Start of my Newsletter John Boyter; “My E-book Preview — a Digital Life”
I am working on an e-book. It starts when I was visiting Miami in March 2020, and the pandemic began unfolding. I reuse the material from my blogs and expand on it. I write about nomadic and expat lifestyles and cover issues around mental health from my experience with depression. This includes gradually improving but experiencing setbacks and learning to cope with it differently as I increasingly use exercise and other tools as treatment.
Through social media, blogs, a newsletter, and a planned e-book, my writing may inspire those working through depression, going through a transition, or wanting to travel more. I hope it may help others to read about someone continuing to discover oneself. I feel I have a lot of experiences to share.
I am writing about moving back to Denmark, from the Dominican Republic, after 20 years away. I cover my learning process as I improve my writing, develop my blogs/newsletter, and choose my new primary blog niche topic. My writing is about my journey, and I don’t give advice; I don’t have any professional background. I just hope it is motivational and entertaining.
Attached is a preview of the e-book, which I am sending out to my email contacts, and I publish it as an article on the writing platform Medium and in my LinkedIn Newsletter. I would be very pleased by anyone reading it and giving me feedback with suggestions on what to focus on and elaborate on in the e-book. What would you like to hear more about?
Social media blog and newsletter
Weekly, I post on social media and my blog site, www.johnboyter.com. I try to plan what I am going to post, but it is also a day-to-day blog, so I quickly pivot if there is a topic I find interesting or a new challenge turns up. After writing my blog for the last two years and posting it on social media, I have decided on my primary niche topic, “healthy lifestyle,” around personal development. I quit drinking over four years ago. At times I was a borderline alcoholic or maybe a functioning alcoholic, depending on how things developed around my business and private life. After quitting drinking and failing with a business venture, I had a long, drawn-out mental health crisis that I have recovered from. By leading a healthier lifestyle, I work on avoiding a recurrence.
Then last June, I had a heart attack, probably because of past lifestyle choices, the added stress from failing in business, and genetics. Now I exercise more, take part in different therapy, and will eventually work more on my diet. I also cover healthy lifestyles while traveling and occasionally write about online business and my digital life, which could develop into a second blog around business development. My purpose with my writing is to be entertaining, and maybe the reader can learn something from it or be inspired. This e-book preview is also the start of a newsletter I will send to my email subscribers.
Visit to Miami and the start of the pandemic
In February or early March 2020, I saw videos on YouTube of the hospitals being built in Wuhan, China, to combat a virus spreading there. Still, I traveled to Miami at the beginning of March. I had not been there for over a year, even though I have a condo there. When I arrived, I found that the last tenant had trashed my condo’s furniture. I felt sad and had no energy to do much about it. I was jaded by tenants in Miami and still working through depression. The real estate agent, who had originally represented me, pressured me to pay the tenants back most of the deposit. This seems to always happen to me in Miami with realtors and tenants. I really wanted to sell it, but it suddenly seemed like bad timing.
I also knew that Miami, and the United States in general, would never be a place for me, even if I could get legal residency. I had lost a lot of money on a business venture in the Cayman Islands, so I couldn’t really afford to try either. And I was about to take the final loss of having had a business in the Dominican Republic. Also, in the US and Miami especially, the pace is too fast for me. Every time I flirted with the idea and spent time there, I was always glad to return to the more laid-back Caribbean.
During the last 15–20 years, I have to say the Dominican Republic has always been the most pleasant place to live. From a social life perspective, it was preferable to Miami, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands, all places where I have spent more time. And you can really live a cushy life in the Dominican Republic. I have been very fortunate to have tried out different places, all with nice weather, and tried different ways of business and lifestyles. With business, however, I find the United States the safest and most transparent, with a strict rule of law. I would have wanted to do business from Miami but not have a business there. Ideally, I wanted an online business.
Miami, Santo Domingo and international lockdown.
Miami has a reputation for being superficial, and there is some truth to that. It is certainly a party town; I know from experience. But I find it is really under-appreciated when it comes to culture and art. Latin Americans and other immigrants from the Caribbean have had a positive influence in that regard, especially the Cubans. The music scene, for instance, is amazing.
Another thing I like about Miami is that the business language is English. You seem to have to speak Spanish for anything not business-related, which I find fun. Social activities can easily be in Spanish or Spanglish, as many say. In the Dominican Republic, I had the opposite experience, speaking more English socially and with clients when I worked in real estate, but everything related to the more formal side of business, with the authorities and with employees, was in Spanish. After 15 years, I still struggled with Spanish, especially when dealing with the administrative side of the business.
Now in Miami, I started running errands, but I got little done as they began shutting things down because of the spreading coronavirus globally. Shops and restaurants and then also my bank. The international banking I used to do in Miami after giving up in the Cayman Islands is hardly “international” anymore as I now seem to have to turn up personally to get something out of the ordinary done, which I should be able to do online. And I am not a VIP client anymore, so I only have the very cumbersome customer service line to turn to if I can’t do it myself on their online platform. But if I ever qualify to become a VIP banking client again, I will not want those services. I want to do everything online, which is also the trend.
Now everything in Miami was closing, and I was in contact with my mother in Denmark and heard from friends there what was happening in Denmark, and I heard about Italy in the news. Those two countries were the first in Europe to go into lockdown. Then I heard from my office in Santo Domingo and Dominican news sources that the Dominican Republic was going to shut down and close its borders. The Dominican president, Danilo Medina, then made his speech on the 16th of March announcing it.
The next day I was still running errands, but I went to the pool and I sat at the coffee shop in the building, Joe & Juice, which then closed that day because of the pandemic. It closed right there as I was finishing my coffee. I wasn’t rushing things. I just couldn’t, and I had been trying to avoid stress, which I am good at when allowed. I tried to contact American Airlines by phone and on their website, but it seemed impossible, and the departures and prices shown online made no sense.
Hurry up and wait, and returning to Santo Domingo
Then on the 18th of March, I just went to the airport in Miami to try my luck. I went to the check-in at AA and was told there were no seats that day. I sat down thinking this would be one of those nightmare situations with me stuck in Miami. Of course, I could live in my condo for three months on my tourist status and order takeaway online, but that didn’t seem so appealing with everything closing over the pandemic, including the pool. I sat down and had a coffee to drink and then went to the check-in again and asked, and now there was an available seat.
