FIRE Calculator
FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is reached when your portfolio can sustainably fund your annual expenses. Your FIRE number is your expenses divided by your safe withdrawal rate.
The classic "4% rule" from the Trinity Study.
FIRE Number
$1,250,000
Years Until FIRE
19 years
Progress
8.0%
of your FIRE number saved
Portfolio Growth to FIRE
Assumptions & limitations
- Contributions are invested once per year at year-end; returns compound annually.
- Use a real (after-inflation) return so results are in today’s dollars.
- Taxes on withdrawals and investment fees are not modeled.
FIRE number
FIRE Number = Annual Expenses / Safe Withdrawal RateAt a 4% withdrawal rate this equals 25× annual expenses. Years to FIRE are found by projecting your portfolio forward with annual contributions and compound growth.
How It Works
- 1The 4% rule says a diversified portfolio can sustain withdrawing 4% of its starting value annually (inflation-adjusted) for 30+ years.
- 2Cutting expenses is doubly powerful: it lowers your FIRE number and frees up more to invest.
- 3The chart shows your projected portfolio crossing the FIRE threshold line.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 4% rule safe?
It succeeded in about 95% of historical 30-year U.S. periods. Early retirees with 40–50 year horizons often use 3.25–3.5% for more margin.
Do these numbers account for inflation?
Use a real (after-inflation) return assumption — e.g., 7% nominal minus 3% inflation = 4–5% real — and the results are automatically in today’s dollars.
What about Social Security or pensions?
Subtract expected benefit income from your annual expenses before computing your FIRE number.
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