The types of FIRE, explained
Financial independence comes in flavors. Four are about how much you spend — Lean, Regular, Chubby and Fat. Two are about how you get there — Coast and Barista. Enter your annual spending below and the classifier names your tier, your number, and where to go next — no sign-up, no gated answer.
Upper-middle comfort — no luxury, but no spreadsheet at dinner.
Your number is just spending ÷ 4%. The spoke adds your assets, contributions and a year-by-year projection. Or layer on a strategy — Coast or Barista — to reach it sooner.
Four tiers by annual spending, FIRE number at the current multiple. These are the synthesized consensus thresholds — sources vary, so the marker, not the label, is the point: it's where your number actually lands.
Two of the types aren't on this spectrum. Lean, Regular, Chubby and Fat answer how much you spend. Coast and Barista answer how you get there — they're strategies that work at any spend level, so you can't be "classified" into them by a number. See both, below ↓
Compare every type at a glance
| Type | Annual spend | FIRE number (25×) | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean | < $40k | under ~$1M | Frugal minimalists — a small, efficient life by design. Lean FIRE calculator → |
| Regular FIRE | $40k – $80k | $1M – $2M | A standard middle-class life — the movement's original target. FIRE calculator → |
| Chubby | ~$80k – $150k | ~$2M – $3.75M | Upper-middle comfort — no luxury, no spreadsheet at dinner. Chubby FIRE calculator → |
| Fat | $150k + | $5M + | Luxury with no real constraints on day-to-day spending. Fat FIRE calculator → |
FIRE number at the 4% rule (25× spending); a 3.5% rate (28.6×) raises every figure by about 14%. Thresholds are the synthesized consensus — sources put Chubby anywhere from $50k to $200k. Use the classifier to skip the argument and see where your number lands.
The two strategies
Lean, Regular, Chubby and Fat answer "how much?" — Coast and Barista answer "how do you get there?" These two aren't spending levels; they're approaches that work at any tier. You can be a Coasting Chubby, or a Lean Barista.
You've invested enough that growth alone reaches your full number by your target age — so you stop saving but keep working to cover today's costs.
- The number it changes
- A smaller, front-loaded balance today — then time does the rest.
Part-time work covers part of your spending, so you leave full-time work now and your portfolio covers only the gap that wage doesn't.
- The number it changes
- A mid-size portfolio — every dollar of wage removes 25× from your number.
Deciding between the two strategies? Barista FIRE vs Coast FIRE runs both numbers from one set of inputs. Weighing the top tiers? Chubby FIRE vs Fat FIRE.
The six types of FIRE
Financial independence on a deliberately small budget. Lean FIRE retirees live frugally — modest housing, low fixed costs, careful spending — and reach the finish line years sooner because their number is smaller. Under roughly $40k a year in spending, so under about $1M invested at the 4% rule.
It fits people who genuinely prefer a minimalist life, or who want out fast and will optimize hard to get there. The trade-off is a thin margin: less cushion for a bad market or a surprise expense.
Lean FIRE calculator →The original target — "normal" FIRE. A standard middle-class retirement, neither pinched nor plush, funded by a portfolio of roughly $1M to $2M. This is the baseline the whole movement grew up around, and the tier most people mean when they just say "FIRE."
If your comfortable year costs between $40k and $80k, this is you. It's the most common landing spot and the most flexible — easy to lean out of or chubby up from as your life changes.
FIRE calculator →The comfortable middle between Regular and Fat. Chubby FIRE funds upper-middle comfort — nice vacations, no anxiety over restaurant bills, a paid-off house — without the luxury (or the much larger number) of Fat FIRE. Spending of about $80k–$150k a year, or roughly $2M–$3.75M invested.
It's the fastest-growing tier because it captures how a lot of high earners actually want to live: free, but not austere.
Chubby FIRE calculator →Financial independence with no real spending constraints — first-class travel, a generous housing budget, whatever you like. Fat FIRE means $150k+ a year in spending, which at the 4% rule means $5M and up.
The lifestyle is the easy part; the number is the hard part. Fat FIRE usually takes a high income, a long runway, or both — and the math is unforgiving, since every $10k of annual spending adds $250k to the target.
