today we are with Kimberly Travaglino from Las Vegas today actually her family is one

of our full time traveling families and she is the editor of Full Time Families Magazine

and also manages that website and Facebook presence there for the full time families

and Kimberly I know you do a lot to assist Full Time Families with some savings programs

can you tell us a little about your traveling experience, how long you guys have been on

the road and a little bit about yourself... Absolutely and thank you so much for having

me I'm really thrilled to be joining you today my family has been traveling since June 2010

so we are going on our fifth year right now and we are a family of six, my husband, myself

and our four children. Currently my children are 12, 10, 8 and 4 but we started with a

7 year old, 6 year old, 3 year old and we actually moved into the camper a month before

DJ was born so yea our family has really enjoyed life on the road and honestly we can't imagine

anything else. Very Cool can you tell us a little about your journey as far as what brought

you to full time travel what was the main reason that you decided this would be a good

lifestyle for you. Oh Rachel that was an epiphany it was um like nothing I had ever experienced

before my husband ran out of the house and bought a pop up camper on an impulse we had

never camped before we lived a very middle class, middle America lifestyle and um you

know if we went on a vacation we went to a hotel but he ran out and bought this pop up

and he cranked up the pop up and I stood in it and I saw every item a family would need

as a tool like your kitchen and your toilet and your beds to live and I thought well if

this has everything I need to live why do I need that 3500 square foot house and from

that moment on I was just emblazoned with this idea that we must get rid of everything

we had worked so hard for and hit the road and I turned to him and I said we are going

to live in something like this and we are going to travel the country and its going

to be amazing and he said NO... which didn't go over well so it took us three years three

years of my convincing three years of my preparation um and ultimately it took us going to a rally

for him to understand that this was not the life of gypsy's that we were not going to

be a traveling rock band all of a sudden or anything like that and that we could actually

really do this and um so that is what we did... That's awesome, very cool if you don't mind

I'd like to know about maybe one of your biggest challenges something that you had to work

hard to overcome and what that would be cuz I know that would help our audience you know

just to understand that their are challenges but we definitely have overcome those through

different educational processes or so I'd like to get your viewpoint on that. Well you

know this lifestyle as you know because you lived it also is not for the faint of heart

I'm sorry about the dog it is hard its a lot of work its a lot of work to set up your camper

its a lot of work to tear down your camper its a lot of work to live in 350 square feet

with your family. Its emotionally difficult its physically challenging but I believe that

our rewards are definitely worth it one of our biggest challenges from going to 3500

square feet to 350 square feet was that we could no longer say... Go to your room right

like Get out of here go when the kids acted out Go to your Room was a staple because it

was safe and you know peace and everything um and we couldn't do that anymore we had

to address the issues at hand over and over and over and over again and there were a lot

of issues we had a new baby my husband quit his job to do this and didn't know what his

place was in our home anymore and we lived now in considerably less space so we had a

lot of emotional issues to work out that I did not understand were coming I had no idea

that was coming I thought its going to be great I have this huge list of places we are

going to see we are just going to be driving and taking pictures and eating great stuff

its going to be fantastic and then the second the kids acted like kids I didn't know what

to do you know when they got tired or frustrated or you know picked on their siblings I was

like O my Gosh I can't just send you to your room anymore we have to work this out so that

has been the biggest challenge and the biggest reward because had we not used our camper

as a tool for copious amounts of together time um I would still be sending them to their

room and I would never have addressed those issues. That's awesome, I really appreciate

your honesty about emotionally the transition that goes on that's really really powerful

and a lot of us forget to mention that because we also traveled full time in our rig for

two years and it was so amazing the rewards far outweighed the difficulties that we did

face and I appreciate your honesty with the emotional stuff cuz that is really really

true, is there any piece of advice that you think that you can give someone thinking of

full time travel that would be good just something that comes to your mind when you think of

giving advice... Ok my favorite piece of advice and the hardest is Do no bring debt on the

road with you if you are really seeking freedom from the quote unquote American Dream then

you have to rid yourself of the debt first I have seen so many families we have been

out here for five years um we counsel and mentor thousands of families on how to achieve

this dream I've seen them so many times rush into this bring debt consumer debt for items

that they don't own anymore they have donated all that junk to Goodwill and they are still

paying it three times over they run out and buy a rig that they think will replace their

home that is not the point of this either you know your home at this point in your life

should be a tool like I mentioned before to achieve the freedom you are looking for it

should not be a trying to replace your home you don't need a three bedroom RV you just

don't um you need to deal with the reasons why you think you need a three bedroom RV

so leave that debt home so that you can have true freedom and true freedom means that you

know your income will be way more flexible and that will be fine because your expenses

will be flexible. Debt is a fixed expense so you can't get out from under that so you

have to leave that at home. Very Cool I appreciate that is there anything that you can think

of that you would do differently if you had to do it again is there something that did

not work out quite right. Hmmm well I really do wish I was prepared for the emotional piece

because it really did shock me I have written a book on how to do this its called How to

