I have been trying to do calculations for if I can barista fire but it is difficult when taking into account my spouse will not be scaling back her work. A lot of calculators out there it's difficult to paint a full picture. I am hoping you all can give me your thoughts on if I have a viable path.

Background: currently working for a family business where I am in the family. I have declined to buy or take over the business and want my family member to sell. They understand and it is not a point of contention for us.

I am so embedded in the success of this business that I am committed to staying on at least a year after the sale to make sure it remains as successful as possible. I do not want to be a cause of potentially 40+ people losing their jobs if we both leave at the same time causing a major shock to the business.

Currently I am targeting an exit at the end of 2027 if possible. Current prospects have us closing on a buyer at the end of this year.

At the time in which I hope to exit I will be 39

Here is the math.

Cash and HYSA- 90,000

Brokerage- 422,000 primarily in broad market index funds

Roth 401k- 410,000 target date account.

Partner Roth ira- 50,000

House in high cost of living area. Roughly 1.2 million worth. 600,000 still left on mortgage at historic 2.875 rate.

I currently make 200,000 before taxes

My spouse currently makes between 80-100k before taxes running a design business.

Our current household expenses are as high as 12,000 a month. With barista fire we would be able to scale that back to 8 or 9,000. Largest expense is our 4,000 mortgage.

The question is can I conceivably move to something like 40-50k wages, scale back our spending and not touch brokerage and 401k for 30 years.

I hate my job and desperately need to do something that requires less of my time and requires less responsibility. At least for a while.

If I am missing any key facts apologies. Please let me know whatever else I can provide. I would like to start forming a plan.

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27 year old M, As the title suggests I’m contemplating moving to barista FIRE but I’m struggling with the idea of just hanging on longer and going for Full FIRE

Net Worth: 650k

160k in brokerage
50k in retirement accts
12k cash
400k in property (Rental valued at 100k fully paid off, SFH* *valued at 450k with abt 150k left on mortgage)

HHI 200k/year

Based on expenses and income flowing in, I can safely transition to Barista FIRE (I work in healthcare so salary would still be fairly high working 20-25 hours/week) within the next 5 years

However if I hold out and stay the course for another 10-12 yrs I’ll be able to full FIRE.

Just looking for advice on people who transitioned to barista and what their experiences were leaving full time work, any regrets, anyone who wish they held out for full FIRE?

Hey everyone! Curious if anyone is working a job that is only 3-4 days a week max, and still allows for a few vacations where you’re off for 1-2 weeks at a time during the year. Seems like a pipe dream to me, but maybe some of you have figured it out!

Thank you in advance.

I don't really see this topic discussed much. I'm 33F and I have roughly $250k* across different investment accounts, $25k in cash, and no other assets.
(*counting 27k in USFR, the rest in stocks)

I am not interested in FIREing right now (and definitely could not), and probably not for another 1.5-2 decades. But I get worried about the job market and economy a lot. I wonder sometimes (and try to math out the different scenarios with chatGPT) to see if I could actually consider myself 'done' with retirement savings, in a way, and use money for other things or know that I would be okay just scraping by (I guess kinda baristaFIRE, but it's not like I want to do that now). With chatGPT I've mapped it out that if I have a 'die with zero' mentality, this amount of money (without adding anymore) should be enough for a $40k annual spend starting at age 55 for instance.

Is anyone else ever thinking this way or crunching those numbers?

(And for a bit more context, I will continue to save as long as I am able to do so, but I live abroad and work remotely and I don't see myself moving back to the US. I get worried about the long term feasibility of always finding that next remote job, particularly one that allows me to save instead of just get by. I currently have two different part-time remote jobs (adding up to fulltime), where I am making more modestly and saving less than before. Also I think about if I do have a kid, that might be it for my savings.)

I want to make clear this is not a flex! I want complete scrutiny on my situation. I can see cash flow being a tail risk.

- We are in our 30s.

- Wife is on 200K/ year job which she loves and can never be fired due to a national tenure clause.

- Left my job a year ago (have not looked since then)

- Our household expenses including monthly mortgage: $4k. My individual expense (included in the household expense) is really around $1k/month.

- Monthly household savings after the $4k/month expense: averages $5k-6k.

- Cash saving: $100k

-Our Property equity: $400k - $700k. Remaining mortgage of $500k is in her name (putting a foreigner's name, me, on it incurs stamp duty) but I have made a substantial down payment and co - paid mortgage up until last year. Property currently valued at $1.2M - $1.5M.

I have a $500k liquid brokerage, $250k pension fund accessible at 65 years old (7%-10% average annual growth rate), notified that I am on the will for a $500k apartment in 15 years.

