FIRE Calculator

Your FIRE number is the amount you need invested so that a safe withdrawal rate covers your yearly spending. The formula is simple: divide your yearly spending by your withdrawal rate. At a 4% withdrawal rate that is 25x your yearly spending, which is why people also call it the rule of 25 or the 25x rule. Spending $40,000 a year needs $1,000,000, and spending $60,000 a year needs $1,500,000.

If part of your spending will be paid by other income, such as part-time work, a pension or rent, subtract that income first. Your investments only need to cover the rest, so your FIRE number falls.

This FIRE number calculator shows the number in today's dollars. Prices rise over time, so the dollar amount you will need later is larger, but it buys the same as the number shown. Keeping everything in today's dollars makes the result easy to compare with what you spend now.

To calculate your FIRE number by hand, add up a year of spending, take away any other income, and divide by the withdrawal rate you are comfortable with, such as 4% or 3.5%.

For growth without a target, try the compound interest calculator with inflation.

Say you are 30, spend $40,000 a year, have $100,000 invested and save $1,500 a month, raised 3% a year, while your investments earn 7%.

Your FIRE number is $1,000,000 in today's dollars, 25x your spending at a 4% withdrawal rate. You reach it in about 25 years and 1 month, at age 55, with a savings rate of 31%.

Save $2,500 a month and it takes about 18 years and 7 months. Plan with a 3.5% withdrawal rate instead and the number becomes $1,142,857, reached in about 27 years and 6 months. With $20,000 a year of part-time income, Barista FIRE needs $500,000, reached in about 14 years and 1 month.

How long it takes depends most on your savings rate, the share of your take-home pay that you invest. This calculator estimates it as your saving divided by your saving plus your spending. Saving $1,500 a month while spending $40,000 a year is a savings rate of 31%.

A higher savings rate helps twice. More money goes in each month, and the FIRE number you aim for is smaller because you live on less. In the example, raising your saving from $1,500 to $2,500 a month cuts the time from about 25 years and 1 month to about 18 years and 7 months, and $3,000 a month cuts it to about 16 years and 6 months.

Returns matter too. At a 5% return the same plan takes about 32 years and 11 months, and at 8% about 22 years and 6 months.

The point where your investments can cover your spending at your withdrawal rate is sometimes called the crossover point. The chart marks it, and the results show the age you reach it. Use this financial independence calculator, also called a financial freedom calculator, to see how a raise, a smaller budget or a different return moves that date.

Lean FIRE, Chubby FIRE and Fat FIRE are names for spending levels, not different formulas. Lean FIRE means living on a small budget, Chubby FIRE on a comfortable one, and Fat FIRE on a generous one. People use different ranges, so treat these as examples, not rules. Each FIRE number below is yearly spending divided by the withdrawal rate.

Your FIRE number moves in step with your budget, so doubling your spending doubles the amount you need. The time it takes depends on how much you save. Saving $1,500 a month, the example reaches Lean FIRE in about 20 years and 2 months and Chubby FIRE in about 38 years and 9 months, which is why a Fat FIRE plan usually comes with a high income and a high savings rate.

Use the presets under Yearly spending to switch between a lean FIRE calculator and a fat FIRE calculator, then set your own saving to see your timeline.

• Lean FIRE, $30,000 a year: $750,000 at 4%, $857,143 at 3.5%
• FIRE, $40,000 a year: $1,000,000 at 4%, $1,142,857 at 3.5%
• Chubby FIRE, $80,000 a year: $2,000,000 at 4%, $2,285,714 at 3.5%
• Fat FIRE, $120,000 a year: $3,000,000 at 4%, $3,428,571 at 3.5%

Barista FIRE means you leave full-time work once your investments cover part of your spending, and part-time work pays the rest. The name comes from the idea of a part-time job at a coffee shop, but any work you enjoy counts.

