Find Your FI Number

Answer a few questions to see your Financial Independence number, your Coast FIRE number, and how many years until you get there.

About the book behind this calculator
The F.I.R.E. Movement book cover

The F.I.R.E. Movement defines your FIRE number as the amount you'd need invested to cover your living expenses indefinitely, without relying on a paycheck. The book's approach: take your annual expenses, apply a withdrawal rate — the 4% rule is the standard starting point, though a more conservative 3.5% works too — and factor in inflation so the number holds up decades from now, not just next year.

You don't need a six-figure income to work toward this. The book's own examples include people in modest-cost areas making steady progress by raising their savings rate rather than waiting for a raise. And "retire early" doesn't have to mean quitting work entirely: for many, FIRE is about having the freedom to choose how you spend your time.

Use the calculator below to find your own number, based on your real expenses and savings rate.

View The F.I.R.E. Movement on Amazon
How these numbers work

Growth rate

This is the average annual investment return — adjusted for inflation — we assume your money earns while it's invested, both while you're actively saving and after you've hit Coast FIRE. The 7% default is the common FIRE-community shorthand for long-run U.S. stock market performance: roughly a 10% average nominal return minus about 3% average inflation. It's a long-run historical average, not a promise — real returns vary a lot year to year, and the future may not look like the past. Adjust the slider to model a more conservative or more optimistic assumption.

What is Coast FIRE?

"Coast FIRE" is the point where you could stop contributing to retirement savings entirely and — assuming your investments keep growing at your assumed rate — you'd still reach your FI number by your target retirement age through compounding alone. It doesn't mean you can stop working now; it means your current investments are already "on track," so any further saving becomes optional rather than required.

What this calculator doesn't account for

  • Sequence-of-returns risk — we use one flat average growth rate rather than the year-to-year ups and downs a real portfolio experiences, which matters a lot, especially in the years right around retirement.
  • Taxes — not modeled directly. That's why "Annual income" asks for your after-tax, take-home pay: since we don't calculate taxes separately, income minus expenses needs to reflect money you actually have available to save, not gross pay you never see.
  • Constant income, expenses, and savings rate — we assume these hold steady, in today's dollars, for the entire projection. Real life rarely stays that constant.
  • Today's dollars — all figures are in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, not future nominal dollars.
  • This is an educational estimate, not financial advice — consult a financial professional for a plan tailored to your situation.