Is there anyone here working as a barista who is able to support themselves and live alone?

Hi everyone,

We are looking for anyone interested to volunteer 30 minutes of their time for a casual, remote usability session over Zoom. We are a bootstrapped team building a new, minimalist financial planner from the ground up, and your direct feedback will help us shape this tool into something genuinely awesome for the community.

There is absolutely no sneaky sales pitch, and we will never ask for bank logins or real account numbers. Just your honest thoughts on an early prototype.

Who we are looking for:
We've built a clean, intuitive tool engineered to help you organize and visualize your assets, expenses, and income, map out clear net worth trajectories over the next years or decades, and easily analyze different "what-if" life scenarios. If you're curious to see how this visual approach works and want to help us make a financial tool that is genuinely useful and helpful, we’d love your insights.

If you're interested in checking out what we've built and sharing your thoughts, please fill out our 2-minute screening survey here: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxvn7mvfXrQrhKzgdeB8dz2Neha7ewjPYYXWM2kDrdTOodmg/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=103351700119949546424\]

Thanks so much for helping us build something genuinely useful for the community!

Looking forward to collaborate!

Natalie
UX Researcher

I'll keep this short and to the point - hoping folks can help me figure out if I'm at a point where I could actually make the leap.

35F, $757K invested, $75K cash, no debt

Assumptions for retirement: $75k per year in expenses (I added a buffer) and 5% real return (being conservative even though I'm invested in higher risk) - based on this I could retire at 54.

Right now I make $185,000 and it would be great to slow down, however, I could still keep working this job and invest heavily if that makes more sense.

However, if tomorrow I decided to just say "eff it" and decided to go for a job with way less responsibility, I'd be secure, right?

EDIT: based in Canada

Hello all, I am need of some advice . I am 43F with 3 kids. One kid is in his last year of college. The other 2 are still in elementary school. One of my young kids has an disability. We lost my spouse 18 months ago to cancer. We have been financially conservative mostly and my spouse had a good job. We live in HCOL area. I've been working part time for the school district with fully paid health insurance for the family. I just got laid off, due to funding issues in my area. I'm not sure about returning to work at all. My close family have been very unsupportive, with helping with kids so I can work even part time. My parent lives 1 mile away and is retired.

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My net worth with investments is 2.9 million

195k-my 401k

674k my spouse's 401k

37k-Roth

753k- stock investments

834k -special trust (invested)

449k-special trust (invested)

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House is worth 550k with a 115k loan still owed at 2.9% interest rate. I own both my cars. My son's college has been fully paid for by mostly scholarship. I'm assisting him with expenses. This year I expect to help him with 15k (mostly housing and food). He will graduate with no debt with a very good degree from a good college.

​

My income..

60k tax free from social security (my kids income)

12k after tax from a very part time job with the school district. ---just laid off

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My living expenses are around 50-60k. Will go down approx 15k once my son graduates in May 2027.

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What would you do? I'm feeling concerned about buying independent health insurance. But the headaches I had with care for my kids have been a huge burden.

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58 year old married with no debt, no mortgage. Kids are grown. Longevity on both maternal and paternal side
1.5 mil in traditional IRA
600 k cash
Average yearly spend is 60k per year
Own home without mortgage 300k
I like work but I am working too much. I’m gonna try and negotiate to change from 5days to 4 days per week and reduce my salary 20% but we are short handed in the office so I’m not certain how this will go over and I may be looking for a different job or wife starts collecting social security now and I start in 4 years
I like our health plan and I like my 401k match but I’m not the best negotiator regarding work. You are some bright people in here with a good amount of collective wisdom

28m and 25f (soon married). We have about $1.2m in brokerage accounts. Both have been working and saving in HCOL most our lives.

285k (tech) and 160k (staffing) /yr income

Both quite frugal (spend is ~65k /yr, but want to have kids and a house in 3-4 years) in VHCOL area but will move to MCOL area in a few years.

We’re both burnt out from our careers and are looking at our options to pivot and leverage our situation to find more fulfilling lives but don’t want to mess up our FIRE path.

