August 1, 2025 | Mutual Fund Observer

Pricey pals,

Welcome to the August concern of the Mutual Fund Observer! We simply accomplished one of many 5 rainiest Julys within the metropolis’s historical past, with three torrential downpours (the backyard celebrates) and roll expectantly into August.

For these of us who educate for a dwelling, August is the season of watchful ready, a phrase lifted from the Christian celebration of Creation. The devoted are ready for … you already know, Christ’s return and stuff. Professors are ready for the primary day of sophistication. For a sea of hopeful, anxious faces. For the chance to elucidate that AI just isn’t the reply to all questions. (A dialogue that used to start “the web just isn’t …” after which “Wikipedia just isn’t …) For Augustana, the tip of the month will see practically 700 new first-year college students, of whom over 200 are home college students of shade and … hmm, some quantity are worldwide college students. Which quantity? Good query! Perhaps 15 or 20% of the category? We’re largely on the mercy of the federal authorities which has been, let’s say, measured in its willingness to concern pupil visas. So, we’ll see.

And, within the meantime, we wait.

On this month’s concern

In Trending Funds at Mid-2025: Lynn Bolin presents his systematic strategy to figuring out promising mutual funds utilizing a score system that emphasizes fairness worth and bond high quality, pushed by considerations about excessive market valuations and potential financial shocks from coverage adjustments. He highlights trending funds throughout threat classes, noting that worldwide and international fairness funds have carried out significantly properly attributable to their decrease valuations in comparison with the extremely valued home market.

Lynn follows that us together with his Portfolio Threat Evaluation, a complete threat audit of the present funding panorama, arguing for extra conservative portfolio allocations (shifting from 65% to 50% shares) attributable to considerations about market overvaluation, tariff impacts, rising nationwide debt, and potential inflationary pressures. He advocates for lively portfolio administration throughout what he sees as an more and more unstable interval, drawing parallels to pre-1982 financial patterns and warning that the period of ultra-low rates of interest could also be ending.

Each items replicate Bolin’s cautious, value-oriented funding philosophy in response to what he views as important structural financial dangers forward.

Charles Boccadoro, maestro of our information and screener website, MFO Premium, shares phrase of an up to date navigation system there. (It’s nonetheless the net’s greatest worth; for a tax-deductible donation of $120, you get entry to a number of thousand datapoints on practically 10,000 investments; not like most websites that produce “canned” experiences on one sort of fund, MFO Premium is able to operating reside, real-time calculations for you. within the correlation between the funds in your portfolio during the last three years? No drawback. Transfer it out to 5 years? Can do!)

We spoke with John Neff, supervisor of Akre Focus, on the cusp of the fund changing into the most important mutual fund ($12 billion) to transform to an ETF. Mr. Neff displays on what’s altering at this iconic fund, and what isn’t.

As is our summer time custom, we seemed again three years to an August 2022 article on funds for unstable markets. We beneficial six funds to your consideration, 5 of which turned in good-to-excellent efficiency. The opposite one misplaced its founding supervisor. This month we replace the efficiency and prospects of all 5 and, as a late summer time bonus, we tuck in some new analysis on investor delusions.

I additionally study the obvious consensus that markets face a dramatic 15% transfer—with consultants cut up on whether or not up or down—and recommend that a number of warning indicators level towards important US market vulnerability forward. Drawing on all the things from Warren Buffett’s huge money place to deteriorating jobs information and geopolitical tensions, I encourage of us to contemplate the case for lowering US market publicity and embracing a extra globally diversified, defensively positioned portfolio. The piece contains particular fund suggestions for traders looking for equity-like returns with decrease correlation to more and more overvalued US markets.

Talking of adjustments, we share a fast Launch Alert for Rainwater Fairness Fund. We spoke with supervisor Joe Shaposhnik in 2019 concerning the fund on which Rainwater builds: TCW New America Premier Equities. That fund completed the last decade as the highest performer in its class, then was merged away into an ETF. Its file of excellence in each up and down markets warrants some particular consideration to the prospects of Rainwater Fairness. We’ll watch rigorously for you.