She has a $230k pension fund accessible at 60 years old (7%-10%average annual growth rate) with $1.6k/ month employer contribution.

- House mortgage is the only debt in our household.

My wife is Australian and I am Singaporean. We both have non - expensive hobbies. I have been shuttling between Australia and Singapore for her a few times a year. I am in Australia for the most part.
Been working extremely hard since 7 years old, studied physics and mathematics at the undergraduate before graduating from a graduate program in the Ivy. Worked in corporate for almost 10 years.
I want to walk away from corporate.

I've spoken to my wife and she has no issue with me being a stay - home husband or seeking recreational employment when I am ready. In the past year of being away from the job market, I have played the role of a househusband and a portfolio manager. I have done various modelling on the math based on various cases and the body case works out reasonably OK.

What is the community's view on this?

Last month made it a full year since my last day as an employee, so, numbers. Everything in euro. We switched over from the lev in January and I still multiply by two in my head at the supermarket. Twenty years of accounting habits apparently survive currency reform.

45, divorced, one son at university in Plovdiv. I ran accounting at a company importing industrial equipment, had 11 people under me at some point.
In spring 2025 we got bought by a Polish group and all finance moved to their shared services in Sofia. The options were relocate or take six salaries and go. I took the money signed the papers and two of our old suppliers had already called about their books.

So now I have only three clients. A car service, a print shop and a firm that imports gym equipment. A quiet month brings €450-500. January through March, when annual closings pile up, it went over €1,100.
The whole year came to about €8,3k and being self insured here means the state takes just under €200 a month from me whether I invoiced anything or not.

Portfolio:

IWDA + EMIM, €189k. Started in 2016 after the owner of a client firm spent an entire lunch explaining ETFs to me. I thought he was showing off. Best lunch of my career.

VHYL, €28k. Bought before I understood accumulating funds. The distributions cover my utilities and I've decided I'm allowed one inefficiency.

Bank deposits, €34k across three terms, the last one matures in 2027.

BTC, €6k. Put in €2k in November 2021, which turned out to be days from the top. My son set up the wallet at this point I hold it out of stubbornness.

P2P, €900 in 8lends since last spring. Pays a few euros of interest a month. Every quarter I decide to either make it a real position or close it, then do neither.

Current account float, €14k.

All together about €272k.

Spending runs €1,050 in a normal month, €1,300 in winter. The flat is mine, mortgage closed in 2019, so no rent line. €250 goes to my son's dorm and food money. Which means some months the clients cover everything and I even add to the pile, and some months, like this August when nobody needs an accountant, I draw from the float. The building of it was slow. A chief accountant's salary is decent here, the mortgage got overpaid every year it existed and from 2016 I moved €700 to €1,000 a month into ETFs.
The severance went straight in last July. My one act of market timing and it was accidental.

A year in, I still wake without an alarm, that seems permanent now. I swim Tuesday and Thursday mornings when the pool is all pensioners and me and I'm getting less sure which category I belong to. The neighbors decided I work remotely for some foreign company and I've stopped correcting them and nobody warned me that my retirement would have a busy season.
This February I worked more evenings than my last February as an employee.

Question for those of you with lumpy side income. How much do you keep liquid? My €14k float felt generous in March and feels thin now. One client just pushed their invoice to September and I minded more than the amount justifies. I think if I had more, I wouldn’t even think twice about it.

Just throwing it out there for anyone trying to get out of the rat race. You can use your 401k money as self directed investment (you are not withdrawing, so no penalty). Live on the property without mortgage, no employees, just run it yourself and enjoy early retirement.

Edit: Just look up how small motels get bought and run by immigrant families. They build wealth tapping into rural motels that nobody touches. It's an opportunity for sure - not for everyone - but it is doable.

Happily married with 2 young kids (5 and 1 year old).

Annual expenses are high ($130k due to mortgage and the kids). Wife currently not working but will be back to work part time when youngest is a little older. Goal is for us to both have low stress jobs. Paying off house would greatly reduce monthly spend. My annual salary is about $250k depending on bonus.

401(k): $420k
IRA: $80k
HSA: $35k
Taxable brokerage: $300k
Cash: $65k
Home: $300k in home equity, $550k left on mortgage (6.625 rate).

Currently working on paying off house and 401k. Cash is a little tight but I DCA index funds when I can. Vast majority of investments are in index funds.

Comments welcome.