The plane was completely full. I had a middle seat, and in the window seat was an elderly Dominican lady with gloves, a mask, and other creative ways of protecting her from the virus. She asked me to help her with her immigration form to enter the Dominican Republic. To the right of me was a young American going on vacation, which he had planned with a friend, and the pandemic wasn’t holding him back.
Something I saw a lot during the pandemic in the Dominican Republic, especially from Americans living there. Either they were so-called “COVID freaks,” fanatical about precautions and later about vaccination, or they were skeptical, the so-called “anti-vaxxers” later on. Most Americans I met in the Dominican Republic seemed to belong to one of the two extremes. One American friend always talked about using a mask, but I never saw him with one either at his apartment or meeting with him outside, where he used his driver. Another American friend was mad that he had to use a mask in an Uber. Seems there was not much middle ground. I would use a mask where I had to, thinking maybe it would help, and I only had to use it for a shorter time and not all day — driving a taxi, for instance — so a small sacrifice for me.
The National Emergency
So, on the 19th of March, the Dominican Republic closed its borders. I don’t know what would have happened if I had not traveled the day before. During the first months, it was unclear if permanent legal residents could travel into the Dominican Republic or if only Dominican citizens could “repatriate.” While the borders were closed, there were weekly “ferry flights” to and from New York, Miami, and Madrid, cities where there were many Dominicans. These flights also helped repatriate Americans and Spaniards in the DR. I am glad I got back to Santo Domingo because we decided to close the business, and I couldn’t have left that alone with my business partner.
I have to admit I was scared during the first few weeks of the pandemic. In Santo Domingo, there was a serious lockdown and trucks were disinfecting the streets. Everything was closed. And military helicopters were flying with the Dominican flag to encourage people. I only went out to the supermarket, which was in a mall, and I would go there first thing in the morning when they opened.
Staying in the Bella Vista neighborhood in Santo Domingo during those first days of the lockdown felt strange. At night there was no traffic, and nobody was out and about. This area was normally very lively and noisy, and now you could hear dogs barking and people chatting further away outside their houses or apartments. It suddenly felt like being in the countryside.
The national emergency started on the 19th of March, and my business partner and I notified the landlord immediately, and we started closing the business within the first few days of the lockdown. We had been trying to save the company. Over a year before, we had slimmed it down with less space, focusing on virtual office clients rather than office clients, and eliminating payroll. We would then take turns sitting in the reception, being the only two working in the office.
Closing my business in Santo Domingo
It was a tough period, and I couldn’t have done it without my then-business partner, my ex-wife. We lived together during the quarantine and closed the business together. She was working very hard around the practical issues with the landlord where we had our coworking space and dealing with another company to whom we transferred most of our virtual office clients. The ones who wanted to continue with them got a free grace period through the first lockdown and this transition.
She organized the whole ordeal, and I took part and helped, but I was more affected by it and was quite sad and tired, and the whole time she carried on working as a broker on the other side of our business. She now receives the benefits of having her business address with the company that received our clients, and she has brought all the experience from the old business and many contacts into her business as a real estate broker. She was always good at sales and very consistent, and I was better at marketing and networking and not always consistent enough. I like to say she became a businesswoman from her journey with me and learned from that.
I really learned nothing I could bring with me. I was not going to carry on doing any business in the Dominican Republic, and that experience you can really only use there. It is so different that I probably never learned it and never got used to the bureaucracy and the mix of business being sometimes formal and other times informal. Maybe I could use the experience in another developing country, but that is not something I am looking at. Some say that if you can do business in the Dominican Republic, you can do it anywhere, but I compare it to their traffic and driving. If you drive like you sometimes have to in the Dominican Republic, you will get into serious trouble elsewhere.
Moving to the “free-flowing” Las Terrenas
I had wanted to live in Las Terrenas several years back, and I had been trying to make it possible. Now with the business closed in Santo Domingo, I had the opportunity. During the pandemic, as things loosened up a bit in the Dominican Republic and they opened the border, I moved to Las Terrenas, a little beach town on the Samana Peninsula. It took me some time to pull myself together to get up there from Santo Domingo. I could have gone earlier, but I wanted some paperwork in order in Santo Domingo and the practical issues around closing the operations of the business.
Arriving in Las Terrenas in June was wonderful. There were few tourists, and I often had the pool at the condominium to myself for swimming in the morning, and I started yoga classes and long walks on the beach, often having it to myself. I then started developing my habit of going out for coffee in the morning but staying in at night, and obviously, I also had to as there was a curfew from around 7 p.m. The rules kept changing, but I remember only breaking the curfew once by being out half an hour later.
In Las Terrenas, there was a more relaxed attitude to the COVID restrictions compared to Santo Domingo regarding wearing a mask, for instance. I really enjoyed my time in Las Terrenas and finally started on some exercise, which hit rock bottom for me in Santo Domingo during the lockdown. This had been a bit of a blow as I had only just started again with exercise after my worst depression had been slowly lifting. In Las Terrenas, however, I continued my new sugar addiction that started during my depression, had worsened during the lockdown, and would just keep increasing.
Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic
The first time I was in Las Terrenas was in 2005, there were no paved roads, and I seem to remember there was only a very slow internet dial-up on a desktop in the hotel. It was simple and stunningly beautiful. It has grown a lot in the last ten years and is, generally, a great place to visit, with wonderful beaches and great restaurants. They do their best to make people feel comfortable and welcome. I think they have seen the progress tourism has brought, so the business owners, employees at hotels and condominiums, and local authorities work really hard.
They keep it very safe, and I walk everywhere and feel comfortable doing that. I feel some downsides are more around the infrastructure, including very high costs of electricity, and unreliable cable and internet service. I often walked into the village for breakfast, coffee, or lunch, and there were different places I frequented, and I refer to them as my “flexible meeting space” as I often met there with expats/nomads working remotely. There are two French places, Boulangerie Francés and Boulangerie Jean, reflecting the strong French influence, and a similar Italian influence with Panaria and Punto Italia.
A recent new favorite place for morning coffee is called “Barrio Latino,” right in the center of the village. They have some great croissants, and I learned to come early, before they were gone. It’s also one of the best places to watch European Football Champions League, and a French crowd is regularly there watching rugby. And it is a place for business meetings, I have noticed. It’s busy most mornings and gets lively with different negotiations taking place. like an exchange. A good meeting place for English speakers is Get the Gringo Burger. When I went there, I always chatted with James, the owner, and whoever was sitting around the grill. It is a nice lively corner of Playa Popy. I also sometimes had breakfast at Afreeka on the same beach right next to it and then walked on the beach afterward outside the village.
