness. It could be that you have been up all night gambling or have broken up with your partner, something that the older generation would never be home from work for, says Charlotte Valleskog, chief psychologist at Feelgood, one of Sweden's leading health companies.

Thankfully, Gen Z seems to have adopted a completely different attitude than their predecessors, the Millennials.

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Uh oh

In the Swedish pension system, the individual controls part of his pension money by being given the opportunity to choose a fund in which this specific part of his pension money should be invested. The world's most perfect husband, who usually has 100% control over his investments, has missed that the specific fund he chose many years ago changes during the year he turns 56. 

The equity fund he chose, AP7, is transitioning from initially being a 100% equity fund to gradually transitioning to being a mixed fund consisting of 67% fixed income funds and 33% equity funds. My husband discovered this yesterday when he received the annual information sheet from the pension authority. He demonstrably missed this information last year because he turns 58 in August this year. His disappointment with himself was noticeably palpable.

He immediately logged into his retirement account and sold off his entire holdings in favor of another fund manager who is not making this change. When I chose to invest my part of the pension money, I did not choose any of the AP funds, which means that I am not affected by this.

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It's always a competition!

The world's most perfect husband who has absolutely no need for bags and shoes and thus saves much more money than I do becomes extra clear every time we get our salaries paid. The struggle within me between a new pair of shoes or investing the money in the stock market is not as predictable as it should be.

My husband thinks it's enough for one of us to save, but then the competitive person in me is triggered even more. Currently there is an internal struggle going on inside me between investing the money or buying a pair of sneakers from the Dior brand.

I always wear proper shoes because I had Hallux Valgus surgery on both my feet at a young age. I usually wear sneakers from the Asics brand, but I'm starting to feel the need to become more feminine, which can most certainly be attributed to my age.

Swapping my Asics for Dior would make a big difference to my outfit and hopefully make me feel more feminine.

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It's obvious that I'm a hoarder

I am a very competitive person, despite being in a car I even challenge motorcycles at red lights, was known from before, but also understanding that I am a hoarder was unpleasant.

The goal of our investments is for us to live on dividends in the future, but I already feel a lot of resistance to withdrawing the dividends instead of continuing to invest them. The competitive person, or if it's the hoarder in me, who constantly wants to beat yesterday's numbers will resist any withdrawals from the portfolio in the future.

This also applies to our points balance on our Amex account. It already bothers me that we will use all our Amex points this summer as the plan is to either travel somewhere in Europe or to Florida in America and thus use the points to partially pay for the plane tickets.

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The early bird catches the worm

Sometimes the world's most perfect husband snores something completely unbelievable. I don't have the heart to wake him up or even push him a little in hopes of getting him to stop, I'll get up instead if I fail to fall back asleep. This morning I gave up at 4 a.m.

The world's most perfect teenager is on winter break this week, which means he has to make his own lunch while we work. Getting up early this morning allowed me to start and empty a dishwasher, polish two silver trays, wash four frying pans, scrub all the kitchen counters, and it's not even 6 o'clock.

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The cat is out of the box

It's been a while since the world's most perfect teenager became better than me in every school subject. Until today, I've managed to hide my ignorance from Junior by nodding and asking obvious questions as we go over his homework, but today the lie was exposed.

The offspring had suspected for a while that I didn't understand everything and today he let me walk straight into the trap. All I could do was throw in the towel and come clean.

Now I have two options, either make him do his homework and trust that he won't lie to me, or get him a study buddy. Before I decide, I'll talk to Junior and ask what he wants, but the decision will be mine.

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Group 3 - Q1, special dividend

March is the first month of the year that some of our holdings generate extra dividends. When comparing the special/supplemental dividends between March 2024 and March 2025, they were higher last year. Unfortunately, I assumed that the additional dividends would be the same or even greater this year when I determined that all months in 2025 would outperform months from previous years. How March 2025 performs compared to 2024 is not set in stone yet. The companies below are those that pay out a special and/or a supplemental dividend during March 2025.

