Has anyone left the private sector and moved to a federal government job after hitting their FIRE number? Thinking that a remote, easy (albeit boring) job that has a pension could be a sweet gig if you’re FIRE’d but looking for something extra to do that earns money.

kind of similar situation to this post

My husband and I currently work for the same employer and only work 32 hours a week (wfh). I am a lower rung employee, processing claims and hardly take meetings or heavier responsibility at the moment. We are considering having his quit his role with our company and splitting the responsibility between the two of us. As long as the claims assigned to me are completed, my work is done for the week. He has huge amount of knowledge of my role since he works on the same program as I do.

What are we missing? I feel like this is a win-win for some more freedom to explore our own hobbies while still having our 3 day weekend to ourselves as a couple.

The nature of my work is that if I leave my day job, it would be very very hard to get something similar. Most people in my field have their own businesses. Almost all are all technically self-employed (W2 jobs are suuuuuper rare, as are full-time jobs. If you have "jobs" most are 1099 and you have to work at a couple places). If you start your own business it takes a lot of work and usually a good amount of time to develop something stable, and it's going to require you to stay in one place and have a very regular schedule.

I was lucky to get a job for someone who has been very flexible about me needing time off for travel and my music career. I don't want to "blow it up" until I'm good and ready. One of the things about being good and ready is being unsure of my "number". My husband is pretty much ready to go and is gently prodding me to see when. I think like, maybe we can even do it now? But we have relatively little compared to most FIRE type people.

In barista FIRE I plan to keep with job 2 (music which is also self-employed), job 1 (occasional subbing, which is likely possible tho unsure how that will look, depends if we are still living here, or if we are somewhere else and I just do something like cover someone's vacation). I also churn heavily. Between churning and music I can cover most if not all of our expenses but we are not 100% sure of what that will be since it will likely involve some significant lifestyle changes (more travel, living in our little travel trailer potentially full-time, potentially selling house and being houseless for a while with that money invested or in HYSA, etc), I can only estimate.

In a nutshell we are 42 and 48. Have about $220k in brokerage and $165k in IRA/HSA.

Our COL for the 2 of us now that the house is paid off (last month, whoopee!) is $1250 not including food and fun money. I'm trying to get a better picture of food now that we are doing more of these meal kit churns (they are saving us a lot on groceries).

We have paid off cars (modest used sedans), house (worth $200k), nearly new tow for camper, camper (lightweight one. We get around 20mpg with it on tow, tho if our whole life is in it probably would lose a bit).

Would love to hear about your experiences. I want to guide for small rock climbing trips and local kayaking/bike tours. Considering offering local guiding as an Airbnb experience or joining my friends guiding business.

I’m considering doing a career shift and going back to school to do something like X Ray tech or ultrasound tech.

Reason being, there’s a lot of part time gigs for those positions available. They pay $30-40 / hr where I am and some offer benefits too.

Seems like a great way to keep making some money while only having to work 2-3 days a week. Pay is decent as well.

Anyone done this or planning on it?

Sorry, but I am not the most financially savvy person.

-Late 40’s

• No home mortgage
• Enough cash on hand to last me for 2.5 years
• 401k in low seven figures
• No kids
• No other loans
• Require health nsurance for a medical condition

Can I quit my high stress corporate job?

Anyone done the same in my situation?0

Has anyone looked at this calculator? What does the community think of it?

Based on my own (rudimentary) calculations, it seems pretty good.

https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/

Really appreciate any feedback!

Hey all - I just met an Uber driver in Savanah, GA. who is pulling in $2k - $2,500 per week (he showed me the tracker in his app). Granted he is working 50 hours per week and of course car maintenance and gas need to be factored in.

But just curious, is anyone driving Uber to make a little extra cash / how is it going?

Last year I lived with my parents rent free and did some traveling. I managed to max out my roth IRA and invested $15,000 into a solo 401k.

My take home income after investments was around $17,000 and I spent around $10,000.

