FIRE Calculator
Calculate how many years until you reach financial independence — the point where your investments can support your lifestyle forever.
After-inflation return.
How it works
- 1Enter your income and expenses
Annual numbers. The difference is what you save and invest each year.
- 2Add your current portfolio
Total of all retirement and taxable investment accounts.
- 3Pick an expected return
7% is a reasonable real (after-inflation) US stock market estimate.
Financial Independence (FI) is the moment your invested portfolio can sustainably cover your annual expenses without working. The standard benchmark is the 25× rule: a portfolio equal to 25 times your annual spending can support a 4% inflation-adjusted withdrawal indefinitely, based on the Trinity Study.
The math reveals a striking truth: the time to FI depends almost entirely on your savings rate, not your income. Someone earning $60,000 and saving 50% reaches FI in ~17 years. Someone earning $200,000 but saving only 10% takes ~50 years. Income amplifies the path but savings rate determines it.
FIRE has three flavors. LeanFIRE means living on roughly $25,000–$40,000/year, often in lower cost-of-living areas. Regular FIRE targets a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. FatFIRE aims for $100,000+ annual spending — typically requires high income and 15–25 years of aggressive saving.
Use this calculator to find your FI date, see how much sooner you'd retire by cutting expenses by $5,000/year, and compare LeanFIRE vs FatFIRE targets. Small changes in savings rate compound into years of freedom.
Example scenarios
Savings rate ~42%. FI in ~18 years at 7% return.
Savings rate 50%. FI in ~17 years from zero, faster with existing portfolio.
Savings rate 55%. FI in ~14 years — high income + savings rate.
Common questions
What is FIRE?
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The core idea: save and invest aggressively (often 40–70% of income) until your portfolio is 25× your annual expenses — at which point you can theoretically live on it indefinitely.
What's the 25× rule?
Multiply your annual expenses by 25 to find your FIRE number. If you spend $40,000/year, your FIRE number is $1,000,000. Based on the 4% safe withdrawal rate.
What savings rate do I need?
Higher savings rates dramatically shorten time to FI. At 10% savings, FI takes ~50 years. At 25%, ~32 years. At 50%, ~17 years. At 70%, just ~8 years. Savings rate is the single biggest lever.
Is FIRE realistic for normal incomes?
Aggressive FIRE (retire by 35) usually requires very high income or extreme frugality. But the math also works for 'regular FI' — retiring at 50–55 instead of 65. Even halving the gap is huge.