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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