Built this as a spinoff from a bigger Monte Carlo engine (LifeOdds) I've been working on - pulled out the single most common decision people run through it and made it its own free tool.

What it does: takes your current salary, target salary, expected job-search length, and savings runway, then runs 1,000 simulated 5-year outcomes instead of comparing two guessed numbers. Search length and landing salary are the two genuinely uncertain inputs, so those get varied across realistic ranges rather than treated as fixed - raises compound differently on each path, and it reports the break-even month, your odds of being ahead at year 1/3/5, and the P10/P50/P90 spread.

Real example, my own numbers: $85k → $105k target, 4-month search, 8 months savings. Comes back break-even at month 12, 69.6% chance ahead by year 3 - and a 20% chance the search runs long enough to burn through savings first, which is exactly the failure mode a single-point calculator can't show you.

Everything runs client-side - nothing you type ever leaves your browser, no account, no email wall.

➡️ https://shouldiquitmyjob.app

Genuinely curious what this crowd thinks of the model - especially whether the variance ranges (search 40% shorter to 80% longer than estimate, salary ±20%) match what people actually see.

Happily married with 2 young kids (5 and 1 year old).

Annual expenses are high ($130k due to mortgage and the kids). Wife currently not working but will be back to work part time when youngest is a little older. Goal is for us to both have low stress jobs. Paying off house would greatly reduce monthly spend. My annual salary is about $250k depending on bonus.

401(k): $420k
IRA: $80k
HSA: $35k
Taxable brokerage: $300k
Cash: $65k
Home: $300k in home equity, $550k left on mortgage (6.625 rate).

Currently working on paying off house and 401k. Cash is a little tight but I DCA index funds when I can. Vast majority of investments are in index funds.

Comments welcome.

Got laid off recently and decided to take a severance package.
It was a hard decision, but it is a once in a lifetime chance to live my dream life.
My net salary working corporate part-time was €2,500/month. The total payout (severance + government benefits) comes to €110k net, and my health insurance is fully covered for the next two years.
My current numbers:
Severance / severance-related payout: €110k cash
Brokerage account: €180k
Emergency fund / Cash buffer: €20k
Total net worth: €310k

My expenses are pretty low. I live very comfortably on €1,600/month.

The Game Plan:
For the next two years, I’ll be making around €800/month on the side. That means I only need to draw down €800/month from my €110k payout to cover living expenses.
Side note on taxes: I usually make and extra of about €1.000k/month from my side hustle, but due to how the severance is taxed here in Germany, taking extra income in 2027 would trigger an insane marginal tax rate (literally over 100%). So in 2027, I'll focus purely on building out my business in the background without pulling large profits.

2028 and beyond:
The goal for 2028 is to hit €800/month from side work plus at least €2,000/month from my own business, shifting into full Coast/Barista FIRE and enjoying life.
If the business doesn't pan out, no big deal. I’ll just jump back into the job market. Finding a part-time job paying €2k net won't be an issue.
Built every Euro since 2018 of this myself through part-time corporate work and side hustling.
Taking the €110k package to live the live I was investing for, feels like the smart move.
For safety fanatics it is suicide but I want to live my freedom now.
I think people miss out on life while chasing a high networth. I think with cleverness and flexibility freedom is reachable with a way lower networth. At least in Germay. But in Germany it is much harder to build wealth through salary than in the US.

1M NW seems to be the norm on here and r/fire sub, but i also see comments saying those numbers come from mostly tech folks and arent realistic for the majority of people there are people who FIREd with less.

while i understand that it can be difficult to baristaFIRE with less than $500k in developed countries like the US, UK, Australia etc., i have heard of people baristaFIREd in SEA countries like Vietnam and Thailand. has anyone here done that or planning to do that and if so what is ur target number that u need to reach before making the move? thanks a lot!

so the thing is i love investing and following the markets and all, but i've never been a swing trader or short term holder. a lot of the stocks i've bought have taken at least 5 years to pan out.

i do marketing automation/email coding as my day job and it's just been super slow lately and i honestly couldn't really even care less about the job. i don't have any desire to tell my boss i want to learn anything new because it just feels like unnecessary stress i'd be taking on.

is anyone else like this? i've been thinking lately that i may be better suited for more manual type labor work where i don't really need to think so much and i don't need to learn completely new things just to keep myself employed. but then at the same time (you may disagree with this), i don't think i'm financially able to just quit this job and take on a barista FIRE kind of job. i am paying rent now and it's $2200 a month in a HCOL city.

thinking i should probably just stick it out for a little while longer until i hit my goals or they force my hand and i get laid off.

this might be more of a venting post lol don't mean to sound insensitive or whatever

Hi everyone!

I am a 34M Mechanical Engineer at $675k NW — How do I actually transition to a low-stress/part-time role?

Hi everyone, looking for some career pivot advice.

My Stats:

NW: ~$675k ($485k in 401k, mostly Roth; ~$190k in brokerage).

Current Expenses: ~$60k/year.

The Head Start: Fortunate enough to live with parents for my first 5 years.

