weird, huh? i capitalized a word. it’s actually an acronym that stands for financial independence; retire early. i have been doing this for almost 4 years, ramped it up 2 years ago and started taking it super-seriously about a year ago. i have been calling 2018 my year of austerity. my spending is down almost 25% year over year. but i didn’t know about the FIRE movement. i hit upon it either independently, subconsciously or by being completely swept up in the zeitgeist unaware. the fact of the matter is that my spreadsheet to calculate the reach to financial independence is almost 3 years old and my first robot is just over a year old. i started programming my second robot two weekends ago after a waking-dream awakening after a hot bath. i am completely thrilled that i grabbed the zeitgeist by the horn this time.