Ask five people what FIRE means and you will get five different retirement parties. The acronym is shared; the lives underneath it are not. Before you optimize a savings rate, it is worth deciding which version of independence you are actually buying.
Lean FIRE: freedom first, cushion later
Lean FIRE targets a deliberately small budget, often under $40,000 a year for a household. The appeal is speed: a smaller number arrives years earlier. The cost is margin. A lean plan has less room for a roof that leaks, a parent who needs help, or a version of you at fifty with different tastes than the you at thirty who wrote the budget.
Lean works best for people whose low spending is a settled preference, not a temporary sacrifice. If frugality feels like holding your breath, lean FIRE is a plan to hold your breath forever.
Standard FIRE: your current life, made permanent
Standard FIRE takes your actual spending and multiplies it by 25 to 28. Nothing about your life changes except the paycheck becomes optional. It is the most honest baseline because it requires no imagined future self, only the one you already are.
Fat FIRE: margin as the goal
Fat FIRE aims well above current spending, often 50% or more. The point is not luxury for its own sake; it is slack. A fat plan survives bad markets, supports family, and funds the expensive hobbies that tend to appear exactly when time becomes free. The price is years. Every additional $10,000 of annual spending adds roughly $250,000 to the target.
Barista FIRE: the half-step
Barista FIRE means saving enough that part-time or lower-stress work covers the gap while the portfolio compounds untouched. It trades a later full-independence date for an earlier escape from the career you actually want to leave. For many people this is the honest goal hiding behind the others: not zero work, but work without fear.
Choosing, and changing your mind
The styles are not tribes, they are settings. You can aim lean at thirty, drift standard at forty, and land barista in between. What matters is that the target you are saving toward matches the life you intend to live, because every style has a different date attached.
Cashmere asks for your FIRE style during Planning setup precisely because of this. Pick one, see the date it implies, then try another and watch the date move. The comparison usually teaches more than the choice.