Living it and writing about it
When I was in my twenties, attending the University of Copenhagen, I sometimes tried a pickup line, saying I was a writer of books. Mostly it didn’t work well because the next question would be if I made any money with that, and my wingman, Thomas, would start laughing. However, on some rare occasions, I was lucky when making a joke out of it. Recently I saw a quote by Ernest Hemingway where he said, “In order to write about life, first you must live it.” In my case, I hope that is an accurate statement, as I only started writing about two years ago. So over 25 years ago, I was joking about being a writer, and now I am actually trying to write and build on my experiences from the last 30 years. I still mostly write in a short form as a blogger, and I find that keeps me going, and gradually, I will try to write more in long-form, and this way, I hope to avoid writer’s block.
Later, in 2002, in Havana, drinking a mojito at a bar called Copacabana, I was talking to an American lady who said to me; “You are just a few steps away from being Hemingway.” It was true to some extent, just without the writing. It would be outstanding living and writing like Hemingway staying at the Hotel Ambos Mundos in Old Havana or by the sea in Cojimar, where he wrote The Old Man and the Sea and hanging out at the now-famous bars Floridita and Bodeguita del Medio. Well, I actually did something like that, and I wasn’t very productive. I couldn’t imagine writing like that, isolated from the rest of the world. I hear this advice: to write, you should be off the internet and read many books. My writing process until now has been different as I use the internet several hours a day, and it’s been my platform to write and get practice. I read a lot but mostly articles online, and I listen to podcasts.
Writing as The ONE Thing
Every day I try to write and spend some time during the week learning tools and reading material relevant to my writing. I hope that focusing on one thing, writing in different forms, will make the rest of my life and business easier and some things even unnecessary. Yes, I listened to the audiobook version of The ONE Thing by Gary Keller about how purpose leads to priority and priority leads to productivity. Furthermore, The ONE Thing says that instead of working towards being “disciplined,” one should work towards having certain productive habits. When people have clear, productive habits and routines, their lives will eventually become simpler. From the pandemic experience, I have made it a habit to meet friends in the mornings for coffee. Ideally outside, sitting at a café or inside a cozy café when it’s colder or raining. And meeting to walk and talk. I am building more of a habit of reading and writing in the afternoon and the evening. A lifestyle change formed during the pandemic.
On the LinkedIn Learning platform, I have followed the learning path Develop Your Writing Skills, including a course by Shani Raja, Writing with Flair: How to Become an Exceptional Writer, and following his principles of simplicity, clarity, elegance, and evocativeness. I am working on using that method in my writing. I don’t have anybody to edit my writing in my blog, so my English is a mishmash of Danish-English, English-English, and American-English. I hope it gives my writing a unique style. In the Dominican Republic, I met a professional American proofreader who I would definitely work with. She uses the Chicago Manual of Style, and she looked through a text once and I like how she works. So it’s American English, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use more British or international expressions. And she looked through this text, and I am talking to her about my e-book.
A digital nomad but without the digital
I have gone through five very different main phases shaping my background for writing: in a family corporate business, at university, traveling as a nomad, expat life with a local small business, and recently, starting a new phase working remotely with online content creation. I started on a nomadic lifestyle 20 years ago in 2000 but eventually decided to live in the Dominican Republic, where I have lived as an expat for 15 years and had a local real estate business. After high school in 1988, I worked for my family’s business, the Pressalit Group, in Aarhus, Denmark, for five years, including a two-year trainee period in Hamburg, Germany. Then I started at University in Copenhagen and finished my law degree in 2000.
A couple of years ago, I heard the term digital nomad, which is someone who travels and works from a laptop without having a permanent home, and I realized I had been one on and off for almost 20 years. However, for the first several years, it was not with much of the digital as I had limited internet access, and it was before social media. Typically, you work mainly by yourself and only loosely belong to communities. I mentioned the term to an American expat in the Dominican Republic, from the expat community. He said, “Ha, they finally found a term for it, ah. A digital nomad. That’s like sexing up the unemployed guy with a laptop who knows some technology and a bit of business,”. I thought that was hilarious. I have known many during the years with those characteristics. Some were independently wealthy, and others lived from hand to mouth. It characterizes me more and more, actually.
My business ventures and nomadic lifestyle in the Caribbean
I have, since 2002, spent most of my time in the Caribbean. In the Cayman Islands, from 2014–2017, I wanted to set up an online business in a tax-free zone, build a house and move there. I failed miserably. The first 2–3 years, 2002–2005, I spent mostly in Cuba, and I luckily didn’t try to set up a business there. Seems I was smarter when I was younger. For 15 years, I worked with real estate in the Dominican Republic and set up a workspace facility with virtual office services in Santo Domingo, which I closed at the start of the pandemic. Over four years ago, in September 2018, I flew to the Cayman Islands from Santo Domingo via Miami and had some wine on the plane. I decided not to drink on arrival as I needed to solve a complex problem. Without planning it, I have not had one drink since.
In 2015, I obtained a business license with a work permit in the Cayman Islands and started building a house. I had big plans. I would develop an online business in a tax-free zone, move there, and use my office in Santo Domingo for operations. It started to go sour. I could not manage the construction which finished over two years later than planned, and I never developed the online business. I gave up my business license in the Cayman Islands and sold the house at a huge loss. During the process, I experienced a mental health crisis, starting with anxiety disorder and panic attacks, resulting in a nervous breakdown, followed by a long period of depression, all lasting 3–4 years. It culminated from a long period where mental illness and problematic drinking increasingly got a hold on me and influenced my personal life and my business.
Experiencing mental illness
I have posted about mental illness, my experience with a long, drawn-out mental health crisis, and suffering from some level of bipolar disorder on my blog. It is a tricky disease that comes and goes and is progressive over time without treatment. At times you are well, which is a blessing as you can progress in life during those periods, but it is also deceiving as you risk forgetting again. In my case, I believe it progressed rapidly during 3–4 years. In the past, I had experienced a crisis several times and occasionally done therapy and then thought I was better or just didn’t have the energy to confront mental disease fully.
