FIRE Calculator

Your FIRE number is the total portfolio value at which your investments generate enough returns to cover your living expenses indefinitely. It's calculated as your annual retirement spending divided by your safe withdrawal rate. At $40,000/year spending and a 4% withdrawal rate, your FIRE number is $1,000,000.

The safe withdrawal rate (SWR) is the percentage of your portfolio you can withdraw each year without running out of money. The 4% rule — from the Trinity Study — found that a 4% annual withdrawal had a 100% success rate over a 30-year retirement period with a 50/50 stock/bond mix. For longer retirements, some planners use 3–3.5%.

Enter your post-tax income — the amount that actually hits your bank account. This should include contributions to tax-advantaged accounts like a 401k or HSA, since those are still part of your savings even though they're not in your checking account.

The Coast FIRE crossover is the point at which your portfolio is large enough that — even if you stopped contributing entirely — it would grow to your FIRE number by the time you retire. After this point, every additional dollar you save just accelerates your timeline. It's a powerful intermediate milestone on the path to full FIRE.

For many people, retirement spending is lower than current spending. Reasons include: no mortgage payments if your home is paid off, no commuting costs, no need to save for retirement, lower clothing and dining costs, and eligibility for Medicare at 65. You may also have higher travel or healthcare costs. Adjust this figure to reflect your realistic retirement lifestyle.

The FIRE calculator answers "when can I stop working entirely?" — it models your full journey from now to financial independence. The Coast FIRE calculator zooms in on a specific question: "when can I stop contributing and just let my portfolio coast?" Both milestones appear on this calculator's chart, and you can click through to the Coast FIRE calculator to model that phase in more detail.

The standard formula is: FIRE number = Annual retirement spending ÷ safe withdrawal rate. At a 4% withdrawal rate, you need 25× your annual spending. If you plan to spend $50,000/year, your FIRE number is $1,250,000. If you plan to spend $80,000/year, it is $2,000,000. Use your actual expected retirement spending — not your current spending, which includes retirement savings contributions that disappear once you stop working.

FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The core idea is to save aggressively — typically 40–70% of income — invest in low-cost index funds, and accumulate a portfolio large enough to support your lifestyle indefinitely through safe withdrawals. The movement emerged from books like Your Money or Your Life and has grown into a large community focused on optimizing savings rate, reducing expenses, and building investment income.

It depends almost entirely on your savings rate. At 10% savings rate, it takes roughly 40+ years. At 25%, around 30 years. At 40%, about 22 years. At 50%, approximately 17 years. At 60%, roughly 12 years. At 70%, about 8–9 years. These assume a 5% real return starting from zero. The calculator above models your specific income, spending, current net worth, and return rate.