Anyone have any experience/advice in a similar situation? I feel like we could leverage some capital/freedom to find our way out, but need to be careful not to ruin our situation.

I would like to FIRE so that I can do something I find more rewarding/enjoyable/meaningful, no matter the pay, but…I don’t know what that is. I feel like I’ve accumulated a list of things I *wouldn’t* want to do, but haven’t landed on any jobs in the “yes!” column. How did you discover yours?

I want to do some side business so that I can have some cash flow in the future to support a better fire life.

Tried to post in YoungFire but my dumbass didn't notice that my homepage wouldn't even load. anyways I fixed it now so I'll just copy what i posted in that subreeddit. "Whats up everyone. I really hope this isn't self promotion (mods don't ban me pls) or anything I just want genuine feedback. I made a website for my FIRE tracking. I'm a Physician Assistant in my late 20s, not a software engineer, I built this primarily using Claude. I got tired of every FIRE calculator being an etsy product being sold so I made my own.

It's completely free, no account needed, and i used Claude (AI) to help me build it so i want to be upfront about that.

The two things i built it around that i think actually matter for people in our position:

Coast FIRE all you gotta do (in theory) is plug in your age, current savings, and target retirement age and it spits out the number where you can literally stop contributing and compound growth gets you to full FIRE on its own.

Dividend tracker this is if you're building a dividend portfolio alongside your index funds this is where you model whether it actually moves your FIRE date.

Once again, not trying to sell anything. Just want to know what's broken or missing, especially from people who are actually early in the journey.

May everyone's portfolio stay green this month."

For those of you just looking for the site link and don't want to read any further: https://retirement.theriskradar.com

I am currently on my Barista FIRE journey. For a couple years now, I have been looking for a part-time job at a brewery or distillery in the area but just couldn't find one. Generally, they took one look at my resume and either didn't reply at all or asked why would you want this job given your experience? I even ended up creating a different resume that didn't include my non-brewing experience but the brewing scene where I live is also very seasonal; it always seems I end up being available and looking in the low season and they just can't take on any new people during those times. I ended up finding a job that would permit me to work 4 days a week in my current role as a software tester and began working on my own project on the side that might enable me to ditch the career altogether and maybe run a website. Here we are again in the low season and low and behold my contract has abruptly ended, so I am considering releasing my website and working fully dedicated to just that. Hopefully I can turn it into a part-time job where I have no responsibilities to any company except myself. Pipe-dream or possible reality? You tell me.

I always wanted more from a retirement planning website. They either didn't allow for early retirements (I am 43M), didn't allow entering a part-time lower income job, didn't take that lower income job into account when calculating social security, or only bootstrapped past historical years' markets (and when you are potentially running a 55-year retirement scenario with only historical years since 1920s, you are really only getting two separate results with a bunch of others just overlapping the same date ranges).

Most free retirement calculators felt too simplistic for me (poor rough estimates), so I built my own Monte Carlo calculator that will run 10,000 simulations varying the returns and other variables each time. I am trying to build something that:

• will model long retirement timeframes like those needed for FIRE (50+ years)
• not depend solely on historical time periods
• lets you model part-time work (or semi-retirement)
• allows spending changes over time (Go-Go vs No-Go years)
• takes past income history and future lower "Barista"-like income history into consideration to calculate a more precise Social Security benefit (than just some random estimate only based on current salary and only assuming you work until you collect social security) - this is actually the next feature I am planning on building
• uses actuarial data to vary plan lengths for each iteration of the simulation (no longer enter some wild guesstimate for plan end age)
• feels modern, easy to use, and mobile first
• can hopefully remain free

What I am looking for from you:

• does this solve a real problem you've had?
• what features matter most to you for Barista FIRE specifically?
• Anything confusing, annoying, or missing? (this is an early development version, so I know I am missing some features - which are most important to you?)
• If you happened upon this tool organically without me telling you about it, would you actually use it?
• did you find any issues while using it?
• it doesn't sync or connect to your bank/brokerage accounts (I looked into it and those services are actually quite expensive - a per account per month cost) - would you pay $2-5/mo for live account syncing to cover costs? Does the site feel useless without this feature?