Some say bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia are all more or less the same, but you are on a spectrum depending on symptoms. When I was young, my grandmother told me I was manic-depressive, the term back then. I didn’t receive treatment for depression or anxiety at the time, but it was always in the back of my mind. She said that many people suffered from it and prevailed, which gave me some confidence that I would overcome it. Later at university, I had a serious crisis with depression and finally needed therapy, and especially from this period, I remember first understanding some more serious symptoms. The therapist I was seeing at the time in Copenhagen was very good at helping me get back to classes and exams at the University of Copenhagen, and it helped me finish my degree in law.
Bipolar mood swings
I still can’t grasp the concept of it being a permanent condition. Maybe there are some advantages to not getting an exact diagnosis. For instance, schizophrenia is almost a “death sentence” for a career in business, and it’s probably what we say about the sickest. Bipolar is more acceptable, I think, and even a bit overused, maybe. Quitting drinking completely, now over four and half years ago, was a big step toward recovery and helped especially in the process towards more clarity. On the bipolar spectrum, I lean towards having depressive episodes, and I have had many, but I have also suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and mania, which maybe would be characterized as hypomania, as I did not completely lose my mind ever although almost a couple of times. Recently I was told that there are estimates that about 50% of bipolar individuals are also addicts, or rather we “self-medicate” to deal with the mood swings.
Since quitting drinking, I haven’t struggled with that as I finally realized partly why I was drinking. Fear of losing out again keeps me from it and especially the loss of time. I see more clearly, specifically the mental illness, and focus on that. I am not going to lie, though. Alcohol also involved some fun, but the negatives outweighed the positives more and more. But even when it was fun, it was still increasingly harmful. Everybody has ups and downs, but I think for people with some degree of being bipolar, those ups and downs are more magnified. I am certainly not judging anybody else. I can feel how I feel. No career, including studying or work I have chosen during the years, was something I wasn’t interested in and usually started out well. Mostly I loved it to begin with. But when depression has come in the way and maybe several and even worse, a manic period, it ends up being traumatic and something I don’t want to return to. Now I have decided I can only keep trying to write and maybe, in this process, try to understand better what happens during these periods so I don’t end up having an unpleasant experience. I will try and write myself through the difficult periods.
Coping with mental illness
I find I have long periods where I am well, and during those periods, I might have restrained myself too much if I had boxed myself in as being mentally ill with a diagnosis. I am certainly not the most extreme case of it and, luckily, have never been hospitalized, but a couple of times during my last experience, I almost felt like I needed it. Maybe understanding symptoms years ago kept me vigilant, and I developed mechanisms to protect myself and escape the worst consequences. Sometimes those mechanisms were not so healthy, like drinking, and not so productive, like escaping the disease by moving and starting all over again, which became a pattern. Other mechanisms were healthier, like stopping drinking for 3–4 months and exercising, especially swimming, but then I would only fall back into the unhealthy pattern again.
I don’t feel mentally ill now. I have recovered from the last mental health crisis I had and now have been fortunate to again see a therapist in Aarhus, and it is helping clarify it better and better understand depression and anxiety. Important steps have been connecting more with family and engaging more with friends in Denmark and the Dominican Republic, where I lived until recently. Finally, constantly being aware of symptoms may be the most important part I am learning. Physical health is connected to mental health, and I am trying to focus on the ‘five ways to well-being’: 1. Connect with others 2. Be active physically 3. Learn new skills 4. Give to others 5. Connect with and notice things around you, and be in the present moment. An English friend of mine sent me this link. I will use these principles in my blog about a healthy lifestyle and also when I travel.
Traveling internationally during the pandemic
It wasn’t easy to travel during the pandemic, and I only traveled twice internationally. First, in March 2020, I traveled to Miami and then rushed back to Santo Domingo before the border was closed. In late 2020 I started planning a trip back to Denmark, where I am originally from to visit family, and after booking and changing the flight a couple of times and several cancellations, I finally traveled on the 16th of December and arrived on the 17th in Aarhus, Denmark. A very long trip, first with a taxi to Santo Domingo airport from Las Terrenas, flights to Miami, then to Heathrow, London, then to Copenhagen, and finally with a train to Aarhus. I was a bit late to the airport in Santo Domingo and almost missed the flight because I had to fill in a health\locater form for entry and transit in the UK. The first new pandemic-related hurdle.
Then in Miami, I had to check in again, and they first claimed I needed a negative COVID test, but after some time, I showed them a link from a Danish government website that I didn’t need it, and they accepted that. It seems they had seen it as a requirement for visitors to Denmark, but that didn’t include citizens. I was lucky that I could travel that route as at the beginning of December, my flight was canceled because of a coronavirus outbreak in Denmark. among minks, and the UK stopped travel between the UK and Denmark. Then shortly after I arrived in Denmark, the British Kent coronavirus variant was discovered and Denmark stopped travel from the UK. So it was really a short window where I could travel via Miami and London to Denmark.
My short trip to Copenhagen while in Aarhus
I stayed with family for three months during the pandemic in Aarhus during the second lockdown in Denmark. I went on a short trip for two nights to Copenhagen. I stayed at the Marriott and met with four old friends separately for coffee and a walk and talk. All restaurants, bars, and cafes were closed. Some hotels were open but just with limited services. It was cold walking outside, but I enjoyed it. It was also possible to sit in the hotel’s lobby for a short while with a coffee. Wearing masks was a requirement at the time. On the first day, I met with two friends from university. One is now an executive and investor in the European media industry, and the other is a high-ranking civil servant in the government. The next day I met with a friend who is a journalist and editor at a large Danish newspaper, and finally, before leaving, I met with a friend who is a successful IT entrepreneur and investor.
They were all helpful in giving advice just around the time I started writing online. I was trying to transition to something new and am still in that process, but I feel I have come far after two years of writing. I now have a platform to write from and my first goal was to do something I could just bring with me from the Dominican Republic.
I lived for about 8–9 years in Copenhagen, and although it is hard for even me to believe, I went to the University of Copenhagen and have a master’s degree in law, which I finished in the year 2000. I still run into people who ask me, “Did you finish your degree back then?”. In fact, I did, but after all that trouble, I only used it briefly. I also finished a degree in business, taking the first part at the now non-existent Aarhus business school and the second part at Copenhagen business school. So two degrees I don’t use. The third “degree,” the one at the “School of hard knocks” from the Caribbean, I won’t be using either.
