FIRE calculator

What is FIRE?

FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. You’re financially independent when your investments can pay for your life without a paycheck.

Your FIRE number is the amount you need invested to get there. Once you have it, work is a choice. Some people stop working. Others keep a job they like or switch to part time.

How to calculate your FIRE number

Divide what you spend in a year by your withdrawal rate. At a 4% withdrawal rate, that’s the same as multiplying your yearly spending by 25, which is why it’s also called the rule of 25.

FIRE number = yearly spending ÷ withdrawal rate
At 4%: FIRE number = yearly spending × 25

The calculator opens with this example. You plan to spend $60,000 a year, and $60,000 ÷ 0.04 = $1,500,000. That’s your FIRE number.

To find how long it takes, the calculator grows your balance one year at a time and adds your contributions. Say you’re 30 with $100,000 invested and you add $3,000 a month. At 7% growth and 3% inflation, your money grows 3.9% a year after inflation. You’d reach $1,500,000 in 23 years, at age 53.

Cut the contribution to $1,500 a month and it takes 33 years, to age 63. Every figure is in today’s dollars.

FIRE number by yearly spending

Your FIRE number depends on 2 things: what you spend and the withdrawal rate you plan on. The 4% column is the classic rule. The lower rates are for retirements longer than 30 years.

The average U.S. household (a “consumer unit” in the survey) spent $81,905 in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At 4%, that budget takes a FIRE number of about $2,048,000.

For help picking a target, see what a realistic FIRE number looks like.

How long does it take to reach FIRE?

It depends mostly on your savings rate, the share of your take-home pay you invest. A higher rate helps twice. You invest more each year, and you live on less, which makes your FIRE number smaller.

This table starts from $0 and assumes you keep spending the same amount after you stop working, with 7% growth, 3% inflation and a 4% withdrawal rate. Two people who save the same share get the same answer, whatever they earn.

Saving 10% takes 60 years. Saving 50% takes 18. If you’ve already invested something, you’ll get there sooner, and the calculator above counts it.

Lean FIRE, Fat FIRE, Coast FIRE and Barista FIRE

Lean FIRE and Fat FIRE use the same formula with a smaller or a bigger budget. Coast FIRE and Barista FIRE change how you get there. None of them has an official cutoff. The dollar figures below are common rules of thumb, and they shift with where you live and the size of your household.

• Lean FIRE is a frugal budget. A common rule of thumb is under about $40,000 a year, which at 4% is a FIRE number under $1,000,000.
• Fat FIRE is a generous budget. A common rule of thumb is $100,000 a year or more, which at 4% is a FIRE number of $2,500,000 or more.
• Coast FIRE means you have enough invested that growth alone will reach your FIRE number by a normal retirement age. You keep working to pay today’s bills, but you can stop saving. The Coast FIRE calculator finds that number.
• Barista FIRE means part-time work pays for part of your spending and your investments pay for the rest. If a part-time job covers $24,000 of a $60,000 budget, your investments only have to cover $36,000 a year. That takes $900,000 instead of $1,500,000.

Is the 4% rule safe for early retirement?

It was built around a 30-year retirement. If you stop working at 40 or 45, your money may have to last 50 years, so it makes sense to test a lower rate.

• The original research. The Trinity Study (Cooley, Hubbard and Walz, 1998) tested withdrawals over periods of 15 to 30 years, using market returns from 1926 to 1995.AAII has the study.
• Morningstar, 30 years: 3.9%. Morningstar’s 2025 research puts the safe starting rate at 3.9% for a 30-year retirement, with a 90% chance the money lasts.
• Morningstar, longer retirements. For early retirees, Morningstar estimates 3.5% for 35 years, 3.3% for 40 years and 2.9% for 50 years, using a portfolio of 40% stocks and 60% bonds.
• Bengen: 4.7%. William Bengen, whose 1994 research started the 4% rule, raised his figure to 4.7% for a 30-year retirement in his 2025 book, A Richer Retirement.AAII interviewed him about it.

Morningstar and Bengen land on different numbers because they test different portfolios in different ways. Morningstar uses forecasts of future returns, and Bengen uses market history since 1926. To see what a lower rate does to your plan, open the Assumptions box and change the withdrawal rate. At 3.3%, $60,000 a year takes about $1,818,000.

The calculator also assumes 7% growth and 3% inflation. The S&P 500 averaged 10.49% a year from 1926 to 2025, using Morningstar data published by Hartford Funds, and we use 7% to allow for bonds, fees and bad decades. U.S. prices have risen a little over 3% a year since 1913, based on data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. All of these describe the past, and the next 30 years could be worse.

FIRE and your net worth

Your FIRE number is a target for the invested part of your net worth. Count retirement accounts, like a 401(k) or IRA, and regular brokerage accounts. Leave out your home, unless you plan to sell it to pay for retirement, and leave out your emergency fund.

To see everything you own and owe in one place, use the net worth calculator. The liquid net worth calculator shows how much of it you could reach within a few days, and net worth by age shows how you compare with families your age.

Your balances change every month, so your years to FIRE change too. To watch your net worth climb toward your number, see our net worth tracker app, or join the launch list.