And, as all the time, TheShadow helps hold us abreast of the trade’s many machinations, in Briefly Famous.

The View from 4400 Miles Away

They give the impression of being down they usually perceive why it’s referred to as Mom Earth. All of them really feel it once in a while. All of them make an affiliation between the earth and a mom, and this in flip makes them really feel like kids. Of their clean-shaven, androgynous bobbing, their regulation shorts and spoonable meals, the juice drunk by means of straws, the birthday bunting, the early nights, the enforced innocence of dutiful days, all of them have moments up right here of a sudden obliteration of their astronaut selves and a strong sense of childhood and smallness. Their towering guardian ever-present by means of the dome of glass.

Suppose the brand new thought, they generally inform themselves. The ideas you’ve in orbit are so grandiose and previous. Suppose a brand new one, a totally recent unthought one. However there aren’t any new ideas. They’re simply previous ideas born into new moments — and in these moments is the thought: with out the earth we’re all completed. We couldn’t survive a second with out its grace, we’re sailors on a ship in a deep, darkish unswimmable sea. Samantha Harvey, Orbital: A Novel (2023), with because of Martha Barnette of A Means With Phrases for commending it to us.

We’re struck by how fairly often those that’ve taken depart of the Earth, astronauts, actual or fictional, are all drawn to the identical imaginative and prescient and the identical sense of surprise. Not the infinite cosmos round them, however as an alternative “the little blue marble” earlier than them. Not the place they’re, however whence they got here. Astronaut Leland Melvin feedback, “seeing our world from that vantage level adjustments you” (Chasing Area: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace and Second Probabilities, 2018).

Chip and I had practically the identical response as we considered residence from a distance of 4419 miles, the hole between our residence in Davenport, Iowa, and our vacation begin in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s simple to get mesmerized by the cosmos – fjords, waterfalls, funicular railroads, and Viking treasures – then miss answering the query, “What did we see?” And so, we decelerate to present ourselves an opportunity to see and never merely to move by means of, snapping and posting like fools. Our tendency is to settle in a single spot, maybe for 4 days or every week, in order that we are able to begin feeling settled. The world slows down sufficient for us to see, to assume, and to take pleasure in. And so, we cut up two weeks between the 2 capital cities – Stockholm and Oslo – and Bergen, on Norway’s far west coast.

To begin with the essential stuff: it was splendid. English is spoken universally and with nice magnificence and beauty. My grouchy countenance and rumpled clothes apparently satisfied a good variety of shopkeepers that I used to be Swedish, so they’d start a dialog with me in Swedish, I’d reply in English (the context clues and a tiny vocabulary of Swedish phrases made that potential), they usually’d transition to English within the subsequent breath. The few indicators that we’re bilingual have been …properly, actually, actually clear.

Of all of the issues that we noticed, extra beneath on that, we have been most struck by two issues we nearly by no means noticed: automobiles and sugar.

Chip might have been barely daunted by the escalators at Stockholm’s T-Centralen.

Stockholm is residence to 1,000,000 folks. Oslo, with 20% of Norway’s inhabitants, is residence to 700,000 or so. Neither had as a lot visitors as Davenport (100,000). Of the automobiles within the capital cities, 70% have been electrical or hybrid. In two weeks, Chip and I traveled by airplane, prepare, electrical tram, subway (the T-Bana or Tunnel Bana in Stockholm, actually “tunnel path”), funicular railroad, ferry, and taxi (as soon as, a 4:00 a.m. airport run). We didn’t hire a automotive and didn’t want one. 

That one issue had a bunch of implications. The cities have been walkable and devoted enormous quantities of different area to … you already know, human fairly than machines. No downtown parking heaps. Not often even parking garages. Small public parks are scattered by the handfuls, and big outside plazas for strolling and stress-free.