Danish tax residency
While in Denmark, I realized that Danish rules for tax residency meant I could be in Denmark for 180 days in a year but only 90 days in a row before I became a tax resident. I knew about the 180 days rule but not that it had to be divided at least into two visits. I heard of a case where someone had traveled a week to Spain on vacation and returned and stayed 90 days more, which was accepted. With international travel being so hard in the lockdown, it seemed to me to be better to travel back to the Dominican Republic, where I was a legal resident, and then I thought I could travel to Denmark again at the end of the year. That, however, turned out not to materialize before April 2022.
So I was again in the Dominican Republic for over a year but now more in Las Terrenas than in Santo Domingo. I was then working on getting all my ducks in a row so it would be easier to stay longer than the three months in Denmark and basically then automatically become a resident and tax resident of Denmark and get Danish social security. I tried to prepare the ground to be better prepared for it. For my e-book but not my blog, I plan to get more into these curious Danish tax rules for Danes living abroad and also my tax situation during the years in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean, including the lack of transparency and the confusing, unclear advice from different lawyers and tax accountants in the Dominican Republic. It seems they want to pretend there is a transparent, fair system and a rule of law, and I guess it is not good for their business to inform their foreign clients of the real deal. I will have to see how complicated it gets doing my first tax return in Denmark after returning home, but at least I know everybody is treated equally under the law.
Flying back to the Dominican Republic
After three months in Denmark, I arrived back in the Dominican Republic, traveling first by train from Aarhus to Hamburg, then flying with Iberia from Hamburg to Madrid and on to Santo Domingo. I can thank my brother Kim Boyter that it went more smoothly as he was the expert on PCR COVID tests, and traveling to Germany, crossing the border and being “unterwegs.” You could be in Germany in transit for 24 hours, but staying in a hotel required some extra paperwork which he also helped with. I carried a letter stating I was representing him on business. The PCR test I got with my mother, Fay Boyter, the Monday before going, and later the same day, we got her a second jab of the Pfizer vaccine.
Now with the pandemic continuing and the uncertainty around traveling, with vaccines, vaccine passports, and tests, I at first was only going to travel around the Dominican Republic with a bus as transport. I did a lot in 2005–2006 when I first went there, but now I only traveled between Santo Domingo and Las Terrenas. In 2021, I still had legal residency in the Dominican Republic, and I eventually got my vaccine there twice, the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. I thought they organized the vaccinations fairly well around the country. How effective the vaccinations were, and specifically the Sinovac vaccine, I have no idea. Maybe the experience helps the Dominican authorities improve public health and the health care system. In my opinion, the number one biggest problem in the Dominican Republic for Dominicans, expats and tourists.
It would not be before April 2023 that I again traveled to Denmark. The longest time I have ever stayed in the Dominican Republic without traveling internationally, as I lived a nomadic lifestyle for many years but with legal residency in the Dominican Republic and a business and office in Santo Domingo.
Private banking. Danske Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Merrill Lynch
I regret moving my banking from Denmark to the Cayman Islands in 2003. However, when I did, Danske Bank tried to get me to sell all my positions in my portfolio, and this way, the banker would have made some nice commissions. My new banker in Cayman couldn’t believe they were trying to pull this trick on me. Of course, I could transfer my investment portfolio without selling all my positions. Ironically, however, when I left RBC in Cayman in 2014, the same banker had me sell all my positions, and he then made some last commissions.
I have been very fortunate to have started with wealth, and it has given me many opportunities and still does. The downside, however, are predators of any kind, and, in hindsight, no one was worse than the bankers I met. In 2006, I started working with real estate in the Dominican Republic, which at first was just to have something to do, but I got busier with that and hoped I could focus on that. At RBC in 2009, I was practically “coerced” into not investing. Just after the financial crisis unfolded, I heard Warren Buffett say it was time to invest. I had cash. I wanted to invest in growth ETFs. The wealth management team talked me out of it to the point where it became bullying. Even when I said I would contact the head office in Canada, they said they operated independently. Months later, they finally “allowed” me, but the opportunity was missed. I am not a professional investor, and it’s hypothetical how it would have gone later, although a conservative investor until then.
I lost confidence in the bank, and it didn’t feel safe. I should have moved to another bank immediately. Instead, I started thinking more about developing a business. Also, it felt confusing the circumstances around closing the investment account in 2014, and I still have not completely understood it. It went quickly. Something about that I had to have Cayman residency to keep my account which I got soon afterward via a business license. In the beginning, around 2002–2005, I decided on the portfolio. I had researched ETFs and decided on a mix and some bonds that matured exactly at the end of 2008 I held on to. In 2003–4, I opened an investment account at a bank in the Cayman Islands.
The banker moved to RBC later, and I moved my portfolio with him to RBC. However, I should have known it was a terrible decision. I remember meeting him at RBC, and he introduced me to his boss, the head of the wealth management team. And I don’t know if it was something I said or because I just walked over to him, but my banker pulled me to the side, and it was like he feared him. “He is a Caymanian,” he told me.
The Cayman Islands and Cuba
At the end of 2018, I was in contact again with the bank shortly after a fiasco I had with a development of a property. I had been in the Cayman Enterprise City with a business license and work permit/residency, which I gave up in 2017. In Cayman, I was going to develop a business and use my office in Santo Domingo for operations. I won’t forget what the bank told me; “You came here thinking you were this international businessman and just wanted to be in the Cayman Islands to feel important.” Maybe there was some truth to that. I certainly have had to admit I have not been good at investment and business, but it also showed their true face at the bank.
Regarding the Cayman Islands in general I should have understood after the experience with the bank how corrupt it is and the weak rule of law. I had been enchanted by the islands while in Cuba from 2002–2005, and it was a neat combination going back and forth between the two and maybe a bit too much so. Both Cuba and the Cayman Islands have lost a lot of their charm since then, although for very different reasons. I think a lot of the cultural life in Cuba moved from Havana, Cuba, to Miami, and the English Caribbean culture of the Cayman Islands just seems to have sunk into the ocean. Havana now looks like a big museum with real people inside stuck in the past and suffering more and more, and the Cayman Islands looks like an overdeveloped cruise ship floating around, not knowing where it’s heading, and ironically the real locals are also suffering more and more.
In the Cayman Islands, there is a horrible greed culture among a few locals and the expat community. Cuba has been crippled partly also by a trade embargo, but something had to be done to pressure them to change their unfair economic system where Cubans are not allowed to start a business freely, work as they want, or own property. But if the rumors about international money laundering are true regarding the Cayman Islands, the world should really consider similar sanctions on the Cayman Islands.
