I am not close to barista fire but I remember trying to get hired back in '08 when job pickings were slim and being told over and over that they wouldn't hire me because I was overqualified. How do explain your situation in interviews or even get companies to take your application seriously when you are ready to barista fire?

Context:

28 y/o general dentist w/ household annual income of $250K

Assets:

-Monthly take-home pay: $12K-13K

-Traditional 401k: $10,000

-Brokerage: $5,000

-Home Equity: ~$100K

-Two paid off vehicles

Liabilities:

Monthly expenses: $7K-$8K (includes mortgage, utilities, property taxes, insurance, etc)

Student loans: $73K remaining balance

Mortgage: $329K remaining balance

For a little backstory behind the numbers, I started working at the end of 2022 and spent the early/mid part of my 20s in college and dental school. I wasn’t investing during this time due to having no income, ignorance about personal finance, etc.

During the past two years after graduation up until recently, my wife and I have basically put most all of our extra income towards paying off high-interest student loans and managed to pay off $150K so far. My family gifted us the down payment for our home and we purchased it during this time. We also just had our first baby several months ago.

I just recently started maxing out my traditional 401k at work for the past 3-4 months and have accumulated $9K so far. Any extra I recently started putting into a brokerage account starting this month and plan to contribute around $4K-$5K on a monthly basis moving forward in addition to maxing out the 401k so that I will have accessible funds prior to 59.5.

As you can imagine, I feel very behind for my age, especially if my goal is to FIRE by 40-45. I enjoy dentistry, but I want to get to the point where work is optional and/or reach the point where I can work a couple days per week while simultaneously living off of investments.

However, I can’t help feeling like I screwed myself by going into a field that requires years of school, lots of debt, and little to no investing during those early years, which is crucial for compound interest. I realize that my numbers are small since I literally just started investing, but I just feel like the math isn’t mathing. Is there hope for my situation? Any tips or recommendations?

29F Salary ~ $115k Currently maxing both my 401k and Roth IRA at 30k a year.

401k ~ 74k Roth IRA ~ 57k 75k property equity 35k in student loans (4% interest)

I have been paying the monthly payment on my student loans ~ but I'm not sure if I should keep saving the 30k per year, or if I should skip 1 year of direct savings to tackle my student loans (pay off in a year)? Any advice there is welcome.

I know I do well with my savings, and I'm proud of myself. I am happy with my salary, but the growth will probably be slow and steady vs big jumps. However, I work A LOT.

Compared to a lot of friends & family, I save a ton. I don't know many people saving this much, outside of some friends who actually want to FIRE (saving a lot less than them). I'm not sure if FIRE is my actual goal, but I like to keep up with these threads just to learn and as motivation. I want kids & a family eventually, so if anything I'm trying to save heavy so I can focus on that when the time comes.

Although I feel like I'm saving a lot, when you Google it ~ fidelity (and most resources) recommend 1x salary by age thirty. I hit that pre-30 so I'm happy with that. But that is supposed to be the "standard" and not "ahead of the game." I know so many people aren't even close to this~ but I'm having trouble saving MORE if that means I can be ahead of the game.

Anyone baristaFIRE and do something in healthcare or healthcare adjacent industries? Or personal training/fitness? I'd like to help others with diet/mental health/physical health, but didn't work on FIRE just to go back to a brutal FT schedule. I'm willing to go back to school because I love learning. I'm 34 so I don't mind physical roles, but ideally nothing that requires lifting super heavy things.

My friend who is also FIREd went into stage tech and got on the union list, so she just gets called for jobs and decides if she wants to do them or not. I'm jealous of her flexibility. Is there something equivalent or gets close to that in healthcare?

I recently applied for a HELOC. One reason was that I was thinking of going into semi-retirement in the next couple of years, i.e. baristafiring, and I thought the HELOC could be a good emergency backup for unexpected costs before my pension kicks and until I'm old enough that withdrawing from retirement accounts wouldn't trigger big penalties.

