Is "Barista FIRE" actually FIRE?

[Diogenes]

Don’t you have annual reviews that could result in a foreshortened 2nd career?

We do. But the interim reviews are based mostly on our effectiveness in the classroom. I feel a kind of devotion to the students, and so, one hopes that being effective comes naturally. If the administration disagrees and cashiers me, fine... it was a sincere try. Then one moves on....

I recall, during the pandemic, with the market down and many of those "barista jobs" and "side hustles" drying up, many "Barista FIRE" people were posting in blogs, forums, and articles about their panic.

The market is down right now, and perhaps heading lower. This is why one shouldn't regard a "barista job" as being legitimately compensatory for a fragile portfolio. Even so, my particular barista job is as a state employee. One hopes that that is more stable than my prior engagement (tech start-up).

 

[CuriousJoe]

When you work in the minimally skilled labor pool, the pay is low, the bosses generally bad or micro-managing, the pace can be high, the work is manual labor, your co-workers are not likely to be folks that you can chat with about the old days and may not even be competent or caring. Not sure who would think that is an upgrade over a "high stress" but high paid job.

Let alone the fact that putting up with a high paid job for a little longer could make you able to afford health insurance and other goodies much sooner than dragging it on at low pay.

If folks want to quit corporate life to chase their passion or be their own boss, that is different and I get that, but this notion of quitting a high paid career so you can work even more years in low paid gigs just seems weird.

Also, in low-paid jobs it is very hard to relate to the co-workers because they think you are one of them. And the bosses think so too
I know I am being cocky and harsh but this is what I found - even in a goverment low skill job

 

[CRLLS]

I had never heard of Barista FIRE before reading this. From what I have learned here and Google, it is not FIRE of any sort. It certainly is not FI and it is not RE. Is it possible that those people think that by adding FIRE after Barista makes it sound like a form of FIRE situation, adding some sort of status about their working at a low paying job? I get seeking out a low-stress job after years of stress. But really? "Barista FIRE"? Just call it what it is, coasting until SS kicks in.

 

[CalBird]

Barista fire is like 18K gold vs 24K gold. 18K gold is also shining but only 24K gold is real pure gold.

 

[Souschef]

I figured out that with Federal State, and SS tax, I would only earn 60 cents of every dollar I earned.
I am SIRE, retired for 17 years.

 

[Lorenzo]

Almost 20 years ago I took a step back in my same profession to a lower stress, lower responsibility role. As I was very experienced, I could almost have done the work in my sleep at that point. An actual barista gig--having fixed hours, a boss, impatient customers, etc.--would have been more stressful, I think. I suppose I was FI in the sense that I could have managed to subsist (barely) on only my savings, but I did not care to so radically downgrade my lifestyle. So, I supplemented the income from that work with cash savings. But I did not consider myself RE because I could not have lived the kind of life I wanted for the next 30+ years if I had to rely only on savings.

 

[ncbill]

Yeah, I wonder if those advocating Barista FIRE have ever worked retail for any length of time.

I'd move south of the border or over to SE Asia for retirement before going back to the above.

 

[Koolau]

My material needs are paltry, so I'm FI with even low financial wherewithal. But unless our current global situation becomes an arrant catastrophe, the personal financial wherewithal should be, knock on wood, OK.

The key point is that I'm not emotionally ready to retire. But neither am I interested in a traditional cubicle job. So, I became a professor. But unlike most tenure-track professors, I'm not sweating getting tenure, because this is an encore career, and further work is optional. If I can last the 6-year period leading up to tenure review, and then get denied, that's OK. I will have by then presumably done some soul-searching, rekindled my various hobbies, and reached a sense that professionally I've done "enough" to justify full retirement, with no disclaimers or asterisks.

What makes it "Barista" in my reckoning is that the pay is lower than what I'd had in my former career, the hours are irregular (by design), and I am competing with people 20+ years younger... that is, normal career-track assistant professors. I'm older than our department chairman and most of the senior faculty, though we do have a smattering of fellows around 80, and a few adjuncts even older than that.

I was certainly never a professor, but did a lot of teaching (in my field) at the university level. I was shocked, SHOCKED at the politics in the university system - much worse than in Industry.

I did my teaching more as a "give-back-for-what-I-had-been-given" than to make money - good thing 'cause I didn't make much. I wholeheartedly applaud what you are doing but don't know how you could jump into the university "snake-pit" - especially with the tenure track (something I never had to worry about). Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Original Wally]

There's no "L" (lifestyle) in FIRE. You can be financially independent, but want some more income.

But, I don't consider someone "retired" if they are going to a job each week.

The proper spelling is J*b. Please censor your swear words.

 

[Original Wally]

Plus SIRE - Secure Income Retire Early.

I think DW Molly and I fit that category. CalPERS pension + SS =$135 + $10 div & int + IRA draw $20.
VG + Bank Accounts are only $658k <- MUCH less than all of you high rollers. LOL.

ZERO debt - c/cards OR house payment. We live well. Paid cash for Molly's new BMW in June 2024.

 

[CO-guy]

I was certainly never a professor, but did a lot of teaching (in my field) at the university level. I was shocked, SHOCKED at the politics in the university system - much worse than in Industry.

I did my teaching more as a "give-back-for-what-I-had-been-given" than to make money - good thing 'cause I didn't make much. I wholeheartedly applaud what you are doing but don't know how you could jump into the university "snake-pit" - especially with the tenure track (something I never had to worry about). Good luck and enjoy!

Some of the things I do as a consultant brings me in close contact with faculty from many different departments at many different universities. From my years of experience, most departments at most universities are dysfunctional. Even in functional departments, there's dysfunction.

What @Diogenes describes is uncommon in higher ed and they should consider themselves fortunate to have found it.

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[Diogenes]

Some of the things I do as a consultant brings me in close contact with faculty from many different departments at many different universities. From my years of experience, most departments at most universities are dysfunctional. Even in functional departments, there's dysfunction.

What @Diogenes describes is uncommon in higher ed and they should consider themselves fortunate to have found it.

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All true. I would not recommend academia to a young-person freshly out of graduate school as a first career, unless he needs a H1B visa (which might account for why the overwhelming percentage of engineering professors are foreign-born).

But one difference between a "barista" career and a proper one, is that if the former fails, that's OK. One does not intentional behave lackadaisically to court failure, but neither does one fret over the possibility. If it happens, it happens.

I am also fortunate, in that our university emphasizes undergraduate teaching. We're not research-centric. Publish-or-perish is more a matter of advice or desire here, than of absolute imperative.