🔢 Calculator
FIRE Calculator — Financial Independence
Enter your annual income after tax, annual expenses, current savings, and expected return to calculate your FIRE number and how many years until you can retire early.
Why Savings Rate Matters More Than Returns
Most people focus on picking the right investments, but your savings rate has a far greater impact on when you reach FIRE. Going from a 20% to a 40% savings rate cuts roughly 15 years off your timeline. Going from a 7% to a 10% annual return only shaves off about 4 years. The reason: a higher savings rate simultaneously increases the money flowing into investments AND decreases the FIRE number you need to hit (because your expenses are lower). It's a double accelerator that no investment return can match.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is FIRE?
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The core idea is saving and investing aggressively (typically 50-70% of income) to build a portfolio large enough that investment returns cover all living expenses, making traditional employment optional.
What is the 4% rule?
The 4% rule comes from the 1998 Trinity Study. It found that withdrawing 4% of your portfolio annually, adjusted for inflation, had a 95%+ success rate over 30-year periods using a 50/50 stock/bond allocation. For early retirees with 40+ year horizons, many use 3.5% for extra safety.
Is FIRE realistic?
Yes, but it requires significant lifestyle optimization. The math is straightforward: a 50% savings rate gets you to FIRE in ~17 years regardless of income level. The hard part is maintaining that discipline. Many FIRE practitioners don't fully retire — they transition to part-time or passion work, which provides both income and purpose.
