Barista FIRE at 36 with ONLY $500K by Trading “Stuff” for Substance

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Julie Rose “semi-retired” at just 36 years old with only $500K, trading her corporate job for sunrise safaris in Africa, beach walks in Bali, and mid-day hikes in Mexico. With “Barista FIRE,” you can retire with a lower FIRE number, still work (minimally) doing what you love, and have almost complete time freedom over your life. Why have FIRE when you can “semi-retire” decades earlier? Plus, your retirement nest egg will be growing in the background, all while you do what you want, when you want, with who you want. Sounds like a dream life, right? Well, you’re not far from it already! After barely scraping by (even with a good job), Julie knew something needed to change, but she wasn’t ready for it. It wasn’t until she got laid off multiple times that she realized it was time to put her financial future in her own hands. This led her down the FIRE movement rabbit hole, getting almost addicted to saving and investing, and finding herself in a position to quit her job and do what she really loves: travel and get PAID to plan trips for others. Now, she’s Barista FIRE (FIRE with the help of a side hustle), living nomadically for a fraction of the cost of a basic life in the United States! In This Episode We Cover “Barista FIRE” and the faster way to semi-retire early with a lower FIRE number Why consumerism WON’T fulfill you, but it will make you broke Using side hustles to supercharge your savings rate and investing goals Building your Barista FIRE income stream BEFORE you quit your job Early retirement healthcare and how Julie pays just $40/month for coverage Living your best life abroad for a fraction of the cost of living in the States And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-623 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Imagine swapping your morning commute for a sunrise hike in Mexico or typing from a beachside cafe in Bali,
0:09.0	effectively making retirement happen decades ahead of schedule. After strategically building her financial foundation, Julie did exactly that.
0:17.4	She achieved barista fire in 2021, that sweet spot where she'd saved up enough money
0:23.6	to work minimally while her investments grew. Now living a nomadic life, most only dream about,
0:30.6	she's sharing how she finances her freedom, handles health care on the road, and finds purpose
0:35.9	beyond traditional careers, all while her wealth
0:39.1	continues to grow in the background.
0:46.8	Hello, hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pets Money podcast. My name is Mindy Jensen.
0:51.4	Scott's out playing hooky today, but he'll be back next week.
0:55.0	I am so excited to welcome Julie B. Rose to the podcast. She has an incredible financial independence
1:00.8	story, and we will cover it all in today's episode. Julie, thank you so much for joining me today.
1:05.5	I'm so excited to talk to you. I'm so excited, too. Thank you for having me.
1:09.8	Before we dive into your nomadic lifestyle, what was your
1:13.6	relationship with money growing up? I think I had a fairly normal relationship and education about money
1:20.8	in terms of what they tell you in high school about don't over draw your checking account, and this is how to do a basic
1:30.0	accounting spreadsheet. My parents kind of taught me to track, save some of your money, pay off
1:36.1	loans as quickly as you can. But we never learned anything about investing. We never learned
1:42.9	anything about maximizing. We kind of followed that
1:46.7	same track that the rest of Americans have been told to, hey, you should buy a car as soon as you can,
1:53.1	because freedom, you know? And I spent my money a bit foolishly growing up, but I thought,
1:59.8	you know, I'm pretty smart. I'll just save a little
2:01.6	bit. But as we all know, saving is not really the best way to make your money grow. So I really
	...

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