FIRE calculator. Find your number.

FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. It means building investments large enough that you could pay for your everyday life from them, so that working becomes a choice. Many people reach financial independence and keep working, often at something different.

Divide the amount you expect to spend in a year by your withdrawal rate. At 4% that is the same as multiplying yearly spending by 25, so $50,000 a year gives $1,250,000. A lower withdrawal rate gives a bigger, more cautious number: at 3.5% the same spending needs $1,428,571.

It is a rule of thumb from US research: William Bengen's 1994 study of historical returns, and the 1998 "Trinity study" that followed it. Both found that withdrawing 4% of a portfolio that was roughly half or more in stocks in the first year, then raising that amount with inflation, would have lasted 30 years in nearly every historical period they tested. Early retirements last longer than 30 years and future returns may differ from the past, so many people who plan to retire early use a lower rate, such as 3.5%.

Coast FIRE is the amount you need invested today so that, with no more contributions, it grows to your FIRE number by a traditional retirement age. This calculator uses 65. Once you are past your Coast FIRE number you only need to earn enough to cover your living costs until then. At the example's numbers it is $289,222.

Either one works. Choose "After inflation" and every amount stays in today's dollars, or choose "Before inflation" and type the return you would normally quote; the calculator takes your inflation rate off it. Over long periods, stock-heavy portfolios have often returned around 5% or more a year after inflation, but not in every period, and a mix with bonds returns less. The default is 5%. The table under the calculator shows how much a point more or less changes the date, so you can see how sensitive your plan is.

Optionally. Enter the yearly amount you expect in today's dollars, from your own statement or the official estimator (My Service Canada Account for CPP and OAS, ssa.gov for Social Security), and the age it starts. The calculator then works out the number you need on the day you stop work: enough to pay for the pension's share of your spending until it starts, plus the withdrawal-rate amount for the rest of your spending afterwards. Leave it at zero and the page works as the plain spending-divided-by-rate number. Taxes, the OAS clawback and spouse benefits are not modelled.

It lowers it, because once the pension starts the portfolio only has to cover the rest of your spending. Someone who stops work at 45 still has to fund everything until the pension starts, so the pension helps less than the same amount would for someone retiring at 60. The earlier you stop, the more of the pension's value is far away, and an early retirement can also mean a smaller pension because fewer working years count toward it.

No. The calculation runs in your browser and the numbers you type are not saved or sent to Nimblewit. Like the rest of this site, the page may count that a visit happened or that the calculator was used, never what you entered.