Barista FIRE is a variant of FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) in which your portfolio is large enough to cover part of your annual spending, and part-time work covers the rest. You leave full-time employment far earlier than a full FIRE plan would allow, but you are not fully retired: the job fills the gap between what the portfolio can safely provide and what your life actually costs. The name comes from the idea of a modest part-time job, making coffee behind a counter for instance, not from any particular employer or benefit.
Worked example
Suppose your household spends $40,000 a year and you have $500,000 invested. These figures are illustrative. Using the 4% rule as a rough guide, the portfolio might support 500,000 × 0.04 = $20,000 a year. That leaves 40,000 − 20,000 = $20,000 still to earn, which is about $1,667 a month from part-time work (20,000 ÷ 12). Full FIRE on the same spending would need 40,000 ÷ 0.04 = $1,000,000, so this Barista FIRE point arrives at half that portfolio.
Why it matters
Barista FIRE matters because it turns financial independence into a sliding scale instead of a single finish line: every extra sum you invest shrinks the income you still have to earn, so you can step back from full-time work long before the full FIRE number is reached. The trade-offs are real. You still depend on earnings that can stop, and drawing on the portfolio during a weak market erodes it faster than planned. The 4% rule is a common rule of thumb, not a guarantee, so keep a cash buffer and redo the arithmetic as your spending and the markets change.
Try it with your own numbers: Barista FIRE Calculator
Also useful: Coast FIRE Calculator
Read the full guide
Frequently asked questions
With Coast FIRE you stop saving for retirement but keep working to pay today's bills, and the portfolio is left alone to grow. With Barista FIRE you are already drawing on the portfolio, and part-time work only covers what those withdrawals do not.
No. Lean and Fat FIRE describe how much you plan to spend once you have stopped working altogether. Barista FIRE describes how you get there: part of your income still comes from a job, so the portfolio can be smaller.