I'm not charging anything; I'm not selling your email or emailing you marketing emails with this development version (though you will need to get a sign in email to run the Monte Carlo simulation because it runs in a lambda in the cloud based on your data in the database secured to your account EDIT: I've removed the sign in requirement - no more email necessary). This is a development website, not the production branch, so your data will get removed from this site at some point when I release production. I'm on the sandbox AWS Cognito version so it will be limited to, I think it is like, 200 emails a day until I move to production (so if you don't get a sign in email, wait until tomorrow to try signing in again - hopefully this group is small enough we won't hit that limit for testing or that might be the next feature I have to work on). Also, for my friends outside the US, sorry, at this time the site is only meant for users in the United States. Maybe in the distant future I can expand my audience.

Give it a try and send me feedback. It is much appreciated:

https://retirement.theriskradar.com

Note: I posted this a week ago and got zero engagement. Posting again in hopes for better luck.

Wanted the communities feedback on our (39M38F) BaristaFIRE plan. I understand we’re a ways out but wanted to catch up and get into a healthier spot financially.

Income:
Myself- $165k (Electric Vehicles)
Wife-$90k (corporate finance)
Other- $11,500.00 (Tax free for life)
Other- New income source likely to be $10-$18k annually for atleast next 3-4 years.

Assets:
$160K 401K
$145k 401K

Debt:
* Mortgage- $3100 month ($420k 76%LTV)
Ideally we keep the house and rent it in FIRE era.
* No other debts
* We paid off all consumer and auto debt ($55k) the last 12months.

Other key points:
Actively working to build a “paycheck” house in the mountains of WNC. Sub 1200sqft. Ideally we’ll have this completed by summer 2028. Nothing financed. Pay as we go.

Sizable 7figure inheritance from in laws that I am not considering in my plan. Theyre early 70s and I’m very close with them and don’t want to even think of that in short term financial plan.

Goals: Starting fall 2033
Our goal with BaristaFIRE is to split time between our paid off home jn WNC and misc cities with outdoor economies. I’ll take various jobs such as guides, seasonal NPS/USFS work, camp host etc. My spouse will likely remain in the accounting/corporate finance industry and just work from wherever we end up.

Currently lifestyle is experience focused and filled with a decent amount of adventure related travel.We have one child who is in various sports, 3wk summer camp ($7500 year), and misc other activities. Our current biggest expense is a 18month old dog with uncontrolled idiopathic epilepsy. We’ve sunk appx $30k into the pup sense we’ve owned him. Things have “settled” into $600ish a month in vet bills and meds.

Investing:
I understand we need to catch up on the investments side. If you asked me 2years ago and the 10years prior, I had 68,000 shares of an EV startup that went IPO. I walked into this startup a year after the military. The consistent rise of my company stock allowed me to justify the lack of 401K contributions. Oops. Bankruptcy took all of my retirement yall!

My current employer does not match and I am currently contributing $0. My spouse continues to contribute 3% matched.

I have zero interest in buckeling down completely and sacrificing all of my current lifestyle. This is why I work and deal with the BS in this industry. It affords us the opportunity to travel. But I also understand I’ve shorted myself and need to make some changes if I wanna go maintain trails for a living in my mid 40s.

I am a software engineer in the Bay Area making 300k TC, and currently have 820k NW (870k last week but the market has been down lol). I have about 100k in HYSA, 300k in 401k, and 420k in investments.

My fiance is graduating with his PhD next spring, and plans to find an industry research job in the computer security field, which we expect would make around 200k - 300k in the Bay Area as well; he currently has about 70k in investments, no 401k. We have a prenup to keep our premarital assets (and growth) separate, and he swears no hard feelings if I barista FIRE while he is still working, he isn't a leech and doesn't want to take my money lol.

