r/baristafire

30M/F, married by EOY 2026

NW: ~1.3M

• 500k taxable brokerage
• 500k 401k (~50/50 trad/Roth)
• 100k Rollover IRA (taxable?)
• 100k Roth IRA
• 100k HSA

Partner essentially at 0 NW. Will complete school for nursing end of 2027.

Historical and expected income 

• 2025: 225k
• 2026: 230k
• 2027: 240k
• 2028: 300k (partner begins work)
• 2029: 325k
• 2030: 350k

We are currently undecided about trying to have kids. We don't have specific retirement goals, especially given the impact of choosing to have kids, or other major life decisions down the line. Obviously the sooner we retire the more we need to cover until age 60. We live fairly frugally but don't hesitate to travel or make purchases we want (annual expenses ~65-75k)

I am interested in moving out of tech and into a social impact industry but I have fantastic WLB and great compensation. Hard to say goodbye to. I also want my partner to begin building their own net worth for financial security and general comfort.

Some scenarios/decisions include (not necessarily mutually exclusive):

• A: Stick with my job but coast until I'm not seen as a strong performer. Then either pull my act together or continue to quiet quit.
• B: Stick with my job until my partner is settled in their career. Then I could move into a more fulfilling position with a much lower salary and we could still bring in 150k+
• C: Look for a new role sooner since we have a solid nest egg already
• D: More a nuance of B, but partner has option for travel nursing and I am currently remote - feels like a unique opportunity to take advantage of before I look for change

Incredibly fortunate to be where we are at but having trouble feeling fulfilled at work; and deciding what is enough before taking a hit to our income; and will a different job even feel more fulfilling or should i just focus on building the fulfilling hobbies while continuing as is: or do I really just need to switch from remote to in person/hybrid to feel more fulfilled at work? And so on. How do y'all think about these questions?

Hi,

Currently a 27M pharmacist with an annual household income of 195k/yr. Have about 260k net worth spread across retirement accts, taxable brokerage and a rental property. Looking to barista FIRE by ~35.

Many posts I see are people stepping away from their jobs entirely and into a new field, however healthcare is one of those fields where you can still work part time and make a decent amt of money.

Curious if there’s any healthcare workers in here that’ve barista fire’d in their field specifically. I eventually want to downgrade to part time/barista FIRE and still work as a pharmacist.

Wondering if there’s anyone else in a similar boat who downgraded to part time in healthcare and how much they had invested before feeling comfortable stepping away from full time?

Age 40
438k in 401k, currently maxing contribution
39k in Roth IRA (put 6k yearly)
13k in HSA
6.5k Monthly expenses
7.5k income after taxes & contributions

Currently renting 2k apartment
No debt
Own car

Given my numbers is there any path to barista-retire (take a lower paying or lower stress job) or at least having the financial freedom to feel secure enough to leave a job?

If so how? And should i change how I do my contributions?

Thanks

Hello all,

Just joined Reddit a few days ago. Looking to get started on the race to 1 million as well as FIRE.

I (27M) make around $95K/year and wife makes a lower income ($45k/year). I pay for almost all expenses and she generally takes care of groceries and power bill and other excess things around the house.

Right now, beyond my 401K, I am able to contribute around $650/month into investments and she has built up our emergency fund and then continues to stack away each paycheck. The excess I will be moving to a joint Robinhood account.

We have a baby coming later this year as well. I plan on opening a 529 account.

Any tips and tricks for boosting savings? Eating out has been a bad habit as my wife has had food aversions but that is getting better. Thanks!

45m/36f married no kids(can
not have so this won’t change but have plenty of nieces and nephews). $525k in 401k, 45k HSA, $20k Roth. Owe $315k on $685k home. Own our cars est. $50k value. 100k in brokerage/crypto. $20k savings in HYSA. Make around $200k after decades of grinding in a low paying field.
I’ve reduced my 401k contribution to 6% to get the match and max out our HSA. I’ve pivoted from maxing 401k to throttle up the brokerage and after tax accounts that can give us as much runway to early retirement and not touch retirement accounts. Wife was working and wants to go back so anything she earns will help accelerate. Practicing reducing monthly spend and can live on $4-$5k/month now with some meals out and enjoying ourselves. She’s from the UK and we might take the show on the road for a few years in the next 2-5yrs if we sell our home and invest the equity. I’d appreciate the outside view. I use Projection Lab and ai to run Monte Carlo and I think we’ll be alright.

I am thrilled to find out that the plan I've had for the last 8 years actually has a name.

I am currently 33 and am hoping to BaristaFIRE around age 40-45.

I currently make about 120k/yr. put 10% in my 401k and max contributions to my Roth ($7,500/yr)

Net worth of around 300k currently. Only monthly payments I have are mortgage ($800/month) and credit card which is minimal as I usually pay it off monthly.

I guess I don't really know what to do next since I don't know anyone who is good with this sort of thing.

