Enter your income, expenses, and current savings to calculate your path to financial independence and early retirement.
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. It is a movement focused on aggressive saving and investing so you can stop working for money decades before the traditional retirement age of 65. The core idea is simple: if your investment portfolio can generate enough passive income to cover your living expenses, you no longer need a paycheck. Most FIRE practitioners aim to save 50-70% of their income and reach financial independence in 10-20 years.
Your FIRE number is the total portfolio size needed to fund your expenses indefinitely. It is calculated by dividing your annual expenses by your safe withdrawal rate. With the standard 4% withdrawal rate, you need 25 times your annual expenses. Spending $40,000 per year means you need $1,000,000 saved. Spending $60,000 means $1,500,000. This formula comes from the Trinity Study, which found that withdrawing 4% of a stock and bond portfolio (adjusted for inflation each year) survived 96% of all historical 30-year periods.
In the FIRE community, savings rate is the single most important variable. A high earner who spends everything is further from FIRE than a modest earner who saves 60%. This is because savings rate simultaneously increases the speed of accumulation and decreases the target — if you can live on less, you need less to retire. Someone saving 50% of their income can reach FIRE in roughly 17 years regardless of whether their income is $50,000 or $200,000. The timeline is driven almost entirely by the ratio of savings to expenses.
Coast FIRE is a milestone where your existing investments, if left untouched, would grow to your full FIRE number by a target age (typically 65) through compound growth alone. Once you reach coast FIRE, you no longer need to save — you just need to earn enough to cover your current expenses. This gives you the freedom to take a lower-paying but more fulfilling job, work part-time, or pursue projects without financial pressure. It is often the first major milestone on the FIRE journey.
At a 50% savings rate, you can reach FIRE in about 17 years. At 60%, about 12 years. At 70%, about 8 years. Even a 30% savings rate gets you there in roughly 28 years. The higher your savings rate, the faster you reach independence — and the relationship is not linear, it accelerates.
The original research covered 30-year periods. For early retirees with 40-50 year horizons, many experts recommend a more conservative 3-3.5% withdrawal rate. This means your FIRE number would be 28-33 times your annual expenses instead of 25 times. You can also use flexible withdrawal strategies — spending less in down markets and more in up markets.
The default of 7% represents a real (inflation-adjusted) return for a diversified stock portfolio based on historical averages. If you include bonds in your allocation, 5-6% may be more appropriate. Conservative planners use 4-5%. Do not use nominal returns (10%+) unless you are also inflating your expense projections.
No. This calculator models pure FIRE — living entirely off your investment portfolio. If you expect Social Security or pension income, you can reduce your annual expenses input by that expected amount to see the adjusted result. Many FIRE practitioners treat Social Security as an extra safety margin rather than relying on it.
Lean FIRE means retiring on a minimal budget (typically under $40,000/year for a household). Fat FIRE means retiring with a more comfortable lifestyle ($100,000+/year). Coast FIRE means your savings will grow to your FIRE number without additional contributions. Barista FIRE means working a low-stress part-time job to cover expenses while your investments grow. This calculator focuses on traditional FIRE and coast FIRE.