When it comes to the different sub-genres of FIRE, my favorite is probably what has been coined Barista FIRE.
I wrote about Barista FIRE several years ago in a post I titled The Dream of Barista FIRE. In that post, I thought about some of my favorite jobs I had back when I was in college. These were low-paying jobs that you couldn’t make a full-time living with, but that for whatever reason, I found really fun to do. The concept of Barista FIRE was a way to think about how these types of jobs could fit into a FIRE framework.
It seems like financial independence is often viewed as a sort of binary state – you’re either financially independent or you’re not. While this might be true from a strict reading of the term, I personally think financial independence is more nuanced than that.
For example, someone who needs to earn $100,000 per year in order to cover their living expenses is in a very different position compared to someone who only needs to earn $1,000 per year. Even though both people have to earn money, you can probably agree that the person who needs to earn way less to cover their expenses is at least going to have an easier time doing so than the person who has to earn a full-time income.
I think this is why I’ve thought of financial independence as something that’s more on a spectrum. The person that has to earn $100,000 per year doesn’t have many options for things they can do to generate that type of income. But the person who needs to earn $1,000 per year can do almost anything they want.
Which brings me back to Barista FIRE. The concept behind Barista FIRE is an interesting one – something that’s not quite FIRE, but pretty darn close to it in my view.
In this post, I want to take a look at what Barista FIRE is all about and what makes it so interesting.
What Is Barista FIRE?
Depending on who you ask, Barista FIRE seems to have two definitions. The first definition I sometimes see for Barista FIRE is that it’s a way to get health insurance when you’re financially independent and no longer working at a traditional job.
The way this works is that some jobs offer health insurance benefits even if you’re working part-time (think Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, etc). Because health insurance is likely to be a major expense for many of us, this method of Barista FIRE essentially trades as little of your time as possible in order to cover an expense that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford with your savings (i.e. you work the minimum number of hours at a job in order to get health insurance benefits). The money that you earn from the job is largely irrelevant – it’s the health insurance that matters.
The second (and better) definition of Barista FIRE is that it’s a sort of quasi-FIRE status – not exactly FIRE, but maybe a rung below it. If you’re pursuing Barista FIRE, you need to first build a nest egg that you can use to cover most of your expenses. Once you’ve done that, you only need to do some sort of work to earn a small amount of income each year to cover your remaining expenses.
For example, let’s say you need $40,000 per year in order to cover your living expenses. Under traditional FIRE principles, you’d need $1 million in your portfolio in order to generate $40,000 per year. This comes from the commonly used 4% Rule, which says that you can take out 4% of your portfolio each year and have it realistically last you forever.
But what if you had $750,000 saved up instead of $1 million? In that case, your $750,000 would be able to generate $30,000 per year of income. If you’re pursuing traditional FIRE, you’d need to save up another $250,000 in order to fully fund your living expenses. But if you’re pursuing Barista FIRE, you could make up the difference by earning $10,000 per year of income doing anything you can. Ideally, you’d earn this extra income doing something you want to do.
The Math Behind Barista FIRE
What’s remarkable about Barista FIRE is how much value earning fairly small amounts of income can have towards the portfolio you need in order to be financially independent (or at least somewhat financially independent).
Here’s what I mean. The 4% Rule is also sometimes called the 25x Rule. That is, take the income that you need per year to cover your expenses, multiply it by 25, and you’ll get the amount you need to have invested in order to generate that income. $40,000 per year times 25 means we need $1 million in order to generate $40,000 per year from our investments.
What the 25x Rule tells us is that if you can figure out ways to earn pretty small amounts of income per year, you can dramatically reduce the amount you need to have in your portfolio. Indeed, every $1,000 of income you can earn in a year is the equivalent of having $25,000 in your nest egg.
