FIRE number calculator

Your FIRE number is your annual spending divided by your safe withdrawal rate — 25 times spending at a 4% rate. Enter your budget to see the target, plus lean and fat variants so you can see how spending changes the number.

Your FIRE number is $1,500,000

That is 25.0× your $60,000 annual spending. At a 4.0% withdrawal rate, a $1,500,000 portfolio funds $60,000 a year, adjusted for inflation, with a high chance of lasting 30 years.

Lean FIRE

$900,000

$36,000 / yr

Your FIRE

$1,500,000

$60,000 / yr

Fat FIRE

$2,400,000

$96,000 / yr

This calculator answers one question. The app models your whole retirement.

Your FIRE number is a target, not a plan. CoastIQ runs tax-accurate projections with Monte Carlo simulation, Roth conversion analysis, and Social Security timing, all on-device with no data collection. Free to start on iPhone.

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How the FIRE number works

The formula is one division:

FIRE number = annual spending / safe withdrawal rate

At a 4% withdrawal rate this equals 25 times your annual spending, because 1 divided by 0.04 is 25. The 4% rate comes from the Trinity study (Cooley, Hubbard and Walz, 1998), which found that a portfolio of stocks and bonds withdrawing 4% in year one, then rising with inflation, lasted 30 years in nearly every historical period. A more cautious 3.5% rate gives a multiple near 29; a more aggressive 5% rate gives 20.

The number is in today's dollars, so enter spending in today's dollars. Because the 4% rule already builds in annual inflation adjustments to your withdrawals, you do not multiply the target itself by inflation.

Lean, regular, and fat FIRE

These are the same formula with different spending. The calculator shows a lean figure at 60% of your budget and a fat figure at 160%, so you can see how much a leaner or richer lifestyle moves the target. A $24,000 lean budget needs $600,000; a $96,000 fat budget needs $2.4M.

Other calculators

To find what you need saved today to coast to this number, use the coast FIRE calculator. If part-time work will cover some spending, use the barista FIRE calculator. To turn a portfolio into a withdrawal, use the 4% rule calculator, and to find your retirement date, use the when can I retire calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions

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