Crescent Capital BDC, Inc. Common stock (CCAP), ¢5 with pay date March 14, 2025

Capital Southwest Corporation Common Stock (CSWC), ¢6 with pay date March 31, 2025

Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS), ¢11 with pay day March 27, 2025

Main Street Capital Corporation Common Stock (MAIN), ¢30 with pay day March 27, 2025

Blue Owl Capital Corporation Common Stock (OBDC), ¢5 with pay day March 17, 2025

Sixth Street Specialty Lending, Inc. Common Stock (TSLX), ¢7 with pay day March 20, 2025

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It's always more fun to trade shares than to pay interest

We have chosen to have a variable interest rate on our mortgage. This interest rate is renegotiated every three months based on how the Central Bank of Sweden AKA the Riksbank has chosen to either maintain, raise or lower the policy rate. The next change date is March 1.

Since the Riksbank lowered the key interest rate on February 5 by 25 basis points, our interest cost will decrease starting next month. The result of this is that our interest costs will decrease over the next three months and we will invest this money in the stock market instead. Even if the change is not significantly large, it is still an improvement that will increase our investment opportunities.

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Another bank

A time ago, I opened an account with another digital investment platform named Montrose by Carnegie. The world's most perfect husband has had a mutual fund account at Carnegie Investment Bank for more than twenty years. Tomorrow, Montrose by Carnegie launches Sweden's first monthly dividend ETF, Montrose Global Monthly Dividend MSCI World UCITS ETF.

Fredrik Leetmaa, head of Carnegie Private Banking, says that Montrose's platform is built by investors for investors and is aimed at customers who are not yet wealthy but are well on their way and have a strong interest in equity savings.

So far, Montrose is only available as an app in a beta version and it seems like it will be a while before it is possible to open an endowment insurance with them. Despite this, we will buy shares in their EFT tomorrow. Until it is determined how Montrose will handle the foreign withholding tax, we will not be purchasing any foreign stocks with them.

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This pleases me

It is very satisfying to know that every month in 2025 will surpass 2023, assuming the US dollar does not collapse against the Swedish krona.

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I like what I see

Even though the pandemic had a major impact on our portfolios, it's quite an amazing feeling to see how much dividend we've already received in January 2025 compared to all of 2017.

The forecast indicates that 2025 will surpass 2019, assuming nothing unforeseen occurs.

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Nothing of value

None of our holdings paid any extra dividends in January 2025, which means that there is no discrepancy between the forecast and outcome bars.

The current month will also look exactly the same as I have not noted that any of the holdings will pay an additional dividend in February.

In March, however, the first extra dividend of the year will be paid, Fidus Investment Corporation Common Stock (FDUS), ¢11 with pay day March 27, 2025.

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Google Lens will change or kill retail

The world's most perfect husband and I have been entrepreneurs since 1994. Although we didn't initially own a company together, it only took five years before we started our first joint venture. This period of over thirty years has included both booms and recessions.

The reason we chose to end our involvement in retail now is due to several reasons, but mainly because people have become so incredibly rude after the pandemic. Although it was already quite common before the pandemic for customers to treat store staff rudely, it was just a drop in the ocean compared to what it has become.

Another reason is Google Lens, whose intention was noble but will change and possibly kill retail unless manufacturers start opening their own showrooms. There will be no entrepreneurs willing to invest in premises, products, staff and showrooms just so Millennials can come in to see and feel the product in real life and then use Google Lens to buy cheaper online.

Our ambition, which has always been to have a limited range of extraordinary and exclusive products, has saved us from Google Lens, but I know several entrepreneurs who have been forced to close due to Google Lens becoming an everyday tool for the end consumer.

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No time for anything other than work at the moment

The work of selling our existing inventory is in full swing. We have the privilege of being co-owners of a warehouse building just outside Stockholm where we will move all unsold products. This means that we only discount the goods that we absolutely want to get rid of. We hope that this process, by discounting and selling off all slow movers, will increase the attractiveness and value of the remaining stock that we intend to sell to a company that buy up entire inventory.

The sale of our condominium premises has made it clear how many ongoing contracts you as a store owner have. The latest and hopefully last termination of a contract we made was last Friday.

In addition to all this work, I have completed and filed all annual reports and income tax returns for our three companies as well as my father's company. Luckily, the deadline for filing our personal income tax returns is May 2nd, so I have plenty of time to do these.

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The January outcome was no surprise

My Google Sheets really works perfectly. I have adjusted the dividend values ​​for 2025 compared to 2024 for the holdings that pay their dividends in January, making the forecast and outcome identical. The adjustments I made for January resulted in the forecast for 2025 being significantly higher compared to the draft for 2025 on December 31, 2024.