The “wealth” managers in the Cayman Islands
I was doing private banking in Cayman and met with the wealth manager about my account while on a visit there. He told me they landed a Dominican client. Who is it? From one of the big families? Present me. It would help my networking. No, I can’t say who it is. It’s very hush-hush. Sure. I understand. It must have been from one of those families. Fast forward years later in Cayman at happy hour with a realtor and his wife. A guy from the other end of the bar shouts at me. Are you Danish? Yeah. I knew you had to be with that hairdo. It was a Danish wealth manager. We talked about my experience with the wealth managers, Danish football, real estate, and more. Two Danes from Jutland. It was now way past happy hours. The sweet rum drinks were flowing quicker. Another wealth manager joins us. One of those worldly British types. He tells various anecdotes, for instance, one “funny” one about a Dominican government official “borrowing” some money from the till and then investing via a bank in Cayman, and as the market went up and up, he could get away with it. Wow. What an investment model. I hope it’s not true. It would be so sad for the Dominican people, but maybe I would feel more sorry for the Caymanians.
This above story could have happened in the Cayman Islands. I certainly heard rumors there. I wish Dominicans were more curious about the governments they have had and how they manage funds and, equally, Caymanians about what could be going on in their financial sector. Who are the international clients? Where do those clients have their funds from? In my opinion, individual bankers are responsible for any wrongdoing. They are the ones dealing with the clients, and they know them. My banker knew I was not doing anything wrong. I was never hiding any funds. Only maybe in the sense that I didn’t want to come across as wealthy. I was out of the Danish tax system, which is not difficult after cutting all your financial ties to Denmark and not living there. Some may think that it is immoral, but it is not illegal. It would actually be hard to not live in Denmark and still pay taxes there. You are considered out of the system.
Choosing an investment advisor and a platform for investment. Investment adviser from a bank. Never again.
It is very delicate picking and working with an investment advisor/wealth manager. They become like a business partner, but only you, as a client, bring capital to the account. It is very risky if there is somehow no chemistry, and if they comment on your lifestyle and are opinionated, it’s something best not to ignore. In general, the lesson for me is to not think you can just let a bank influence your decisions. The bank doesn’t know everything about your plans and won’t listen anyway.
Now I am starting again from another place than I did around 20 years ago, and I have, in the last few years, gone from the feeling of the glass being half empty to half full after losing a lot of money between 2014 and 2019. I will look at setting up a new investment portfolio. Fortunate to still have the opportunity to invest some, and now having more experience, maybe it will soon be a good time to start all over in the stock market. With real estate, in hindsight, I was good at picking locations but not so much at investment, looking at return including property management, and I was a disaster at construction. The real estate I have now has done well recently and the locations turned out to be excellent.
Depending on how much I travel and if I make it partly a travel blog, I will not need to invest much in my writing business. In the Dominican Republic, I use Banco Popular and am quite happy with them regarding day-to-day banking, but they have limited services. In Miami, I used Bank of America for my business, but for investments in stocks and bonds, I knew they would refer me to Merrill Lynch, and I don’t qualify to work with them anymore, as my portfolio will not be large enough. I used them for some years to try something different after an unpleasant experience with RBC in Cayman in 2009, and I wasn’t too happy with them either.
Finishing in the Dominican Republic
In April 2022, I traveled to England from the Dominican Republic, and then further on to Denmark. I met up beforehand in Santo Domingo with my business partner there, Raysa Suarez, and a notary on the 6th of April. I gave her a power of attorney to continue representing me during the ongoing dissolution of my company, which I had first incorporated in the Cayman Islands in 2007, and then registered to operate in the Dominican Republic. Since 2018, we have tried to close it in the Dominican Republic. We still have to report the Dominican “VAT” Itbis monthly as zero. I receive email notifications and forward them to Raysa, who has made it part of her business to follow up. I think it will never be possible to complete a dissolution. The tax accountant we use, she also needs for her continued business and the tax return we need to report together next for 2022 in 2023.
I believe now you can’t close a company in the Dominican Republic, and if you have taken out a tax ID, it will be forever, as I think they want to keep being able to potentially impose a tax. You have to then keep reporting the company and provide them with any information they ask for so you don’t give them the opportunity to impose a fine. My impression now is that this is how it is, and I need to be proven otherwise if it is not.
I know it’s not only my company as I have been the contact person for RockResorts, owned by Vail Resorts, and they have been trying to close their company in the Dominican Republic, RockResorts, LLC, for over a decade. They were a virtual office client of my Your Island Office, a coworking service. I still get their notifications from the DGII, the Dominican internal revenue agency and I forward them to the tax department of Vail Resorts in Colorado. My involvement was set up by a Dominican law firm I was a client of earlier. I feel they should have known the risk of the company not being able to be liquidated and they told me my involvement was only temporary. Now I can keep blogging about RockResorts, LLC when I also blog about my company still not being closed.
One other foreigner in the Dominican Republic I was in contact with said, “Closing a company in the Dominican Republic is a “mission impossible.” I am glad someone else is honest and open about it and I am now hearing from more people with this same experience. I will keep mentioning this in my blog. If it turns out you can’t close a company in the Dominican Republic, foreigners and foreign entities should be warned. It is easy and fast to set up, but later making changes is increasingly more expensive, and closing it seems impossible. There can be many reasons you need to close a company and in the Dominican Republic, they don’t seem to accept any.
A company in the Dominican Republic
In 2007, I set up a company in Cayman and registered it in the Dominican Republic. Back then, in the DR, you needed seven shareholders. But there was also the option of using an offshore company which I did as I knew Cayman already. It was around the time they started transitioning the economy from being mainly informal. It was really hard with the monthly reporting to DGII, the Dominican internal revenue agency and managing payroll reporting to the TSS so your employees could have medical coverage. In fact, over the years, it has only gotten more complicated, more costly, and created a higher tax burden. But they still have a very large informal economy. It seems to me all they did was create a massive bureaucracy.
I tried to get some real tax advice then, but in hindsight, it was ridiculous. An adviser at one of the big firms seems to give individual international tax advice. Years afterward, I ran into him near his office, and outside of a professional context, he has the nerve to ask me if I have financial investments offshore and if I pay tax on that in DR. I don’t know if that is required. I guess only if you receive dividends, but again is it done in the real world? What do the others do, I wonder.
