I am, by nature, extremely loyal — almost comically so.

I’ve had my salary account with SEB my entire adult life. Through thick and thin. A true ride-or-die relationship.

For years, SEB was excellent — at the forefront of technology with an online bank that actually worked. Then they decided to “improve” it.

The new interface on both private and corporate sides is noticeably worse. Less intuitive, more frustrating, and clearly built by people who don’t pay their own bills.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
I may be blindly loyal in life… but when it comes to my own money, that loyalty evaporates instantly.

Since March 2021 I’ve also had Revolut, and more recently Montrose — two young, hungry challengers that move fast, think differently, and actually seem to care about making banking better.

It genuinely goes against my loyal nature to even consider ditching an old, trusted bank for these upstarts. But money has zero feelings and even less loyalty.

Yesterday I transferred money from Revolut to SEB just before 07:00. It landed before 11:00 — as a foreign payment. A regular transfer between two Swedish banks often takes longer.

Some systems should never be renovated.
They should be replaced.
Banking is clearly one of them.

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This is a new post on the new dewlar.me blog.
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After the final April dividend was registered, the result came in better than the adjusted forecast.

To track how our new strategy is playing out, I put together a new chart comparing the portfolio’s value development against the starting point on December 31, 2025.

So far the strategy looks successful — the portfolio is clearly up since the turn of the year. That’s ultimately what matters.

…But of course the hyper-competitive idiot in me can’t stop staring at the monthly deviations between forecast and actual outcome.

And that’s exactly where we’re getting absolutely schooled. Turns out selling off a bunch of solid dividend stocks in favor of growth stocks wasn’t the genius move I thought it was in January.

Game on.

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Yesterday, one of my “employees” got a raise. PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) increased its quarterly dividend by 4 % to $1.48 per share. Even though PEP is one of our smaller holdings, I’m genuinely grateful for the extra cash flow.

I was also pleased with Realty Income’s (O) quarterly report, which was released after market close. It showed solid growth, strong leasing activity and raised full-year guidance. In after-hours trading the stock saw a modest gain — nothing dramatic, but no disappointment either. Many analysts believe much of the good news was already priced in and that the market is now waiting for more details from the earnings call. 

Here’s hoping (O) can help offset some of the damage (TSLX) inflicted on the portfolio yesterday.

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The little “app” I built has already come in handy.

I was hoping to close the books for April today, but we’re still missing one dividend: Rithm Capital Corp. (RITM).

This is the second month in a row I’ve had to call Nordea to chase down a missing dividend.

Last month it was The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC). I called them, they promised to look into it… and of course I never heard back. The dividend magically appeared the same day anyway.

Nordea doesn’t need to call me back. Just pay the money, thanks.

At this rate I’m seriously considering offering them my “expert help” building apps so they can see which dividends haven’t been settled.

Because nothing says “professional” like a 56-year-old who just learned to code two mini-apps and now thinks she can fix a major bank’s systems.

I’m officially dangerous.

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In 1989 Pepsi struck one of the weirdest deals in history.

The Soviet Union couldn’t pay in cash, so they paid with military hardware: 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate and a destroyer. For a brief, glorious moment, PepsiCo technically owned the world’s sixth-largest navy.

The ships were rusty, decommissioned and headed straight for scrap. Pepsi never sailed them — they just took a 25 % cut of the scrap value and moved on.

Looking at the world today with all its conflicts… I’m not sure those vessels would have been scrapped so quickly. In fact, as a PepsiCo shareholder I might even have been a little disappointed when they did.

Just think about it: a private navy you could rent out to the highest bidder in today’s endless wars?

That’s not just profitable — that’s next-level diversification.

Sometimes a good investment sound completely insane on paper.

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This is a new post on the new dewlar.me blog.
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I’m ridiculously pleased with the two tiny “apps” I’ve built.

Our investments sit on four different platforms. The same share can pay dividends up to five days apart depending on where it’s held. My Google Sheet follows each company’s official payment date, which means that as a Swede I often don’t see the money until several days later.

Result: I usually can’t close the books for a month until we’re well into the next one.

The latest app helps enormously. One single click and I instantly see exactly which dividends are still missing for any given month.