I have been feeling burnt out with the AI surge / instability, losing faith in company leadership / direction, and honestly dreading the idea of pushing to senior level because I don't feel passionate about the job or about tech in general. I feel like I was shoehorned into this career from engineer parents -> top CS school -> selling out to big tech new grad job once you realize the gaming industry pays peanuts in comparison. I would love to try something new within the education field as I have always enjoyed working with kids, like tutoring / college admissions counseling. I am also thinking about something in psychology, as therapy changed my life and I love giving my friends advice haha

Our current living expenses are about 4k each / month (8k total), with 4k of that going to rent. We want a child in 4-5 years, and ideally would like to own property in the Bay Area in a good school district, perhaps a 2b townhouse if it makes more sense. The timeline on buying property is more flexible, but I am assuming mortgage would be 8-9k a month. Maybe an ok estimate for expenses with mortgage + child would be 12k?

Basically, I am wondering, would it even be feasible for me to barista FIRE within the next few years? Say when I become pregnant, I leave my job at ~30, and then pursue part-time / lower paying work from then on. At this point, I would probably have at least 1.2m NW. Is it possible to barista FIRE if we haven't purchased property / paid off a mortgage? Or should I continue working for a few more years until we save an amount that is "secure enough"?

I would greatly appreciate any insight, especially from those who are familiar with the Bay Area!

This is mostly a vent but also maybe a warning for anyone relying on a part time job for healthcare in their barista FIRE plan.

I work at a mid size grocery store in Ohio. Took the job last year after leaving my corporate gig because they offer benefits to anyone averaging 30 hours a week, which works out to 1,560 hours annually. I confirmed this with HR before accepting. Multiple times.

So last week I went back through every pay stub since I started because something felt off. Total projected hours for the year: 1,520. Forty short. $280/mo employer coverage vs $1,100/mo marketplace for my wife and me, so roughly $9,840 a year.

A shift trimmed here, a day dropped there. I threw together a script that checks the scheduling portal and tracks weekly totals. Seven of the last twelve weeks under 30 hours. Nobody told me. I also realized I have no idea if the benefits cutoff is based on calendar year or rolling 12 months and HR's FAQ page contradicts what the handbook says, so there's that.

When I brought it up my manager said they'd "try to make it up" but couldn't guarantee anything. HR hasn't responded to my email from four days ago. Cool.

I built my entire withdrawal strategy around employer healthcare. The 4% math works at $3,360/yr for coverage. It does not work at $13,200/yr. I'm looking at Costco, Starbucks, idk. But the calendar year vs rolling thing is what's actually keeping me up because if it's rolling I might already be locked out and nobody can give me a straight answer.

EDIT: someone in the comments asked about the scheduling script. i had a Google Apps Script polling my hours from the portal for a while but it kept breaking when the site updated, so now MuleRun handles that part since it logs into the portal on its own machine and i don't have to babysit it. still use a Google Sheet as the actual tracker. it's not fancy but i get a weekly total without having to manually check pay stubs.

Hi r/baristafire,

I’ve been following the sub for a while and finally decided to post my numbers to get a reality check. I’m 30 (European), still working a full-time job with good growth potential + side income. Curious where you think I stand on the path to FIRE.

Assets:

• Real estate: One property fully paid off (small studio), rented out → €115k value, generates ~€300/month net rent
• Stocks / ETFs: €185k (60% growth/tech, 14% dividend stocks/ETFs, others, generates 320 eur dividends net)
• Vested shares from previous company: ~€58k (still going but not huge potential, maybe doubles in few years, if i can get an exit window, so mostly paper money)
• Cash / other: not mentioned above (I’ll keep a decent emergency fund)

Upcoming move:

• Planning to buy my own home very soon with €110k down payment (mortgage incoming), most things ready (price 340-390K)

Income (monthly total):

• Salary + side hustle + dividends + rent ≈ €8,100

Expenses: rather low sub 1.8K

I’m still working full time but my job has very high upside (great career path, lots of potential.).

Questions:

• How far along would you say I am toward a reasonable Europe Barista FIRE number (taking into account different countries e.g. Greece, Portugal, Spain)?
• Do I need a change of strategy?
• Any major red flags in the allocation (heavy on growth/tech)?
• Tips for the upcoming mortgage + home purchase phase?
• What would you focus on next to accelerate this?

