Financial independence: the nest egg that lets your investments cover your spending, and how far off it is.
How this is calculated Embed on your siteUpdated October 2026
Your FIRE number is the amount of invested money that can cover your spending for the rest of your life without a paycheck. The calculator above finds it by dividing your yearly spending by a safe withdrawal rate, then works out how many years of saving it takes to get there. With the default inputs, someone spending $60,000 a year needs $1,500,000. Starting from $150,000 and saving $30,000 a year at a 5% real return, they get there in about 22 years.
FIRE number = annual spending ÷ withdrawal rate. At a 4% withdrawal rate that works out to 25 times your spending. Drop the rate and the multiple climbs fast, which is why the rate you choose matters more than almost any other input:
| Withdrawal rate | Multiple of spending | FIRE number at $60,000/yr |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5% | 22.2× | $1,333,333 |
| 4.0% | 25× | $1,500,000 |
| 3.5% | 28.6× | $1,714,286 |
| 3.0% | 33.3× | $2,000,000 |
Going from 4% to 3.5% adds about $214,000 to the target in this example, or roughly two more years of saving at $30,000 a year.
The 4% figure traces back to financial planner William Bengen, who in 1994 tested withdrawal rates against U.S. market history. He found that taking 4% of a stock and bond portfolio in the first year, then raising the dollar amount with inflation, survived every 30-year period he studied. The 1998 "Trinity study" by three professors at Trinity University reached a similar conclusion.
The catch for early retirees is the 30-year horizon. If you stop working at 40, your money may need to last 50 years or more. Many people in the FIRE community plan on 3.25% to 3.5% for that reason, or keep 4% and commit to cutting spending in bad market years. Either approach is reasonable. Picking 4% and assuming nothing will ever go wrong is the one to avoid.
The share of income you save does two jobs at once. It grows the portfolio, and it lowers the spending the portfolio has to replace. That double effect is why savings rate predicts your retirement date better than income does. For someone earning $100,000 after tax, starting from zero, with a 5% real return and a 4% withdrawal rate:
| Savings rate | Yearly spending | FIRE number | Years to reach it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $90,000 | $2,250,000 | 52 |
| 20% | $80,000 | $2,000,000 | 37 |
| 30% | $70,000 | $1,750,000 | 28 |
| 40% | $60,000 | $1,500,000 | 22 |
| 50% | $50,000 | $1,250,000 | 17 |
| 60% | $40,000 | $1,000,000 | 13 |
Moving from a 20% to a 40% savings rate cuts the wait from 37 years to 22. No realistic change in investment returns does that.
The spending input is where most FIRE plans go wrong, usually by being too optimistic. Start from what you actually spend today, then adjust:
If you are unsure where your money goes now, our monthly expense calculator is a quick way to total it by category.
These are just different spending levels or different ways of reaching the same number. Lean FIRE plans around a bare-bones budget. Fat FIRE plans around a comfortable or generous one, which can easily push the target past $2.5 million. Barista FIRE means leaving your main career and covering part of your spending with lighter work, so the portfolio only has to fund the gap. Coast FIRE means you have saved enough that growth alone will reach your FIRE number by a normal retirement age, even if you never contribute again. The Coast FIRE calculator finds that number.
The math here uses a single steady return, and real markets do not cooperate like that. A crash in the first few years of retirement does far more damage than the same crash 20 years in, because you are selling shares while prices are low. This is called sequence-of-returns risk. To see how your plan holds up across many market paths, try the Monte Carlo retirement calculator. To turn a portfolio into a monthly income figure, use the retirement withdrawal calculator.
Social Security is also left out on purpose. Most early retirees will still collect a benefit in their 60s, which lowers how much the portfolio has to provide later. Leaving it out builds in a margin of safety. If you want to include it, estimate your benefit with the Social Security calculator and lower your spending input by that amount for the years after you claim.
It is the size of investment portfolio that can pay for your yearly spending indefinitely. It is usually calculated as annual spending divided by a safe withdrawal rate, which at 4% means 25 times what you spend in a year.
The 4% rule was tested on 30-year retirements. For a retirement of 40 to 50 years, many planners suggest 3.25% to 3.5%, or keeping 4% while being willing to trim spending after a bad market year.
Usually not. Your home does not produce income you can spend unless you sell it or borrow against it. Count it separately, and lower your spending input if the mortgage will be paid off by retirement.
Use a real return, meaning after inflation. A diversified stock-heavy portfolio has historically returned roughly 5% to 7% a year above inflation, but a lower figure such as 4% to 5% gives you a more cautious plan.
Yes, if most of your savings are in traditional 401(k) or IRA accounts, because withdrawals are taxed as income. Add your expected tax bill to the spending figure. Roth withdrawals and long-term gains in lower brackets can be tax-free or taxed lightly.
Coast FIRE is the point where your current investments will grow to your full FIRE number by a normal retirement age with no new contributions. You still need to cover today's expenses from work, but you no longer need to save for retirement.
Sources: William P. Bengen, "Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data," Journal of Financial Planning, 1994. Cooley, Hubbard and Walz, "Retirement Savings: Choosing a Withdrawal Rate That Is Sustainable," AAII Journal, 1998. Full formula and a worked example are on our methodology page.