Barista FIRE calculator
Barista FIRE is the version of financial independence where you stop needing a career but keep a small job — the coffee-shop shift that gives the strategy its name. Part-time income covers part of your spending, so your portfolio can be much smaller. Every other barista-FIRE calculator answers this with one line of arithmetic: (spending − part-time income) × 25. That formula ignores tax on the earnings, the fact that the job ends long before your spending does, Social Security, and the thing that makes barista FIRE genuinely work — health insurance subsidies. Coastline runs the actual projection.
What each level of part-time income is worth
Spending $60,000/yr from age 45, working part-time until 65, then fully retired to 95 with Social Security at 67. The engine solves for the portfolio that actually survives; the shortcut column is ($60,000 − part-time) × 25:
| Part-time income | Portfolio needed | 25× shortcut says | Shortcut error | % of FPL | ACA credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15,000 | $1,150,000 | $1,125,000 | +$25,000 | 96% | $0 |
| $20,000 | $1,070,000 | $1,000,000 | +$70,000 | 128% | $7,380 |
| $25,000 | $1,010,000 | $875,000 | +$135,000 | 160% | $6,635 |
| $30,000 | $940,000 | $750,000 | +$190,000 | 192% | $5,940 |
| $40,000 | $810,000 | $500,000 | +$310,000 | 256% | $4,356 |
Two things stand out. The shortcut is wrong by $135,000 at $25,000 of income, and it gets worse as the part-time income grows — because the formula treats a job that ends at 65 as if it lasted forever, and ignores the income tax on it. Meanwhile the ACA credit column is doing quiet, enormous work that no $0-cost formula can see.
The part nobody calculates: the subsidy sweet spot
Health insurance is the biggest single line in most early-retirement budgets, and the ACA premium credit is means-tested on MAGI. That gives barista FIRE a hidden advantage and a hidden trap, both driven by where your part-time income lands relative to the federal poverty level ($15,650 for one person in 2026):
- Below 100% FPL ($15,650) the credit is $0. The system assumes Medicaid covers you, which in non-expansion states may not happen. Earning too little is a real failure mode — and it is why "barista" income of a few thousand dollars can be worse than none at all in a plan that was counting on a subsidy.
- Between roughly 150% and 250% FPL the credit is at its most generous relative to what you pay. At $25,000 — 160% of FPL — the capped share of income is small, so the credit covers $6,635 of the $7,800 benchmark and you pay $1,165.
- Above 400% FPL ($62,600) the credit drops to $0 in one step. This is the ACA subsidy cliff, and it means a raise or extra shifts can cost you thousands. Past a point, more part-time work makes you poorer.
So barista FIRE is not simply "earn as much as you can stand." There is an income band that minimises the total of tax plus premiums, and it sits well below what most people would guess.
Barista FIRE vs Coast FIRE vs regular FIRE
| Strategy | What you do | Portfolio needed at 45 |
|---|---|---|
| Regular FIRE | Stop working entirely; the portfolio funds everything | $1,400,000 |
| Barista FIRE | Part-time work covers part of spending until 65 | $1,010,000 |
| Coast FIRE | Stop saving; keep working enough to cover all current spending while the portfolio grows untouched | Less again — but you're still working full-ish time |
Barista FIRE sits between the two: unlike Coast FIRE the portfolio is already being drawn on, and unlike full FIRE you still have earned income — which is precisely what keeps you in ACA subsidy territory and, incidentally, keeps adding Social Security credits.
What the projection catches that the formula can't
- Tax on the part-time income. $25,000 of wages is not $25,000 of spending money — federal income tax and payroll tax come off the top first, and the projection nets them properly instead of subtracting the gross figure from your spending.
- The job ends. Spending continues to 95; the earnings stop at 65. The portfolio has to be sized for the years after the part-time income disappears, which is the shortcut's largest single error.
- Social Security arrives. Benefits from 67 cover a meaningful share of late-life spending, which pulls every number down — and part-time earnings keep building your record.
- Sequence of returns. A downturn in your first few semi-retired years does lasting damage. Part-time income is a partial hedge, because it means fewer shares sold while prices are low.
Why Coastline's version is different
Most free calculators hand you a single headline number with the assumptions hidden. Coastline is built the opposite way:
- Real tax math, not a flat rate. It applies federal and state income tax, long-term capital-gains rules, and account-by-account treatment (taxable, traditional, Roth) — in both your working years and retirement.
- The whole journey. It models accumulation (saving and investing) and drawdown (spending it down), so you see how the plan connects end to end, not just one half.
- The math is shown. Every figure has a click-through breakdown of how it was computed — a level of transparency even paid tools rarely expose.
- US and Canada. It natively handles Canadian plans (RRSP, TFSA, CPP, OAS) alongside US accounts, which most calculators ignore.
- Free, no signup. No account, no email, no account-linking. Your inputs run the projection and are then discarded.
Educational, not tax or insurance advice. Figures: spending $60,000/yr in today's dollars from age 45, part-time earnings growing 3%/yr to age 65, then fully retired to 95; single filer in a no-income-tax state; 6% nominal return, 3% inflation; Social Security of $30,000 from 67; portfolio solved to the nearest $10,000 and split 60/30/10 taxable/traditional/Roth. ACA figures use the 2026 poverty guidelines with an illustrative $7,800 benchmark premium for a single 45-year-old — real premiums vary sharply by age, state, and plan. One modelling note: in the app the ACA premium credit is applied during a retired phase, so a barista plan built as a part-time earning phase shows the reduced portfolio but not the subsidy automatically; the credit figures here come from the same ACA module the projection uses, evaluated at the part-time income.
Common questions
What is Barista FIRE?
Semi-retirement: you leave your career but keep part-time work that covers part of your spending, so the portfolio you need is much smaller. The name comes from taking a coffee-shop job — historically for the health benefits. In this page's example, $25,000/yr of part-time work from 45 to 65 cuts the portfolio needed from $1,400,000 to $1,010,000.
How do I calculate my Barista FIRE number?
Most calculators use (annual spending − part-time income) × 25, which gives $875,000 here. A full projection gives $1,010,000 — $135,000 higher — because the shortcut ignores income tax on the earnings and treats a job ending at 65 as if it funded spending forever. The honest calculation runs the years one at a time, including taxes, health insurance, and Social Security.
How does part-time income affect ACA health insurance subsidies?
Substantially, in both directions. The premium credit is means-tested on MAGI: below 100% of the poverty level ($15,650 for one person in 2026) it is $0, above 400% ($62,600) it is also $0, and in between it can be large. At $25,000 of income — 160% of FPL — the credit covers $6,635 of an illustrative $7,800 benchmark plan, leaving about $97 a month. That subsidy is a major part of why barista FIRE works, and no 25× formula can show it.
Is Barista FIRE better than Coast FIRE?
They solve different problems. Coast FIRE means you stop saving but still work enough to cover all current spending, leaving the portfolio to grow untouched — lower risk, more working hours. Barista FIRE means the portfolio is already being drawn on while part-time income covers part of the gap — fewer hours, but you need a real balance ($1,010,000 in this example) and you carry market risk immediately.