Anyway, the bank ended up approving me for more than twice the amount I was expecting, so now I've got a $120K line of credit - 10 year draw, 20 year repayment. The interest rate is variable with the prime rate and is currently 8%. I currently have a taxable investment account with a 65/35 mix of equities, and bonds + money market. I've only had it for three and a half years, but my return on investment so far has been over 17%. I know that historically, returns should be about 7% on average with inflation factored in. So, of course, with a ten-year time horizon and a steady rate of 8% interest on the loan, investing the HELOC money wouldn't make sense. However, interest rates are expected to drop in the near future, so I was thinking that if rates went below 7%, it might be worth drawing out all the money and sticking it into my investment account.

On the other hand, the current rate of returns versus the current interest rate means that the opportunity cost of not investing is the difference of 17%-8%, and theoretically, I could be netting 9% on that money. And if that difference shifted because of a stock market downturn and/or unfavorable interest rate changes, I could always just cut my losses, sell up, and pay off the money. I could afford to take, say, a 5-7% loss without too much pain.

Thoughts?

Hello,

I don't get the math on how you are supposed to retire fully if you are barista fire'ing.

If you are coast fire, you don't touch the investments and let them grow until target /closer to traditional age, and then Retire fully at some point.

But if you barista fire, you are drawing from investments all the time.

Is it because you are drawing 1-2% instead of 3- 5% from your portfolio and having SS cover the income from Barista fire that you expect to retire ?

I'm relatively new to the FIRE club, even though unknowingly I've been working toward something that looks like barista fire for a long time. But now that I know about FIRE, barista FIRE, and all the calculations that go into it etc. have I totally screwed myself before even really "starting"?

I had about 150k in assets, mostly invested, 30k cash in 2022. I liquidated 120k for a downpayment on a condo. 5.5% rate, renews end of 2025. Moving in 2023 and furnishing, fixing it up, etc. has been rough and only had 13k left in assets. I've been diligently saving this year but unexpected costs have come up twice, and am only back up to around 32k invested and 8k cash.

My mortgage is about 26% of take home pay, then there's condo fees, utilities, etc. and I can manage to save about $500/month. I worked a second job this year and some months I was saving closer to $1500.

I was living with family previously paying low rent for about 8 years to save that initial downpayment.

Now that I know my barista fire number is around 300k and the option of living with family again is still available... Every single day it pains me that if I had not liquiditated in the shitty market in 2022 and held on and continued to save I'd be at that 300k by now. Did I totally screw up? Should I sell my condo (400k equity now due to price increases and paying down a significant part of the mortgage with accelerated payments) and barista fire??

I've been working long hours through chronic illness and disabilities my entire life and I am TIRED.

I've been searching for a literal 20-24hr a week baristafire position. Applied to a few that specifically say benefits for part timers. Spoke to the hiring managers of some, and they always want open availability and weekends. I always lie and say, I need one of the weekends off, as well as nights because of my other job. That is partly true, but my other job which is a business, is flexible enough where I actually don't need to have nights off. I just don't need or want to work nights/weekends. After I tell them that, they're not interested because there is obviously someone else who wants the job with better availability.

After looking through the subs of these retailers (Safeway, Starbucks, Costco as examples), it looks like these part timers are working 29 hours, 5 days a week consistently. Anyone have thoughts on this? Am I going this the wrong way, like do I just need to get my foot in the door with open availability and then negotiate the amount of hours worked? How would you even go about telling your manager that you don't want hours, no one really does that.

I'm 42, going through divorce, and have $890K in investments. We had a paid off house, worth around $250K. I moved out (he was assaulting me) and I live in an apartment that costs $1,600/month. When I get my half of the house, I'll have slightly more than $1M.

After I moved out, my career took a massive turn for the worse and I've gone from making around $100K/year to around $48K/year. I also have crazy lawyer bills.

I am not making as much from working as it costs me to live. What should I do? Am I being forced into barista FIRE? Should I move to another country that is cheaper to live?

Sometimes I panic that I will end up homeless... I know that having a net worth of $1M is far from that, but I have mental health issues on terms of anxiety.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice!