Fat FIRE calculator →Not a spending level — a strategy. You've invested enough early that growth alone will reach your full number by your target age, so you stop saving and just cover today's costs with your job. The pressure of the savings grind disappears; the calendar stays the same.
Coast works at any tier — you can coast toward Lean, Regular, Chubby or Fat. It fits people with a long runway who like their work but hate the relentless saving.
Coast FIRE calculator →Also a strategy, not a tier. You leave full-time work now and let part-time income cover part of your spending, with your portfolio covering the rest. The name comes from part-time jobs that carry health insurance — the variable that makes or breaks the plan in 2026.
Barista frees your calendar rather than your savings rate, and it needs a smaller portfolio than full FIRE because the wage does some of the work. It pairs with any spending tier.
Barista FIRE calculator →How to find your type
It's a two-step read, because there are two axes. First, find your tier from your real annual spending — not your income, not a number you saw online. What does a comfortable year actually cost you? That answer, divided by your withdrawal rate, is your FIRE number, and it lands you in Lean, Regular, Chubby or Fat. The classifier above does exactly this.
Then pick a strategy for getting there. This is where Coast and Barista come in — and it's mostly about time and work:
- You're young with a long runway for growth to compound.
- You like your job (or don't mind it) and want to keep the income.
- You mainly want to kill the savings pressure, not the schedule.
- You want out of full-time work now, not in twenty years.
- You have a viable part-time path that covers part of your spending.
- That path ideally comes with health insurance — the make-or-break variable.
The two axes are independent: your tier says how big the number is; your strategy says how you reach it. A Chubby spender can coast or barista just as a Lean one can.
Can you move between types?
Yes — the types aren't boxes you're locked into. Most people move through them as income, life and goals change. Two paths are common:
Up the tiers as income grows. Plenty of people start aiming Lean or Regular, then revise upward as their earnings and tastes rise — the target moves with the lifestyle they actually want. The number grows proportionally, so the timeline stretches unless saving keeps pace.
Down the work ladder over time. A common sequence is to coast first (hit your coast number, stop saving), then years later downshift to a part-time Barista arrangement once the portfolio has grown — and finally to full FIRE when the balance covers everything. The strategies stack neatly on one timeline; Barista vs Coast works through that in detail.
How the numbers work
Every figure on this page is a rule of thumb in today's dollars. Your FIRE number is your annual spending divided by a safe withdrawal rate — that's the whole engine the classifier runs. The tiers are spending bands; the strategies (Coast, Barista) change how you fund the number, not the number itself.
- FIRE number = annual spending ÷ SWR — a 25× multiple at the 4% default, 28.6× at 3.5%.
- Tier thresholds are the synthesized consensus: Lean < $40k, Regular $40k–$80k, Chubby $80k–$150k, Fat $150k+. Classification is half-open, so $80k reads as Chubby.
- 4% safe withdrawal rate — the Trinity Study baseline. Pre-tax, today's dollars throughout.
- Sources disagree on the exact bands — you'll see Chubby quoted from $50k to $200k. The classifier sidesteps the argument by placing your own number.
- Assets, contributions and year-by-year projections stay off here — they live on each type's dedicated calculator.
Educational, not financial advice. The tier thresholds are conventions, not rules — sources disagree, and your real situation (taxes, healthcare, where you live) shifts the number. Markets don't deliver a steady return, and the 4% rule is a guideline, not a guarantee. Use this to frame which type fits you — not as a plan to act on without judgment.
Find your type here. Track your number in the app.
This page names your type and your number. The app does the other half: it tracks your real net worth against that number as your accounts grow, so you can watch the gap close month by month.
- Net worth vs. your FIRE number — every account against the target, tracked over time.
- Spending → 25× → projection — the same core math, kept live as you log real balances.
- Check in and watch the trend — FIRE stops being a one-time guess.
Straight talk: the app has no Lean/Chubby/Fat "flavor" concept and no withdrawal-rate slider — that classification lives here, on the web. The app is for tracking your number and net worth over time once you've found it.
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