Financial Independence (FIRE) Calculator
Set your FI assumptions
Choose the spending level, withdrawal rate, contribution, return, and inflation assumptions you want to test. The sample values are placeholders, not recommended savings, returns, spending, or withdrawal rates.
Your modeled FI target and timeline
Target spending $60,000/yr · 4% withdrawal-rate assumption · 4.39% derived real return
FI milestones
Milestones use the same deterministic monthly path. A milestone shown as “Now” was already funded by the entered invested assets.
| Target funded | Portfolio level | Time from now | Modeled age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25% | $375,000 | 2.4 years | 37.4 |
| 50% | $750,000 | 8.3 years | 43.3 |
| 75% | $1,125,000 | 13 years | 48 |
| 100% | $1,500,000 | 16.8 years | 51.8 |
How the calculation works
The FI target is target annual spending divided by the withdrawal-rate assumption. For example, a 4% assumption is mathematically equivalent to 25 times annual spending. The calculator does not claim that 4%, 25×, or any other setting is safe for your retirement horizon.
The real annual return is calculated as (1 + nominal return) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1. The engine converts that to an equivalent monthly real return, compounds invested assets monthly, and adds one-twelfth of the entered annual real contribution at each month end.
What this does not model
This is a deterministic accumulation model. It does not model volatility, sequence risk, taxes, investment fees, changing contributions, pensions, Social Security, one-time spending, life expectancy, healthcare costs, or account-specific withdrawal rules.
Reaching the FI target under a smooth return assumption does not establish that the portfolio can fund withdrawals through real market sequences. Use the withdrawal and Monte Carlo tools for separate uncertainty analysis.
Continue the retirement-planning workflow
The FI target answers “how much and when under these smooth assumptions?” The tools below answer different questions and intentionally do not inherit this result as proof of sustainability.