Hi everyone!

The autumn chill has come through Stockholm and it’s gotten really cold these last few weeks, which means more time spent inside. Aside from spending time inside with friends and loved ones, another thing I do look through my financial situation and recalibrate based on my goals. Boring, right? Yes, but it can save or earn you some money with very little effort!

One big thing I recently did was to move my mortgage loan from one of the big banks — SEB — to Nordnet. I’ve had SEB for six years and it was time for me to renew my rates again.

SEB and the other banks simply won’t give you a good mortgage rate unless you’re willing to invest significant amounts of your monthly salary in one of their products. It doesn’t need to be an SEB-managed mutual fund, but obviously those are the ones they’re going to push.

Continue reading →

It’s that time of year again!

Many of my friends in Stockholm – Americans and Swedes alike – have hosted Thanksgiving dinners over the years. Each of them spent hours slaving away in the kitchen, poring over a cook book or an Internet how-to guide, and the results have (fortunately) always been a delicious turkey with the trimmings. I’m usually a guest so I typically bring a side, some wine, and of course, my big appetite. Each year, it’s been a lovely evening with tons of food and wine, good laughter with dear friends, and the usual food coma that comes right after the turkey. And yet, for an expat, Thanksgiving doesn’t quite feel the same as it does back home: Continue reading →

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I just moved my blog off of wordpress.com and onwards to my own server. Hopefully everything works just as well as before, but if something’s broken (comments, articles, pictures) just let me know and I’ll take a look at it.

More to come. In the meantime, gobble gobble!