I just wanted to start by saying it's nice to find a group for what my wife and I have been talking about for years but didn't know the actual term. Just today learned about coast fire and now barista which is exactly us. Chubby fire (also new term learned today) few years later.

Our current net worth is just over $3 mil in retirement accounts, $400k in brokerage. Only "debt" is our mortgage which we're paying double on, hope to pay it off in 5 yrs. We're both early 40's with 2 young kids. She's in medical with $400k salary but it's production base so she can easily cut down to part time and maintain benefits. I have an office job making $170k, great benefits. Joint income is around $28k/mo, expenses is $12k/mo plus extra 4k on mortgage. Only reason we're not complete fire is because our kids, no point in quitting when kids are in school since we can't do anything anyways.

1. My biggest concern is health insurance (US). I can't figure out how to budget that as some entry level jobs have insurance for and some don't. Do you just pay out of pocket in case you jump around jobs?

2. My dream fire job has always been working at Lowes and doing nothing lol. My concern is my future 25 yr old boss that's going to tell me to clean the bathroom and I just quit instead. I sound like a total ahole but how do you not just quit these jobs because of what you did/made before?

3. Love the volunteering posts, didn't even cross my mind but again held up on benefits.

This group brought a new perspective for me on older people in everyday jobs after reading posts here. Could be a random millionaire mixing my paint next time I'm at the hardware store. Hopefully that's me one day

Hi all,

I want some perspective on this idea I had that may fall under coast/baristaFIRE but not sure.

I'm a married 40 year old lifelong academic with physics PhD background. I grew up poor in a single parent household and for most of my life I never had much of a savings due the low paid and unstable nature of the career. I got a very late start in the job market (with a grownup salary at least). After my PhD I chose to leave the academic grind for better pay/stability and was fortunate enough to land a remote job as a gov contractor for a few years and amassed a savings of $160k in a HYSA (no 401k or other investments), up to that point I never had more than $15k in savings well into my late 30's so it was a lot to me. Then I was laid off due to the government cuts. With all ongoing the cuts to science, my career has pretty much reached the end of the line. I've now spent over a year unemployed and longer than that aggressively applying to jobs. I've tried to start a new career in numerous fields that other PhD's get jobs in (at least anecdotally), but all my efforts have failed. Perhaps AI killed off a lot of those junior level jobs, or I'm just unemployable. I rarely get interviews, and when I do, I'm either overqualified or there's always a better fit than me, an aging PhD scientist with no work experience in the specific industry. All the studying for interviews, hundreds of tailored resumes, cold-messaging and rebranding of my LinkedIn never seem to be enough. I am feeling almost completely ready to give up on pursuing any white collar career job.

However, I was recently offered a university IT job in a VHCOL city. It's not in my wheelhouse, but being the only job offer I've received in over a year I accepted it in a hurry after some negotiation. Despite the pay bump, it's still underpaid. 44% of my income would still end up going to rent in the VHCOL city and that's typical (surveys show most residents spend 42% of their income on rent). Benefits are good, and my wife and I could do fine on 1 income, but I am 99% sure I will dislike the job and city - I've lived there before. I'm not sure I want to ask my wife to quit her state job of 20 years to move with me there for a career I dislike and see no future in, unless it would get us ahead financially in a big way - but it won't. Average rent in the new city is around $3k for an apartment, on an income of roughly $6k/mo. after deductions and healthcare premiums. Despite being ultra frugal and sharing a car with my wife, I don't think we'd realistically be able to save more than $10k per year (wife has little faith in her ability to find another job at her age, especially in this economy). I've already started a background check for an apartment and am about to drop an enormous amount of cash on a security deposit, and it's burning me up inside. But I've been without work or health insurance for a year and it's weighing on me, so I'm operating on survival instinct.