I will make the same adjustment for February and March, with the result that any deviations between forecast and outcome can only be discerned in April 2025.

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We have sold our condominium premises

The purchase agreement, which was signed on Christmas Eve 2024, states that the premises should be ready for transfer on March 31, 2025. Until now it has felt abstract, but with six weeks left, reality is starting to set in. We will keep the company and fulfill all warranty obligations, but in practice, the world's most perfect husband and I will be unemployed on April 1, 2025.

In my 55 years of life, I have never applied for a work. I got my first job through a high school friend who had been asked by her older sister whose workplace was looking for staff and she wondered if there was anyone she thought was smart at school. I stayed at that company for 5 years before joining my dad's construction company where I worked for 20 years before my husband wanted me to work with him instead, where I have been for the past 10 years.

During my first 25 years of work, I was headhunted 3 times by other companies whose offers I turned down out of loyalty to my father. One of the offers was to become a controller for a company based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Now that I need a job, Sweden is in a deep recession with high unemployment. Besides, I'm not naive, a 55-year-old is not at the top of Swedish companies' wish lists, so it will most likely be problematic to find a job. My husband is completely unlike me and feels absolutely no stress about finding a new job, quite the opposite. He plans to be off work for a year or two.

Fortunately, we were paid very well for our condominium premises and with our classification as professional investors, we have access to instruments that other investors do not have. The surplus liquidity from the sale will be invested.

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Yesterday was tough

Yesterday we cleaned out my uncle's apartment after he suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in early 2025. It was very emotional for all of us, but especially for my father, who is the only living member of his family of origin.

My late uncle lived in the same apartment in inner-city Stockholm for over 53 years, so the amount of things that had neither sentimental nor financial value was enormous. As I was sorting through my uncle's things, I came to the realization that the world's most perfect teenager will say the same thing I said yesterday, "f**k what a lot of junk mom and dad had".

From now on, I will continuously clean out and throw away all unnecessary things and also refrain from buying junk to save Junior unnecessary work when the time comes. The "only" problem is the world's most perfect husband who wants to save everything...

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Why is it always a woman?

A female editorial writer named mrs. Jonna Sima Bank at one of Sweden's largest newspapers, Aftonbladet, writes in a tweet at X about a speech by Ebba Busch at the CES technology fair in Las Vegas the day before yesterday. Ms.Ebba Busch is the party leader of the Christian Democrats in Sweden and was rightly praised for her speech.

Mrs. Jonna Sima Bank, and the newspaper Aftonbladet have written several editorials about Ebba Busch in recent years, almost bordering on an obsession with her. In the tweet, mrs. Jonna Sima Bank wrote quote "And speaking of speeches – yes, I also think Ebba Busch did well in Las Vegas! But the message itself was a bit off. It is hardly curiosity and hard work that built Swedish prosperity. Welfare, redistribution policies, free education have played a greater role..." unquote.

To claim in all seriousness that welfare, redistribution policies and free, I assume she means tax-funded, education has played a greater role than hard work and curiosity is a clear lack of insight and understanding. Without hard work and the creation of successful businesses that generate both corporate and income taxes, you cannot offer your citizens welfare and tax-funded education.

Or does mrs. Jonna Sima Bank believe that tax revenue is created by redistributing money that doesn't exist...

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Once a day I'm tremendously jealous of him

For the past week I have been drinking a large cup of Rooibos tea in the evening. The last two nights I have slept through the night until 6:45 a.m., which is very unusual for me since I entered menopause. Whether it's because of the tea, that I've recently been sick, or that I'm perhaps on the other side of menopause, I'll leave open. Regardless, I'm grateful for any night I don't wake up before 4 a.m.

The world's most perfect husband has absolutely no problems with sleep, quite the opposite. He could literally sleep 12-14 hours a day.

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Money I'm supposed to receive always takes longer than the other way around

One of the EU's largest banks, the French BNP Paribas, whose official name is Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas, handles many of the dividend transactions from American companies to Swedish owners, among others. We will receive some of these dividends tomorrow, but most dividends will be delayed a couple of days because we live in Sweden.

The fact that, in 2025, it is still faster for a card transaction on my American Express card in, for example, America or Thailand than receiving a dividend payment feels a bit outdated. I am well aware that it is obviously about cash management.