The only change between 2023 and 2024 is that I'm now renting an extra house my parents own for $900 a month in a big city (LA). The normal price would have been $3000 a month but they were tired of people trashing the place so I got a good deal.

I feel like I am doing just fine. I got free healthcare (ACA), lots of savings ($375,000 in investments), and took off half the year in 2023 for traveling.

My dating life is non existent though because I don't make enough money lol but other than that I feel like I'm in a good position with the help of my parents.

What would you recommend? Any suggestions? Or should I just keep up my chill life of video games, anime, and self-employment?

After a traumatic few weeks, I’ve decided to pause my job as a substitute teacher.

I am married and have a 6.5 year old son. My husband has no plans to retire soon, if ever.

I’m looking for ideas for ways to fill my days when my son is in school and make a little extra income for our family.

Any ideas?

Hi everyone!

I'm considering a scenario where I can take out small percentage withdrawal rate (i.e. 2%) and having a BaristaFire job to cover the rest of my monthly expenses.

For easy numbers, assuming I have $500k in investments and only take out 2% (i.e. $10,000 annually). This has a 100% success rate on the Rich, Broke, or Dead? calculator [1], even if you have a ridiculously long retirement of 50 years.

My question is: if you take out 2% annually, and have a BaristaFire job to cover the rest of your monthly expenses, how can you then model the growth of your portfolio over time? I'm assuming it'll still go up by some amount, even if we assume averages like 7% historical YoY growth minus the 2% annual withdrawal above minus 3% YoY inflation = 2% projected YoY growth?

I'm wondering if I can take a BaristaFire job for X years, and then my portfolio will have grown by Y% value, and then have more money to withdrawal since I didn't take a more aggressive withdrawal rate for the X years working the BaristaFire job.

Not sure if I'm thinking about this correctly. Thank you for any help in advance!

[1] Rich, Broke, or Dead? scenario with a 2% withdrawal

Been crafting my wife and my plan for retirement for more than a few years now (we are both 40 with a 7 and 4-year-old) but often wonder, are we trying to be too aggressive, are we putting too much pressure on ourselves to stay the course, should we ditch our job in pursuit of ones that might make us happier even if it delays retirement.

We have a hair over 300k now, 114k left on our mortgage and no other debt, 30k+ in emergency funds and are aiming to retire at 58. Why 58? At age 58, my life expectancy is 80-81, and I reduce that by 3 years because I have a mechanical heart valve and a pacemaker. So that would give me 20 years without any work (if we choose that). We both work office jobs and both work from home.

Here is what I DON'T know and would love to hear your stories about:
1.) Is your energy level MUCH lower in your late 50's than 40's? How about the 60's or 70's?
2.) After kids, did you know what to do with your extra time?
3.) After kids, did life feel more manageable? Or did it feel the same as when you had kids?
4.) If you are working in your 50's or 60s or 70's, did you also help watch your grandkids? Were there times that it felt like too much?
5.) Was it part-time work or full-time?
6.) How did continuing to work affect your health or mental health?
7.) Did working hinder other interests like hobbies or travel?
8.) If you did it all over again, would you keep working or save more earlier to retire earlier?

Hoping to be able to retire early and considering a part time gig at an airline for the flight perks and health benefits.

However, hearing that schedules aren’t very flexible until you have seniority and flights are so overbooked these days that you can’t take advantage of standby flights (at least to popular destinations).

Does anyone have experience doing this? If so, what job do you have and would you recommend?

So, I recently was in one of the FIRE subreddits, and there was a thread talking about telling friends and family members that you're retired is a very bad idea, because it makes them jealous and envious of you. People might ask you for loans, or try to take advantage of you, or just have envious feelings about you.

Then, in another thread, I think it was relating to FIRE and dating, some women in the thread mentioned that a man who is retired is a huge turn off to women. Not in those exact words, but that seemed to be the implication.

Doesn't it seem like these two things are very contradictory? On the one hand, if you're retired, people are supposedly jealous of the fact that you've found a way to escape the rat race, yet on the other hand, women don't want anything to do with you (supposedly).

