Blonde hair is a kind of light

With all this darkness, I'm thinking of bleaching my hair. Unlike the image of the original Swede with blue eyes and blond hair, my natural hair color has been dark brown. This is due exclusively to my grandmother, who was 50% native Swede.

My grandmother was an incredibly beautiful woman with high cheekbones, almost raven black hair, brown eyes but unusually tall for being a native Swede. Many native Swedes have dark hair, brown eyes, high cheekbones and are relatively short.

Apart from my blue eyes, I have never had a typical Swedish appearance with the dark brown hair and high cheekbones. It's been many years since I got my first gray hair. Since that day, I have constantly dyed my hair the same dark brown color as my natural hair color. I'm thinking that instead of dying the gray hairs dark brown, dye it ash blonde to avoid the obvious growth.

So at the age of 54, maybe I will look Swedish.

Google Sheets ❤️

I really love compiling data in my spreadsheet.

My latest diagram that will show how each stock purchase increases future dividends is currently my favorite.

Depending on how well I managed to estimate the cost of brokerage, exchange fees and shifts in $, the light green and dark green columns should be equal on December 31, 2023.

In the best of worlds, the dark green column will be higher than the light green due to mainly special dividend. That monthly and quarterly dividends, such as GAIN and SCM, increase their returns will also affect actual outcome.

Click to enlarge

Game on!

I may have teased my better half a little too much with what we in my family call as "the buy" (they pamper me at moment).

During dark Monday (I have dark Monday) he sold his entire holding in PCI, PDI and GOF. Despite the bear market that prevailed on the stock exchange that day, he still got a good course. In addition to a bag full of past dividends, he also had a big profit on these holdings.

He thinks he has found a gold bar that he plans to go all-in, and he does not intend to share the information yet! It's always a competition!

I hope I can get him to drive

If the road is clear of snow and ice tomorrow, I intend to have young Master Dewlar practice driving to the restaurant tomorrow.

The winter solstice occurs this Friday, December 22, so it will be dark early in the day. The last time he did a practice drive it got really dark and almost caused him to make a wrong turn at an intersection due to lack of experience and routine.

He hasn't wanted to practice drive since then so I feel it's becoming urgent to get him behind the wheel again. He could really benefit from more hours behind the wheel.

Enough is enough

January 31, 2019 I collapsed on the bedroom floor. The whole world was spinning and I couldn't get up. Each attempt resulted in me literally falling again.

I had to go by ambulance to one of our big emergency hospitals. After one night at the hospital I was referred to a specialist who diagnosed me with BPPV. After that I lived as usual for almost exactly 2 years.

On February 2, 2021, I experienced the same thing again, albeit with milder symptoms. This time I was referred to another doctor who specializes in dizziness. He ran lots of tests and even ordered an MRI of my brain. After all the tests and the MRI, he concluded that I do not have BPPV but vertigo migraine.

My lifestyle of stress, bad eating habits and a lot of work has caused my migraine to develop into vertigo migraine. Besides the obvious of having to improve my diet, sleep more and stress less, I had to quit my one vice, Coca-Cola.

From that day on, I haven't drunk a single Coke. However, I am incredibly fond of chocolate, especially dark. Yesterday the world's best husband found an article about dark chocolate containing caffeine. I won't stop eating chocolate too, just limit myself to the weekends.

Catch-22

The promised visit to the hematologist did not happen. Instead, we've started giving the world's most perfect teenager iron supplements again.

The hematologist only accepts him when his iron levels are completely wiped out, because in their world he is not iron deficient as long as he is within tolerances. According to them, the fact that the values drop as soon as he stops taking the iron supplement is completely irrelevant.

During the time (April-December 2023) when we didn't give him iron supplements, he became incredibly tired, got very dark circles under his eyes and stopped growing.

In recent days we can see a change in the offspring. The dark circles under the eyes have almost completely disappeared and the fatigue has subsided a little.

Previously, he could fall asleep in his gaming chair long before it was time for him to go to bed. Now he chooses to go to bed around 9.30 p.m. on school nights instead. Actually, he is allowed to stay up until 10 p.m. on school nights, but the fatigue has not completely subsided yet. He is up gaming with his friends until midnight both Friday and Saturday nights, but then he sleeps until after lunch the next day.

I refuse to expose him to total iron deficiency, he had it as a 4 year old and it literally took us years to get his iron levels back up.

Here we go again

I will not win any award for mother of the year if my son is on the jury.

