How much you need saved to quit full-time and let part-time work cover the rest
Not counting a mortgage payment. Step 2 adds your mortgage.
Everything is in today’s dollars, so the return is after inflation. Your estimate is on your Social Security statement at ssa.gov/myaccount.
Barista FIRE Summary
Barista number
$806,406
needed to go part-time today
Invested today
$400,000
$406K to go
Go part-time at
Age 47
saving $3,000/mo until then
Part-time covers
$30,000/yr
until 62
Quit full-time with $806,406 invested, earn $30,000 a year part-time until 62, and your savings cover the rest for life.
Your savings vs. the Barista number
Your age along the bottom. Today’s dollars.
Estimates only. Returns are illustrative, not a forecast. A HECM requires age 62, HUD counseling, and the loan balance grows over time. Today’s rates →
Altgage Inc. NMLS #2447252 | 100 Cambridge St, Floor 14, Boston, MA 02114|Barista FIRE means leaving full-time work before you have your full FIRE number, and letting part-time income cover part of your bills. Your savings only have to fund the gap while you work part-time, then everything once you stop. That makes the number smaller than full FIRE — how much smaller depends on what the part-time work pays and how long you keep it up.
Until Social Security starts, your savings pay for everything. After it starts, they only cover the gap it leaves — and that gap, divided by your withdrawal rate, is the rest of the number. Retiring at 50 with benefits at 67 means seventeen years of full spending, then a much smaller draw for life.
Adding 25 times your mortgage payment prices it as if you’ll pay it forever. Here it’s the payments you’ll actually make after you stop working — and since the payment is fixed while prices rise, each one costs less in today’s dollars.
A reverse mortgage can pay off what’s left of your mortgage at 62, from home equity. Payments before 62 still come from your savings. The cost is a loan balance that grows and is repaid from the house. The reverse mortgage calculator shows what your home could support.
Coast FIRE comes first: enough that you can stop saving. Then Barista FIRE: enough to go part-time. Then full FIRE: enough to stop. Step 3 shows all three for you.
Taxes. Enter spending that includes the tax you expect on withdrawals.
Health care before 65. Retiring before Medicare means buying your own coverage. Include it in your spending.
Early-withdrawal rules. Money in a 401(k) or IRA generally can’t be taken out before 59½ without a penalty unless you use an exception. Plan which accounts fund the early years.
Bad markets. A crash early in retirement hurts most. How long will my money last tests a bad first decade.
Barista FIRE is leaving full-time work once your savings, plus income from part-time or lower-stress work, can cover your spending. The part-time job pays part of the bills — and, in the US, can come with health insurance — so your savings only fund the gap until you stop working entirely. The name comes from the idea of working part-time at a coffee shop, but any flexible work counts.
Add up what your savings must fund: the gap between spending and part-time income while you work, the full amount after you stop until Social Security starts, and then the gap Social Security leaves for life. Put all of it in today’s money and that is your Barista number. The calculator does this year by year and shows the age your savings reach it.
It depends on what the part-time work pays and for how long. Earning $30,000 a year for twelve years against $60,000 of spending can take hundreds of thousands of dollars off the number. Step 3 of the calculator puts your Coast, Barista, and full FIRE numbers side by side.
Coast FIRE means you stop saving but keep working enough to pay all your bills until retirement. Barista FIRE means your savings start paying part of the bills now, while part-time work covers the rest. Barista needs more saved than Coast, but lets you leave full-time work sooner.
Any mortgage payment your part-time income doesn’t cover comes out of savings until the loan ends, so it raises the number. A HECM reverse mortgage at 62 can pay off what’s left from home equity instead. Step 2 of the calculator shows the number without a mortgage, keeping it, and with a HECM.
Generally not without a 10% penalty, unless you use an exception such as a 72(t) series of payments, the rule of 55 for a 401(k) from a job you leave at 55 or later, or Roth contributions. Barista FIRE often relies on taxable savings for the early years for this reason. This calculator doesn’t model account types or taxes.