What the numbers mean
FIRE number
What you need invested on the day you retire: yearly spending divided by your withdrawal rate. $60,000 at 4% is $1.5M.
Coast FIRE number
What you need today so that growth alone carries you to the FIRE number by retirement age. The older you are, the higher it gets.
Coast FIRE age
When your portfolio crosses that line if you keep saving. From then on you only have to earn what you spend.
How to use it
- Put in your age, what you have invested and what you plan to spend each year once retired.
- Add what you save each year. The black line is your portfolio while you keep saving; it turns green once you could stop.
- Open the assumptions and be a little pessimistic. A 4% real return or a 3.5% withdrawal rate is a fair test.
What it doesn't do
No account
There's nothing to sign up for. The calculator is ready when the page loads.
Your numbers stay with you
The math runs in your browser. What you type is never sent to a server.
Nothing to sell you
You won't be steered toward an advisor, a broker or a credit card. FIRE is about keeping fees low, and so is this site.
What next
Questions
What is Coast FIRE?
It is the point where the money you already invested will grow to a full retirement fund by itself. You still work to pay the bills, but you no longer have to save for retirement.
Why a real return and not the market average?
A real return is after inflation, so every number on the page is in today's dollars. Around 5% is a common guess for a mostly-stock portfolio. Go lower if you hold a lot of bonds.
Is 4% a safe withdrawal rate?
It comes from studies of 30-year retirements in US market history. Early retirees with longer horizons often plan with 3.25–3.5%.
Does this include Social Security or a pension?
Not yet. If you expect one, lower your yearly spending by that amount to see its effect.
Is this financial advice?
No. It's a calculator with simple assumptions, and real returns jump around from year to year.