FIRE Calculator
Find your financial independence (FIRE) number and how many years until you could stop working.
About the FIRE Calculator
Enter your yearly spending, a safe withdrawal rate, what you've invested so far, how much you save each year and the return you expect after inflation. The calculator gives your FIRE number and roughly how many years it will take to get there, in today's money.
The FIRE number is the portfolio that can fund your spending indefinitely at a safe withdrawal rate. At 4% it's 25 times yearly spending, based on US studies (the Trinity study and Bengen, 1994) of 30-year retirements. Early retirees with 40–50-year horizons often use 3–3.5%.
The formula
FIRE number = yearly spending ÷ withdrawal rate
Worked example
Spending 40,000 a year at a 4% withdrawal rate
- FIRE number = 40,000 ÷ 0.04 = 1,000,000 (25× spending)
- Starting from 100,000 and saving 25,000 a year at a 5% real return
- Reached in about 19 years
Things to keep in mind
- Uses one steady return; a bad run of markets early in retirement matters more than the average.
- Taxes on withdrawals and changes in spending (healthcare, children) aren't modelled.
Questions people ask
Is 4% safe?
It held for 30-year US retirements historically; longer horizons or other markets need a lower rate.
Real or nominal return?
Real: using today's money keeps the target fixed.
What saves the most time?
Raising your savings rate: it grows the portfolio and lowers the spending you need to cover.