With the FIRE Movement being around since the early 1990s, it has had plenty of time to evolve and grow to fit people’s different needs. Most people vary on their ideal retirement goals, and as such, there are many different ways to plan for retirement. Below is a list of a few of the variations of the FIRE Lifestyle.
The Fat FIRE Lifestyle focuses on having all of the comforts of modern life, yet still have enough saved for retirement, college for their kids, and other, miscellaneous expenses. This lifestyle focuses on generating enough passive income to cover expenses and meet savings goals.
The Lean FIRE Lifestyle is more focused on cutting back on expenses and living a minimalist, restricted lifestyle to save enough to reach financial independence, and make retirement savings last.
The Barista FIRE Lifestyle is the middle ground between the Lean and Fat FIRE Lifestyles. This lifestyle typically focuses on individuals who have quit their full-time job yet still work a part-time job to cover living expenses. This variation allows them to have a slimmer retirement fund, but still have the funds last as the part-time job stops the funds from draining too quickly.
This is essentially an offshoot of the Barista FIRE Lifestyle, though the key difference is adherents to Coast FIRE principles typically already have enough money saved to reach financial independence. Yet, they continue to work part-time as a means to cover non-essential and extra expenses.
Each of these lifestyles are valid ways to retire early, but they aren’t all applicable to everyone. It is up to the individual and their family to decide what will work best to achieve their desired results.