In addition to getting the school to extend his study time by 1 hour per week throughout grade 10 so that he can take the Spanish test next May, likely choosing the extended math course because of me, I will also wake him up an hour earlier today to take him to the hospital for blood tests.

He has no idea about this as he is not particularly fond of blood tests. This is because throughout his upbringing he had to give blood at regular intervals to have his iron value assessed.

He was 5 years old when the doctor discovered his low iron levels. The doctor even considered giving him shots but decided against it as he was so young. Instead, he has been medicated every day since then.

Periodically his iron levels are absolutely perfect and we are asked to stop the iron supplement only to have to start over. At the latest in April, it was time again and the offspring has not taken a single iron tablet since then.

Both my husband and I hoped that since he is most likely at the end of puberty, his body might be able to absorb and retain the iron he gets through food this time. Unfortunately, all the signs that previously meant that his iron levels are low, such as fatigue, dark circles under the eyes and nosebleeds are back.

So in 5 minutes I will wake up the most perfect creation ever created an hour earlier than normal to go to the hospital. He won't forgive me until tonight. It's going to be a long day.

The winter's coming

Last night we packed up our portable AC and carried it down to the basement storage and today we fired up our tile stove. Things change quickly when you live in Sweden.

Although we still have warm days, the evenings turn cold as soon as the sun goes down. According to the weather forecast, we should have really warm and sunny days for another week before the temperature drops. However, a crisp and sunny autumn day can be almost as pleasant as a hot and sunny summer day. The only downside to autumn is that winter is following close behind. I fear we are very likely to have a long, dark and cold winter.

I can't really complain as the summer of 2024 in Stockholm has been absolutely fantastic.

Mrs. Dewlar - The Hypocrite

Tomorrow the world's most perfect teenager turns 16. The fact that we celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary on the same day will, as always, be celebrated behind the scenes.

Since tomorrow is a weekday with school and work, the offspring has chosen to celebrate his birthday today. The main reason though is that my in-laws live 125 miles (200 km) from us. That they would drive 125 miles in the dark tomorrow night is completely out of the question.

My mother-in-law keeps her home in perfect condition. In addition to booking the cleaning lady last Friday, I have washed all the towels, bathroom rugs, etc. Neither my husband nor son have been allowed to move around the apartment in the last 36 hours.

I will hang clean towels in both bathrooms and the kitchen just before mother-in-law rings the doorbell .In addition, the offspring will also have to cut his nails and clean their ears a little extra carefully before grandma's visit.

If you look up the word "eye-servant" in a dictionary, you will find a picture of me.

Still in the dark ages

Although I should have received several dividends today, not one has been credited in my account.

This causes me to suspect that foreign dividends are booked manually. Each time the estimated payday is in connection with a weekend or holiday, the dividend is postponed. When the stock market goes down, it feels important to continue investing funds. Having to wait another day is incredibly frustrating.

Apparently, not everything is high-tech

We have dark and cold winters ahead of us

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 communism and socialism.

The Green Party's demand to support the Social Democrats in the 2014 and 2018 elections was that Sweden should decommission our fully functional nuclear power plants. They managed to decommission 6 of our 12 nuclear power plants.

Since this phase-out, Sweden is always at risk of having to introduce temporary and regional electricity rationing. Especially during the winter.

Sweden has an enormous resource in hydropower, which is our biggest source of energy. Unfortunately, we cannot replace the lost nuclear power plants with the expansion of additional hydropower. We have already affected nature significantly through the existing hydropower.

The project to produce fossil-free steel increase the risk of power outages, significantly higher electricity prices and above all electricity rationing because the amount of electricity needed to produce fossil-free steel is gigantic.

It is sad that the Social Democrats put power ahead of a reliable electricity grid.

There might be dark times ahead

Today, Sweden's central bank lowered the policy rate by 25 basis points despite being "warned" by various central banks and credit institutions around the world. The purpose of the "warnings" is not really established. That the foreign central banks are worried that the demand for them to also lower their policy rates is increasing or that they intend to speculate in the Swedish krona could be some of the alternatives.

The coming weeks may be problematic for the Swedish krona.

The first eight months of the year feel like an instant

Of 2023's last four months, September and December are the absolute best months of the year if you look at dividends.

For the same reason, November is one of the four worst months of the year, plus it's generally a boring month. It's cold, dark and really just a very long haul until December which is the complete opposite.

Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, Christmas in general and the Christmas holiday in combination with the fact that December is most certainly the best dividend month of the year makes it one of the best months of the year.