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Is there no limit to how sluggish a teenager can be?

The world's perhaps not the most perfect teenager failed his math test today. The highest grade you can get on the test is a seven and the lowest is a one.

Because I've been sick for the last ten days, I haven't had the energy to make sure he studies properly for the exam, plus I made the terrible mistake of thinking he would not have an exam on the third day of school after winter break.

When I got home after work I asked how the exam went, I got the following response quote "I either got a two or a four" unquotes. I really thought he understood how important school is, but apparently NOT! I love him, but not everything he does or doesn't do.

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I'm so tired of rude people

It is very clear that January is the poorest month of the year. To top it all off, one of our newest customer groups, Generation Millennials, lacks both upbringing and respect. They don't even try to be the least bit polite.

Not all, but quite a lot of them come into the store and open with quote "You're more expensive than the online stores but they don't know anything. Help me order the right products online, you are just standing here anyway." unquote. It's at times like these that my patience is truly tested and I have to gather all the strength I have and politely but firmly ask them to leave the store.

Just today, we asked a Generation Millennial to leave the store. Their look when they understand that we are serious is just as priceless every time. Actually, it's not their fault, but their parents' who didn't teach them how to behave.

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A first small purchase

One of our companies, which is currently a dormant limited company, has some excess liquidity that we have placed on the New York stock exchange. The development of these investments has been very good so far.

Today we made an initial minor acquisition in Sound Point Meridian Capital, Inc. 8.00% Series A Preferred Shares Due 2029 (SPMA) for some of the accumulated dividends we have received. We have additional capital tied up in the above-mentioned company that may be released within the next 30 days. Should this happen, we will likely invest them on the New York Stock Exchange.

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We train him on everything except balancing a budget

If everything goes as the world's most perfect teenager wants, he will move to Canada for university studies after the summer of 2026.

While we trying to teach him that saving money is a is a matter of course, we also want Junior to have the best childhood possible without unnecessary worries. Therefore, we have given him a Mastercard via Revolut which is linked to my account at Revolut. I get a notis from Revolut as soon as he makes a purchase, making it very easy for me to make sure he always has at least $150 on this Mastercard, whether he spends $1 or $149 per purchase.

Although we have not set any limits on his purchases, Junior has never abused this debit card and uses it almost exclusively to eat school lunch outside of school once or twice a week. This behavior, mainly on my part, means he has never had to learn how to balance a budget.

If he chooses to move from Stockholm when he starts his university studies, I will set up a budget with him starting in January 2026 that he must learn to follow so that he is ready for a possible move.

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Coincidences create new routines

Since I have been and still am partly sick, I haven't really had the energy to get involved in the world's most perfect teenager's schoolwork with the hope that not much will happen in the second week of the last semester of grade 11. But apparently he has his first exam of the semester tomorrow, in math. According to the offspring, he has studied a bit on his own, but probably far from the hours I would have required if I had been "fit for fight". To top it all off, the exam tomorrow is about trigonometry at a level I've never studied.

I had to deviate from our regular routines for his exam and had Junior explain each part to me instead. I barely understood anything but managed with the motto "fake it until you make it" throughout his entire presentation. All I can hope for now is that he has understood everything correctly and that the exam goes well for him tomorrow.

Regardless of the outcome, I will implement this routine in Junior's preparations for all upcoming exams as I have noticed that he appreciated having to explain everything to me.

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I'm afraid that tomorrow many people will be here singing from a completely different songbook

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.

First of all, I feel for everyone who has lost a loved one, a friend, their home or their belongings in the terrible fires raging in California, USA. I hope that everyone who is entitled to compensation actually receives compensation.

Unfortunately, I am convinced that at least a couple of insurance companies will not survive this, which means that there are policyholders who will not receive any compensation. Regardless, large amounts of value will be lost because insurance companies always write down the value.

I wonder how understanding the residents of Los Angeles will be when they realize that they will personally lose large amounts of value due to the lack of dams, fire hydrants, etc. These have not been a priority issue in favor of DEI, which has resulted in many fires not being stopped or contained. My personal experience is that people are willing to signal goodness until it affects them themselves.

I believe we will soon see demands for the resignation of both the governor, mayor and fire chief.

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