Wife (180k) and I (150k) make good money in hcol. After expenses, we invest 80-90k/year. Net worth 800k in investments. She’s at a hybrid tech job with great work life balance—she’s good at what she does and works average of 20 hours a week. She wants to reach FI (estimated at 2.25 mil) and retire early or at least have a very part time job to care for our elementary kids while I plan to work until 60.

Recently, she got a job offer for 25k more with a 10k sign on bonus at a job with expected 40-50 hours/week using the same skillset. She’s torn because she likes her current barista fire job where she has energy to play with the kids and cook for family, but the wlb situation may change in mid-2027 given some upcoming company shifts. Kids are also going to a new school and she might need to be more present to care for them. She’s been at her current company 8 years and given low raises, it’ll take 5-6 years to get to the salary offered by the other company. She’ll also lose the company 401k lump sum match if she leaves the company. She hasn’t negotiated yet because she expects that they won’t be able to afford the change but she’s not sure about leaving. It’s not easy to get such a high offer with remote or hybrid roles lately which is why she’s considering it.

At what point would you take the offer?

Every week feels like heaven. I have time to do all the things I need to do and have time for myself. I can have a day where I do literally nothing and I won't feel guilty, because things just don't pile up like they used to.

At work, I've eliminated the dreadful monday feeling. Work feels like it's just something to give my week structure so I don't end up spending 7 days in my pajamas eating icecream. So I kinda look forward to my work day just to feel productive.

I started baristafire with the plan of someday moving on to full FIRE, but I'm thinking I could do baristafire indefinitely and be happy. For context, I baristafired 9 months ago. I work nights at a hotel 3 nights a week.

I personally would never babysit or nanny, I hate kids and the thought of that is my personal nightmare.

But I have a colleague who is in her early 30s, left a high-stress federal job to be a nanny and loved it. She said it was very low stress compared to what she was doing before. It was just enough to pay her bills, she did it for a year while mentally recharging before eventually reentering the federal workforce.

Also have a friend in her 60s who retired from a senior executive position (reporting to C-suite) and now babysits. She describes it as basically just getting to live out her grandma days with other people’s children and says she finds it fun enough that she looks forward to it every day. There is a high enough demand for babysitters that if a particular child/family is difficult to work with, she declines them and focuses her time on those that she enjoys. She makes about a quarter of what she was making before, but it’s enough to offset her retirement and significantly increase her quality of life. She had previous babysitting experience (used to own/run a daycare) so it was an easy transition.

I haven’t seen these jobs mentioned on this sub before so I figured I’d share a couple datapoints.

As the title says. The math is, I currently make about $150k a year in a HCOL area working as a software engineering manager. I used to mske a bit more but got caught in a big layoff several years ago and used the time to travel the world. I have about $200k liquid and $300k in 401k plus an $800k home paid off. I spend about $60-90k a year.

Single, no kids, 33F. Work about 60hrs a week consistently.

I found out the other day grabbing coffee at my favorite fancy coffee place that the people who work there start at $40/hr and have health insurance covered. Its a fancy family owned shop thats been in business for years. I asked around and after tips most of the baristas are clearing $60/hr and some upwards of $80.

I have a good relationship with the manager and was joking with her the other day that I should just quit my job and work there instead. They work hourly but have full 40hr work weeks, nothing more (and nothing less). With my home paid off and decent savings, I did the math and I think the small cut in pay would be mostly offset by not paying for health insurance anymore and I could ride my remaining savings till I was 60 or so.

What do you think? Is it worth the risk and giving up my career? I worry im just trading in one job for another. And I doubt any other coffee shops pay as well as this one. Id probably have to train for a bit too in order to realistically qualify.

Has anybody else done something like this before? Thanks.

My wife and I are both 36 and have two kids, ages 4 and 7. I am trying to figure out whether we are approaching Coast FIRE / Barista FIRE, or at least enough financial flexibility that I could eventually take a lower-paying, lower-stress job.

We are not trying to retire now. The question is whether we can stop optimizing purely for maximum income and start prioritizing lower stress, flexibility, and family life.

Current numbers

Approximate net worth: $1.15M–$1.16M

Category	Approx. amount
Cash / other non-retirement assets	$52k
Retirement / investment accounts	$320k
Rental real estate equity	$534k
Primary home equity	$188k

Current income: $144k base, with bonuses usually around $20k–$30k/year, so roughly $164k–$174k/year total compensation before rental income.

My wife may get a teaching job in a few years, potentially around $40k–$50k/year, or may choose something lower-paying but more flexible.

Rentals

We own multiple rental properties. For planning purposes, I am estimating them at about $44k/year of net cash flow after allowing for repairs, vacancy, and normal surprises.