There’s a small grocery retailer each few blocks and, as a result of the shops have been small (near an city CVS or Walgreens), the choice was thoughtfully curated (the common American grocery carries 240 totally different cereal choices, measured by SKU; the common Swedish retailer might need stocked 20). Not less than in cities, “meals deserts” weren’t a difficulty.

Equally, sugar was extremely scarce. Espresso outlets tended to supply sugar in half-teaspoon sachets. A slice of carrot cake (on the Espresso Home close to Haymarket in Stockholm) was the scale of a Snickers bar. A lodge’s breakfast buffet would possibly provide 10 sorts of bread – half crispy, all fresh-baked – however one tiny bowl of mini-muffins. The occasional doughnut store was just a bit stand with a deep fryer. Iced tea was very evenly sweetened. Bakery objects, similar to cardamon buns, had little or no sugar within the dough however giant, crunchy sugar crystals atop.

Ice cream, alternatively, was fairly fashionable and fairly expensive, and licorice was practically a fetish.

Yep. Licorice logs, with flavored facilities, bought within the licorice retailer Lakrits Roten (Licorice Root).

Had I discussed that the Swedes’ love of licorice prolonged to ice cream? The signal advertises a delicate serve ice cream in salt licorice taste – with licorice bits.

Within the US, we principally have to seek out time to stroll; strolling just isn’t a necessity, it’s a form of ethical obligation. In Norway and Sweden, strolling is common and ongoing, an inescapable a part of on a regular basis life. Maybe on account of walkable cities and a weight loss program oriented towards much less processed meals and fewer sugar, only a few persons are noticeably chubby, and nearly none are battling the form of morbid weight problems (BMI > 40) that afflicts practically one in ten People.

It’s best to take into account visiting.

In the event you do, you would possibly take pleasure in Midsommar. The Swedes have a 10-day vacation that brackets the summer time solstice. As a sensible matter, it doesn’t get darkish in the course of the competition days; probably the most you expertise is a form of deep twilight between, say, midnight and a couple of:00 a.m. The view from our lodge in Oslo at 9:00 p.m. (prime), 11:00 p.m., and 1:00 a.m.

Issues that struck us in Stockholm

Fantastic folks, temps within the mid-60s to mid-70s, phenomenal public transit – significantly, the very best we’ve ever encountered – and constantly good meals … aside from the tendency to consider espresso as a late-morning beverage. (sigh)

The Vasa Museum is value a go to. The Vasa is a form of monument to kingly ego and the tendency of presi royal advisors to say “sure, Your Highness” first and “WTF?” after. The Vasa was designed to be the best warship of its age (1627), however the king needed it even larger (“One Massive Lovely Boat”, he demanded!) and so the shipwrights added a palatial stage on the strict, which made the ship disastrously top-heavy and unstable. Its maiden voyage was about … oh, 500 toes earlier than it tipped over, drowned a bunch of individuals, and sank in about 100 toes of water in Stockholm’s harbor.

About 350 years later, they raised the Vasa, inched it to shore, and constructed a five-story-tall museum round it.

Skansen the world’s oldest open-air museum, on the island Djurgården in Stockholm. Of us accustomed to Colonial Williamsburg or Outdated Sturbridge Village will know the vibe.

Gamla Stan merely interprets to “Outdated City,” and is. It dates to the 1400s. Cool outlets, Belgian block streets, and the occasional palace.

Additionally, the occasional dragon, shedding.

Notes on a day journey to Uppsala

Uppsala is the house of Scandinavia’s oldest college (1477). 4 hundred years later, a few of Uppsala’s graduates turned the founders of Augustana School (1860), my employer. A cool small metropolis with a quiet canal by means of its heart and an enormous cathedral.

It’s one of many few locations the place the variety of folks buried just below the ground didn’t detract from a way of calm and grandeur.

