How many years until financial independence? Enter your savings rate, current portfolio, expected return, and target spending. The calculator returns years-to-FIRE plus coast-FIRE and barista-FIRE break-points.
FIRE — Financial Independence, Retire Early — is the math of accumulating enough invested assets that the 4% safe withdrawal rule covers your annual spending forever. The classic target is 25× your annual spending (the inverse of 4%). Spend $80,000/year? FIRE target is $2,000,000.
The calculator runs this forward from where you are. Inputs: current portfolio balance, monthly savings rate (dollars or percentage of income), expected real return after inflation (default 5% — that's 7% nominal minus 2% inflation), and target annual spending in today's dollars. Output: the number of years until your portfolio supports that spending at 4%, plus two intermediate milestones:
The single biggest lever for shortening time-to-FIRE is your savings rate (income minus spending divided by income). 25% savings rate → ~32 years to FIRE. 50% → ~17 years. 70% → ~9 years. This dwarfs the impact of return assumptions, asset allocation, or asset location. The calculator shows this graphically.
Step 1 — Enter your current portfolio. Sum of all invested assets: 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), IRA, Roth IRA, taxable brokerage, HSA. Don't include home equity (FIRE math assumes you continue to live in or rent housing).
Step 2 — Enter monthly savings. What's left over each month from take-home pay after spending. The calculator multiplies by 12 to annualize and assumes this stays roughly constant in real terms.
Step 3 — Enter target annual spending. In today's dollars. The calculator applies inflation internally. Don't forget healthcare premiums (often $1,000+/mo pre-Medicare), property tax, and insurance — these are easy to under-budget when day-to-day spending feels small.
Enter your current net worth, monthly savings, expected return, and target annual spending. The calculator returns your FIRE date plus coast-FIRE and barista-FIRE scenarios.
Open the FIRE calculator →Withdraw 4% of your initial portfolio in year 1, then inflation-adjust that dollar amount each year after. Based on the Trinity Study analyzing 30-year US retirement outcomes 1926-1995, this rate had a high success rate in a 60/40 stock-bond portfolio. Modern guidance for longer (40+ year) retirements often softens to 3.5%. FIRE planners commonly use 4% as the target multiplier (annual spending × 25 = portfolio target).
The portfolio balance at which you can stop saving entirely and let compound growth carry you to traditional retirement. Example: if you'll need $2M at age 65 and expect 5% real return, you'd need about $935k at age 45 to coast there. Once you hit coast-FIRE, you can take a lower-stress, lower-paid job (or part-time) without compromising your retirement date.
No — exclude home equity. The classic FIRE framework assumes you continue to need shelter throughout retirement. Whether you own or rent, you have a housing cost. If you're planning to sell and downsize at retirement, the equity-extraction event is a separate calculation; running it as part of the FIRE multiplier is double-counting.
Around 65–70% of after-tax income, assuming 5% real return. The math: at 65% savings rate, you save 65¢ of every $1 take-home and spend 35¢. After ~10 years, the portfolio reaches 25× spending. This is achievable in high-income households with controlled lifestyle inflation (FAANG engineers, dual-physician couples, etc.) but very difficult in the median income range.