Fighting the urge

On the tenth day without sugar in the form of sweets, snacks, soft drinks or sugar in tea, abstinence starts to become difficult. According to my doctor, the worst should be over after about 3 weeks. The only thing I "treated" myself to was a plate of vanilla ice cream and strawberries and a small bag of dried pineapple whose end was dipped in dark chocolate.

On the bright side, I haven't had even the slightest hint of a headache in over a week now. I still have dizziness, both because of my low blood pressure and because I mismanaged my diet for many years. Today, however, I can discern what is causing the dizziness.

I have always had problems with low blood pressure and have never been able to get up quickly from the couch or bed without almost passing out. Too many times I've laid on the couch and heard the world's most perfect husband put the key in the key lock, get up too quickly and run to him and actually pass out in his arms. That dizziness has increased in recent days, but is at the same time controllable.

The dizziness due to my lifestyle combined with menopause is anything but controllable, I just have to wait it out when it hits. My vertigo specialist says that the latter can go away with a lifestyle change and when menopause subsides.

The last time I managed my diet this well was when I was pregnant with the world's most perfect teenager.

I have a dark Monday

Sometimes you have to experience things to fully understand it. Being on holidays in America annually since 2016 is one such thing.

Our currency has lost more than 20% against the US dollar since 2017, even against the EUR we have become poorer. This means that our purchasing power has decreased significantly in large parts of the world.

That vacations abroad has become more expensive is not the big problem, it is a choice we can control ourselves. However, the outside world will not sit idly by when our exports become cheaper and cheaper without taking action.

It is when this happens that we will have big problems, and it is not something that we can control ourselves.

Everything was not better before

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

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

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

AI generated image with Grok

It's going to be a long month

Many say that January is the year's most boring month. The wallet is thin after all Christmas shopping. Personally I love January, it's my best month if you take into account dividends.
Instead, I dislike February. It is cold, dark, boring and the dividends are few. That I still suffer from dizziness makes it even worse. I long for sun, warmth and large dividends.

The older you get, the faster the time goes.  Since I am over the hill, I should try to at least like February because it slows down the time a little for me.

I sometimes makes it harder than it has to be

I wish I didn't have so strong principles when it comes to taxes. But living in a country with top 5 highest taxes in the world has made me like this.

From time to time my principles makes my life harder than it has to be.

As I have written earlier I have accounts at two internet banks and one more traditional bank. The last one, Nordea, is a gigant when it comes to banking.

The two internet banks is smaller and much more modern. They have challenged Nordea among other traditional banks with comments like: they are a big old gigants with high fees and outdated thinking etcetera.

This has made Nordea competitive, they have lowered their fee and pays out foreign tax immediately. These actions has made Nordea a very sharp competitor.

Personally Nordea had me with the tax thing.

I still have holdings at the former two banks that I am unable to move due to different reasons. What I do have a problem with is that EVERY time I log on to any of these accounts I get remindful of how good these banks are at internet banking. It's like living in the dark ages when you have banking with Nordea.

The cold and the dark have come

Yesterday there was no doubt that autumn is here. Every year I am equally surprised how summer literally gives way to fall overnight.

Last Sunday, when my husband and I were out walking, it was warm and sunny. An absolutely perfect late summer day. We even had to take off our sweaters.

Yesterday it wasn't as nice. The air was cold and chilly. I was dressed the same way and was freezing throughout my morning walk that I always take before work.

Given where I am in life given my age, I shouldn't freeze. Where is my interior furnace when I need it...

Dark times await Sweden

More and more people are beginning to agree with the criticism of Riksbanken's actions, or rather lack of action and more reaction.

Riksbanken is still convinced that old truths still apply. Despite the fact that there is a new world economy. An example of the new economy is how multinational companies have relied on their slim warehouses which is a result of Just In Time (JIT).

In my opinion, Riksbanken is guaranteed to raise the policy interest rate on September 21, 2023 by 25 basis points only to do the same thing again on November 23, 2023. Unfortunately, experience shows that this measure will not strengthen the Swedish krona, but will accelerate the negative spiral that Sweden is in.

The image of Sweden has deteriorated in recent years with daily explosions and shootings that in some cases have hit third parties. This has contributed to the fact that the world's confidence in Sweden has plummeted and thus also the Swedish krona.

Instead, the Swedish government should take control of the financial system and try to improve the image of Sweden in the outside world in order to increase confidence in Sweden and, by extension, the Swedish krona. However, this will be a long and arduous road for the small Swedish currency.

Among other things, the Swedish government can communicate that the Swedish banks are well managed and prosperous.