Norway in a Nutshell

“Norway in a Nutshell” describes a mixed prepare, bus, and ferry journey from Oslo to Bergen, by means of the fjord-side hamlet of Flåm. Loath as we’re to be packaged with vacationers, we principally adopted the NiaN route however scheduled issues on our personal.

Essentially the most highly effective sense of Norway got here from its geography. As we ferried down the Sognefjord, the water beneath our keel was 4,200 toes deep, and the mountains instantly beside us have been 5,250 toes excessive. Not surprisingly, waterfalls occurred each half mile or so all through the journey.

There’s Flåm, the actual village which we didn’t go to, and Flåm the ferry port, a few dozen buildings situated on Aurlandsfjord, which is an arm of the bigger Sognefjord.

An in a single day keep within the small city of Flåm

A view from the dockside in Flåm, Norway

offered a chance for a stunning dinner at Ægir BrewPub (the precise meal is on this letter’s conclusion),

and a soothing morning staring out on the water, whereas sipping our espresso.

Fretheim Lodge

Bergen

Bergen is Norway’s “second metropolis,” about 300,000 folks, surrounded by seven mountains, can be its westernmost metropolis, simply 350 miles from Aberdeen and 220 to the Shetland Islands, additionally a part of the UK. That meant that, in the course of the Second World Conflict, Bergen was a middle of Norwegian resistance … and of public executions by the Nazis. It was odd to wander the peaceable grounds of Bergenhus fortress and the historic Haakon’s Corridor, stumbling upon the backyard the place – the indicators guarantee – 215 folks have been publicly executed, together with British commandos, members of the Norwegian resistance, collaborators and German troopers who “undermined morale.” Dozens extra civilians, female and male, have been gunned down at waterside or within the Ulven focus camp.

And as we speak? Flowers and walkers.

Haakon’s Corridor

Excessive atop the town is a pleasant park referred to as Fløyen – or extra formally Fløyfjellet – reachable by the Fløibanen funicular railroad.  The railroad is a part of the town’s public transit system, not only a vacationer expertise. There are two stops at neighborhoods alongside the way in which, ought to any passengers sign an curiosity in popping off.

The Fløibanen funicular railway.

The park is about 1000’ above the town.

There’s a strolling path for the adventurous. After due consideration, Chip and I made a decision to seek out our adventures elsewhere – and hopped the prepare.

Visited the Fisketorget, which, for folk who spend more often than not close to the Mississippi River, was fairly beautiful. It’s a mix of a fish market and meals stalls.

Completed the day with smut.

Properly, okay, ice cream. “Smut” is Norwegian for “soiled” (I ponder etymology for a second), and since Bergen is very bilingual, the ice cream store’s bowl for used sampling spoons broadcasts “Soiled Smuts.”

Practically all indicators are bilingual, as on this repository for soiled spoons on the ice cream store.

Oslo

Oslo, residence to twenty% of Norway’s inhabitants, was a pleasant metropolis. There gave the impression to be one thing stereotypically Norwegian about the truth that there’s an enormous honkin’ palace on the hill replete with a king and guards and all … which has been was a public park.

They’ve an unimaginable ardour for parks and public areas.

And sculptures. The presence of artwork in all places is a part of the town’s cultural id, and a part of the town’s development funds is dedicated to public artwork. One park alone has over 200 sculptures, a lot of that are sensible and generally voluptuous nudes. Which, as you consider it, could be a profoundly wholesome message: folks have our bodies. Recover from it already.

We spent a part of our last evening on a jazz dinner cruise. American jazz, adopted by a sing-along of Norwegian people songs, as we approached the dock. A jolly time, however one that exposed a singular obsession with shrimp.

The cruise was marketed as having “a shrimp dinner buffet,” which it did, form of. The buffet, arrange beneath decks, was (1) a thousand items of white bread, (2) dueling vats of butter and mayonnaise, (3) a pile of recent dill fronds, and (4) a tub containing two small shovels and cooked shrimp. Intact. Heads, egg sacs, limbs, and all. Our shipmates scooped up shrimp by the shovelful, disassembled them, and piled them on white bread with … properly, mayo and/or butter and/or dill.

