Barista FIRE

Barista FIRE is a semi-retirement strategy within the FIRE movement where someone leaves their primary high-stress, high-paying career and takes a lower-stress part-time or full-time job that covers current living expenses, while their existing investments continue to grow toward a full FIRE number.

The name is commonly attributed to working at a coffee shop like Starbucks, which historically offered healthcare benefits to part-time employees in the US — solving one of the most significant pre-Medicare healthcare cost problems for early semi-retirees.

The financial logic: if your investments cover, say, 70% of your expenses, and part-time work covers the remaining 30%, your portfolio can continue growing rather than shrinking. Over time, investment growth makes you fully financially independent without requiring additional savings.