Barista FIRE: let part-time work cover part of the bill.
Barista FIRE is the point where a smaller job covers some of your annual spending, so the portfolio only has to fund whatever's left. Same formula as every other FIRE number, run on the remainder.
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Sample result
PreviewThis household's Barista FIRE number
$750,000
Funds $30,000 a year at a 4% withdrawal rate
Reached at
Age 52
Years away
22 years
Coast number today
$197.7K
On pace to coast by
Age 40
Part-time work covers $22,000 a year, so the portfolio is $550,000 smaller than the full $1,300,000 number and arrives about 10 years sooner.
The sample's assumptions
- Age 30, retiring at 65
- $55,000 invested today
- $75,000 take-home pay
- Saving 25% of it ($1,563/mo)
- $52,000/yr target retirement spending
- 4% safe withdrawal rate
- 7% return, 3% inflation
- $22,000/yr part-time income
Run it with your own numbers
Create a free account to enter your own spending, edit every tier, and watch all four numbers update — saved across devices.
It isn't a different formula. It's a different lifestyle.
Barista FIRE leans on a part-time income instead of a bigger portfolio. Whatever that job pays toward your annual spending is spending the math no longer has to fund, and if the role comes with health coverage, that removes one of retirement's biggest wild cards along with it.
$30,000 ÷ 4% = $750,000
Barista FIRE spending ÷ safe withdrawal rate = the portfolio that funds it indefinitely.
Lean FIRE
$910K
funds $36,400/yr
Coast number today $239.8K
On pace to coast by Age 43
Your target
$1.3M
funds $52,000/yr
Coast number today $342.6K
On pace to coast by Age 54
Fat FIRE
$2.6M
funds $104,000/yr
Coast number today $685.2K
On pace to coast by Not by 65
Barista FIRE
$750K
funds $30,000/yr
Coast number today $197.7K
On pace to coast by Age 40
Every number here comes from the same household above — only the spending figure changes.
How the number shrinks
Subtract the income you'd earn part-time from the spending you need, then divide the remainder by your safe withdrawal rate. Every dollar the job covers is a dollar the portfolio never has to produce, and at a 4% withdrawal rate, each of those dollars is 25 fewer you have to save.
It isn't the same as coasting
Coast FIRE means your invested savings will grow into a full retirement on their own while you keep working to cover today's costs. Barista FIRE means you already have enough that a part-time income closes the remaining gap. People often reach them around the same time, but they answer different questions.
Explore the other flavors
Same calculator, same formula — a different spending figure each time.
Frequently asked questions
See your own barista number.
Create a free account to set your part-time income and watch every FIRE tier update on your real numbers, then learn the system behind them in Build Real Wealth.