Anybody have any advice? Thanks

I have about $850,000 in assets/investments including a paid-off home. I recently transitioned to barista FIRE, so I can stay-at-home with my special needs son (I am a single mom). I have been hanging out with this guy, and I was wondering when/how to reveal this information. I have been dropping hints about "keeping my expenses low", and I've been talking about my "freelance software engineer work" which is true, but it also does not pay that much since I do it very part-time. I think he has picked up on this, and he has also hinted that he knows what the movement is. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

Anyone "baristafire" from an extreme career to a perfectly respectable career? This would normally be called a career pivot except for the circumstance. I'm an executive director at a fortune 500 company. I would have preferred to stay 2-3 levels lower for a lot longer but I've absorbed and carried the responsibility so I can't really go back. I'm considering becoming a physical therapist. But I've had 20 years of scientific training and practice, plus the presentation skills, conflict resolution skills, leadership skills etc honed by years in a politically spicy corporate environment. I'm taking pre-reqs at a community college and they offered me a merit scholarship since I was doing so well with grades. I was like... You don't understand, I'm qualified to teach courses like this - I don't need and can't take this scholarship. Then I scored 97% on the GRE, which is just a reflection of reading comprehension relentlessly honed by my work. Basically... I'm starting to feel like an overqualified asshole in the real world. Like I'm taking up a spot for someone who really needed this opportunity or I'm play acting at school. I'm trying to remind myself that I only have one life. I'm not obligated to do the hardest thing I'm capable of. I have permission to pursue a midlife calling. Anyone navigate something similar?

I am 45M and my wife is 47F. We have been pretty good savers from our 20s and are really starting to think about the next 10-15 years. Our goal is to retire when I am 55-58 and when she is 57-59. I think the goal is reachable and would like everyone’s thoughts/opinions. We have 3 children (9F, 14M, 16M) and live in a MCOL area. One huge benefit/perk we have is that my wife works full time at a local private college which would give us the ability to send our children to college there (or others through tuition exchange program) for free and the only thing we would pay for is room and board.

Current Finances
- 401k/403b/Rollover IRA/Roth IRA - $1.6M (80k in Roth)
- 529s - $80K
- HSA - $10k (Just started last year saving and taking advantage of this)
- Brokerage/HYSA - $70k

We save about $30k-35k per year with majority of that (~$20k) going toward 401k/403b. We have the $1.6M split 80/20 stocks/bonds and mostly in ETFs. Our monthly expenses are around $15k but as we pay our house off I believe this will go down to around $12k/month not including inflation.

I guess my question is can we start pairing down on the 401k/403b side and save more on the brokerage side (I think the answer is yes). All of the coast fire and fire calcs that I have complete say we will have about $4M-$5M by the time I am 58. What are your thoughts??

Has anyone barista fired by transitioning to teaching private music lessons? It looks like there are programs available to get a certificate of pedagogy. Is that worth it? Any other considerations to keep in mind?

I realized I don’t actually hate working. I just don’t want my entire life tied to a full-time engineering schedule forever.

So instead of focusing purely on “retire at 40” numbers, I started thinking more about a transition phase where investments reduce the pressure enough that I can work lower-stress or part-time jobs I’d actually enjoy.

I built a calculator to model that scenario:

• investment growth over time
• inflation-adjusted expenses
• stopping full-time income at a chosen age
• adding part-time income later
• seeing how long the portfolio survives

You can play with sliders and the graph updates live.

I hosted it here using a free site if anyone wants to mess with it:
https://v0-part-time-retirement.vercel.app/

it's a first go at it so I know it can be improved, let me know what you think.

I'm not trying to make any money or sign up people to anything! I'm just sharing this cool tool I made and hope people enjoy it and give me good feedback!

Because of the many layoffs happening I have been constantly reading of former professionals having trouble getting hired for even retail/food jobs due to biases against them thinking they'll just leave as soon as they get a 'real' job, plus the difficulty of getting hired with no relevant experience.

For those of you who got Barista type roles (not merely PT roles at your company or consulting doing what you already did) was there difficulty overcoming skepticism about hiring you?

After the last few days' gains, my investment account has crossed an important threshold - where I can live on a 4% withdrawal (maybe a bit less too with some proper planning). I am from the USA and 47 years old. But, I would be depending on the ACA marketplace for health insurance with subsidy. Without the subsidy, the numbers do not work yet.

So, I am thinking instead of completely letting go, how may I spend some time on my craft in easy mode and earn some money. The problem is I have zero knowledge outside of a few mega tech companies where I worked, and they will never allow a part-time employee. I tried to get a job in smaller-size companies and while interviews went well, I could not convince the hiring managers that I am genuinely interested to work there for an easy workload, helping other people to solve their problems, review their work etc. And I am fine with an 80% pay cut for that.

I am sure I can help some company in some corner, but I am kind of clueless about how to find them. My network is good for full time job, but now what I am looking for.

#firstpost

I got tired of calculators that spit out a number with no context, so I built www.myfirenum.com. No login, no account, no data collection, everything lives in your browser and stays there.