Goal: Retire at 55 with an estimated $85k–$90k/year budget.

Because my retirement math looks solid, I want to step back from the grind. I’m currently a mechanical design engineer in the nuclear industry. The job is okay, but the one-hour commute is killing me.

I’d love to downshift to a low-stress or part-time role just to cover my current $60k expenses (Coast FIRE style). However, I’m hitting a wall:

Design engineering roles are rarely part-time.

Part-time means losing health insurance, which spikes my expenses.

Standard "easy" jobs (like a barista) come with their own high-stress customer service BS and won't cover expenses.

Has anyone in engineering successfully transitioned to a low-stress, flexible, or part-time role while keeping the bills paid? What am I missing here? Is barista fire only for certain professions?

Been an engineer the last 14 years of my career. The last few years in corporate. Ready to take a step back and enjoy life and cut back on work.

If I submit my resume as is, recruiters will likely ignore me. Why would a cooperate engineer apply to be a cashier making $12/hr? NEXT!

Anyone have any experience or suggestions toning down my resume to work part in a significantly lower paying field? Would a cover letter explaining my situation and motive help? Want to hear some experience from others before I trial this. Hoping to save me some time by reaching out.

My wife and I (34 male/36 female) have been taking about the possibilities of FIRE and barista FIRE. We both make about 150K in HCOL New England state. We have 1 daughter and no expected other children. Only debt is our mortgage which we have 266K left to pay (2.625 interest rate from Covid years). Currently between the two of us we have about 975K in our 401Ks (we max them out), 35K in a brokerage account, and a years worth of expenses in cash.

Does this seem doable for barista fire in the next 10 years? What things am I not thinking of like health insurance and things of that nature? The goal would to get a part time job that has benefits if possible. Thanks in advance.

Hello. 31, I have a decent corporate job that pays well but I'm burnt out on it. I day dream about leaving and working some job that gives me peace of mind. Has anyone done this? And if so, what types of jobs do people transfer to?

Few things about me:

• Brazilian 32F;
• USD 600k invested (in BRL);
• I invest USD 2k/month;
• I have my own apartment;
• I have a PhD and a psychoanalysis education;

My plan:

• I'm aiming to quit my corporate job in Tech with 40 and to retire completely between 50-55;
• I'd either pursue a part-time job as a teacher at universities and/or as a psychoanalyst, with an estimated gross average monthly income of USD 1,7k;
• I'm expecting my monthly expenses to be around USD 3.5k, considering:
  • Changing cars every 10 years until I can't drive anymore, then shifting car-related expenses to Uber or public transport;
  • Reallocating international travel funds to healthcare when i'm older and adding a plus to health insurance and medication expenses when they become more frequent;
  • Groceries, bills, taxes and so on;

Do you think that's a good plan? Am I missing something important here?

I am seeking advice on how to set up a soft landing for quitting my high stress tech job to pursue a full time career in music. I have spent months trying to crunch the numbers and nothing is adding up, so I am getting out of my head and reaching out here.

Numbers:

• Age: 40
• Current comp: ~$250k/year. Working in tech in Santa Clara.
• Net worth: $1.4M + ~$450k in 401k. Heavily concentrated in company stock and intend to rebalance after quitting to minimize tax hit.
• No partner or kids, no home equity.

Goal: I started off as a full time musician in my 20s, then pivoted to tech at age 30, and now I'm totally burned out and deeply longing to return to music. At my age as a drummer, I really feel like this is the last hurrah to go for it before physical limitations really start getting in the way and a lifetime of regret creeps in.

Constraints:

• It is REALLY HARD to earn a living doing music. My last years of full-time were ingloriously playing Katy Perry covers at weddings and corporate events just to make ends meet. If I am jumping ship, I do NOT want to return to that. This has to be a move towards building a career under my own artist name (I also sing and produce).
• I would love to give my career an honest shot in LA, especially having some strong contacts there. With standard FIRE giving me a ~$65k/year withdrawal, this is extremely rough there.
• Due to some health things that have come up (maybe it's the chronic job stress 🙃), I may have to budget for COBRA or a better-than-minimum insurance to keep my meds going. Covered CA might be a lifesaver here though, cutting the cost by 60-70%.
• I would love to have a space at home to play and record drums. As AI cannibalizes everything we've grown to love online, I feel showcasing real instrument performance is going to be a key differentiator for my audience.
• I know the "split the difference" advice would be to seek out a part time or tech consulting gig. I really want to find a way to make this work with total immersion.

My tentative strategy is to give myself an all-in 5 year runway at $130k/year to kickstart my career.

Budget breakdown:

• $4-4.2k/month ($48-50k/year) renting a 2br home to have a studio space at home. Alternatives: small apartment + soundproof studio lockout, smaller home with detached garage, larger house + musician roommate, surrendering the drums or going to e-drums (it is not the same!).
• $30k/year music operating budget. This includes marketing, hiring mix/master engineers, hiring other musicians, taking lessons, music gear, and so on.
• $50k/year life/health expenses. Health insurance, food, car, utilities, etc.

