Lean, Coast, Barista, Chubby, Fat

The arithmetic of financial independence is identical in every version. What changes is the target number and how much of the journey you intend to finish before easing off.

Lean FIRE

Independence at a deliberately low spending level. The pile is smaller and arrives sooner, because the annual expenses it must cover are modest. The trade-off is a thinner margin — a large unexpected cost has fewer places to absorb into, and going back to work later is harder than people expect.

Regular FIRE

The default case: enough to cover your current, ordinary standard of living indefinitely. Usually quoted as 25 times annual expenses, following the 4% rule.

Chubby FIRE

Independence with comfortable slack built in — a target above what your spending strictly requires, so travel, upgrades, and surprises don't require recalculating anything. Takes longer. Fails less often.

Fat FIRE

Independence at a high spending level, with no meaningful lifestyle compromise at any point. Generally requires a high income rather than a high savings rate alone, because there's a floor below which the spending can't be compressed.

Coast FIRE

The most useful variant for people in their twenties and thirties, and the one most often missed. You invest hard early until the amount already invested will, left completely alone, grow to your full FIRE number by your target age. From that point you stop adding — you only need to cover your current living costs. The pressure comes off decades before actual independence arrives, because compounding finishes the job without you.

Barista FIRE

A partial version: enough invested that a modest, low-stress job covers the remaining gap. Named for the idea of working somewhere pleasant mainly for the income floor and, in some countries, the health cover.

Which one applies to you

Rather than picking a label, work out two numbers: what you actually spend in a year, and what you'd want to spend if work stopped being obligatory. If those are close, the regular or lean targets fit. If the second is much larger, you're aiming at chubby or fat, and the timeline extends accordingly. If you're early in your career, Coast is worth calculating regardless of which end state you eventually want.

Nothing here is investment advice. See the disclaimer.