Barista FIRE Calculator
Quit full-time first.
Barista FIRE means leaving full-time work before you can fully retire: your investments cover most of your spending, and part-time work covers the rest. It is the halfway house of early retirement, and it arrives years before full retirement would, because your portfolio only has to do part of the job.
Set your switch age and part-time income in Step 1. The projection shows whether investments plus part-time earnings carry you through to super. No sign-up needed to try it.
- No sign-up needed
- Australian tax rules, year by year
- Free to try
Step 1
Quick FIRE Check
Current annual spending excluding your home mortgage.
Max $1,308/month to stay under concessional cap
Why Barista FIRE happens years earlier
The arithmetic is heavily in your favour. If you spend $60,000 a year, full early retirement needs your portfolio to produce all $60,000 - roughly $1.5 million as a planning estimate. But if part-time work brings in $30,000, your portfolio only needs to cover the other half - roughly $750,000. Halving the requirement can pull the date forward by a decade.
There's a second Australian advantage: staying employed part-time keeps super guarantee contributions flowing, so your super keeps building through semi-retirement and takes over completely once it unlocks at 60.
Barista FIRE vs Coast FIRE
They're often confused. Coast FIRE means you can stop saving - your existing investments will grow to your retirement target on their own, but you still work to pay the bills. Barista FIRE means you can stop working full-time - investments plus part-time income cover your life. Coast FIRE usually arrives first; Barista FIRE is the bigger lifestyle change. (More detail: Coast FIRE explained →)