However, I've also heard that men (generally) are interested in a woman's past, and women are (generally) interested in a man's future. I've also heard that women are much more attracted to ambitious men, and turned off by unambitious men.

You could say that a man must have been somewhat ambitious to achieve the net worth required to retire early, but at the same time, if they're not actually working, they're just pursuing their hobbies, then I can see how a woman can almost look at that as though you've given up on life in a certain way. Like you're not playing the game anymore. The make a lot of money and achieve things game.

Full disclosure, I'm 53, and got divorced a couple of years ago. I've had zero success in the dating game up to this point, but haven't really been pursuing it that hard. I was hoping something might happen a bit more naturally, but that hasn't been the case.

I'm just going to be honest and say that I'm interested in women in their early to mid 40's. I'm not interested in super young women. I have a very good buddy my exact age, and he's the opposite. Only interested in women from 25 to 40.

It's extremely rare that I'm attracted to a woman my own age. It's not impossible, but it's more of a once in a blue moon thing. I think young people would describe it as looking for a "unicorn". Like good luck with that. Also, there's a 90 percent chance she's married and unavailable anyways.

I know this is a weird post, but oh well, I'm just going to put this out there, because I want honest opinions about this.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to pursue FIRE regardless, and if it means I'll be single forever, than so be it, but I still wanted to try to get a few other opinions and thoughts on this weird subject

Edit: The reason I'm mentioning the age range I'm interested in, (like what does it have to do with anything?) is because if someone just assumed I was pursuing women my own age, they'd probably be more understanding of being retired, whereas a woman in her 40's would probably lean in the opposite direction. That's the only reason I'm mentioning it.

Hi all - for folks who have reached Baristafire, what do you think their average annual income is?

For example, I think I’m going to have about 15 years where I am going to have to haul down $60k per year. I understand that’s a decent chunk of change, but it’s also a decent bit less than what I make now (thus it represents a downshift/“barista” income for me).

But, is $60k/year actually barista level or which of the bands below is most accurate?

<$20k

$20k - $30k

$30k - $40k

$40k - $60k

$60k+

I thought this would be a good place to ask.

Even if it requires education, training, experience, or some build-up time, does anyone have job ideas that can get a good hourly rate or equivalent (doesn't have to be paid hourly)?

A good rate depends on cost of living of course, but let's assume that means at least $25/hour roughly, and I'm looking for something around 20 to 30 hours per week. Benefits would be a plus of course, but I'll listen to job or career options regardless.

Even if it involves a year or three of education or build-up (I'm not expecting delusions of grandeur here with $30+/hour remote work with no experience or anything like that), at this point I mainly need something to aim at. Is there anything out there?

Is anyone here doing a variation of BaristaFIRE to cover housing costs, mortgage, taxes, etc. ?

What's your experience been and how did you structure it?

I've been renting my whole life in LCOL and want to move back to HCOL where rent seems to be more than a mortgage. So considerung buying.

34M. Married with stay at home wife. Two kids. Over 5 but under 10.

Low cost of living area

-$205k base salary. Bonus averages to $80k per year. (Pre tax) -$350k in rollover IRA from former job 401k ($30k in current job 401K) -$400k equity in my home which is valued at $820k -$50k in 529s -$120k HYSA

$3700 mortgage each month. All other expenses $2k per month.

Total take home is $11,500 per month

Hate my job (Sales) and want to move into something less stressful likely making $100k a year no bonus.

All of you who are baristafire did any of you consider companies who allow you to roll into their 401k so you could use the rule of 55 to start drawing assets in early retirement? I’m 44 now and could easily barista fire moving forward or in the near future but would love to know this is an option.

I feel like with this lifestyle , I end up working with lots of teenagers, and don't have a lot of real adult conversation/socializing.

I’m self employed in an arts field and I love what I do. I’d love to have a small job on the side that I can use to make a little extra. Minimal responsibility and a work when you want kind of schedule.

