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Fast food or cook: pay, training and money by age
Preparing food and serving customers in restaurants and fast-food kitchens. Hired with no experience; cooks can move up to shift lead or kitchen manager. About $33,000 a year at the middle of a career, about $16 an hour.
Opens Starting Out with this job picked. Change anything: school, rent, car, family, savings, detours.
Getting there
Straight to work. No tuition. Pay starts near $23,100 and rises with experience.
First month on the job (age 18)
| Pay before taxes | $1,925 |
| Take-home after taxes | $1,678 |
| Rent or housing | $0 |
| Car | −$350 |
| Food, phone, utilities, health and personal | −$500 |
| Saved (10%, plus the tax a 401(k) saves) | −$828 |
| Left for everything else | $0 |
Plus about $77 a month from an employer match. Rent assumes roommates.
Tight early on: with these defaults the budget runs short by up to $739 a month from age 22. Roommates longer, a cheaper place or a second income closes it.
What changes the picture
| Choice | Result | Could stop at |
|---|---|---|
| Stay single, no kids | $208,753 at 45 | 58 |
| Invest $250 more a month | $413,285 at 45 | 58 |
| Rent from 18 instead of living at home to 22 | $226,243 at 45 | |
| A DUI at 22 | about $102,686 less by 65 | 62 |
| Smoking a pack a day from 22 | about $341,793 less by 65 | 64 |
At the same savings rate, higher pay doesn't always mean stopping sooner: spending tends to rise with pay. Saving more is what moves the date.
Questions
How much does a fast-food worker or cook make?
About $33,000 a year at the middle of a career (U.S. median, Bureau of Labor Statistics), or about $16 an hour. Starting pay is lower, around $23,100.
How do you become a fast-food worker or cook?
Preparing food and serving customers in restaurants and fast-food kitchens. Hired with no experience; cooks can move up to shift lead or kitchen manager. In the model: Straight to work. No tuition.
When could a fast-food worker or cook retire?
With the defaults on this page (saving 10% of take-home, a 4% match, married at 28, two kids, a home at 32), about age 61, and from 51 to not by 67 depending on pay and markets. Saving more moves it sooner.
Similar careers
Cashier or retail · Warehouse worker · Construction laborer · Truck driver (CDL) · Medical assistant · all careers
How these numbers are made: the FIRE Mission Starting Out model in today's dollars. Pay is the U.S. median from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2023-24), rounded; starting pay is about 70% of it, rising to about 125% after 20 years. Defaults: start at 18, live at home to 22 with the rent invested, roommates to 24, $1,450 rent, a paid-off car with $150 insurance, married at 28 to a spouse earning $50,000, two kids from 30, a $400,000 home at 32 once affordable, saving 10% of take-home with a 4% match, 5% returns after inflation, Social Security from 67. The range runs from 25th-percentile pay with 3% returns to 75th-percentile pay with 7%. A sketch, not a forecast, and not financial advice.