FIRE & Retirement Calculator

When can you reach financial independence? Enter what you have, what you save, and what you’ll spend. You get your FIRE year on the 4% rule, plus Coast FIRE - all in today’s dollars.

FIRE = a portfolio big enough to cover your living costs for good. Your target is 25× your annual spending (the 4% rule). The tabs above pressure-test it.

FIRE style shortcuts - or just type your own spending below

Current age

yrs

Current invested assets

Monthly contribution

Annual spending in retirement

Expected return (real)

Safe withdrawal rate

Results

Your FI number

Years to FI

FI age

Coast FIRE number

Progress to your FI number

Path to financial independenceFI number

Contributions Total balance (green above blue = growth) FI number (target)

Year-by-year projection

Age	Year	Contributed (yr)	Growth (yr)	Balance	% to FI

All figures are in today's dollars, so use a real (after-inflation) return - the long-run real return of a 100% stock portfolio has been ~7%, a 60/40 ~5%. The 4% rule (25× spending) comes from the Trinity study and assumes a ~30-year retirement; longer retirements or early retirement argue for 3.25–3.5%. Coast FIRE assumes a target retirement age of 65 and no further contributions. Excludes Social Security, pensions and taxes on withdrawals.

One average return hides the risk. This runs 1,000 randomized market paths through your plan. You see the full fan of outcomes - and the odds your money lasts.

Current balance

Monthly contribution

Years to retirement

yrs

Annual spending (retired)

Years in retirement

yrs

Mean return (real)

Volatility

1,000 paths, drawn from a normal return each year.

Results

Chance money lasts

Median at retirement

Median at end

Unlucky case (10th %)

Fan of outcomestoday's dollars

10th–90th percentile 25th–75th percentile Median path

Each of 1,000 paths draws an independent annual return from a normal distribution with your mean and volatility, compounding the balance while adding contributions before retirement and subtracting spending after. "Chance money lasts" is the fraction of paths that never hit zero during retirement. Real markets have fat tails, autocorrelation and sequence risk that a normal distribution understates, so treat this as a guide, not a guarantee. Results are seeded so they're stable as you adjust inputs.

A DRIP reinvests every dividend into more shares automatically. Those shares pay dividends too, compounding for decades. Taxable accounts pay tax each year; an IRA / 401(k) compounds untouched.

Initial investment

Dividend yield

Dividend growth /yr

Price appreciation /yr

Years

yrs

Dividend tax rate

Account type

Results

Value (reinvested)

Total dividends

Reinvesting adds

Lost to tax drag

Reinvest vs take the cash

Dividends reinvested Dividends taken as cash

Annual dividend income

The income snowball: dividends paid each year as your reinvested share count grows.

Models a starting price of $100/share scaled to your investment. Each year, dividends are paid on shares held (growing at the dividend-growth rate), taxed if the account is taxable, and the after-tax amount buys more shares at the year-end price. The cash path holds shares constant and accumulates after-tax dividends without reinvesting. Tax drag is the value a taxable account loses versus the same holding in a tax-advantaged account. Excludes share-price volatility, fees and dividend cuts; assumes dividends stay qualified.

About this tool

Enter your savings, monthly contributions, expected return and target spending, and this calculator finds your financial independence number, the year you hit it, your FI age and your Coast FIRE number, with the full year-by-year projection charted.

The engine of early retirement is the savings rate. It attacks from both sides at once: every extra dollar saved compounds toward the target while permanently shrinking the lifestyle the target must fund. That double effect is why going from a 10% to a 30% savings rate cuts decades, not years, off the timeline.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 4% rule?

A retirement rule of thumb from the Trinity study: a portfolio can historically sustain withdrawals of about 4% of its starting value, inflation-adjusted, for 30 years. Inverted, it says you need roughly 25 times annual spending to be financially independent.

What is Coast FIRE?

The point where your existing savings, left alone with no further contributions, would compound to your FI number by traditional retirement age. Reaching it means working only to cover current expenses, not to fund retirement.

Is the 4% rule safe for retirements longer than 30 years?

The research covered 30-year windows. For 40-50 year horizons many planners model 3.25-3.75% instead, or plan on flexibility: spending a little less in bad markets dramatically improves survival odds.