Open Barista FIRE and enter the income you expect each year once full-time work stops, in today's dollars. The calculator subtracts it from your spending before it divides by your withdrawal rate. With $20,000 a year of part-time income, a $40,000 budget needs $500,000 invested instead of $1,000,000, and the example plan gets there in about 14 years and 1 month.

The same field takes a pension or rent from a property, which makes this a FIRE calculator with a pension or rental income. It counts other income from the day you reach FI. If an income starts later, such as Social Security, which cannot start before age 62, the Coast FIRE calculator lets you count it at your target age instead.

See your Coast FIRE number.

Your withdrawal rate is your first year of spending divided by your FIRE number. The 4% rule comes from studies of past US stock and bond returns: withdraw 4% of the starting balance in the first year, then raise that dollar amount with inflation each year. In most 30-year periods tested, the money lasted the full 30 years. It is a rule of thumb, not a promise.

Financial independence can mean more than 30 years of withdrawals, so many people also check a lower rate. At 3.5% your FIRE number is about 28.6x your spending, and at 3% it is about 33.3x. A lower rate builds a bigger cushion but takes longer to reach.

To see how long your FIRE number could last once you start spending it, with withdrawals that rise with inflation, try the How Long Will My Money Last Calculator, our safe withdrawal rate calculator. It runs the same numbers forward for up to 60 years.

Try the How Long Will My Money Last Calculator, our safe withdrawal rate calculator.

Some investors plan to live on dividends and never sell shares. The math is the same as in our monthly dividend calculator: divide your yearly spending by the dividend yield. $40,000 a year takes $1,000,000 at a 4% yield, about $1,142,857 at 3.5%, and about $1,333,333 at 3%.

A dividend plan often needs more invested than the 4% rule, because many broad funds yield less than 4%. Dividends are part of your total return, not extra money, and companies can cut them, so a yield is an estimate, not a promise.

To see what a real stock or ETF pays, enter its ticker in the monthly dividend calculator. To compare income from savings, Treasury bills and a dividend ETF, use the passive income calculator, and to see how reinvested dividends grow before you reach FI, use the DRIP calculator.

To see what a real stock or ETF pays, use the monthly dividend calculator.

Compare savings, Treasury bills and a dividend ETF with the passive income calculator.

See reinvested-dividend growth with the DRIP calculator.

Read what dividend yield means.

Read more from GNG analysts: Leo Nelissen. Read his article "I'm 31. Here's How I Would Retire Today On A 5% Yield That Grows Faster Than Inflation" (Pro Lite).

FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. Financial independence means your investments can pay for the life you want, so work becomes optional. Some people stop working, some switch to part-time work, and some keep a job they enjoy with less pressure. The FIRE movement grew from a simple idea: a high savings rate and low costs shorten the time it takes to get there.

The calculator converts your yearly return to a monthly rate, so a year with no saving grows by exactly the rate you enter. Saving is added at the end of each month and rises once a year with inflation. Your FIRE number is your yearly spending, minus any other income, divided by your withdrawal rate.

Every result is in today's dollars: each balance is divided by how much prices have risen at your inflation rate, the same method as our compound interest calculator. The calculator looks up to 60 years ahead. Results are before taxes and fees, and real returns change from year to year.

To see a range of outcomes instead of one steady path, run a Monte Carlo simulation for your portfolio. Monte Carlo Forecasting is free with a GNG account and tests thousands of possible market paths over up to 10 years.

The FIRE and Coast FIRE calculators open with the compound interest calculator's example, a 7% return with 3% inflation. The withdrawal calculator's example uses 5% for money you are already spending. All three are inputs, so set them to your own mix.

The growth left after inflation is the real rate of return: (1 + return) / (1 + inflation) - 1. A 7% return with 3% inflation is a real return of about 3.9% a year.

Try a Monte Carlo simulation for a portfolio. Free with a GNG account, for forecasts from one week to 10 years.

Use the dividend portfolio tracker with a free GNG account.

Read what expected return means.