Try these example inputs in the FIRE calculator.
These figures match this guide's worked example. They are illustrative. They stay on this device and never appear in the URL.
FIRE — financial independence, retire early — here means a portfolio large enough that a withdrawal rate you choose covers a year of spending. The FI number is that portfolio. It is an assumption, not a date the market owes you.
Key takeaways
(1 + nominal) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. Nominal mode can grow the target with inflation while savings stay a constant dollar amount.FI number = annual spending ÷ withdrawal rate
Real return = (1 + nominal return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1
Coast number = FI number ÷ (1 + real return) ^ years
Each year in the savings countdown, the balance grows at the rate for the mode you picked, then the annual savings is added, until the balance reaches the target or 80 years pass. In today's-dollar mode the target stays in current purchasing power. In nominal mode with inflation, the target at year t is the FI number × (1 + inflation)^t.
Spending $40,000. Withdrawal rate 4%. Portfolio today $100,000. Annual savings $20,000. Return 7%. Coast horizon 20 years. Inflation 0%. Future nominal dollars.
The same spending treated as today's purchasing power at 2% inflation uses a real return of about 4.90%. The FI number stays $1,000,000 in today's dollars, the year count lengthens, and the coast balance is the amount you would need today at that real return. A fixed $1 million future target with 7% nominal growth is not the same as keeping today's $40,000 of spending power.
If the portfolio today is already at the coast balance, later contributions are optional under those assumptions. Run the same inputs in the FIRE calculator.
Optional fields change the target, not the identity. A tax rate grosses spending up, because the portfolio has to fund the tax as well as the spending. Part-time income produces a smaller portfolio that covers spending minus that income. The year count on the page still aims at the full FI number.
It turns a spending figure and a withdrawal rate into a portfolio size, then shows how long a savings rate takes to get there. Change the withdrawal rate and both the target and the year count move.
Social Security, a pension, a spending cut in a bad year, and the order of returns are outside the formula. A poor stretch early in retirement can drain a portfolio that a smooth 7% path never touches. Salary and an employer match live on the retirement savings page.
Spending and a withdrawal rate are yours to type in the FIRE calculator. A company size figure does not set either one.
For general education only. Nothing here is investment advice.
Formulas and worked examples are MarketCapLens's. See who checks the numbers.