I live in an area with close proximity to quite a few universities and colleges. What are the easy and stress free jobs available in this setting? I don’t want to be part of the teaching staff. Looking at office jobs that would give me access to health benefits and maybe facilities (gym, pool, library, etc). Any ideas?

Just want to read. Looking for a way to get a room in a multi room apartment. Plan to work overnight so i can read. Advice? 🙏

I know I’m over complicating things, but would love some help from you good folks.

I can “retire” from my current job in 2028 at 51, and my good health insurance will be covered until I’m 67. I’m fine with working part-time, but I’m hoping my husband will work 5 more years after that to cover his health insurance and our kid’s until age 26.

I don’t know how to determine the magic number for this scenario. If we do this, I’d retire at 51, and him at 55.

Currently, we have a little under 600k in retirement accounts. We owe 70k on our home (worth about 200k). I own half another property in trust (estimated about 250k). We can comfortably live on 60k including our mortgage, and once that is done, our mortgage money could be our travel funds.

I don’t know what calculator or formula to use to determine where our savings should be in retirement at point A and at point B (when I can retire and then when he can) especially if he will contribute for 5 more years. Also, would there be a way to tap into our retirements early if needed, and how would that affect the calculation.

Any help is so greatly appreciated.

I'm new to the group but have 'kind of' been living a FIRE lifestyle for a while. Trying to calculate when to get out of the 9-5 (which I enjoy and am paid well) but do want to work part-time even when I'm out of the FT space. I'm 57, married with 1.7M in investments, 600k in private equity (which 'should' grow) and 7 rental properties all with mortgage rates below 3.88% and 5/7 cash-flow with an estimated 1.5M in equity across all 7. Outside of mortgages we have no debt. I have 4 month cash reserve and about 150k in a slush brokerage fund and about 100k in crypto. Monthly expenses are approx 5k between primary home mortgage, utilities, food, gas, etc.

I'm trying to plan for 200k annual income from investments and PT work when I leave my FT job in May 2027. I 'think' I could be close to that now but wanted to put it to the group to see what I may be missing and thoughts on starting to pay down the highest interest rate mortgage (3.88%) so I can have all cash-flow by the time I get out.

Thanks for the feedback

I am a single 34yo female, living in a low cost area. I am renting my current house, but I have fully paid off a commercial property that I occupy for business purposes, which I may consider renting out for additional income in the future. My financial situation includes $200,000 invested, $40,000 in my bank account, and a property valued at $170,000. No debt

My annual income is approximately $120,000, with around $40,000 allocated to investments each year.

At this stage, I do not have the desire to purchase a home, as the thought of managing two properties as a single person feels absolutely overwhelming. I am relatively new to this financial journey and would like to know if anyone else has achieved their financial goals while renting an apartment or house. I am contemplating whether just keep commercial property and call it good.

Hi all, age 47, $1.5M total net work in HCOL (sf bay).

Very ready to stop work!

I have a house that still has $621K mortgage ($200K in equity.

I am renting it out, and was wondering: does it make sense to cash out my full brokerage account to pay off the house so that I bring in $3K per month (net after property tax and insurance but pre-income tax)?

I calculated to make $36K/yr off investments (pretax) is like having $1.2M nest egg.

Or, am I thinking the wrong way about this?

If I did cash out my brokerage to pay off the remainder of the mortgage, I’d be left with $800K as my total nest egg (all in retirement accounts so not liquid).

I do realize the $36K is taxed at ordinary income, vs taxed as long term capital gains (which is 0 taxes federal).

TLDR: I am about 1/3 of the way to my ideal (i.e., conservatively calculated), full FI number, and I'm wondering if there are any ideas on what to do when you are arguably close, but not ready to Barista FIRE.

Context: Some people would retire on my net worth, and I am ready to slow down my savings rate, but I am afraid to back off on my career (as a researcher/data analyst) for fear that I might lose my competitive edge in the job market. This fear is particularly high at the moment given the early stage of my career and the uncertainty of how AI may affect the job market in the next few years.

