FIRE calculator

What financial independence really requires

Financial independence (the FI in FIRE - Financial Independence, Retire Early) is reached when your investments can cover your spending without a paycheck. The target, your FIRE number, is simply your annual spending divided by a safe withdrawal rate. At the classic 4% rate, you need 25 times your annual spending invested.

What this calculator estimates

Enter your age, what you have invested today, how much you add each year, your expected retirement spending, your withdrawal rate, and an expected real (inflation-adjusted) return. The tool projects your portfolio forward year by year and reports:

• Your FIRE number - the target portfolio
• Your Coast FIRE number - what you would need today to coast to that target by 65 with no further saving
• The age at which your projection crosses the FIRE number, and how many years away that is

How to use it

Two levers move the date the most: your savings rate and your spending. Because the FIRE number is a multiple of spending, every dollar of annual spending you cut lowers the target by 25 dollars at a 4% rate - which is why high earners with lifestyle creep can out-earn people who reach FI sooner.

The projection uses a smooth average return. Real markets are volatile, and a bad sequence of returns early in retirement is the main risk to a withdrawal plan, so treat the date as a planning estimate and revisit it as your numbers change.