From Personality Tests to Portfolio Changes – And My Husband Wants to Start Swing Trading

A number of years ago, I took an extensive leadership training course. I was skeptical when they handed out personality tests and took them under silent protest.

In hindsight, those tests taught me more than almost anything else.

I’ve learned why I react differently in different situations, and I’ve become better at understanding which of my traits is most useful at any given moment. Sometimes I even allow myself to use the “wrong” quality if it leads to the best outcome.

One of my strongest traits is that I dislike change. I’m extremely conservative by nature.

Our portfolio has been 100% dividend stocks for many years — with good results. But the world doesn’t stand still. My husband, who loves change far more than I do, and I have decided to evolve our strategy and add growth stocks as well. Although both strategies are long-term, I needed time to adjust. That adjustment period was barely over when he casually mentioned something about swing trading.

We’ve barely begun with growth stocks, and he’s already looking at the next step. Before I know it, he’ll probably suggest day trading too.

The fact that he hasn’t traded me in for a new wife after 32 years is honestly beyond me. I must have more personalities than I realize.

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My Husband Turned Off the Heat… and I Love Him Anyway

We live in a beautiful old building from 1870 in Stockholm with thick, beautiful walls. They keep us cool in the summer, but right now — after this long, cold winter — they’re still holding onto the chill.

Last night, the world's most perfect husband decided it was time to turn off the heating in the bedroom. This has nothing to do with money — our heating cost is fixed anyway. It’s purely a him issue. Apparently he’s starting to feel 'a bit warm' at night."

I, on the other hand, woke up at 3:45 a.m. freezing cold. The room was so chilly I could almost see my breath. Since then I’ve been lying on the sofa wrapped in a bedspread and two blankets.

I sleep with one winter duvet. My dear husband sleeps with two — because of course he does.

I love this man more than anything, but right now I’m seriously considering reminding him who the highest authority in this household really is. Happy wife, happy life.

If he wants his freezing wife back in the bedroom, the heat needs to go back on. Compromise is key in marriage… preferably one that doesn’t involve hypothermia.

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FSD Coming to the Netherlands – Implications for Sweden

There is still no official announcement from Tesla or Dutch authorities (RDW), but Tesla has started notifying around 1,100 FSD buyers in the Netherlands that they will get access to FSD (Supervised) from Sunday, April 12, 2026. The rest are expected to receive access in May.

This strongly indicates that approval is either already granted or very close. Tesla rarely rolls out features on this scale without regulatory clearance.

If the Netherlands gets FSD soon, Sweden should not be far behind. A summer launch here is realistic — if the current government acts quickly.

The timing is important. Swedish elections are in September 2026. Should the Social Democrats return to power, there is a significant risk that approval of FSD will be delayed. Given IF Metall’s conflict with Tesla Sweden, a left-wing government would likely put union relations before rapid approval of the technology.

We can only hope the current government makes the necessary decision before the election.

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Building a War Chest – A Difficult Transition for Us

We continue to add to our position in VICI Properties Inc. (VICI).

Because we currently lack a proper war chest, we could only buy a relatively small amount this time.

As lifelong dividend investors, we have almost always been fully invested. Our philosophy has been simple: money should work all the time. Cash sitting idle has felt like a waste. But we are now realizing that this approach needs to change.

Going forward, we want to build and maintain a cash reserve that roughly matches the size of our growth stock allocation. This would give us dry powder to act when real opportunities appear – instead of being forced to buy smaller positions or, worse, sit on the sidelines.

From experience, I know this mental shift will be surprisingly difficult for us. We’ve been wired for decades to stay fully invested. Sitting on cash feels unnatural, almost irresponsible.

Still, discipline demands it. We’ll see how it goes.

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My Father Turned 80 – And He Still Refuses to Retire

My father turned 80 on Wednesday.

We were invited to celebrate – but only after 7pm, because both he and my mother were still at work.

Yes, 80 years old. And still working.

He doesn’t need the money. He works because he was raised that way and apparently never learned how to stop. Work is his identity. Retirement seems to be some kind of foreign concept.

My mother continues working too. Her reason is refreshingly honest: “If I sit at home waiting for your father to come home from work, I’ll go crazy.”

So here they are — two pensioners in their 80s, still clocking in every day.

I’m starting to believe that a surprisingly large part of the work actually getting done in Sweden is performed by people who are technically retired. Many of them simply refuse to slow down.

Somehow, I don’t think my parents want to look — or feel — their actual age.

Right now they’re planning a four-week trip to America next April. New York for shopping, then renting a Tesla with Full Self-Driving to drive up to Niagara Falls, continue down to Miami, and finish with a Caribbean cruise.

