Barista FIRE Calculator
See how much smaller your portfolio can be when a bit of part-time income covers some of your expenses. Enter your numbers, results update live.
What is Barista FIRE?
Barista FIRE is a middle path to financial independence: you save enough that a modest part-time job, the classic example being a barista role that offers health benefits, covers part of your living costs, while your portfolio covers the rest. Because your investments don't have to fund your whole lifestyle, your Barista FIRE number is meaningfully lower than full FIRE.
How the Barista FIRE number is calculated
Barista FIRE number = (annual spending − part-time income) ÷ withdrawal rate
The chart projects your current investments plus contributions forward in today's dollars so you can see when you cross your Barista FIRE target. Health insurance is often the real driver, many people Barista FIRE specifically for employer benefits.
Frequently asked questions
How is Barista FIRE different from Coast FIRE?
Coast FIRE means you stop saving but keep working full-time to cover current expenses while your investments grow untouched. Barista FIRE means you work part-time and your portfolio actively covers the gap. Barista usually needs a bigger portfolio than Coast, but less than full FIRE.
Does part-time income need to be exact?
No, use a realistic estimate of what you'd reliably earn. You can adjust it and watch your number change instantly.
What about health insurance?
For many people that's the whole point: a part-time role with benefits removes one of early retirement's biggest costs and risks. Factor the value of benefits into your decision even if it isn't in the math.
Plan every FIRE milestone in one place
The FIRE Planning Toolkit models Coast, Barista, Lean and full FIRE side by side, with a net-worth tracker and FIRE-date projector.
See the Toolkit, $20