FIRE Calculator
Work out your financial independence number from your spending and a withdrawal rate, then the age your savings reach it.
Your numbers
What you spend in a year, in today's money. Spending, not income.
After inflation. Five to seven percent is the common equity assumption.
4% is the classic rule. Many early retirees plan on 3.25% to 3.5%.
Financial independence reached
Age 52
Your FIRE number is $1,000,000, 25 times your annual spending. You reach it in 22 years.
- FIRE number
- $1,000,000
- You contribute by then
- $446,000
- Supplied by growth
- $554,000
What this assumes
A constant real return compounded monthly, contributions at the end of each month, and spending that stays flat in today's money. The FIRE number is annual spending divided by the withdrawal rate.
What it does not tell you
Reaching the number is not the same as the money lasting. Whether it does depends on the returns in the first years after you stop, which no constant-return model can tell you.
Track the real portfolio
The Intrinsiqq portfolio tracker records your buys, sells and dividends, and shows realised and unrealised gains and dividend income for every holding.
What your FIRE number is
FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. Your FIRE number is the portfolio that can pay for your life indefinitely, and the standard way to find it is to divide annual spending by a withdrawal rate. At 4%, that is 25 times what you spend: $40,000 a year needs $1,000,000.
The input is spending, not income. Someone earning $90,000 and spending $40,000 needs the same portfolio as someone earning $50,000 and spending $40,000. That is the single most useful idea in FIRE, because it means cutting spending works twice: you save more each year, and the number you are saving towards gets smaller.
Spend in today's money and enter a return after inflation. Mixing a nominal return with a present-day spending figure is the most common error in retirement arithmetic, and it always makes the date look sooner than it is.
Your savings rate decides the timeline
Starting from nothing, the time to financial independence depends almost entirely on the share of income you save, and hardly at all on the size of the income. The table runs an after-tax income of $60,000 at different savings rates, spending the rest, with a 6% real return and a 4% withdrawal rate.
Going from 10% to 20% saves twelve years. Going from 50% to 60% saves four. The early gains are the large ones, which is good news for anyone who is not prepared to live on a third of their income.
| Savings rate | Annual spending | FIRE number | Years to reach it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $54,000 | $1,350,000 | 45 |
| 20% | $48,000 | $1,200,000 | 33 |
| 30% | $42,000 | $1,050,000 | 26 |
| 40% | $36,000 | $900,000 | 20 |
| 50% | $30,000 | $750,000 | 16 |
| 60% | $24,000 | $600,000 | 12 |
| 70% | $18,000 | $450,000 | 9 |
Choosing a withdrawal rate
The 4% figure comes from studies of 30-year retirements using US market history. An early retirement can last 40 or 50 years, and over that span many planners use 3.25% to 3.5% instead. The difference in the target is large, so it is worth running both.
If your spending is flexible, and you would cut back in a bad year rather than sell into a falling market, a rate near 4% is more defensible. If it is not, plan on the lower figure.
| Withdrawal rate | Multiple of spending | FIRE number |
|---|---|---|
| 4% | 25x | $1,000,000 |
| 3.5% | 28.6x | $1,142,857 |
| 3.25% | 30.8x | $1,230,769 |
| 3% | 33.3x | $1,333,333 |
Reading the default example
A 30-year-old spending $40,000 a year, with $50,000 saved and $1,500 a month going in at a 6% real return, reaches $1,000,000 at 52. By then they have contributed $446,000. The other $554,000 is growth, which is why the last few years of the chart rise so much faster than the first few.
Two milestones arrive before this one. Coast FIRE is the point where you could stop contributing and still reach the number by a normal retirement age. Barista FIRE is the smaller number you need if part-time work keeps covering some of your spending. Both have their own calculators.
Common questions
- How is the FIRE number calculated?
- Annual spending divided by your withdrawal rate. At 4% that is 25 times spending, at 3.5% about 28.6 times. Use spending in today's money and a return after inflation so the two match.
- Is the 4% rule safe for early retirement?
- It was built for 30-year retirements. Over 40 to 50 years it has failed more often in historical tests, so many early retirees plan around 3.25% to 3.5%, or keep the 4% figure but commit to cutting spending in bad years.
- What return should I use?
- A real return, after inflation. Five to seven percent is the range commonly used for a diversified equity portfolio based on long-run history. Run your preferred figure, then run it again a point or two lower and plan around the slower answer.
- Does this include Social Security or a pension?
- No. If you expect one, subtract the annual amount from your spending for the years it will cover. Because it only starts later in life, a simple subtraction slightly overstates its help in the early years.
- What about healthcare before retirement age?
- Include it in your annual spending. For early retirees in the US it is often one of the largest costs that employment used to cover, and leaving it out is one of the commonest reasons a plan comes up short.
- What is the difference between FIRE and Coast FIRE?
- FIRE is when your savings can cover all of your spending now. Coast FIRE comes earlier: it is when your savings will grow to that number by a normal retirement age without further contributions, so you can stop saving but still need to cover today's costs from work.
Next
- Coast FIRE Calculator
The earlier milestone: when you can stop contributing and let what you have compound.
- Barista FIRE Calculator
The smaller number you need if part-time income keeps covering some of your costs.
- Safe Withdrawal Rate Calculator
Test whether the withdrawal rate behind your FIRE number holds over a long retirement.
- All free calculators