Barista FIRE calculator

What Barista FIRE is

Barista FIRE means leaving full-time work years before you have reached your full FIRE number, and letting part-time income cover the gap while your investments keep growing. This Barista FIRE calculator shows when you could go part-time and what that costs in years of full retirement.

How to use this Barista FIRE calculator

Six numbers. Your age, and the age you go part-time. What you have invested today, and what you add each month until then. Your monthly spending, and the monthly income the part-time work brings in. The calculator works in two phases. Until the part-time age you keep contributing. After it, contributions stop, the part-time income pays what it can, and the portfolio pays the rest while it keeps growing at 6% a year. It runs in your browser and saves nothing.

A worked example

Say you are 34, have $150,000 invested and add $2,000 a month. You spend $4,000 a month and plan to go part-time at 45, earning $2,000 a month. That covers 50% of your spending. The calculator says you fully retire at age 65, when the portfolio reaches $1,200,000. Working full-time and contributing the whole way, you retire at 54. Going part-time at 45 costs 11 years of full retirement in this example.

How to read the result

The two ages side by side are the point. The gap between them is the price of working less from the part-time age on. You can test what moves it by changing one input at a time. With everything else the same, raising the part-time income to $3,000 a month moves full retirement from age 65 to 60, and starting with $200,000 invested instead of $150,000 moves it to 60. If a path says “not within 50 years”, it does not reach its target in that time at these inputs.

Common mistakes

• Entering part-time income at the level of a best year. Part-time income can fall over time, and the calculator holds it steady.
• Leaving health insurance out of spending. It is often the main reason for the part-time job.
• Assuming contributions continue after going part-time. In this model they stop.
• Choosing a part-time age very close to today, which leaves little time to build a base that can grow.
• Reading the part-time age as the date you stop working. Full retirement is the later age shown.

Frequently asked questions

What is Barista FIRE?

Barista FIRE is leaving full-time work before you reach your full FIRE number and letting part-time income cover some of your spending while your investments keep growing. The name comes from the idea of taking a lower-pressure job, such as a barista job, for the income.

How much do you need for Barista FIRE?

You still need your full FIRE number to retire completely, but you need less invested on the day you go part-time, because the part-time income pays part of the bills. In the example, $2,000 a month of part-time income covers 50% of $4,000 a month of spending, and the portfolio has to reach $1,200,000 by age 65.

How does part-time income change the date?

The portfolio only has to cover the difference between your spending and the part-time income. With the example inputs and $2,000 a month of part-time income you fully retire at 65. With $3,000 a month you fully retire at 60.

Is Barista FIRE the same as Coast FIRE?

They are close but not the same. Coast FIRE is about the balance that grows to your FIRE number by itself once you stop contributing. Barista FIRE adds the part-time income that pays for life in the meantime, and finds the age your investments can carry you on their own.

Does the calculator include health insurance?

No. It uses the spending and part-time income you enter. If health insurance is a reason for the part-time job, include its cost in your monthly spending.