Coast FIRE vs LeanFIRE vs FIRE vs FatFIRE

LeanFIRE vs FatFIRE? Are you part of the F.I.R.E. movement? Are you hoping to lean FIRE? Normal FIRE? Fat FIRE? With so many options, it’s hard to know which one is right for you!

Let’s take the four most common forms of F.I.R.E. and define them.

1. Coast FIRE – You have enough saved for retirement that you no longer need to work a high-paying job to reach your goals. Some people refer to this as Barista FIRE. Another way of thinking about Coast FIRE is having enough saved for retirement that even if you don’t add more, as long as you don’t withdraw any, you’ll be able to retire. Coast FIRE prioritizes financial independence over retiring early.
2. Lean FIRE – You have enough saved for retirement to retire today, living a very minimalist lifestyle. Some people say your investments should generate $20,000 – $40,000 per year per family member to achieve Lean FIRE. If we take the four percent rule, that means you have to have at least $500,000 per family member invested to retire.
3. FIRE – You have saved enough to retire today comfortably. A typical number thrown around is that your investments should generate $48,000 per year per family member to hit FIRE. Each person should have $1,200,000 invested to retire.
4. Fat FIRE – You have saved enough to retire in luxury. Like the lean version, fat FIRE has a minimum but no maximum. Most people agree that you should generate at least $100,000 per year per family member. You need at least $2,600,000 invested to retire.

Leanfire vs fatfire

Leanfire means having $500,000 invested and living off $20,000 per year, while fatfire means having $2,500,000 invested and being able to live off $100,000 per year.

Quite a difference!

A note about passive income

Depending on your situation, coast or lean FIRE might seem within reach, but fat FIRE might seem entirely unrealistic. The idea of having $2,600,000 invested is impossible for so many people.

I got my total numbers from using the four percent rule mentioned above. So if you want to generate $100,000 yearly, I did (100000 / 0.04) to come up with $2,500,000.

The thing is, there are ways to generate the yearly money you need without having a large amount of money invested in the market. These are called passive income.

Let’s say you have a blog that generates $38,000 per year (the average according to https://millennialmoney.com/how-much-money-make-blogging/). Now you only need $62,000 (100000 – 38000) a year to fat FIRE. That means you now only need $1,550,000 invested to fat FIRE!

There are lots of ways you can generate passive income. And if you are trying to fat FIRE but saving up $2,500,000 is out of reach, you should check some out!