FIRE Retirement Calculator

What this calculator does

This calculator takes a handful of assumptions about your finances and translates them into four things: your Lean FIRE target, your Traditional target based on the 4% rule, your Fat FIRE target, and your Coast FIRE number. It then compares each against your current net worth, shows how close you are on a progress bar, and projects a timeline — roughly how many years of saving at your current pace each milestone would take. You can use it as a planning map: know your targets first, then decide which version of FIRE actually fits your lifestyle.

Who it's for

The calculator suits anyone curious whether early retirement is realistic. Perhaps you are just starting out and want a ballpark number to aim at. Perhaps you have been saving for years and want to see how close the finish line really is. Or perhaps you are already past the number and simply want to check your plan against a more conservative Fat target. No income level is too small or too large — the maths works the same either way, though assumptions should be tuned to your situation.

Inputs you'll need

Keep it simple. The core inputs are your monthly expenses (your budget, not your salary), how much you save each year, your current age, the age you would like to stop working, and an inflation assumption. If you already track your net worth — savings, investments, property you plan to sell, minus debts — have that figure handy too. The more honest your spending number, the more useful the results.

How the calculation works

Your FIRE number starts with annual expenses, grown to a future value using your inflation assumption. That future spending figure is then multiplied to build each target: a 25× multiplier for the Traditional 4% target, a larger one for Fat FIRE, and a more modest one for Lean. Your Coast FIRE number is worked out separately — it is the amount that, growing at your expected return until your target retirement age, lands exactly on your full target. Finally, the timeline projects your net worth forward from today's savings plus your annual contributions at your assumed return.

A worked example

For illustration: suppose you spend ₹60,000 a month, save ₹15 lakh a year, and want to stop work at 45 with 25 years of working life ahead. Annual expenses of ₹7.2 lakh suggest a Traditional target near ₹1.8 crore in today's money, inflated to its future value at retirement. Your current savings, compounded at your assumed return with annual additions, reveals how many years remain to each target. Every figure here is hypothetical — plug in your own numbers for a personal picture.

What the results mean

Each target gets its own progress bar and percentage. Lean FIRE at 100% means your current savings already cover a lean lifestyle. Coast FIRE at 100% means compounding can handle the rest, and every new rupee you save is a bonus — our Coast FIRE explainer covers that idea in detail. Traditional and Fat FIRE percentages show how far you are from the fuller versions. The timeline answer is often the most useful of all: it converts abstract crores of rupees into an honest "roughly this many years of work left".

Assumptions and limitations

The calculator is a planning tool, not a prophecy. It assumes a constant inflation rate, a constant return on your investments and steady contributions — none of which hold exactly in the real world. It ignores taxes and transaction costs, and it cannot model the lumpy behaviour of actual markets. The 4% target is a heuristic, not a promise. A Monte Carlo simulation is a better test of whether a withdrawal plan survives the bad years; this calculator shows where you stand today.

Using the FIRE calculator in India

The calculator works naturally in Indian rupees — enter amounts in ₹, lakhs and crores directly. Many Indian users combine the results with typical local building blocks: SIPs in mutual funds for equity growth, alongside EPF, PPF and NPS for stability. Because returns and taxation in India differ from the assumptions baked into many Western FIRE rules of thumb, treat your results as a starting point and revisit them as markets and tax rules change. This page only covers general principles — no specific tax treatment is promised here.

Estimates, not guarantees. The figures shown are projections based on the assumptions you enter. Real returns vary, and no calculator can promise a particular outcome. Use the results to inform decisions, not as a reason to skip professional advice.