GuacaFree tool
FIRE Calculator
Find your FIRE number, see how many years of saving and compounding stand between you and financial independence, and watch the path on a chart. Free, instant, and nothing to sign up for.
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The yearly spending your portfolio would need to cover, in today's money.$
Stocks, bonds, funds, retirement accounts — money that is invested and growing.$
What you invest every month on top of what you already have.%
Nominal, before inflation. 7% is a common long-run stock estimate.%
The 4% rule: the share of your portfolio you withdraw each year.All amounts above are in this currency.
Enter your annual expenses (and a withdrawal rate above zero) to see your FIRE number and how long it takes to reach it.
Assumes a constant nominal return compounded monthly and flat contributions. Estimates only — not financial advice.
Typing these numbers by hand? Guaca tracks them for you — accounts, investments and exchange rates update automatically, every day.
Start freeWhat is FIRE?
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early — a movement built on a simple idea: if your investments can cover your living expenses indefinitely, work becomes optional. Popularized by the 1992 book Your Money or Your Life and later by bloggers like Mr. Money Mustache, FIRE turns retirement from an age into a number. Instead of working until 65 by default, you aggressively raise your savings rate, invest the difference in low-cost index funds, and quit — or downshift — the moment your portfolio crosses the threshold. Some pursuers retire fully in their 30s or 40s; many others use the same math simply to buy freedom, flexibility and the ability to say no.
Your FIRE number: 25× your annual expenses
The threshold has a name — your FIRE number— and it comes from the safe withdrawal rate. Historical studies of US market data (the Trinity study is the most cited) found that withdrawing about 4% of a diversified portfolio’s starting value per year, adjusted for inflation, survived the vast majority of 30-year retirements. Invert 4% and you get 25:
FIRE number = annual expenses ÷ safe withdrawal rate
At a 4% withdrawal rate that is simply annual expenses × 25. Spend $40,000 a year and your FIRE number is $1,000,000; spend $60,000 and it is $1,500,000. Prefer a more conservative 3.5%? The multiple becomes about 28.6×.
Notice what drives the number: spending, not income. A high earner who spends lavishly needs a far bigger portfolio than a modest spender on half the salary. That is why the FIRE community obsesses over expenses — every $1,000 you permanently cut from annual spending deletes $25,000 from the portfolio you need to build.
The FIRE flavors: Lean, Fat, Coast and Barista
Lean FIREis financial independence on a deliberately frugal budget — typically annual spending well under the median household’s, often around $25,000 to $40,000. The portfolio required is smaller and the date arrives sooner, but the margin for error is thinner: an unplanned expense bites harder when the budget is already tight.
Fat FIRE is the opposite end: independence without downsizing the lifestyle, usually $100,000+ in annual spending and a multi-million portfolio to match. It takes longer and generally demands a high income, but it buys comfort, slack for healthcare surprises, and no pressure to ever earn again.
Coast FIRE means you have saved enough, early enough, that compounding alone will grow the portfolio to your FIRE number by traditional retirement age — with zero further contributions. Once you hit your Coast number you only need work to cover current expenses, which opens the door to lower-stress jobs, part-time schedules or passion projects decades before full retirement.
Barista FIRE sits between coasting and quitting: you retire from the main career but keep part-time work — the stereotype is a coffee-shop job with health benefits — so a modest paycheck covers part of your spending while the portfolio covers the rest. The part-time income lowers the effective withdrawal rate, letting you step away years before reaching the full 25×.
What moves the needle most
Intuition says returns decide everything, but over a 10–20 year accumulation the savings rate usually beats the return. It is the only lever that pushes both sides of the equation at once: saving more compounds into a bigger portfolio, and spending less shrinks the FIRE number the portfolio has to hit.
A concrete example. Suppose you earn $80,000 after tax and spend $60,000 — a 25% savings rate, investing $1,667 a month against a $1.5M target. At 7%, starting from zero, that takes roughly 28 years. Now cut spending to $48,000: you invest $2,667 a month and the target drops to $1.2M. The clock falls to about 19 years — nine years of your life. Compare that to heroically squeezing the return from 7% to 8% on the original plan, which saves only about two years. Frugality is doing the heavy lifting, and unlike market returns, it is entirely under your control. Try both moves in the calculator above and watch the chart compress.
What this simple tool ignores
A constant-return simulation is a smooth line; real life is not. This tool ignores taxes — capital gains on brokerage withdrawals, income tax on traditional retirement accounts, and early-withdrawal rules all change how much of each dollar you keep. It ignores sequence-of-returns risk: a deep bear market in your first years of withdrawals can permanently impair a portfolio that the averages said was fine. And it ignores healthcare, which for early retirees — especially in the US, years before Medicare — can be one of the largest and least predictable line items in the budget.
Those gaps are fine for a first estimate and wrong for a final plan. Guaca’s retirement planner runs Monte-Carlo simulations on your real portfolio — thousands of market paths against your actual accounts, contributions and spending — so instead of one smooth line you get a probability of success and a view of the bad-luck cases. To get your starting numbers in order, begin with our free net worth calculator, then go deeper with the retirement calculator for the USA or, if your future spans borders, the retirement calculator for Colombia.
This page is educational — it is not financial, tax or investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is the 4% rule safe for early retirees?
It is a benchmark, not a guarantee — and the earlier you retire, the more caution it deserves. The rule was derived from historical US data over 30-year retirements; retiring at 40 can mean funding 50+ years, a horizon the original studies never tested. Many early retirees hedge by planning around 3–3.5% (roughly 29–33× annual expenses), keeping some flexibility to cut spending in bad markets, or leaving room for part-time income. This calculator lets you edit the withdrawal rate, so it is easy to see what a more conservative assumption does to your timeline.
What counts as my invested portfolio?
Money that is invested and can realistically fund your retirement spending: brokerage accounts, index funds and ETFs, stocks and bonds, retirement accounts like a 401(k) or IRA, and interest-earning cash you consider part of the plan. Leave out your emergency fund if you keep it separate, money earmarked for near-term goals, and illiquid assets you would not sell. The cleaner this number, the more honest your FIRE date.
Does this include my house?
Generally no. A paid-off home lowers your annual expenses (no rent or mortgage), which shrinks your FIRE number — that is how it should enter the math. But home equity does not belong in the invested portfolio unless you genuinely plan to sell or downsize and invest the difference, because you cannot withdraw 4% of a house each year to buy groceries. Count the expense reduction, not the equity.
What savings rate do I need?
Savings rate is the single strongest lever, because it works twice: saving more grows the portfolio faster and proves you live on less, which lowers the target. As rough guides at typical return assumptions, saving 10–15% of income points to a traditional 35–40 year career, around 50% gets many people to FIRE in roughly 15–17 years, and 65–70% can compress it near a decade. Your exact answer depends on returns and your starting balance — which is what the calculator above works out.
What about inflation?
The returns here are nominal and your expenses are in today's money, so the results are approximate: the projected balance is in future currency while the FIRE number is in today's. The clean fix is to use a real (inflation-adjusted) return — for example 5% instead of 7% if you assume roughly 2% inflation — so both sides of the math stay in today's money and 'years to FIRE' reads correctly. Either way, treat the output as a planning estimate, not a precise date.
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