Hey Everybody this is Rachel with the Internet Lifestyle Club and also RV Living and Travel
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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