Your ZIP code is a bigger FIRE lever than your savings rate. Enter your portfolio and see every city in the world where it already buys you freedom.
Invested assets you can draw on — brokerage, retirement accounts, and the like. Not home equity you plan to live in.
Pension, Social Security, rentals, or part-time work — income that covers spending so your portfolio doesn't have to.
4% is the classic rule (25× spending); 3–3.5% is the conservative choice for a long, early retirement.
Comfortable is a solid middle-class life with a decent rental. Lean trims to essentials; Fat adds a bigger home, travel, and a cushion.
A couple shares housing, so two people cost less than double.
| City | Cost / yr | FIRE number | Verdict |
|---|
Cost of living is a rough estimate for one person (or a couple) living a chosen lifestyle with rent included — meant for comparing places, not budgeting to the dollar. The FIRE number is what your portfolio alone would need to cover that cost at your withdrawal rate.
Quick, baked-in answers by portfolio size: Can I retire on $500,000? · Can I retire on $750,000? · Can I retire on $1 Million? · Can I retire on $1.5 Million? · Can I retire on $2 Million? · Can I retire on $3 Million? · Can I retire on $5 Million?
Or by destination: Retire in Europe · Retire in Asia · Retire in Latin America
This Portfolio Atlas calculator flips the FIRE question from "how much do I need?" to "where can what I already have buy me freedom?" It compares your portfolio against the FIRE number — annual cost of living times 25 under the 4% rule — for 59 cities across six continents, at the lifestyle you choose. Geographic arbitrage means the same nest egg that falls short in San Francisco can fund decades in Lisbon or Chiang Mai.
For each city the calculator starts from an estimated annual cost of living for one person at a comfortable lifestyle with rent included, then scales it by your chosen lifestyle tier — lean trims to essentials, fat adds room and travel — and by household size, since a couple shares housing. It subtracts any other income you have, divides the remainder by your safe withdrawal rate to get the city's FIRE number, and marks the city affordable when your portfolio clears that number. Ranking every city this way turns the abstract 4% rule into a concrete map of where your money already reaches.
For each city we estimate the annual cost of a comfortable life at your chosen lifestyle, subtract any other income you have, and divide by your safe withdrawal rate to get that city's FIRE number. If your portfolio meets or beats it, the city is within reach.
It is the portfolio you would need to cover that city's cost of living from investment withdrawals alone. At the classic 4% rule it is 25 times the annual cost, so a $40,000-a-year city needs about $1,000,000.
Your withdrawal rate is set by spending, and spending is dominated by housing, which varies several-fold between cities. Moving somewhere cheaper lowers the portfolio you need — often far more than years of extra saving would have.
No. They are rough, rent-included estimates meant for comparing places, and they ignore taxes, visas, and healthcare access, which vary enormously by country. Treat the results as a starting map, not a budget.
Often, yes. Housing drives most of the gap between cities, so a portfolio that falls short in a coastal US city can comfortably fund a life in much of Southern Europe, Latin America, or Southeast Asia. The calculator shows exactly which places clear your number.
No — those vary too much by country and personal situation to estimate well, and they can shift the picture in either direction. Use the affordable list as a shortlist to research properly, including residency rules and how you'll access healthcare.
More retirement & investing tools: Retirement Savings Planner · Compound Interest · 401(k) & Employer Match · Roth vs. Traditional · FIRE: Years to Independence · Coast FIRE · Social Security Break-Even · Net Worth · Savings Goal · Required Minimum Distribution · Lump Sum vs. Dollar-Cost Averaging · Dividend Income · College Savings
See them all on the Retirement & Investing Calculators page, or embed this calculator on your site →