Hi all -

I (30F) am currently living in a semi-HCOL area in Europe with $800k (dollar equivalent) in NW (all liquid). Apart from around $50k that I keep in a HYSA for emergency purposes, the rest have been duly invested in a range of securities from risk-free government bonds to ETFs. A large portion of this have been put into short-term risk-free govt securities yielding 3-4% for near-term liquidity in the event that I want to buy a house (see below).

Pre-tax salary is $130k base with an almost guaranteed $130k year-end bonus (100% bonus on average, only lower if I massively fuck up at my finance job). Take home is 60% of this given the high tax rates in Europe.

Needs (rent, going out etc, expenses) would be around $2-$3k a month, so I am saving half my take home salary.

I am thinking of buying a house soon when rates drop, and so a portion of the $800k would need to go towards a down payment. I am thinking of a $1m~ purchase price which would mean taking around $300k out of that as downpayment.

My partner and I are also thinking of getting married soon and we are potentially thinking of having kids in say 5 years time.

All this to say - I am really keen on quitting my stressful job in order to barista fire (say earning 1-2k a month) and free up some time to raise a potential child instead, or just take life a bit slower. My needs however would have increased to cover 1) the new potential mortgage and 2) the childcare costs.

My partner owns his own business (doing fairly successfully) and will take care of some part of these costs but I want to do the calculations on my own and estimate how much I can contribute.

How do you think I should re-evaluate the money I have given I’d like to barista fire in 5 years (or maybe even less)? I have tried the online calculators but they don’t really tell me much given a couple of the things I discussed above.

TIA.

Hello,

I want to baritista fire. But I am having a hard time untangling myself from my job. I feel like people would judge me for leaving a 'successful ' job to do something like uber making a lot less. I feel a lot of shame.

I have resources. I have a about a million net worth and on top of that I have 26 bitcoin.

How do I move past the stigma of leaving a 'good job'?

I was always under the assumption that people that drive a Prius are typically smart with their money and perhaps have a greater net worth than it appears.

​

But then I saw an andrew tate video where he says it sure isn't the broke people that are driving the lambos. That's when I realized that there are really levels to this wealth game, and that if you are truly wealthy, you aren't buying a prius to save gas money and you're not spending time setting up a budget (because you have enough money that spending time on budgeting is a waste of time). Maybe the people that are driving a prius setting up a budget has "some money" but they aren't "wealthy". idk.

​

In your view, what do you think? Is a prius smart money? or no money? Would it be appropriate for a prius driver to be wearing a rolex that cost more than their car? Would it be appropriate for a prius driver to be carrying a louis vuitton bag? If someone were driving a prius, would you assume they are broke and living with their parents?

I currently have about $400k in investments/HYSA, and $339k left on my mortgage which has a 6.5% interest rate.

My husband and I want to scale down our busy 9-5 in the advertising industry which is a grind, and more like 50hrs+ a week.

Should I keep saving/investing, or pay off the mortgage? It’s the only debt we have left.

I accepted a job working seasonally at a national park over the summer and just submitted my letter of resignation at my current job.

I've got enough saved up and with the income from my summer seasonal job to live in Spain and come back over the summers to work seasonally in the US.

BaristaFIRE is live this summer!!! Wooooo!!!!! No more rat-race!!!!!

Any suggestions?

I retired from the military after 20 years as an E-7 last year. I moved across the country to a new state near the beach. This year I started working part time at a cheeseburger food truck near my new house. It's close enough that I ride my bike to work. The pay is not fantastic, but it is much more than minimum wage. I work around 20 hours a week. The money helps me put extra principal payments on my mortgage and have some leftover to ease credit card pressure and for fun. I take edibles on my days off and ride my bicycles all over town and to the beach. I feel like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty (sans the bad marriage). Life is good.

What is your personal definition of barista fire and what is your personal net worth that got you there?

If I wanted to model my life after yours, how much net worth would I need? How far am I from a barista fire lifestyle with 120k currently invested?

I currently have a job that pays 40k a year and I would like to pretend that's my "barista" job