Financial independence arrives when your portfolio covers your spending. The savings rate — not the salary — sets the date.
Everything you save is income minus spending; everything you'll need forever is the spending.
Using real returns keeps everything in today's dollars — your spending number doesn't need inflating.
4% is the classic rule (25× spending); 3–3.5% is the conservative choice for very early retirees.
The famous curve: each extra point of savings rate cuts the working years at both ends — more saved and less needed. Starting net worth is included; the dot is you.
This FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) calculator estimates how many years until your portfolio can cover your spending. The key driver is your savings rate — the share of income you keep — which matters far more than the size of your salary.
Your FIRE number is your annual spending divided by your safe withdrawal rate — at 4%, that's 25 times spending. The years-to-FI figure comes from projecting your savings rate forward at your expected return until the portfolio reaches that number. The math depends far more on the share of income you save than on the size of your salary.
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early: building enough invested assets that their returns cover your living expenses, freeing you from needing a paycheck.
Your savings rate sets both how fast you accumulate and how little you need to live on. A high earner who spends it all may be further from independence than a frugal saver.
It is the idea that you can withdraw about 4% of a portfolio each year with low risk of running out, implying a target of roughly 25 times annual spending.
A high savings rate does double duty: it builds the portfolio faster and lowers the spending you need to cover. A high earner who spends everything can be further from independence than a frugal saver.
Coast FIRE is having enough invested that it grows into your retirement number without further saving. It comes earlier than full FIRE — our Coast FIRE calculator finds that point.
More retirement & investing tools: Retirement Savings Planner · Compound Interest · 401(k) & Employer Match · Roth vs. Traditional · Coast FIRE · Where Can I Retire? · Social Security Break-Even · Net Worth · Savings Goal · Required Minimum Distribution · Lump Sum vs. Dollar-Cost Averaging · Dividend Income · College Savings
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