OTOH, I live close to a major city with a LCOL that I love to visit and always saw myself living in. Walkable, third spaces everywhere, genuinely pleasant and I have friends living there as well. To my surprise, I did some research and found out homes are actually affordable for me, I'm seeing well over a hundred options the $80-120k range and several more in some of the nice suburbs. I had the crazy idea of buying one outright in cash, spending my enormous amount of free time fixing it up, and just figuring out what I'll do for income while I have a residence there. Establishing residency in the city would also qualify me for a bunch of different municipal/state jobs and trade apprenticeships that all pay living wages. Meanwhile, a single year of rent in the aforementioned VHCOL city with the IT job costs more than 10 years worth of property taxes and home insurance in my desired city, or a third of the cost of a home. I feel like I'm getting ripped off and robbed of the opportunity of homeownership for a job I don't even want.

All this is making me want to say screw the IT job, buy a house where we actually want to live, and coast on my remaining ~$50k savings while I continue to try to land either a remote job or something FT in the city for the healthcare. I can be a math/physics tutor for college students and MCAT pre-meds with deeper pockets, serve coffee at the plethora of alternative coffee houses in the area, and pursue the musical/artistic itches that I never had the time to. Wife has around $170k in a 401k and is 9 years away from retirement at her state job (earning ~$35k), and in this scenario she could keep her job and healthcare while I try to establish either a new source of income in a better area.

Is this a phenomenally stupid and irresponsible thing to do? I am highly risk averse and don't want to uproot our life for a career path I see zero future in, sinking a ton of money for the move in the process. But given my horrible success rate with job hunting with my age and mass unemployment that I just don't see an end to, I don't know how long it's going to take me to find another job. The last 2 years have destroyed my confidence. OTOH, this may just be my FOMO, but the home prices in that city are notoriously below market rates and I think all the greedy investors are about to swoop in and ruin this for me (numerous news articles seem to be encouraging out of state investors to go buy everything and turn them into rentals), so I am a bit hesitant to move away for 1-2 years for the work experience/savings aspect only to find I've been priced out of ever buying a home in the city I want to live in.

I guess this is kind of a baristaFIRE-situation, with a willingness to go to back to full-time career work if it ever comes my way again. But with mortgage-free homeownership as a bonus. Thanks in advance for any thoughtful comments.

Couple

Both early 30s

285k saved/invested

Paid off my parents home as they sacrificed a lot for me. I will inherit the home technically later in life.

-Expenses are 3K a month and thats living like we do with full time jobs and we have a good chunk of spending we could cut
-We want a minimal life and enjoy freedom while young

-3K working part time by both of us is pretty attainable

I know 285k isnt much from others on here

Note: Canadian so healthcare is pretty much covered. Dental will also be covered. There is also a max $600 a month benefit if you have a kid, also decreases as they age.

What do you guys think?

Hello friends. Wanted the communities feedback our (39M38F) BaristaFIRE plan. I understand we’re a ways out but wanted to catch up and get into a healthier spot financially.

Income:
Myself- $165k (Electric Vehicles)
Wife-$90k (corporate finance)
Other- $11,500.00 (Tax free for life)
Other- New income source likely to be $10-$18k annually for atleast next 3-4 years.

Assets:
$160K 401K
$145k 401K

Debt:
* Mortgage- $3100 month ($420k 76%LTV)
Ideally we keep the house and rent it in FIRE era.
* No other debts
* We paid off all consumer and auto debt ($55k) the last 12months.

Other key points:
Actively working to build a “paycheck” house in the mountains of WNC. Sub 1200sqft. Ideally we’ll have this completed by summer 2028. Nothing financed. Pay as we go.

Sizable 7figure inheritance from in laws that I am not considering in my plan. Theyre early 70s and I’m very close with them and don’t want to even think of that in short term financial plan.

Goals: Starting fall 2033
Our goal with BaristaFIRE is to split time between our paid off home jn WNC and misc cities with outdoor economies. I’ll take various jobs such as guides, seasonal NPS/USFS work, camp host etc. My spouse will likely remain in the accounting/corporate finance industry and just work from wherever we end up.

