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Coast FIRE vs Barista FIRE

They get mentioned in the same breath and they are not the same milestone. One is about having finished saving. The other is about having started withdrawing. Enter your numbers once and see both.

Coast FIRE number
$401,772
What you need invested today to reach $1,500,000 by 65 with no further contributions.
52% of the way
Barista FIRE number
$900,000
What you need now for the portfolio to cover $36,000 a year, with part-time income covering the rest.
23% of the way
Where you stand
Coast FIRE is the nearer milestone, $191,772 away. It is the one worth aiming at first, because reaching it means every dollar you save after that is optional.

The difference in one sentence each

Coast FIRE is the point where what you have already invested will grow into a full retirement by your target age without another contribution, so you still work, but only to cover today's costs.

Barista FIRE is leaving full-time work before the portfolio can cover everything, and letting part-time income cover the difference while the portfolio handles the rest.

The practical distinction is withdrawals. Someone coasting is not touching the portfolio; it compounds untouched toward the original date. Someone at Barista FIRE is drawing on it, just more slowly than a full retiree would.

Which arrives first

Coast, almost always. It only asks for enough invested today to compound into the target over the years remaining, and time does most of the work. Barista asks for a portfolio big enough to cover the gap between part-time income and spending starting immediately, which is a larger number unless that income is substantial.

That ordering has a practical consequence worth noticing: reaching Coast FIRE in your thirties or forties does not let you stop working, but it does mean every dollar saved afterwards is optional. For most people that is the more useful milestone, because it arrives early enough to change decisions.

Health insurance is usually the real variable

The Barista FIRE name comes from part-time roles that historically offered health benefits, and that is still the heart of it. If you stop full-time work before 65 you are buying your own coverage, and for a household that can run well over a thousand dollars a month. Part-time work that includes insurance is often worth far more than its wages.

This is the variable that decides whether Barista FIRE is realistic at a given number, and it is worth costing before anything else. We go through it in the health insurance gap before Medicare, and you can estimate yours with the health insurance gap calculator.

Going deeper on either one

For the single-milestone versions with more detail, use the Coast FIRE calculator or the Barista FIRE calculator. Both numbers here assume a constant real return, which is a clean way to compare two targets and a poor way to judge whether a plan survives a bad decade. For that, what a 90% success rate really means is the more useful read, and the planbend app runs the full projection with taxes, Social Security and healthcare included.

Common questions

What is the difference between Coast FIRE and Barista FIRE?
Coast FIRE means your invested savings are already large enough to grow into a full retirement by your target age without another dollar of contributions, so you only need to cover current living costs. Barista FIRE means leaving full-time work now and letting part-time income cover part of your spending while the portfolio covers the rest. Coast is about having finished saving; Barista is about having started withdrawing.
Which one comes first?
Coast FIRE almost always arrives first, because it only requires enough invested to compound into the target over the years you have left. Barista FIRE needs a portfolio large enough to cover the gap between part-time income and spending starting immediately, which is a bigger number unless the part-time income is substantial.
Can you be both at once?
Yes, and many people are. If you have hit Coast FIRE and take a part-time job that covers your living costs, you are coasting and baristaing simultaneously: no new contributions, no withdrawals, and the portfolio compounding toward the original retirement date.
Does Barista FIRE mean working in a coffee shop?
No. The name comes from part-time roles that historically offered health insurance, which is the real draw: covering the health insurance gap before Medicare is often worth more than the wages. Any part-time or seasonal work that covers part of your spending does the same job.
What return assumption should I use?
Both calculations here use a real, inflation-adjusted return, so every figure is in today's dollars. Between 4% and 7% is common for a diversified stock-heavy portfolio after inflation. Lower is more conservative, and the Coast number is especially sensitive to it because it compounds over many years.
planbend is a planning tool, not financial advice. Projections are estimates based on the assumptions you enter, and actual outcomes will differ.