Retire Early Calculator
Calculate your FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) number, timeline, and savings rate needed to achieve early retirement.
Your Situation
Assumptions
How to Use This Calculator
Key Formulas
FIRE Number
The portfolio size needed to fund your lifestyle indefinitely. At 4% SWR and $50K expenses: $1,250,000.
Years to FIRE
Depends on current savings, annual savings rate, and real (inflation-adjusted) investment return. Higher savings rates dramatically reduce the timeline.
Coast FIRE Number
The amount you need now for compound growth alone to reach full FIRE by age 65.
How to Retire Early: The FIRE Movement Explained
The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement is built on a simple principle: save aggressively, invest wisely, and reach a portfolio size that can fund your lifestyle indefinitely. The standard target is 25× your annual expenses, based on the 4% safe withdrawal rate.
The 4% rule comes from the Trinity Study, which found that a diversified portfolio withdrawn at 4% per year has historically survived at least 30 years in 95%+ of scenarios. For a $50,000/year lifestyle, your FIRE number is $1,250,000.
Your savings rate is the most powerful variable. At a 10% savings rate, retirement takes roughly 51 years. At 25%, its 32 years. At 50%, just 17 years. And at 70%, you can reach financial independence in about 8.5 years — regardless of income level.
There are several FIRE variations: Lean FIRE (minimal expenses, ~$25,000–$40,000/year), regular FIRE (comfortable but modest lifestyle), Fat FIRE (maintaining a high standard of living, $100,000+/year), and Coast FIRE (saving enough early that compound growth alone will fund traditional retirement).
Coast FIRE is achievable much earlier than full FIRE. If you save $200,000 by age 30, compound growth at 7% real return grows it to $1.5M+ by age 60 — without any additional contributions. This means you could switch to a lower-stress job that just covers living expenses.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the 4% rule?
The 4% rule states you can safely withdraw 4% of your portfolio each year (adjusted for inflation) with a very high probability of not running out of money over 30+ years. On a $1,000,000 portfolio, thats $40,000/year or $3,333/month.
How much do I need to retire at 40?
It depends on your annual expenses. At $50,000/year in expenses and a 4% withdrawal rate, you need $1,250,000. At $75,000/year, you need $1,875,000. Starting at age 25 with a 50% savings rate and average market returns, reaching $1.25M by 40 is achievable.
What is Coast FIRE?
Coast FIRE means you have saved enough that compound growth alone — with zero additional contributions — will grow your portfolio to your full FIRE number by traditional retirement age (60–65). Once you hit Coast FIRE, you only need to earn enough to cover current expenses.
Is the 4% rule still valid?
The 4% rule has been debated given lower expected future returns. Many FIRE planners use 3.25–3.5% for more conservative projections, especially for early retirees with 40–50 year horizons. Having flexible spending (cutting back in down markets) significantly improves success rates.