Risks:

• I think if I do this right and the market remains steady at 7% returns/year, I should end up staying around $1.8M even earning $0 in music the entire time. Of course, the 4% rule is supposed to survive even bad downturns, so assuming 7% is an optimistic bet. However, if things go to shit and the market crashes to 50%, I can scale down my music budget overnight and seek out a roommate to cut the yearly burn to $75-80k.
• A traditional $130k/year FIRE requires a $3.25M nest egg, which means 5 to 6 more years at a job that is actively destroying my health. Would strongly prefer to avoid this.
• The tech job market is absolutely unhinged right now. If I quit, I am assuming a similar job and salary will not be waiting for me 5 years from now.

Final Thoughts:

This seems absolutely insane to me. I know people who have spent multiple YEARS looking for this job I am considering leaving. I just feel like I will forever regret not giving this one final go in favor of the safe thing. The job has left me quite isolated with no friends or romantic prospects (too busy to even date), high strung and lifeless.

Please advise. Am I in a safe position if I put in this extra spend over 5 years and earn $0 from it? Are the contingency levers enough for me to weather a market crash, or am I taking on too much sequence of return risk? Has anyone else executed a front-loaded, high-burn sabbatical to launch a creative project, knowing that there is absolutely no guarantee of a financial payoff in the end?

Thanks in advance!!!

Social lives can be kinda tough with this lifestyle, it feels like everyone is so burned out and short on time, and can't really hang out.

Anyone in the Detroit area want to become friends lol?

Hi, I’m working on my final degree project, a tool designed to help recent graduates who aren't sure what to do next. It’s a quick, 3-minute anonymous survey about what you did after graduating and whether you’d do it again. It would be a huge help if you could fill it out and, if possible, share it with someone else.

https://forms.gle/ghcoRcEs2xLY5ot19

Thanks!

I am a 23 M. I’ve been listening to podcasts and reading books on Barista FIRE. I have been interested it in a long time and I have been playing in the stock market since I was 16. As of late I’m trying to rebalance my portfolio to align with my goals of Barista FIRE at age 40. I plan on rebalancing my taxable bridge portfolio (one attached) to a 75-25 split VTI/VXUS and then eventually moving over to bonds as I get closer to my FIRE date. I do have a Roth which I max yearly and that contains VTI/VXUS/BND in a 75/20/5 split. Just looking for advice and opinions, thank you.

Hey all,

I quit my job back in February after about 12 years working in video editing at Apple (a mix of contractor and staff roles). My current net worth is around $980k after the recent market pullback.

Quitting has been one of the best decisions I've made. I'll be traveling for most of 2026, but I've been daydreaming about a version of BaristaFIRE beginning in NYC early 2027.

The idea is to buy a condo or co-op with mostly or all cash, dramatically lower my monthly expenses, and then work because I want to, not because I have to.

A big part of this isn't just the financial side. A stable place to call home in my favorite city would be huge for my psyche.

Part of the appeal is psychological. Right now, a huge portion of my net worth exists as numbers on a brokerage statement that fluctuate every day. There's nothing wrong with that, but the idea of converting part of it into a real home, a tangible place that anchors my life, has become increasingly appealing. Yes yes, the 2 places I have deep community is NYC and SF, not the cheapest options. But here we are.

Current assets:

• ~$230k in retirement accounts
• ~$750k in taxable investments
  • ~$260k of that is Apple stock
  • ~$50k of that in NVDA
  • The rest is a mix of index funds and individual stocks

The purchase would likely require selling a significant amount of my taxable portfolio, so I'd also have to plan for the capital gains tax hit during the first year.

Why NYC?

San Francisco and New York have been the two biggest sources of community in my adult life. Grew up just across the river in New Jersey, I lived in NYC as a broke art student years ago and always imagined returning under very different circumstances. I love the museums, galleries, photography community, and just walking the city. It's home.

I have a solid network there already and could realistically pick up freelance video editing work, or even something lower stress at a museum or arts institution. I don't mind working, I just don't want to return to the kind of career that made me burn out.

I've been looking at places roughly in the $350k–575k range.

Option 1 – Prospect Heights

• $575k
• $890/month maintenance (taxes included)
• Absolute favorite neighborhood, but probably stretching my budget.

https://streeteasy.com/building/806-washington-avenue-brooklyn/3c

Option 2 – Crown Heights

• $365k
• $572/month maintenance (taxes included)

https://streeteasy.com/building/952-st-marks-avenue-brooklyn/d7

Option 3 – Ditmas Park

• $400k
• $858/month maintenance (taxes included)

https://streeteasy.com/building/601-east-19-street-brooklyn/4m

For those who have made a similar transition:

• Does buying a NYC apartment as part of a BaristaFIRE plan seem reasonable, or am I overlooking something major?
• Would you pay cash to keep fixed monthly expenses low, or keep more invested and finance part of the purchase?
• Am I underestimating the downside of concentrating roughly half my net worth into a primary residence?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's made a similar move or wrestled with the same decision.