Financial Independence, Retire Early — your number, and how long the road is at your current pace.
Based on the 4% rule: withdrawing 4% of the portfolio per year in retirement. Lower withdrawal rates need a bigger number but survive longer.
Keep 6-12 months of expenses liquid while it still earns something.
Compare savings APYs →The FIRE math above assumes the money is actually invested, not sitting in cash.
Compare brokerages →FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The core idea is the "safe withdrawal rate": once your invested assets reach a size where a small annual withdrawal (commonly 4%) covers your yearly expenses indefinitely, you're considered financially independent. This calculator finds that number, then projects how many years it takes to reach it given your current assets and savings rate.
A lower withdrawal rate (say, 3.5% instead of 4%) means a bigger required portfolio, but a lower chance of running out of money over a long retirement. It's a trade-off between how long you work and how much safety margin you want. This is based on historical backtesting (notably the Trinity Study), not a guarantee — markets can still behave worse than history.
Healthcare costs before Medicare eligibility, taxes on withdrawals, Social Security, and major one-time expenses aren't modeled — build them into your "annual expenses" figure if they apply to you.
It's a widely cited guideline suggesting that withdrawing 4% of a portfolio's initial value each year (adjusted for inflation) has historically had a low chance of depleting the portfolio over a 30-year retirement, based on U.S. historical market data. It's a starting point, not a guarantee.
It depends heavily on savings rate and expenses relative to income. A higher savings rate shortens the timeline dramatically, since it both grows the portfolio faster and lowers the FIRE number needed to cover expenses.
Many in the FIRE community use 3-3.5% for very long retirements (40+ years) since the original 4% research was based on a 30-year horizon. A lower rate requires a larger portfolio but adds a safety margin.