Jan, one of many of us sitting with us, labored by means of fairly greater than 100 shrimp, one and a half bottles of wine and a beer. With gusto.

We loved the corporate on a 3 hour night jazz cruise on the Oslofjord, with a reside jazz band and a shrimp buffet

On entire, we had enjoyable and it (ultimately) confirmed. We’d completely endorse the journey for anybody who loves being out and about and assembly fascinating of us who share a love of life.

Phrases You’ll Truly Use in Bergen (Norwegian) vs. Stockholm (Swedish)

Biblioclasm: the impulse to destroy information

All censorship exists to forestall anybody from difficult present conceptions and current establishments. George Bernard Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Career (1895)

There’s, normally, just one cause to suppress information: the worry that if folks possessed the information, these in energy could be screwed (aka out of a job).

That bubbled up within the context of President Trump’s current determination to destroy two NASA satellites, which, apparently, have been reporting again inconvenient local weather information.

The info the 2 missions gather is extensively used, together with by scientists, oil and fuel firms and farmers who want detailed details about carbon dioxide and crop well being. They’re the one two federal satellite tv for pc missions that have been designed and constructed particularly to watch planet-warming greenhouse gases. (“Why a NASA satellite tv for pc that scientists and farmers depend on could also be destroyed on objective,” NPR.com, 8/4/2025)

The administration additionally shut down a Division of Protection climate satellite tv for pc program, in July (“Trump terminates satellite tv for pc information thought of essential to storm forecasting,” E&E Information, 6/27/2025). They’ve additionally begun the purge of federal local weather databases, placing in danger “many years of well being, local weather change and excessive climate analysis” (“Contained in the determined rush to save lots of many years of US scientific information from deletion,” BBC, 4/23/2025). The worldwide local weather web site, GlobalChange.gov, has been shuttered (“Trump administration shuts down web site on local weather change,” LA Occasions, 7/1/2025) and the primary federal local weather information web site (Local weather.gov) is prone to observe (“Main US local weather web site prone to be shut down after nearly all workers fired,” The Guardian, 6/11/2025). The 4 hundred scientists engaged on the Congressionally mandated Nationwide Local weather Evaluation have been fired (“Scientists goal to compile US local weather report after Trump cuts,” Deutsche Welle, Germany’s official worldwide broadcaster, 5/2/2025).

The coup de grace could be the upcoming rescission of the 2009 “endangerment discovering.” At base, the EPA reviewed the scientific proof and in 2009 discovered that local weather change endangers the general public well being and security. That discovering then allowed the company to pursue rules that managed carbon air pollution from automobiles and energy vegetation. The Trump Administration has, in a fairly triumphalist tone, introduced its plan to rescind the discovering (7/29/2025).

Presumably, for those who actually thought that local weather change was a hoax, you’ll constantly search the information wanted to show your rightness. The choice to destroy the flexibility to gather information, contrarily, means that you already know you’re flawed … and also you don’t care.

Dependable federal local weather information and clear threat disclosures are important for a functioning, well-informed monetary market. The systematic destruction of those assets by the Trump administration just isn’t merely a scientific or environmental concern—it’s a direct risk to traders’ skill to evaluate threat, value property pretty, and make data-driven funding choices. This rollback of information and disclosure will increase monetary market volatility, raises the price of capital, and should result in capital flight from sectors and areas most uncovered to undetected or unreported local weather dangers. For anybody managing a portfolio, the absence of reliable local weather info is a recipe for threat mispricing and sudden losses.

You can act to guard the globe and your portfolio. EPA regulatory adjustments, together with rescission proposals, require public remark intervals. Citizen scientists can submit scientifically knowledgeable feedback—supplemented with regionally collected information—to the Federal Register or at public hearings introduced for the rulemaking course of. These feedback grow to be a part of the authorized file and might be referenced in lawsuits. The EPA has directions for these all in favour of commenting on their determination.