More context: I completed my PhD only a few years ago, so I probably still have some big salary growth potential if I stick with it in the next few years, but I feel like I am at the tail end of my youth. I want to be nomadic while I still look young, am single. and have the interest in meeting random people. And, I think I might WANT to work more when I am older compared to now. Of course, I could work less now and work more later, but I am afraid I will hurt my future income potential and employment optionality if I have a big lull in my employment history and skill acquisition.

Hi all - we all know barista is a way to haul down some walking around money and get health benefits.

Is there an equivalent to this in the corporate world where you want to bring in $25k or $30k annually, not work 40 hours every week, get benefits and not be too stressed?

Hello!

Last week, I came up with an exit plan from my corporate job where I’d lower my expenses and work in a coffee shop or something similar while I let my retirement accounts mature. My friend told me my novel idea isn’t so novel, pointed me to this sub, and here I am.

With that said, I’d love to get some advice. I’m 29m married, and working in a corporate job that I hate (like many of you). No kids and no plans to have kids. I’m not concerned with creating generational wealth or living lavishly. I’d just like to maintain my current lifestyle and enjoy my life while I’m young.

A bit about my situation… 640k net worth. 80k brokerage, 55k Roth, 20k trad IRA, 50k 401k, and 35k cash. About 300k in home equity on a rental house, and 100k home equity in my current house. I lived in the rental house for 3 years before moving in May of 2023 (adding this for capital gains reasons).

Our expenses total about 75k, with the vast majority being the mortgage on the current house (monthly payment of $4.2k). The rental property covers itself plus a couple hundred each month.

If and when rates drop, what I’d like to do is sell our rental property and buy down the mortgage on our current house with the profits which would in theory make the total payment somewhere in the range of 1.5-2.0k per month.

My wife makes about 60k per year and we can get health coverage through her. I’d like to work for the town or a non-profit making 45k-55k per year and just let my retirement accounts grow.

I understand that I can’t plan around rates dropping… I’m prepared to stay in my corporate career as long as I need to. But if the opportunity presents itself, I’d like to have that plan thought out.

What are your thoughts, everyone?

Not sure if this is allowed, admins feel free to remove if not, but wanted to invite people to the first of hopefully many more events of a BaristaFI/CoastFI-adjacent community I’m building: Creatives on FI(RE), geared specifically towards NYC creatives/artists/freelancers/entrepreneurs/family disappointments of any kind pursuing FI(RE).

Our first event will be a kick-off film screening + director q&a on Sunday July 21st at 2 PM of the documentary “Join or Die” about the decline of community and third spaces in the US and why it’s more important now than ever to join a “club.” Thinking this will be a nice kick-off to the community! We’ll follow the Q&A with drinks :-)

The official invite link where you can RSVP is here and you can learn more about the community we’re building and if it sounds like something you’d be interested in here, created in recognition of the gap between classic fi(re) values—freedom, alternative-living, pursuing curiosities and passions—and the growing cohort of white collar high earners focused on maximizing saving and investment of their surplus income.

In the future, hoping to host creative brain-trust type meetings.

If you identify as a creative, side-hustler, entrepreneur, or anyone living what might be considered a less than traditional life (more likely than not coast, barista, or leanFI), please consider joining!

More values to describe us that you hopefully align with: curious, high-agency, scrappy, freedom-oriented, mindfulness, work can be meaningful, omnipotentialism, non-judgmental, pro-optimism, anti-cynicism, working hard on things with friends, YOLO.

Thanks and hope to see some of you there; if you can’t make this one, make sure to subscribe to our Luma calendar to stay up to date on our events and happenings!

What age do you hope to barista fire?

What kind of jobs are you taking on?

Is it possible to get some kind of side hustle/part time job abroad if you aren't computer programmer? The only option seem to find is teaching english, but the pay for teaching english abroad is a joke I'd be better off working minimum wage in the US. I don't care what kind of work it is, i have a bachelors in accounting (I don't know quick books so bookkeeping is not an option) and a masters in management information systems. I'm skilled in SQL

Any hidden gems out there?

32M (married), wife is 29 with minimal savings, minimal financial knowledge, low income earner, zero debt. No kids yet, but plan to have family in future.