The design concept is a single scrolling page that tells your financial story. You enter your numbers at the top and as you scroll down it walks you through the full picture: your FIRE number, your debt payoff timeline, your portfolio lifecycle from accumulation through drawdown, tax strategy with a priority funding cascade that fills like buckets, Roth conversion ladder, sequence of returns Monte Carlo, Social Security break-even chart, income in retirement with age-aware withdrawal sequencing, also wired in six FIRE styles you can select. It's meant to feel less like a calculator and more like a financial plan laid out in front of you.

Everything is interactive: tap a number to edit it inline and the whole page recalculates.

Free, open to feedback, genuinely curious what's missing from your planning workflow.

www.myfirenum.com

I have officially reached my number!! I'm able to leave my stressful job and take a more relaxed job teaching English overseas. My plan is one year in Prague, then off to Hong Kong for 4-5 years or so. The ESL pay isn't much, but I'm prepared for that. I was only making $1800 a month teaching English in Japan before we came back to the US. The biggest shake up was going from less than $2k a month to over $10k. Yet, we avoided lifestyle creep by living on only 40% of what we make. Surprisingly, it wasn't too difficult because we live in remote Alaska and there isn't much to spend it on anyway.

Hong Kong pays a lot more, but I need a recent year of classroom teaching to go with my MEd and Prague is where I'll be taking my in person TEFL class to refresh my skills as I haven't taught English since February 2025. Has anyone else looked at baristaFIRE abroad? What made you decide to go and where did you settle down? We won't be returning to the US, I'm already 51 so my husband and I will be leaving Hong Kong and heading straight to the Philippines (which we love) to retire in Baguio. We've been global nomads since we sold everything and moved out of the US in 2022. Coming back was never part of the plan, but I'm glad that we did for this two-year contract. This sub has provided so much great information. Good luck out there!!

Has anyone here worked full or part time for an airline as a BaristaFIRE gig? When I hit my FIRE number, I’m thinking it might be a possibility to work as a gate agent or something similar until I am eligible for Medicare.

I live in a city that is a hub for American Airlines and it looks like you and your spouse can get free standby travel and access to health insurance as benefits. This could solve the healthcare issue and also make travel a lot more affordable.

The downside would be having to deal with assholes a lot of the time, but I do that already. Has anyone done this?

Using a burner account, but I’ve been a longtime lurker of this side of Reddit!

TL;DR - How can I BaristaFIRE while my partner continues to work? When is the best time for us to each independently step away (or become 9-5 optional)?
numbers and context below:

30 y/o, MCOL US City

Income:
9-5 Salary: $250k/year
‘Passion’ Earnings: $300/month (Variable)
Partner’s Salary: $159k/year
$18k annual ‘trust fund’

Net Worth:
$300k in Brokerage Account
$210k in 401k/Roth IRA
$20k in HYSA
Partner’s Liquid NW: $100k (401k & Brokerage Combined)
—-

Roughly my annual expenses are roughly $75k which I split with my partner, so really my annual expenses are closer to $37.5k. My partner is in a career he enjoys and pays more than enough to support our shared annual expenses ($75k), however, I’m less content in my corporate job and would rather pursue my passions, which I’m currently doing on the side of my 9-5. I make a little bit of income from my ‘gig’ work (anywhere between $300-600/month) but could probably scale that up a bit more if I had more time/energy to invest in that area of my life.

Regarding the trust fund - my mom ‘gifts’ me around $18k cash every year as that is the highest amount that she can transfer without triggering a taxable event. I’ve only had this for two years and I’ve just put it right in my brokerage. I recognize that this is a huge privilege.

My partner and I don’t always split everything 50/50 and he’s open to the idea of me leaving my corporate job, but I want to make sure I’m not putting a burden on him by ‘increasing’ his expenses by covering for both of us while we wait for our investments to just sit & grow. We have no interest in having children, we own our condo.

I’m looking for help understanding when would be optimal for me to leave my 9-5, and how that would impact my partner’s ability to leave his, should he choose to in the future (I’d love for him to have the ‘work optional’ freedom).

Any perspectives on how to best make this work, milestones to hit with NW or savings so that my partner and I can both reach FI would be greatly appreciated :)

Thank you!!

Hi all,

I'm a 27 year old software engineer who got laid off due to poor job performance due to my moderate chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) which I developed since 2020. I have trouble re-entering the job market due to how competitive software engineering has become. The bar has risen with increasingly harder Leetcode /system design interviews

I currently have 1 million 100% invested in SPY, and my parents allow me to live at home rent-free. I just need to pay for health insurance. We are in a VHCOL area. I'm trying to make the 1 million savings last as long as possible. If my health improves in a couple of years, I'll probably go back to grad school to pivot to a different field with more stable work.

If we enter a bear market, I'll buy a few complex PUT spreads to hedge my SPY stock. Otherwise I leave it completely alone to grow.

Any thoughts or opinions?