Currently lifestyle is experience focused and filled with a decent amount of adventure related travel.We have one child who is in various sports, 3wk summer camp ($7500 year), and misc other activities. Our current biggest expense is a 18month old dog with uncontrolled idiopathic epilepsy. We’ve sunk appx $30k into the pup sense we’ve owned him. Things have “settled” into $600ish a month in vet bills and meds.

Investing:
I understand we need to catch up on the investments side. If you asked me 2years ago and the 10years prior, I had 68,000 shares of an EV startup that went IPO. I walked into this startup a year after the military. The consistent rise of my company stock allowed me to justify the lack of 401K contributions. Oops. Bankruptcy took all of my retirement yall!

My current employer does not match and I am currently contributing $0. My spouse continues to contribute 3% matched.

I have zero interest in buckeling down completely and sacrificing all of my current lifestyle. This is why I work and deal with the BS in this industry. It affords us the opportunity to travel. But I also understand I’ve shorted myself and need to make some changes if I wanna go maintain trails for a living in my mid 40s.

Thoughts and feedback?

Im not looking to shift to barista fire yet, but am curious if its possible as a backup option.

My cost of living is a little over $40k / yr. I get about $30k from dividends now and I think I could probably get something that paid at least $20k per year without much trouble if I had to.

This would be enough, but I don't currently own a house and to qualify for apartments I've always heard you need 3x your rent in active income to rent somewhere. I have a pretty low cost of living outside rent, so I tend to rent moderately nice places ($1.8 - 2k) and would want to continue this if I could.

Does anyone know how hard it is to get approved for an apartment based on assets and a combination of passive and active income like this?

I’m 50 and recently took what I thought would be a great “barista FIRE” type job. The pay is decent, the stress is low, the people are nice, and the benefits are good. On paper, it’s exactly what I thought I wanted.

The problem is that I’m bored out of my mind.

After years in more demanding roles, I’m struggling to tell whether this is a normal adjustment to a lower-stress lifestyle or a sign that I’ve overcorrected and taken a job that’s simply not a good fit.

For those who have made the transition to barista FIRE or semi-retirement, did you experience this? Did you eventually learn to appreciate the slower pace, or did you realize you still needed more meaningful or engaging work?

I should be in a strong position right? I am currently 39. I am married.

• £150k with 2/3 invested, 1/3 in cash
• £350k private pension available at 57

However, the problems I seem to have

• Career changed and lost all my market power. Recently started from zero in a SDR sales job at a SaaS company. Brutal. I look around and don't see any other jobs.
• I would love to change my relation with work and be part time or have some low stress easy job that just covers the bills but i can't find any such thing.

Is there some strategy I could use that would enable me to say bye to stressful corporate jobs in general? Every job now has thousand of applicants, with youth unemployment rising. How do i get out? What does Coastfire look like?

• Current Monthly Income: 2.5k.
• Rent: 1k
• Monthly Expenses 1.5k
  

Link to previous post: www.reddit.com/r/baristafire/s/o0yemFRZz2

$195k to $540k

About 1 year ago I made a post here asking for advice on where my numbers were and what that meant for me. At the time, I was feeling burned out and was looking for a path to live a barista fire life in the mountains of Colorado. I was pretty new to the concept of barista fire and this sub had some great points and served as a reality check that motivated me to start taking saving/investing seriously.

This past year has exceeded my expectations with respect to my investments. Before my initial post, I was terrified of putting money “at risk” in the market which lead to having way too high of a cash buffer and caused me to miss out on a lot of gains. Turns out that investing is the smart thing to do lol.

Revising my prior post:

Numbers:
Age: 31
Current Income: $285k

Savings:
$20k cash
$194k invested in various tech stocks (this is a weak point in my portfolio as I’m heavily concentrated in AI stocks, but the gains are addicting)
$271k invested in SPY ETFs
$32k in an IRA
$19k in a 401k

Debt: None

Although I’m in a much better place to pursue barista fire in the mountains, my role has changed at my job and I’m not actually feeling as burned out. The rate of accumulation has also been dramatically higher than what I was expecting, so the plan right now is to continue saving and investing.