Hit the Road and we discuss the emotional piece in depth in there because really before

five years ago no body talked about that at all you know it was all about going to the

Grand Canyon and sliding down white sands and all the fun times and you saw that on

Facebook but no one talked about what was actually going on where your families as individuals

were looking for their new place in this new lifestyle so I wish I had known that I also

wish I knew that everything in the camper was going to break all the time right because

at first I thought O my gosh I think we got a lemon but that's not the case RV's are not

made to be full timed in no matter what they say no matter what stamp is on the door they're

just not made for it our homes go through he equivalent of an earthquake and hurricane

every time we move them and so things break and so you need to have quite a good stash

of an emergency fund in order to again achieve this freedom. Awesome now you guys are traveling

in a 5th wheel still right? we are we are in our 2nd full time 5th wheel we are actually

in our 5th camper we if you have never full timed before its not like camping its completely

different you don't go home you don't wait to go home to do the laundry you do the laundry

in the campground usually when you pull right in that is how you can spot a full timer they

have pulled in and they have immediately gone to the laundry as apposed to the pool our

first rig was adequate very good kinda vanilla on the design we ultimately wanted a toy hauler

because we wanted to haul some motorized vehicles some toys other than match boxes and barbies

and so now we are in a 42' Cyclone 5th Wheel Toy Hauler. Awesome very cool well I have

not seen that rig yet, and we were really fortunate from our perspective we were in

our 40' Monaco when we traveled for the two years with the kids and I think we changed

out one little something on our Aqua Hot and that was the only issue we had the whole time

we were full timing, that's fantastic, we had small issues like the cabinet doors not

closing properly or something, yeah we had some of the little drawers open and shut the

little plastic pieces that broke but my parents were just in awe that we traveled two full

years and never had a single thing with our rig that happened mechanically which was really

cool. Yea that's very rare and very fortunate. Um can you share with us just a couple of

your biggest rewards that you have found full timing. Well you know you go out with your

list, your bucket list and its all places right when you get out here really its the

people, its all about the people always about the people the places are awesome and they

are cool and its great to have those pictures but meeting the people is what helps you grow

as an individual and that's one of the huge benefits that this lifestyle provides we live

a very intentional life we go where we want to go when we want to go there um we don't

live a life that is guided by corporate america or vacation time or any of those things anymore

and so with our intentional time we can make intentional relationships with people its

not in your cubicle next to your cubical buddy and you see them from 9 to 5 Monday thru Friday

but you don't hang out on the weekends, you know you got your weekend people no we um

whats the right word we encircle our lives with the people that we want to spend time

with copious amounts of time and so we seek those people out and form a neighborhood for

as temporary or as permanent as we can establish and go from there. That's Awesome and I'm

curious to know how much the Internet plays a part in your ability to travel how big of

a deal is the internet for traveling full time? In our case its huge because our business

is all run online we run in 2007 when I came up with the idea for us to travel full time

I ran into the house and Googled Families who live in RV's, Families who live on the

road families families who live in small spaces and I came up with a hand full of um resources

including trucker and circus families and that was not exactly what I was looking for

so we weren't about to join the circus not that there is anything wrong with that but

that is not what I was looking for so we created this support system for families who wanted

to full time RV and were currently doing it and we are online 24/7 delivering this information

for families I like to envision our company as you know how your life has two parts its

got the super fun part and then its got the dull boring tedious part well I like to envision

that Full Time Families takes over the dull boring tedious parts for you finding viable

insurance companies and finding good savings for campgrounds and memberships and stuff

like that and so you can just go focus on the fun stuff. Very cool, that's awesome,

so the last question we have for you is how people can connect with you I just really

value the services you offer the community and really appreciate your time today I think

what you are doing is really fantastic and I know that you work so hard to rally the

full time families together where can people connect with you? well thank you so much for

having me you can find out more about Full Time Families at fulltimefamilies.com my co-host

Mary Beth Goth the Road Trip Teacher and I host a live pod cast every Sunday night at

9pm eastern time at roadschoolmoms.com where we talk about you know the home schooling,

road schooling aspect of our lifestyle and we have several social media properties all

of them have Full time Families in the name so if you go to You Tube, Google Full time

Families, we are in there and Facebook we have Facebook presence, Twitter, Instagram,

Pinterest you name it if anyone of those social medias you put Full time Families and our

information will come up. Very Cool then I've got one more question for you what out of

all the different places you have been whats been your favorite place? Um we really love

Sedona we keep going back there we have spent three of the four seasons of our five years

there like a spring in 2012 and just this winter we spent there its a really beautiful

fantastic place have you been to Sedona? We haven't. You have got to go, Its fantastic.

Awesome well sounds good we appreciate you coming on today meeting with us and giving

some awesome value to everybody and we encourage everyone to connect with you will Full Time

Families we know how much value you guys give, thank you. Well thank you so much for having me.

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