Books, Experiences, People: Pillars of the Dysons’ Contrarian Education

MAMARONECK, NEW YORK – Greetings from Mamaroneck…

My family and I are a traveling homeschooling family, which means we don’t send our kids to school.

Instead we roam around the world and educate them by seeing things, meeting people, having adventures, reading great books, and talking about everything together…

Books. Experiences. People…It’s a contrarian education to say the least.

We survive financially by investing. We have a small seven-figure nest egg and we use it to generate income and capital gains.

We’re nearly “all-in” on gold and safe hard assets, and we’re waiting for the stock market to crash in real terms (gold).

When it crashes, we’ll go all-in on great, capital-efficient, compounding businesses that superinvestor Warren Buffett would approve of. (Or maybe we’ll just buy Berkshire Hathaway shares.)

Maybe this experiment will screw up our kids’ future, cost us our savings and cause Kate and I to get divorced again?

At least these Postcards will be interesting.

Books, Experiences, People

We’re currently camping at my father’s place in New York. My father lives in a one-bedroom apartment in the suburbs of New York City. We’ve been here five weeks.

(People ask us about the sleeping arrangements in a one-bedroom apartment. Dad sleeps in the living room on a blow-up mattress which we inflate every evening before bed. The five of us – Kate, the kids, and I – sleep in the bedroom, on one bed and one blow-up mattress. We are all comfortable.)

Books are a pillar of our lifestyle. We all love reading and as a family, we get through about 20 books a week.

Miles (11) is reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer during lunch. He loves it…

Next stop: Idaho. We’re going to recover our car and all our belongings from the Idaho Falls airport and drive across America. It’ll be the fifth time we’ve driven cross-country in four years.

I can’t wait to be on the road again… or to see my clothes and shoes and all my belongings again…

– Tom Dyson

P.S. My father has cancer and Parkinson’s Disease. He’s on chemo and radiation. I take him to the hospital every day, they blast his prostate with radiation, and then we drive home again. Even on Sundays. Here we are yesterday…

Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [email protected].

Praise for Tom and Kate’s homeschooling journey… And one reader relates to Tom’s experience with depression…

Reader comment: I’ve been reading Tom’s work since the early days of “lessons in options.” I’ve commented on the traveling my late husband and I did with our children across the USA. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it out of the USA, but we did a lot of exploring within the U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii.

My four children are all over 50 years old now and have never regretted the so-called weird lives they lived with my husband and I (never a TV, lessons in musical instruments of choice, alternative schools). Incidentally my husband died 31 years ago, never seeing any of his grandchildren. You and Kate are giving your parents the opportunity of meeting your very interesting children. That’s why I say, “Keep up everything you are doing.”

Reader comment: I have been reading your Postcards From the Fringe for many years. I am also a subscriber to The Bonner-Denning Letter. This is my first time sending a comment. Your post about your bout with depression gave me a flashback. I also had a similar experience. And like you, I have recovered and happily recommitted to my wife with four kids. I am truly thankful to God for bringing me back from the brink.

I have also been homeschooling my children for the past eight years. It’s hard, but a wonderful experience. Thank you for sharing your experience. It encourages me and blesses me. Keep on doing what you are doing. You have a gift for encouraging others. When you are in the Los Angeles area, my family would love to meet you and your family and trade some homeschooling experience over a meal. God bless you.

Meanwhile, a reader weighs in on their own experience battling cancer, responding to another reader’s comment about using natural methods versus chemotherapy…

Reader comment: I have been reading your Postcards for about two years now. I believe in what you are doing. On the challenge of the big C, I do recommend natural methods. I had Stage 3c Colon C in April of 2017. I never did the chemo the oncologist wanted me to do. I just had the surgery; they removed about two feet of the colon and the ileocecal valve area. They also took 21 lymph nodes. Then I did a 100,000 mg vitamin C intravenous therapy weekly for six months, tapering off to twice a month, then less and less. Now I just take 3000 mg/daily.

No C, no sign of it. I eat all organic foods and look like a man 15 years younger. It is a tough choice for your dad to buck the system. But those doctors make money by pushing chemicals. God did not make those chemicals. Use what God gave us.

Finally, a reader enjoys Tom’s financial advice, and joins the gold-backed debit card discussion from the November 19 mailbag…

Reader comment: Have enjoyed your Postcards for a long time, I guess because many of my thoughts and practices have been much like yours. At 90 years old, I have been on a cash basis since I was a kid, haven’t ever bought anything till I have saved up enough cash to pay for it. My credit card balance is paid off every month. I have had a GLINT account with a Mastercard Debit Card for the past two years and am very satisfied with it. Keep up the good messages.

Tom’s note: As always, thanks for writing in! Please keep your messages coming at [email protected], and I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can in a future Friday mailbag edition.