The other company I had, with Raysa Suarez, incorporated in 2011, a local Dominican company, has now been reactivated as Boyter Island SRL doing business as “Inmobiliaria Sarasota,” and, fortunately, she needs it for her activity as a commercial real estate broker. It would have been even more complicated to close as most of the activity from both our coworking/virtual office service and real estate brokerage was run in this company from around 2015. The old foreign company was then just a shareholder of the new local company, and in 2019 the shares were transferred to me personally at 51%, and Raysa has 49%. She decides who to work with and has learned to do a large part herself, saving those expenses. You need to tell the attorney and tax accountant what to do and be in control of the process, and you need to push back with the authorities, as they won’t.
Nothing like having a heart attack to push a final decision over the finishing line.
In the early morning of midsummer Sankt Hans, a celebration in Denmark of the longest day of the year, I wasn’t feeling too well. For several hours I thought it was an attack of stomach acid or stomach flu, but it got worse and worse and more painful. Later we got through to the emergency line, and they sent a paramedic. When he came, he immediately diagnosed me as having a heart attack, and an ambulance followed soon afterwards, taking me to the hospital Skejby Sygehus in Aarhus. I will never forget when we arrived at the hospital, and they were already waiting and prepared and operated on me immediately. They operated twice — also one more time the next day. I felt I recovered well from both operations and was already feeling well on the second day. It was a big, modern, well-organized hospital. The doctors, nurses, and other staff were amazing. The food was good. There was an outside patio which was very nice because of the summer weather. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
At the hospital, a doctor said, “We are going to fix you up completely before we let you out of here,” before they operated on me the second time, inserting two stents into my arteries using PCI, a balloon expansion via a catheter in the groin. I think that is some of the technical terminology. Just after the first emergency operation, I was told my heart function was now at 35%, and the normal is 55–65%, but I hadn’t understood that and thought it was even worse. Later in the day, I cried, and a nurse sat down with me. We talked for a while, and she held my hand and said, “It was good you came to us.” Another nurse later, at the end of my hospitalization, said in front of my brother and me, “We need John back here in Denmark. Now he is here with us.” I found that all very touching, and the care was excellent. When I finish my first tax return and deal with all the paperwork, I will think about that and that it’s all worth it.
Follow-up at the hospital
I had felt like something had been on the way for some time and had even seen doctors months beforehand, but supposedly there was nothing. So it happened in the worst possible way but at the best possible place for me. I have been to several follow-ups at the hospital. The good news for me is that it did not affect my heart that much it seems. Physically I have felt fine, but the shock has affected me more. I experienced some more anxiety at first, but I was quickly able to go for long walks and swim like before. I have had a very good experience with the Danish health care system, and there is really an extra emphasis on care which I have felt again in the follow-up treatment and rehabilitation.
After the hospital treatment, I continued to get treatment from my new GP, who was kept informed during the entire process. It is all very well organized, and journals kept so that I can read myself online. It is big brother watching you but in a really good way. At the last checkup, when the treatment ended in November, a scan showed my heart function was around 50% now, where it was 35% just after the heart attack. They say normal heart function is around 55–65%. The current diagnosis is that I show no symptoms of heart failure. There is a scar on my heart from the heart attack, and I will have to live with some risk and keep taking medication.
The rehabilitation at the hospital with different training, including with weights, inspired me to continue training in a gym. I swim as I did before, but more, and I try to include more cardiovascular exercise. It has also helped me decide on my primary blog niche, healthy lifestyle. Around November this year, the hospital will want to see me again, so it’s a goal of mine to continue exercising and start some dieting so I am in good shape by then. The whole process has helped me better clarify and distinguish better between my physical and mental health. I thought it was anxiety, and then my blood pressure felt like it was going up. Better understanding heart disease also helps me better understand anxiety.
Registering my Danish residency and getting my IT access for public services and my Danish driving license up to date. All easy peasy.
I finally registered my residency in Denmark doing the paperwork at the municipal building DOKK1 in Aarhus, Denmark. I easily got an appointment online some days before. At the international desk, they were very helpful and asked if I also wanted my IT access to public services, and they ordered my driver’s license right away. I picked up my Danish driver’s license two weeks later. I always knew this part would be easy, but not this easy. When I moved from Denmark around 20 years ago, they didn’t have the IT access for public services. It’s called “NemID” meaning easy ID, and soon to transition into “MitID”’ meaning my ID. My ID number is, of course, the same as before and has been reactivated for some time now. I had to get a second smartphone to use the “MitID” App, and I set up my bank account at the digital bank and investment platform Lunar Bank. The MitID App, the Lunar App, and other “Danish” apps I use only work in the Danish region App Store/Google Play.
On my old phone I keep all the apps I have been using in the Dominican Republic and some from the US App Store. I decided, for my second phone, my Danish Phone, to get an Android phone and try something different. I enjoy having it separated. My iPhone is my international and business phone for writing, using it together with my MacBook Air. And my Danish phone is used for all my Danish apps and for communicating as a traditional phone in Denmark. The only two apps I have on both are Messenger and Google Calendar. I use different emails on them, keeping my iPhone more like a business phone for my writing and my new Android phone more personal. Denmark is one of the leading countries in digitization, and that is something I will be writing about. I remember some years ago coming back to visit Denmark after I hadn’t been there for a number of years. Back to the Future was what came to my mind. First of all, I was going back, but also some things in Denmark are old as it’s an old country, but next to it, you see futuristic development.
Joining communities in Aarhus, Denmark
I was recently at a great social event at Cafe Støj in Aarhus, Denmark, with the new Aarhus chapter of Danes Worldwide, who until now only have had events in Copenhagen. The topic was “Moving back to Denmark,” and the organizer, Jakob Bejer, told us about his experiences moving back after 16 years in Nigeria. Mostly Danes Worldwide helps Danes abroad, and they try to influence opinions in Denmark. For instance, they worked hard for Danes to have dual citizenship, which is now possible. Recently it has been more about the immigration rules when Danes move back and want to bring their families from abroad, which has become almost impossible.
I used to be part of the expat community in the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo and Las Terrenas with people from all over, and here I was spending time with Danes who have been all over. They often have some of the same characteristics, such as wanting to try something different, learning about other cultures, and maybe feeling more independent. The expats and their different challenges are similar to the digital nomads I read about on social media pages, although they are more of a younger crowd. I hear the same issues with immigration when traveling, health insurance, and clarification regarding tax on income.
