CALCULATOR
FIRE Number Calculator
Financial Independence, Retire Early. One number changes everything: the portfolio size at which your investments generate enough income to cover your life indefinitely.
Not financial advice. The 4% rule is a guideline, not a guarantee.
Your Numbers
What you spend per month to live the life you want
YOUR FIRE NUMBER
Portfolio that funds your life indefinitely
YEARS TO FIRE
FIRE AGE
GAP TO FIRE
MONTHLY INCOME AT FIRE
PROGRESS TO FIRE
0%FIRE Variants
LEAN FIRE
25× lean expenses (75% of yours)
REGULAR FIRE
25× your current expenses
FAT FIRE
25× 1.5× expenses (more cushion)
Portfolio Growth to FIRE
Why This Matters
The FIRE movement runs on one idea: when your portfolio generates more than you spend, work becomes optional. The standard benchmark is the 4% rule - from William Bengen's 1994 research showing that 4% annual withdrawals survived every 30-year retirement period in the historical record.
Your FIRE number = annual expenses ÷ withdrawal rate. At 4%, that's 25× annual spending. At 3.5%, it's roughly 28×. The difference of half a percent adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to the target - which is why this decision matters.
Sequence of returns risk is the real enemy: retiring into a bear market can devastate a portfolio even if the long-run average return looks fine. This is why many FIRE practitioners target 3.5% or lower, and why keeping a 1-2 year cash buffer is common practice.