Checking that we’ve actually received everything we’re entitled to is now fast, simple and far more reliable.

I still wait more than fourteen days before I contact the bank about missing dividends — I know foreign payouts can take time.

You’d be amazed how often those dividends are simply parked on some internal “observation account” that nobody can be bothered to process.

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We have investments with four different platforms: Avanza, Montrose, Nordea and Nordnet.

Totally unplanned. Financially stupid. And completely my fault.

That gives us 12 separate endowment insurance policies – three on each platform (mine, my husband’s and a joint one). Because apparently one big policy would have been too simple.

My husband has always insisted on having holdings in my name too, even though we’re married with no prenup. Sweet, right? But it also means we have cash sitting idle in twelve accounts instead of one.

We started with Avanza in 2015 because they had the best interface. Then Nordnet. In 2018 Nordea blew us away with tax refunds in just six weeks instead of 2–3 years, so we moved the lion’s share there.

Then Montrose launched in 2025 and offered immediate foreign withholding tax refunds. I fell in love. We now have:

• Nordea ≈ 80 % 
• Montrose ≈ 12 % 
• Nordnet ≈ 7 % 
• Avanza ≈ 1 %

And here’s the ridiculous part: I hate wasting money on idle cash and love Montrose’s instant refunds… but I also love Nordea’s huge selection of instruments.

So I’m stuck in analysis paralysis, paying the price for my own perfectionism while the money sits there doing nothing.

Brilliant work, me.

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As of 16 April 2026, new EU rules give fund companies the legal right to block savers from withdrawing their money during times of market stress.

The official reason? To protect the fund when small savers panic and want to sell.

Johan Sjögren, head of analysis at the Swedish Fund Management Association, was quoted in Privata Affärer on 29 April 2026 saying: “It can sound very negative for the saver.”

I can understand that there are situations where the small saver needs to be “protected from himself”. But at the same time, I have zero understanding for the idea that the EU and the fund industry should decide when I’m allowed to access my own money.

Because let’s be honest: these funds were never created primarily for the saver.

They were created to be sold by banks and fund companies. Everything else is marketing.

If you want real control over your savings, the best option is still individual stocks. It requires work and patience, but at least no one can lock the door and tell you “we know better” when the market turns ugly.

That freedom is worth far more than any bureaucratic “protection”.

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All growth stocks will be sold and repurchased in a regular share deposit (aktie- och fondkonto). There is simply no reason to keep paying a potentially higher yield tax on holdings that may increase in value.

The current flat-rate tax (schablonbeskattning) in ISK already corresponds to roughly 30 % capital gains tax — but the major advantage is that you don’t have to account for every single acquisition and sale. This is a clear benefit if you buy or sell more than 40 stocks per year. The whole point of ISK was to simplify things for the taxpayer.

We have already started this tax planning. Because that’s what responsible people do when politicians signal they want even more of our money.

The money we invest in the stock market has already been taxed once. We voluntarily give up consumption today to secure our future. Yet Swedish politics seems to view this as a problem that needs to be “corrected” — preferably by taking even more from those who actually take responsibility.

The Left doesn’t just want to tax the rich. They want to punish anyone who tries to become financially independent.

And that, unfortunately, no logical person can understand.

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Being a Nordea customer is a special kind of endurance sport.

On April 11th I logged into our endowment insurance and the entire holding had simply vanished. The only thing on the screen was the cheerful message: “Something is wrong on our end.”

After seven years as loyal Nordea customers we’ve learned to be patient. It’s not unusual for holdings to temporarily disappear. It’s not even unusual for them to backdate corrections without telling you.

But this week they reached a new level.

On Wednesday I made a share purchase. It was labeled as “active” all Wednesday evening. Thursday morning it was gone and the available cash was back to the original amount. Today, Saturday, I logged in again… and there it was. The Wednesday purchase had suddenly appeared — backdated as if it happened three days earlier — leaving a nice little shortfall in the account.

So this month we were forced to make an involuntary extra saving of $400.

Thanks, Nordea. Really appreciate the surprise savings plan.

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This is a new post on the new dewlar.me blog.
You can find the old blog here: https://mrsdewlar.blogspot.com

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