Here’s a table showing how much earning small amounts of income per year can be worth to your overall portfolio.
| Side Hustle Income Per Year | Value To Your Nest Egg |
|---|---|
| $1,000 | $25,000 |
| $2,000 | $50,000 |
| $3,000 | $75,000 |
| $4,000 | $100,000 |
| $5,000 | $125,000 |
| $6,000 | $150,000 |
| $7,000 | $175,000 |
| $8,000 | $200,000 |
| $9,000 | $225,000 |
| $10,000 | $250,000 |
| $11,000 | $275,000 |
| $12,000 | $300,000 |
| $13,000 | $325,000 |
| $14,000 | $350,000 |
| $15,000 | $375,000 |
It’s pretty incredible when you look at this chart because you wouldn’t immediately think that small amounts are worth that much. Take a look, for example, at what $5,000 per year of income means. To generate $5,000 per year of income from your investments, you’d need to put away $125,000. Or you could generate that $5,000 simply by finding something that you enjoy doing that makes $5,000 per year.
When you think about it, what’s likely easier? Saving $125,000? Or earning $5,000 per year (that’s $416.66 per month, $96.15 per week, or $13.69 per day). It’s such a small sum that you can do almost anything and earn that much money in a year.
What Barista FIRE does, then, is allow you to make the leap towards financial independence far earlier than what you might have planned. It can take a long time to get to the full amount you need so that you never have to work for money again. But putting yourself in a position where you have to earn a few thousand dollars per year isn’t a bad position to be in either. Indeed, I think it’s rare for most smart, driven people to never earn money ever again in some manner. You might not earn a huge amount, but a few thousand dollars per year of income is not a difficult or unrealistic thing to do.
To me, the goal number for Barista FIRE is where you need to generate $10,000 to $12,000 of income per year. Aiming for this number puts you in a position where you only have to earn between $800 and $1,000 per month. It’s an amount that’s small enough that you can earn that type of yearly income doing basically anything.
And if you opt to pursue Barista FIRE in this way, you can have $250,000 to $300,000 less in your portfolio. That’s a ton of money that you might not have to save if you opt for the Barista FIRE path.
How Can You Pursue Barista FIRE?
Barista FIRE is best suited for someone who enjoys doing certain types of work that aren’t particularly stressful but also aren’t necessarily high paying.
Think back to the jobs you’ve had the most fun at. For me, it was my old golf course job, where I sat in the pro shop, surfed the internet, talked with customers every once in a while, and played golf whenever I wanted. It wasn’t a job that I could ever make a full-time living with, but as part of a Barista FIRE strategy, it’s one I could have probably done forever.
The most important thing is that whatever you’re doing to earn this remaining income has to be fun for you. If this is a path you want to do, you have to go into it knowing that you have to generate a small amount of income for a long time.
So what are some of the interesting things you can do to pursue a Barista FIRE strategy? Here are some potential options that make sense to me:
- Gig Economy. I think gig economy apps are tailor-made for anyone thinking about Barista FIRE. These gig economy apps are super flexible, can usually be done anywhere (which means you can combine them with travel), and when used properly, can be lucrative. If you do it right, you can often fit these gig economy apps into your day-to-day life, allowing you to monetize the things you may already be doing. Check out my Ultimate List of Gig Economy Apps if you’re looking for gig economy ideas.
- Seasonal Jobs. Seasonal jobs are often a good option for Barista FIRE because they allow you to work hard for a few months of the year, then take an extended break while you do your own thing. Importantly, most seasonal jobs (at least in my experience) tend to be pretty fun and give you benefits in the form of getting to do some activity for free. I’m thinking of things like skiing or golf, which are seasonable jobs where you can earn a little bit of money and save a lot of money on activities you might like to do. One of the reasons I worked at golf courses throughout college was because it let me play golf for free. I saved thousands of dollars by working at those golf courses.
- Scalable Businesses. Barista FIRE lends itself pretty well to people interested in entrepreneurship. Doing things like starting a blog or a YouTube channel can generate enough income to cover your expenses in a Barista FIRE situation. There’s no guarantee these things will do generate much income, but if you only need to make a little bit from a business to cover your expenses, opting to go with the entrepreneur route is not a ridiculous thing to do. The beauty of doing something that can scale is that if you do it long enough, there’s a good chance it can keep growing and cover your expenses without you having to constantly grind at it.