Not all in favour of railing towards the EPA?  Truthful sufficient. Nonetheless, you would possibly wish to get entangled regionally. Don’t attempt to repair the world. Attempt to get your metropolis authorities to alter the constructing code to encourage inexperienced roofs, help pocket parks, and plant metropolis timber. Heck, for $1, you’ll be able to get a tree planted your self.

Greetings from a great man

Davenport’s Bix 7 Race attracts about 14,000 folks to city each July. This 12 months, one among them was Murray Rosenblith, a gentleman of roughly my classic and co-manager of The New Options Fund (NALFX). Based in 1983 by two attorneys, father and son Maurice Schoenwald and David Schoenwald. New Options was created in 1982 as a automobile for the Schoenwalds and their pals to specific their help for environmentally accountable and sustainable firms, main them to be dubbed “the greenest fund in the USA” (The Economist, November 1989). It’s most likely the oldest renewable power (plus different sustainable stuff) fund within the US.

An interesting bunch. Murray’s background is primarily as a social activist and author who joined the fund’s board on account of his work stewarding the investments of an activist non-profit. Because the board thought of the problem of succession planning (Mr Schoenwald is now 75 or 76), they sought to tag an insider. Mr. Rosenblith match the invoice. Subsequently, they added Kate Don Angelo, who has an MS in Accounting, to the combination.

The managers have little endurance for quantity crunching or conventional funding metrics; their intention is to direct cash to firms that they imagine have the best prospect for enhancing the world.

We have now no dedication to a particular formulation in choosing investments, similar to favoring progress or worth or any technical system. We choose securities for buy or sale by subjective concern to the areas of curiosity and focus. Consideration is given to the perceived prospects for the corporate chosen and its trade, with concern for financial, political and social situations on the time. 

It has constantly marched to its personal drummer (lively share north of 99%) with a mean holding interval of 20 years. The fund has had extra good years than unhealthy, tends to be out-of-step and barely extra unstable than its international small- to mid-cap friends.

Given an curiosity in utilizing their capital to make a distinction, the workforce is having inside discussions on whether or not a social-impact bond ETF  could be a logical subsequent automobile. Keep tuned.

On the passing of Nick Kaiser: Farewell to an amazing man

Nicholas (Nick) Kaiser, a pioneering funding strategist and founding father of Saturna Capital Company, handed away peacefully on July 25^th at his residence in Ponte Vedra Seaside, FL, surrounded by his household, after a brave battle with most cancers. He was 79.

In Could 2020, Nicholas Kaiser referred to as it a profession as he stepped away from day-to-day tasks on the Amana, Sextant, and Saturna funds. They’re all suggested by Saturna Capital, a agency Mr. Kaiser based in 1989. On the time, we summarized his affect:

Mr. Kaiser is a monumental determine: an early champion of sustainable investing, the supervisor of the primary funds accessible to devoted Muslim traders, a ten-time honoree on Morningstar’s Final Stockpickers record, twice nominated for Morningstar’s Home Inventory Portfolio Supervisor of the Yr and twice named to Barron’s Prime 100 Portfolio Managers. Mr. Kaiser stays as Saturna’s board chair and chief strategist. We provide our heartfelt thanks for the distinction he’s chosen to make.

The parents at Saturna Capital supplied some extra particulars:

Born in Bellingham, Washington, in 1946, Nick’s early educational and private accomplishments mirrored the eagerness, self-discipline, and curiosity that may outline his life. He attended Shawnigan Lake Faculty on Vancouver Island for highschool, Yale School to check Economics (Class of 1966) and earned an MBA with twin majors in Worldwide Economics and Finance from the College of Chicago in 1968. He additionally served as a non-public within the U.S. Military at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana.