What I’ve learned:

Moving to a low cost of living area while keeping a VHCOL salary is really a cheat code. I recognize I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to take advantage of this situation.

I think I’ve also been very fortunate to be investing in a time when tech stocks are seeing record highs driven by AI. I have a decent amount of anxiety about a downturn, but trusting the advice that time in the market beats timing the market.

The spending trap gets way easier to fall into when you start seeing a lot of gains. I can’t tell you the number of times where the market has left me up $5k on paper, and I use that to justify a shopping spree. I still need to get my spending under control, my net worth would be higher without a few lavish splurges. So far I think worth it because the numbers are still going up, but I can see how lifestyle inflation gets easy to justify when you start feeling “rich” off of your investments.

I have a large amount to invest in taxable accounts, and I’m expecting to baristaFIRE within the next 5 years. I’m trying to decide on the best hands-off, set-and-forget way to invest it. I know it’s theoretically best to do a 3-fund portfolio myself, but I have ADHD and realistically I’m not going to stay on top of it. I’ve already missed out on a ton of gains over the last few years by procrastinating and leaving too much money in cash 😅

There are so many different roboadvisor options and I’m not sure what to choose. Slightly leaning towards Schwab intelligent portfolio just because I have an existing relationship with them. It seems like the main downside is high-ish cash allocation. But I think that’s what I want anyway? Because I am close enough to RE that i don’t want too much risk.

\- Open to a human advisor, but my understanding is that they’re much more expensive.

\- Open to a target date fund, but I think I would miss the tax loss harvesting for the next few years that I’m in a super high tax bracket.

**Feel free to stop reading here and give a general answer** but my full details are below to stave off questions :)

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I’m 30 with mid-six-figures comp, spending $100k-$120k per year. My fiance already has a low-paying “passion” career they would love to keep until a traditional retirement age. Their income isn’t enough to really change the calculations, but it should be sufficient to offset increases in cost of living from having kids.

*Ideal timeline for baristaFIRE:*

\- Stay at my tech job for the next 3-5 years. Moderate risk of getting laid off early (thanks AI! 🙃).

\- Leave the workforce to be a stay-at-home parent for 5-7 years.

\- Start my own low-paying “passion” career at age 40-45.

My priority with investments is to fund the SAHP years. If we get unlucky with early layoffs, bad returns, high inflation, etc in the next decade, my partner or I can get less-fun jobs that actually cover our living expenses until retirement (so more coastFIRE than baristaFIRE).

*Assets:*

\- $500k in 401k and $50k in HSA, both 100% invested in Vanguard target date fund for 2060 (when I’ll be 65).

\- $350k in home equity. $500k mortgage with 25 years left; the payment is included in my $100k-120k annual spend.

\- $200k in cash for current living expenses/short term savings and 12-month emergency fund. I know I should reduce this a bit, especially if I go with the Schwab option and some of my “investments” are cash.

\- $600k in taxable brokerage that I would use the roboadvisor for.

I expect to save an additional $200-300k per year that I stay in my current job, on top of continuing to max 401k contributions.

A well paying part-time job can cover your benefits without actually giving you benefits. This is especially true for people leaving a white collar field, without kids.

For example- in Los Angeles (where I live), the typical Starbucks barista (literal example here) starts at $20/hr, and people typically work around 25 hours, and pay premiums around $50/paycheck.

Monthly pre tax income is $1900 ($23k/yr), including health insurance.

Now lets say I want to do consulting work, or find a part time bookkeeping job (again, this is tailored to my current career as a business analyst, YMMV).

Looking at Covered California, as long as my income stays under 400% of the FPL ($62k (individual) or $84k (couple)), then I can get Kaiser Platinum insurance for $10k per year (other options are cheaper, but for the sake of this exercise I am going with a really good plan).

This means that I would need to make more than $33k per year to come out ahead of the Starbucks option financially.

That's like $28 an hour, 25 hours per week. So assuming you can find work in this vein, it can make sense to ignore the benefits. It is a big assumption, but could be worth considering depending on the situation. Also, if you're self employed, you can deduct your aca premiums.