The guide to FIRE Calculator

FIRE: connect your savings rate with financial independence

FIRE means Financial Independence, Retire Early. The calculator explores when invested assets could reach a target based on your annual expenses and chosen withdrawal rate. Whether you leave work at that point is a separate choice.

Open the FIRE Calculator

The idea behind itConnect the cost of your life with the assets that could support it.

What the calculator does

Enter current age, invested assets excluding your home, annual take-home income, annual expenses, an assumed return, a withdrawal rate, and a cost-of-living adjustment. The difference between income and expenses becomes annual savings.

The graph compares the projected investment balance with a spending-based target. The target rises with the selected cost-of-living adjustment. The projection schedule lets you inspect the annual figures rather than relying only on the headline age.

The philosophy: spending changes both sides

Income matters because some of it can become invested savings. Spending matters twice: it determines what is left to save today and helps set the portfolio target for later. That connection is the central idea behind this tool.

For example, $48,000 of annual expenses divided by a 4% withdrawal assumption gives a current target of $1,200,000. At 3%, the same expenses imply $1,600,000. Those are arithmetic targets under selected assumptions, not promises that either withdrawal rate will work for your retirement.

How the path is calculated

The annual model adds that year's savings to the starting balance, then applies the annual return. Future expense targets increase with the cost-of-living setting. This simplified timing makes it a scenario illustration rather than an account-by-account forecast.

The target crossing shows when the modeled assets meet the modeled spending target. It does not simulate the withdrawals after that date. To examine spending after retirement, continue with the Retirement Spending Planner.

Try a change you control

Keep return and withdrawal assumptions fixed. Reduce annual expenses by $3,000 and compare both the annual savings amount and the target. Restore expenses and raise take-home income by $3,000. Savings improve in both experiments, but only the spending change also lowers the expense-based target.

Then set the return to 0% and compare the path. If the target is not reached, treat that as information about this scenario. Increasing the return assumption makes the projection more optimistic; it does not make that return more likely.

What the result means

The label Safe withdrawal rate names an input, not a guarantee. Actual sustainability depends on returns, their order, costs, taxes, and the length of retirement. The tool does not model those risks or include home equity as invested assets.

If you want to explore stopping retirement contributions while continuing to earn enough for everyday expenses, read the Coast FIRE guide. It answers a different question from reaching financial independence now.

Try it with your own numbers

Change one assumption, compare the result, then try another. Calculator settings stay in your browser.