HHI gross income: $130k/yr. Should cross $175k/yr + in next few years as wife picks up work. Based in Canada (HCOL city). Current annual expenses: $40k/yr, projecting $60-65k/yr with kids in future.

My Assets:

• Cash/GIC's: $72k (adding more to RRSP/TFSA this yr)
• RRSP: $155k (80% Equity/20% FI mutual fund) - should I go for 100% equity fund (e.g. tracking S&P500)?
• TFSA: $130k (ETFs & individual stocks)
• LIRA/Company Pension value: $70k (growing over time)
• No personal debt/zero student loans
• Zero mortgage (don't own a home and confused whether to buy a home soon or keep renting).
• Target ~20% savings rate (After tax income - HH expenses - investment contributions) after RRSP/TFSA contributions. Goal to increase with time (conservative estimate).
• Planning to contribute Minimum $15k/yr across RRSP & TFSA combined in foreseeable future.

Aiming to pick up a relaxed part-time in early 50's and travel a lot with wife after. Targeting $3M NW by early to mid 50's (w/o inflation adjustment).

Wanted a review of current state, and if anyone has any advice on how to stay on this path, would love to hear. Wonderful hear great stories on this forum. Thank you.

Anyone else here FI and working at Starbucks or another coffee shop?

I could RE but I'm only 34, and have a couple expensive hobbies (horses, cars) so I decided to take a break from my sales career where I was earning $100K-$200K per year and just work some PT and flexible gigs to cover expenses. Of course, the siren called me back (used to be a Starbucks partner over a decade ago) with their sweet healthcare + 5% match on 401K benefits available to people who work 20 hours a week or more. Plus getting a free pound of coffee per week and free food helps!

Thanks to past me who didn't blow my high earning years and decided to live very much below my means (house hacked for over a decade) and invest all my extra income, I'm now FI. Burnt out from RE sales and am working on wrapping up my last contract hopefully in the next few weeks.

Curious if anyone else is finding themselves in a similar position and how it's going for you!

TL/DR: Transition into less work psychological issues, mostly a rant.

I am approaching full FI but like a lot of people, as inflation rose it felt further off than it once did (I know that my investments have grown at a higher rather than inflation but you guys get it I'm sure, as well I have significant net worth tied to home equity in rentals so I don't really "see" those gains) and I have been strategizing how to have some transition years between full time work and full time retirement.

For the last few years, I have thought, maybe the ideal thing is just to end up consulting in my field with much fewer billable hours but a decent rate, and use that to cover the difference between my monthly expenses and safe withdrawal.

After completing my last full time contract, an old boss contact me to do just that. I was planning on taking the full summer off, but it seemed like it was too good to be true! Based on the contracted rate, after taxes I will make about 2x needed income to cover the gap between my expenses and safe withdrawal without making any lifestyle adjustments. (Basically, I have about $7k net expenses, a $5k safe withdrawal rate after taxes, and this contract will net me about $4k per month).

And yet. I am managing suppliers so I have to have regular meetings and not just work on my own time. My client is a "camera on" company and that expectation was conveyed to me so it's not like I can take meetings from the beach. I generally have to be available to review and sign documents as they appear and get them turned around same day sometimes. This means I can't really just fuck off for a week whenever I want (to be fair, this reduces expenses :) ). Even taking a full day where I am not available feels irresponsible unless I clear it with my customer.

Then, it comes time where I have to move things into my checking account and rebalance/sell some of my investments - the actual drawdown I have been planning for years, but it still hurts after getting into the discipline, right? And I think to myself, I'm not in full control of my schedule, I'm withdrawing instead of saving. Like instead of the best of both worlds (Freedom! Low stress! no office routine! making enough cash to put a dent in the bills!) it feels like the worst (I've given up my freedom for not enough money to cover my bills and also save!)

Anyone else have feelings like this? I signed a one year contract and I do what I say I'm going to do, as well I have some opportunities to add gigs later in the year and through the winter that will add to my income, so I don't intend to flake out, just been a rough hit on the psyche as I transition.

Somewhere like HR Block.

Looks like you can make $50-60k/yr working half the year? Plus full benefits?

Anyone have experience?