FIRE calculator: years to financial independence
Enter your savings, income and spending. The calculator works out your FI number, your savings rate and how many years of investing it takes until your portfolio can cover your spending.
- FI number
- 900,000
- Savings rate
- 40%
- Years to FI
- 19.4
- Age at FI
- 49
FI number = yearly spending ÷ withdrawal rate. Savings = income − spending, invested every month at the real return you set. Amounts are in today’s money.
Years to FI by savings rate
| Savings rate | Yearly spending | Years to FI |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 54,000 | 44.0 |
| 20% | 48,000 | 32.6 |
| 30% | 42,000 | 25.1 |
| 40% | 36,000 | 19.4 |
| 50% | 30,000 | 14.8 |
| 60% | 24,000 | 10.9 |
| 70% | 18,000 | 7.5 |
Same income, starting savings, return and withdrawal rate as above.
How the calculation works
The FI number is yearly spending divided by the withdrawal rate. Each month the difference between income and spending is invested and grows at the real return you set, until the portfolio reaches the FI number.
All amounts are in today’s money because the return is after inflation. Income growth, pensions, taxes and changes in spending are not modelled: treat the result as a rough guide and revisit it as your situation changes.
Questions
What does FIRE mean?
Financial Independence, Retire Early: saving and investing a large share of income so that investments can cover living costs well before the usual retirement age. Financial independence is reached when the portfolio can fund yearly spending at a sustainable withdrawal rate.
What is the FI number?
Yearly spending divided by the withdrawal rate. With a 4% withdrawal rate it is 25 times yearly spending: 40,000 a year needs about 1,000,000. A lower withdrawal rate gives a bigger target and more safety.
Why does the savings rate matter more than income?
Because it works on both sides: a higher savings rate means more invested each year and a lower spending level to fund, which shrinks the FI number. That is why the table shows years to FI by savings rate rather than by income.
Is a 4% withdrawal rate safe for early retirement?
The 4% rule comes from US studies of 30-year retirements. Retirements of 40 to 50 years have historically needed lower rates, often 3–3.5%. Test your plan with the Monte Carlo retirement calculator, which shows the chance that the money lasts.
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- Drawdown recoveryHow long falls took to recover
- Retirement calculatorMonte Carlo on historical returns
Educational calculator: results depend entirely on the inputs and are not a forecast or investment advice. It runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent or stored.