This may already be covered somewhere that I didn't see, but I'm curious to know.

At what point did you start real-life experience or go full time? How did you manage the steps along the way?

My RLE/going full time started in September, about 3 months soon than I was planning.

In January 2011, I really began work with my therapist towards beginning transition. Prior to that point I thought I  was genderqueer. By April I had me letter for hormones, and I started HRT in June.

My coming out started in earnest at Easter 2011. About this time I posted letters to my parents and brothers about my transition.

Also in June, I came out to the support team leadership as my boss was quitting and the management structure for the team was in flux at that point. By August, I decided that I was going to start the RLE & go full time in September. My therapist agreed that it was time, and I had vacation already planned. So I sent an email to human resources and the team management that I'd leave for vacation as David and return as Connie. While I was on vacation the announcement was made that I would be transition.

Originally, I was planning to start my RLE and go full time this past January. But my "identity transition" was completed last spring, so the timing was moved up. Since I had no intention of living stealth, I basically started a massive coming-out process.

A few weeks ago. I asked my classmates to put me in full makeup. They did and I decided to go out around town and see if I pass, or at least if anybody would react negatively. So far, I'm all good!

I'm still not full time. I'm full time if you don't count work. Next quarter I'm going to be going full time to school as a female, though. I'll also be going to clinicals, which means I'll be getting tipped by customers, kinda making it a job.. lol

I went fulltime after two years on hrt. I count my fulltime from when I legally changed my name, even though many read me as female for a good while before that. That was 6 years ago.  I was at the point that I pretty much had to as it was very obvious to most people by then.  Also the company I was working parttime for decided to close down, so it was a good time to go ahead with it.  I didn't start working as a woman until January of last year though as I stayed unemployed for several years due to my dad being terminally ill and him wanting me to be at home most of the time.

I had been on HRT for a couple of months, and had left my job prior to moving  interstate, intending to return to study this year. 
I was told to  allow 6 weeks or so for my name change to come through, put in the paperwork, and caught the ferry across to Tasmania to start looking for somewhere to live.  When I got back a week later my new Birth Certificate was in the letterbox.  So there didn't seem to be much point in delaying making the other changes permanent. 
I just jumped right in, and let all my friends and family know what was happening via a letter.

Karen.

I still don't know what would be defined as "RLE."

Well, firstly, even though I've been living semi-stealth as female for 16 months already (after moving house to a different place), there are two things that I still haven't done; no doubt some people will say that makes me not truly full-time:

• I haven't changed my gender in existing official records
• I haven't changed my name

I haven't done either because they don't seem to affect me a whole lot at all. 90% of my mail already says "Miss" / "Ms", either due to them changing it without me ever telling them, or because they were organizations I associated with after I had decided to fill all my forms with "female". And people mostly think my original real name is a girl's name in the first place, and so I feel no urgent need to change it; in fact, I STILL haven't completely decided what new name to use

But for all practical purposes, I'm completely full-time. I have not had to use my male identity, or present myself as male, for anything at all since going full-time.
I had roughly a year of gradual transition before that; it was completely unplanned. I just kept presenting as more and more female over that period for some reason, without even going full-time in mind. Those months were full of fear and I lacked confidence, but eventually I got used to it. So when I really went full-time, I didn't really need to "manage" anything, because it wasn't actually that different from the day before I went full-time!

I am one of those who began HRT after going full-time; I started it 11 months after full-time. Again, this was because it didn't feel like it mattered so much (I was always passing fully), but I eventually went for it anyway for some boobs. Most would say that HRT changed their moods, personality, etc., but for me it was going full-time that changed my personality; HRT didn't do anything in terms of personality at all. As for mood, nothing has changed, though I've been moody (the crying type that is) since I was a teenager anyway!

So there you go. When I think about it, my transition to living fully as a girl seems completely messed up, with everything in the wrong order... but well...