In 1976, Nick and his first spouse, Markell Foote Kaiser, acquired Unified Administration Company in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, Nick utilized his experience in finance and computing to remodel the corporate right into a mid-sized funding administration and brokerage agency. His success led to improvements in mutual fund operations and the creation of the world’s first Halal mutual funds, The Amana Mutual Funds Belief, pioneering values-based investing lengthy earlier than it turned mainstream.

After promoting Unified Administration Company in 1986, Nick returned to Bellingham and in 1989 based Saturna Capital Company. As Founder and World Strategist, he led the agency with a imaginative and prescient grounded in principled, long-term investing and moral service. His management helped Saturna develop into an internationally revered funding agency, which remains to be led as we speak by his daughter, Jane Carten. He remained an lively mentor and presence within the firm, even after stepping down from portfolio administration in 2020.

Nick’s contributions prolonged past finance. He served as a Governor of the Funding Firm Institute, President of CFA and Monetary Planning Affiliation chapters, and Nationwide President of the No-Load Mutual Fund Affiliation … [and]  generously devoted his time and experience to civic and academic causes. He served on the boards of the Mt. Baker Basis and Franklin Academy and supported Western Washington College, endowing the Kaiser Professorship in Worldwide Enterprise. He held management roles with organizations together with the Mt. Baker Council of the Boy Scouts of America (Govt Vice President), St. Paul’s Episcopal Faculty (President), B.C.’s Island Belief Fund (Advisor), Fourth Nook Economics Membership (Founder) and Bellingham Rotary.

Nick’s life outdoors of enterprise was wealthy with journey. The lifelong bonds cast with Shawnigan classmates assisted in his repatriation to the waters, islands, forests and ski hills of the Pacific Northwest. A licensed industrial pilot, ocean sailor, skier, and avid reader, his return noticed him commerce in Midwest small airplane piloting for boat possession and prolonged voyages across the San Juan and Gulf Islands, Desolation Sound and circumnavigating Vancouver Island.

Nick Kaiser’s legacy lives on within the lives he touched by means of his knowledge, generosity, and unwavering integrity.

Thanks …

To the entire of us who helped to make our Scandinavian sojourn superb!

Thanks, Stuart. The Vasa Museum was outstanding! Hello, Leah. We tracked down Susan Foss in Bryggen, the previous city part of Bergen. What lovely, extremely heat stuff. I ended up with a pullover sweater that I promise to share when the climate turns chilly; I start sweating simply it now. Regrets, DGH: we sailed previous Bygdøy on our night jazz cruise, however didn’t make landfall. Chip’s itinerary for the return go to (probably after a visit to western Scotland), is already intimidating. Roger: All the things concerning the “Norway in a Nutshell” piece of the journey – trains, tiny trains, electric-powered ferries, waterfalls, the occasional dancing nymph, and an in a single day in Flåm – was superb. We had one among our favourite meals of the journey at Aegir’s microbrewery in Flåm.  It included a beer flight matched with 5 dishes, together with what I have to say is a number of the greatest smoked deer and pulled goat (with creamed potato and lingonberry) dishes we’ve ever eaten!  (These are numbers two and 4 on the plate.)

Because of you all for the steering. We considered you typically.

And, many thanks, all the time, to the regular contributors who assist us hold the lights on and our spirits up: the great of us at S&F Funding Advisors, RHG Advisors, Wilson, Greg, William, William, Stephen, Brian, David, Doug, and Altaf.

And a particular word to Poody: thanks! Your belief, need to be taught, and to train some company over your affairs are extremely highly effective drivers for all that we do. My very own of us, as you would possibly know, by no means completed highschool, by no means sought monetary steering, and spent many nights whispering collectively on the entrance porch, typically concerning the payments they couldn’t pay. A variety of what we attempt to do is to supply a easy message: take a deep breath, it’s not magic, with a little bit of endurance and planning, you’ve bought this. We’ll assist.

As ever,