The rental-house debt is about $396k, with a weighted average interest rate of about 4.10%. Most of the debt is fixed in the 3%–4% range, with one remaining loan around 6.75% and about $80k outstanding.

That debt mix seems relevant because debt is risk, but low fixed-rate rental debt feels different from high-interest consumer debt (of which I have none - all my debt is real estate related).

Retirement target

Our long-term target is around $120k/year in today’s dollars. I understand that the actual nominal amount 25–30 years from now would be higher because of inflation.

If we relied only on investments, my rough understanding is that $120k/year would require about $3M invested under a 4% rule. But because we have rental income, the investment portfolio would not need to cover the full amount.

We currently have about $320k invested, so we are obviously not fully FIRE. But at age 36, that money has time to compound. I am wondering whether continuing modest contributions, maybe $7k–$15k/year, plus rental income and debt paydown, could be enough to let us downshift.

Main question

Would you consider us:

1. Coast FIRE?
2. Barista FIRE?
3. Coast FIRE-adjacent but not there yet?
4. Just financially flexible but still needing to grind?

I am especially interested in how people with rentals count rental income and equity in Coast FIRE math. Would you use current cash flow, projected debt-free cash flow, or a very conservative number after vacancy/repairs/capex?

Also, with two young kids and multiple rentals, how much cash reserve would you want before taking a lower-paying job? I am thinking $50k–$75k would make me feel better.

My gut says we are not fully FIRE, and probably not cleanly Coast FIRE for a $120k/year today’s-dollars lifestyle. But I wonder if we are close enough that continuing to chase maximum income may not be necessary, especially if my wife works later and we keep making modest retirement contributions.

Would appreciate thoughts from people with rentals, kids, or anyone who downshifted before reaching traditional FIRE.

I've realized that my investments were not set for growth for a decade. When I first started investing, I was just playing around, researching it a bit, but had it in my mind I needed dividend stocks. Why, I have no clue lol. ADHDer here. Didn't even look at my portfolio for years. Now I'm finally getting serious about this because at 47 I don't want to stress about money or my future.

Basically, I've been Barista Fire since Covid but didn't know there was a name for it. I've been working part-time and have a bit of passive income, so I haven't touched my investments...but I haven't contributed anything to them as well. And since I didn't have them on a growth plan, now I'm getting worried about not having enough when shit hits the fan.

I’m still youngish and working part time, so do I switch things up to be more growth since I won’t need to touch my investments for probably another 5+ years? What would you do?

41/m/single/no children/American

I have worked as a traveling nuclear power contractor for 18 years. Most years I traveled between 6 and 10 months. The lower end of that scale has started feeling too tight for my annual expenses in the States. My particular position doesn't translate well towards any other industry, so I've basically been locked in the industry. Leaving this work would give my annual income a extreme haorcut. The burnout from being on the road, working 50 to 80 hour weeks, hotel hopping is legit. 2.5 years ago I started developing my plan to partially fire outside of the US.

I began selling my large assets. Now I the only 2 things I own are a vehicle and a cargo trailer. Houses, toys, extra vehicles are gone. If it could not fit inside my cargo trailer for storage, I cut it loose.

I started shuffling my finances and investments. I came up with a 4 legged financial plan that provides some form of safety net in the event I can not work for an extended period of time, or the market goes on an extended downturn.

1- Save two + years of projected COL in a HYSA for the area I plan to spend my time.

2- Open and find a brokerage account that sacrifices growth for monthly immediately accessible income production.

3- Fund a small growth focused brokerage (outside of untouchable IRA) that can be sold and used as needed.

4- Cut my benefits loose at work to become a contractor who can basically make a phone call and work when I need to, if I need to back in the US. Instead of working 6 to 10 months a year, a 2-4 month trip back home each spring would cover my cost of living abroad, probably a little additional savings/investment money, and allow me to visit family, all while keeping my investments untouched.

My plan doesn't fit squarely in to any particular fire group. It's lean, expat, and significantly cuts back on work but doesn't change my actual job title.

The only things I have left to clean up are my US based subscriptions and US based health insurance. The insurance aspect is tricky for me because I will need both interantional coverage and some type of coverage in the US while I am back for work. I plan to tackle those once I officially decide make the move, but have looked in to some of the higher cost insurance options to build my budget projection.

I have agreed to about 5 months of work between this fall and the end of spring of 2027, mostly because I had a house on the market and had no clue when it would sell. After spring next year, I will take my multi month budgeting trip to verify my estimates are aligned with reality. I'll be talking with visa agents, healthcare providers, and realtors to view condos in a couple of my choice countries.