They’ve already bought FSD for their Model Y here in Sweden, optimistically hoping that Swedish politicians will eventually wake up and legalize it.

I have to give them credit. For their energy, their stubbornness, and their genuine curiosity about new technology — at an age where most people have long since given up.

Whether that’s admirable or slightly worrying… I haven’t quite decided yet.

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Media Spin and Propaganda: Same Numbers, Completely Different Stories

On Tuesday April 7, Statistics Sweden released the Flash CPI for March 2026.

The figures showed a mixed picture:

• CPIF (Riksbank's main measure) fell to 1.6% - significantly below forecasts
• CPIF-EX dropped to 1.1%
• Meanwhile, the regular CPI rose from 0.5% to 0.6%

SVT and Expressen chose to lead with “Inflation fell”, focusing on the KPIF numbers that suited their narrative.

Dagens Nyheter and TV4 instead went with “Inflation rose”, highlighting the regular CPI.

Same statistics. Two completely opposite headlines.

This is not journalism. This is narrative shaping and agenda-driven reporting. Swedish mainstream media once again proves how they selectively cherry-pick numbers to push their preferred story — especially when it comes to the economy and the government’s performance.

The Riksbank’s next monetary policy decision is on May 7. It will be interesting to see how Governor Erik Thedéen, a well-known interest rate hawk, justifies keeping the policy rate unchanged even though inflation has now been at or below the 2% target for a long time.

Out of Thedéen’s 40 months as governor, the inflation target has only been reached 16 times within the tolerance band.

Why I See Socialism as the World’s Most Perfect Pyramid Scheme

For transparency and my own agenda: I am politically very far from the Swedish Social Democrats, the Green Party, the Left Party, and socialism in general.

After reading a post on X, I finally understood why I truly dislike socialism so strongly.

The author described socialism as the world’s most perfect pyramid scheme – and the more I think about it, the more accurate it feels.

Here’s the simple mechanism:You take money (through taxes) from one person who works (voter 1) and distribute it to four people who do not work but live on various subsidies (voters 2, 3, 4 and 5). In electoral terms, you lose one voter but gain four. The political payoff is enormous.

This is not a new idea. The Swedish Social Democrats understood this dynamic very early on and built much of their long-term power on it. By expanding the group of people dependent on the state, they also expanded their voter base.

It’s a system that rewards dependency and punishes productivity. And once enough people live off the system rather than contribute to it, the pyramid becomes almost impossible to dismantle democratically.

That is why I view socialism not just as an economic policy, but as a political strategy designed to create and maintain power.

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I Was Skeptical – And Then Russia Invaded

I’ve been skeptical for years about how much influence the environmental movement has had on European energy policy.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that skepticism turned into something much clearer: we had made ourselves vulnerable.

By aggressively phasing out nuclear power, countries like Germany and Sweden became heavily dependent on Russian gas. Russia saw the weakness and exploited it.

Here in Sweden we shut down perfectly working reactors, driven more by ideology and fear than by facts and long-term thinking. Now, only five years later, we’re already talking about building new nuclear power. The cost to Swedish taxpayers runs into many billions of kronor.

The bitter irony? Some in the environmental movement are now slowly admitting that nuclear power should be considered fossil-free. But this realization comes far too late. The damage – both economic and to our energy security – has already been done.

Hindsight is easy.

But some mistakes were foreseeable. When ideology wins over engineering and common sense, the bill always arrives – and it’s expensive.

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A Realistic Update on Our 2026 Dividend Goal

At the beginning of 2026, I confidently declared that this would be our best dividend year ever. Looking back, I probably jinxed the whole thing by being so certain about it.

After shifting part of the portfolio from pure dividend stocks to a combination of dividend and growth stocks (mainly AMZN and TSLA), the expected dividends for 2026 have now been revised down by 16% compared to the original forecast I made on January 1.

This means that all my charts will now show a clear deficit between the actual outcome and the forecast I set at the start of the year.

However, I’m still hopeful that the total value of the portfolio will increase over the full year. In the end, that’s really the only thing that matters.

Lesson learned: Maybe I shouldn’t announce “this will definitely be our best year ever” quite so loudly next time.

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Major portfolio shift

We have made major changes to our holdings.

We shifted from a 100% dividend-oriented strategy by selling some positions and concentrating more on growth stocks.Our portfolio now consists of 84% dividend stocks and 16% growth stocks — mainly Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA).

One potential challenge with this shift will be knowing when to sell the growth stocks once they hit our targets. We have far more experience simply buying and holding dividend stocks as long as nothing major changes.Another challenge might be my own patience — which has never been one of my strongest traits.

I’ll need to give these growth stocks time to reach their full potential.

Exciting times ahead!

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