Final Thoughts
Barista FIRE isn’t going to be for everyone. For some people, having any stress at all to earn an income is going to make them uncomfortable.
But I know there are a lot of people out there that have fun jobs that they simply like doing but can’t do because they don’t pay enough. If you’re pursuing Barista FIRE and only need a small amount to live, those jobs can actually work.
For me, the idea that I’d only have to earn $10,000 or so in a year to cover the gap in my expenses makes me feel pretty good. I know myself well enough that I can make that much income from doing pretty much anything. My guess is that most of you reading would probably be in a good position too if that’s all you had to earn in a year.
No, Barista FIRE doesn’t mean you’re completely financially independent. It doesn’t mean you’ll never have to work again for money again. But if you only have to earn $1,000 or less per month, I’d say you’re in a pretty good spot.
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More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
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If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- Upgrade ($200) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $200 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $200 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Ally Bank ($100) – Of all the banks out there, Ally is, without a doubt, my favorite. At the moment, Ally is offering $100 to customers who open an eligible Ally account and meet the requirements. Here are the step-by-step directions to earn your Ally Bank referral bonus.
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Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $900 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
I left work almost 4 years ago because of this knowledge, I often refer to it as LEAN FIRE though. I didn’t want to work another 3-5, heck 7 ? years to try and achieve the value in my investments needed for a full FIRE. I could squeak by with enough from my SWR to cover the majority of my household expenses but I lucked out making money off something that couldn’t be further from my “work career”. I was in technical corporate sales for an oil company and now I make side hustle money for writing tourism/hiking/MTB articles as well as photography.
As you said, heck if I make a simple $5000 over the course of a summer with a few gigs then that equals $125,000 in my savings. I also love the fact that I can do nothing or I can do a lot each year, the ability to be organic with my desires and passions is liberating.
Lastly, to your first point I am grateful to be in Canada where healthcare doesn’t hang over my head or my friends in the FIRE community when deciding to take the bold step to financial independence .
Cheers ~ Chris
( I just did a podcast with ExploreFI Canada and also interview with Tawcan.com if you want to hear more)
Hey Chris, thanks for sharing! Lean FIRE is another approach, sort of similar to the Barista FIRE approach (maybe I’ll write about it at some point!).
You’re exactly right – $5k = $125k in your portfolio. Literally anyone can make 5k in a year doing anything.
Will check out that podcast! Feel free to drop a link to the Tawcan post and ExploreFI Canada podcast if you’d like to share it. I’m sure others here would definitely benefit from learning more of your story.
The podcast interview for my FI journey can be found on ExploreFI Canada
https://exploreficanada.ca/podcast/046-mindful-path-to-fi-chris-istace/
The blog interview with Bob is on Tawcan.com
https://www.tawcan.com/financial-independence-retire-early-canada-interview-mindful-explorer/
Question: does this mean you’ve ‘locked’ yourself in to Barista FIRE for life? If you need a $10,000/year job to cover your living expenses, doesn’t this mean that you always have to have a $10,000/year job or your finances are in trouble?
I think a better version would be to have enough in your portfolio to cover all your annual expenses. The fun job would supplement this and pay for any ‘frills’ outside of your normal living expenses. Otherwise, I don’t see how you could ever stop working.
If you do this, yes, you’re going to be in a position where you need to make $10,000 per year in order to cover your living expenses.
But that’s the thing about FIRE – there are lots of different ways to approach it. In my own experience, it seems unlikely that someone driven enough to aim for FIRE is going to be in a position where they spend the rest of their life literally never making another dollar again. If you are putting value into the world – you’re going to make money one way or the other. The benefit of a Barista FIRE approach is you won’t have to make much ($10,000 per year at $20 per hour = 500 hours per year, or about 9.6 hours per week, or 1.3 hours per day. I’m pretty sure most of us have the ability to do something that makes money for 78 minutes per day.
you know how we apply a kind of barista FIRE? we got to a point where the nest egg was large enough so we could basically stop investing so much and enjoying more of our paychecks. mrs. me earns about 20k the past few years in a flexible part time gig like you mention. then we can easily afford some “wants” in life knowing the needs are covered by the nest egg.
