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Coast FIRE Calculator
Enter your age, your retirement age and what you have invested. You get the amount that, left alone, grows into a full retirement fund, and whether you are already there.
Example
Retiring at 65 on $40,000 a year needs $1,000,000. With 35 years of growth at 5% after inflation, that takes $181,290 invested today. With $150,000 invested, you are $31,290 short.
How the coast fire calculator works
Coast FIRE is the point where you have invested enough that you never need to add another cent for retirement. Your investments grow untouched until retirement age, and your earnings only need to cover your current spending.
The calculation works backwards. First it finds your full FIRE number, which is yearly spending divided by the withdrawal rate. Then it discounts that amount to today: Coast FIRE number = FIRE number / (1 + return)years.
The return is after inflation, so all figures are in today’s money. The result is sensitive to this rate: a lower return raises the amount you need now by a lot.
Common questions
What can I do once I reach Coast FIRE?
You still need to earn enough to pay your bills, but you no longer need to save for retirement. Some people move to lower-paid or part-time work, and others keep saving to retire sooner.
How is Coast FIRE different from Barista FIRE?
With Coast FIRE you leave the investments alone and live on earnings. With Barista FIRE you start withdrawing from your investments now and top up with part-time income.
What is the risk?
The plan depends on decades of market returns. If returns are lower than you assumed, the investments fall short. Review the numbers every few years and add contributions if you drift below the coast path on the chart.