Another community I have joined is the fun Aarhus Book Club. I found it on the Meetup app, and they meet once a month, read a book before each meeting, talk about the book, and then pick a book for the next meeting. I am also looking at joining communities around exercise and trying to keep in touch with some of the people from the rehabilitation program I took part in at the hospital. I keep in touch with friends in the Dominican Republic. Most likely, I want to keep this connection as I know the culture well now and have friends there, and that is a “wealth” that I feel can’t be valued in money.
My toolbox, creative workspaces, and retreats
I am building my online business with blogs and writing using Google Workspace for office tools, QuickBooks Online for accounting, GoDaddy for web hosting, and GoDaddy web builder for developing a simple website. For email marketing, I use Mailchimp and have a database with many international contacts from the last 15 years of traveling and business. These are all tools I have gradually become familiar with. I remember a quote by tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban for entrepreneurs regarding technology; “use what you know,” and working independently, I am fortunate to have that choice.
To improve my writing and editing, I have started using ProWritingAid. This integrates well with Google Docs and, supposedly, is good, especially for creative writing. I have used LinkedIn Learning as a learning platform. Recently, I started working with Dashlane Password Manager to manage all my passwords. I picked a 20-character master password with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Very strong. Then, under the master password, I generated unique 16 — 20 character passwords in Dashlane for all my applications.
I just use the basic version of Dashlane, which is only for one device, so I set it up only on my iPhone and. manually enter the passwords on my MacBook Air. Currently, the basic plan includes an unlimited number of passwords. Internet security was something I didn’t pay much attention to in the past, but it is something I want to learn more about. I additionally use two-factor authentication with my phone or with Google Authenticator.
When I start traveling more internationally again, I will visit workspace environments that I find interesting and write reviews about them. The criteria for the workspaces I write about are more in the line of being retreats, and I like it to encourage innovation, diversity, and creativity. I try to do as much as I can around my writing on mobile devices and supplement it, when necessary, on my laptop. My workspace can be anywhere I feel comfortable.
My blog site and learning about simple web development.
About five years ago, the website provider I was using notified me they would stop operating, and within a few months, I would not have a website for my then Coworking and Real Estate business in Santo Domingo. So I had to set it up myself. I simply used the GoDaddy platform where my domains are registered, hosted it with them, and used their website builder. It surprised me how easy it was. Then when I set up my blog site, after closing my business in the Dominican Republic in 2020, I just moved the template from the old business domain over to my new domain name and changed the home page content. I had already started a blog, so my first posts are actually about my old business in Santo Domingo. I can easily manage it and publish my blog posts directly from my iPhone via the GoDaddy App.
I recently updated it with new content and copy-pasted it from Google Docs into the App on my iPhone. It used to be harder to set up a website, and I used to think you paid someone to do it. Not anymore, or not in my case, at least. More than anything, I enjoy being in complete control of it myself. Recently, part of my business has been to just save money, do everything myself and avoid risk. On my website, in my writing, and in my blogs, I mention the tools I use and creative workspaces/retreats I visit. My contacts and following are international, and I am growing my audience steadily. My target audience comprises digital nomads, expat entrepreneurs, and international business travelers, all having common interests in travel, digital life, healthy lifestyle, and personal development. The tools I choose to work with are all to show that I can work from anywhere, or in my case, write from anywhere.
Itinerant blog writer
I am an itinerant blog writer now living in Aarhus, Denmark. Before, I lived as an expat in the Dominican Republic, and I was just back there in February 2023, including a short trip to Miami, flying from Las Terrenas and back. I went through all four stages of cultural shock and adaptation; excitement, irritation, adjustment, and adaption. I prolonged the excitement phase, also referred to as the honeymoon stage,by moving around and traveling, spending time in different places. I think the irritation and adjustment phases overlap and are, of course, together, the main learning phases. You are challenged and irritated, then you adjust, then there are new challenges with the culture, and you adjust again. Sometimes it’s very difficult. They say when you move back to your country of origin, you go through a reverse culture shock and adaptation. I have been coming back more and more to Denmark over the last five years, so I expect it won’t be a brutal process.
I am now going from a shorter form of writing to a longer one with newsletter/articles on LinkedIn/Medium and an e-book. With time, I will need more help editing and proofreading my English, and I am not always the most detail oriented. I am using the editing software ProWritingAid for now. I have my “Remote Mobile Office,” my MacBook Air and my iPhone. I write only in English. It’s more competitive, but I might reach a larger audience when I have better defined and developed my niche. I only publish on online platforms, do digital marketing myself, and use the payment gateway Stripe, which typically is required by the platforms that pay for content.
The e-book will finish whenever I am ready for it. Probably when I feel I have learned more and improved my writing considerably. And when I have settled completely in Denmark again, including filing my first tax return after moving back. In the meantime, I write my social media blogs, reuse the material from them, and structure it better. I then rewrite and expand on it in my newsletter and for the e-book.
Newsletter, e-book, and my blogs going forward
My stay at the hospital after a heart attack and recovery left me rethinking the blogs, newsletter, and e-book I am working on. It will now also be about moving from the Dominican Republic back to Denmark, some implications from that around my business in the Dominican Republic, and my new online business of content creation as a solopreneur based in Denmark.
My e-book starts when I was visiting Miami in March 2020, when the pandemic started, closing my office in Santo Domingo and moving temporarily to Las Terrenas before finally moving back to Denmark. My blogs could go in two directions. One is around personal development, covering healthy lifestyle, travel, culture, and writing, and I hope others can find inspiration from my journey to improve my general physical and mental health. The other direction is business development covering my digital life, digital marketing, work from anywhere, or, in my case, the concept of writing from anywhere. I aim to make my blogs and newsletter a business and I leave open the possibility that it becomes a digital marketing for something else.
My purpose with my writing is to be entertaining, and maybe the reader can learn something from it or be inspired. I welcome any feedback on my writing and suggestions of topics, and any offers of help with my writing. It’s a long game for me. The most important thing to me is staying healthy and the first priority of my day is exercising after I have had a rich or nutritious breakfast. I am a big fan of breakfast, and I take my time around my exercise. Anything else is secondary and will just go as best as it can. And every day, I try to write, treating it more and more like a job, but I reckon a new attempt at a career or a new ambitious business venture might just kill me.
This newsletter is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered financial, legal, or medical advice and not all information will be accurate. Consult a professional before making any major decisions.