We call that Coast FIRE! I think I’m at that point too. In theory, I have enough invested that I could spend everything I make and still would be fine in 30 years. Here’s a post on Coast FIRE.
Love this one, Kevin! I think I accidentally fell into Barista FIRE when I decided to work part-time at a cycling gym (pre-COVID) after leaving my law firm job. (Side note – it was low paying, but it was a ton of fun and all of the money I earned from it felt like “bonus” money). This is the best article I’ve read on the topic of Barista FIRE, so thanks for sharing your thoughts on it (in particular the breakdown of how every $1,000 in side hustle income means less is needed in your FIRE portfolio – I’ve never seen it explained like that and it is so helpful to see the numbers).
Thanks Marissa! Your example of the job you had at the gym is a great example of a Barista FIRE job. It was fun for you. I’m guessing since it was fun you had a decent amount of autonomy. And it came with benefits, namely, you got a free gym. That’s exactly what you want if you’re thinking of Barista FIRE.
Good topic! I worked as a high school and middle school tutor and loved it! But after 3 years, my joy turned into just another part time job. I moved to doing taxes which has allowed me to work only 3-4months a year. I think I will do this until I’m bored with tax returns. But you have a good point that it helps achieve the goal of making up a small difference for living expenses. Living like I’m on vacation most of the year is a great prize for working a few months each year.
Seasonal work is perfect for anyone aiming for Barista FIRE because of this. Work a few months a year, chill the rest of the time.
I have worked for entertainment’s sake for the first five years of retirement. Only 8 hours a week so that’s sort of like barista fire except I have no need for the income. The problem with real barista fire jobs is that lower paid jobs are almost always the least enjoyable jobs. The reason is that key factors correlated with job satisfaction are feeling appreciated and having a large degree of control of your work. Barista jobs by their nature are highly regimented with no room for creativity and little autonomy. There is little gratitude either from a surly public clientele or from low paid managerial staff. The sad truth is most highly enjoyable work is also highly paid and difficult to obtain. There are exceptions, maybe park ranger, nature guide, but I think finding fun barista style work is very difficult for most. I’m winding down my 8 hour week/six figures per year job myself even though it’s highly paid, because it’s just too boring and I don’t need the money.
Definitely understand what you mean – working at some big corporate chain is probably not going to give you a lot of fun.
Maybe my view of these types of jobs is skewed because for some reason, I was good at finding these sort of fake jobs that gave me a lot of autonomy.
I’ve worked at two different golf courses. The one in my hometown basically let me do whatever I wanted. The manager left early every day and spent most of the time playing golf or doing lessons, so I’d just run the pro shop on my own and head out to play on slow days when someone could cover the shop for me.
In college, I worked at a golf course where I was the only employee in the pro shop, so that one was great. No one bothered me and I just ran the place.
Then my other job I had was working at a currency exchange in the mall. That was a kiosk in the middle of the mall and I would literally just browse the internet all day until a customer came up to me. No one else worked with me, so I just ran the kiosk myself.
I don’t know how I found these jobs, but they worked out and give me fond memories.
Those are great examples. There probably are lot of those. I tend to think of Starbucks, which I think would be pretty regimented. I’m limited by my own life experiences and tend to think I know more than I do. Of all the part time jobs I had, only throwing newspapers as a kid was really fun. Because it was just 13 year old me out there in the predawn dark on my bicycle. It was safe then but they’d take your kids away for that now.
The newspaper delivery is a great example of pretty low-level work that is fun because of the autonomy you get with it. I basically think of my food delivery stuff like that. I bike around, no one hassles me, I do things my way. Works out well.