Use this free FIRE calculator to model retirement planning, safe withdrawal rates (4% rule), drawdown strategies, dividend reinvestment vs passive income, portfolio returns, inflation, and taxes. Customize your ETF and stock portfolio, set contributions by year, and project net worth in EUR, USD, GBP, or CHF. No signup, fast, mobile‑friendly.
| Name | Ticker | Allocation % | Manual Return % (price CAGR) | Dividend Yield % | Shares | Price | Value | Actions |
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Explore different strategies to improve your FIRE plan sustainability:
📊 Set Net Annual Withdrawals above to see optimization strategies
We'll analyze different withdrawal strategies and provide personalized recommendations based on your FIRE plan.
Calculate when you can achieve Financial Independence based on your current net worth, monthly expenses (NET after taxes), and savings rate. Tax adjustments are automatically applied.
Add your monthly subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify, gym, etc.) and see how many days or years you could save on your FIRE date by cutting them!
| Year | Starting Capital | Net Return | Gross Dividends | Net Dividends | Dividends Used | Actual Withdrawals | Contribution (€ base) | Final Capital | Annual Growth | 4% Withdrawal |
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So you've heard about FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and you're wondering if it's just another internet trend or something real. It's definitely real, and it's pretty simple at its core: save aggressively, invest smart, and retire way earlier than your parents did. We're talking 30s, 40s, maybe early 50s instead of grinding until 65.
Here's the thing though – it's not magic. It basically comes down to two things: save as much as you can (most people aim for 50-70% of their income, which sounds crazy but plenty of folks pull it off) and keep your expenses low. The math is actually pretty wild: save just 10% and you're looking at 51 years until retirement. Bump that up to 50%? Only 17 years. Hit 70%? You're done in 8.5 years. That's the power of high savings rates.
You've probably heard about the famous 4% rule. It came from something called the Trinity Study that looked at market data going back to 1926. The basic idea? Withdraw 4% of your portfolio in year one, adjust for inflation each year after, and you've got a 95% chance your money lasts 30 years. Sounds great, right?
Well, here's where it gets tricky. That 4% rule was designed for traditional 30-year retirements. If you're retiring at 35 or 40, you might need your money to last 50-60 years. That's a LOT longer, and you're exposed to way more market ups and downs. A lot of experts these days suggest going more conservative – maybe 3.5% if you're planning a 40-year retirement, or even 3% if you really want to play it safe.
Let's say you need $40,000 a year to live on. With the 4% rule, that's $1 million ($40,000 ÷ 0.04). Drop it to 3.5%? Now you need about $1.14 million. Go full conservative at 3%? You're looking at $1.33 million. Big difference, right? That's why I built this calculator – so you can play around with different scenarios and see what works for your situation.
The Old-School Way: You've probably heard things like "120 minus your age = stock percentage" or the classic 60/40 stocks-to-bonds split. These aren't bad, honestly. When you're young and building wealth, a lot of FIRE people go way more aggressive – like 80-100% stocks. Yeah, it's a wilder ride, but you've got time to recover from crashes. Then as you get closer to actually pulling the trigger on retirement, you might dial it back a bit with some bonds.
The Three-Bucket Thing: I personally like this approach. You split your money into three buckets based on when you'll need it. Bucket 1 is cash and bonds for the next 1-5 years (so market crashes don't freak you out). Bucket 2 is a mix for years 5-10. Bucket 3 is aggressive stocks for 10+ years out. Every so often, you refill Bucket 1 from Bucket 2, and Bucket 2 from Bucket 3. It's like a waterfall system that gives stocks time to bounce back after bad years.
Ray Dalio's All-Weather: This one's interesting – 40% long-term bonds, 30% stocks, 15% intermediate bonds, 7.5% gold, 7.5% commodities. The idea is it performs okay in any economic situation. Won't make you rich overnight in a bull market, but won't wreck you either. Some people sleep better at night with this approach.
Living Off Dividends: Some folks swear by this – load up on dividend-paying stocks and ETFs, then just live off the dividend income without ever selling shares. Psychologically it feels really good (you're not "spending down" your nest egg). Dividends tend to keep flowing even when stock prices are down, which is nice. But heads up – dividend stocks don't always keep pace with total market returns, and they can create tax headaches if you're not careful about which accounts you hold them in.
Okay, sequence of returns risk. This is probably the biggest danger to early retirement and honestly, it freaks me out more than anything else. It's not about what your average returns are – it's about WHEN those returns happen. If you retire and the market immediately tanks 30% while you're pulling money out? That's brutal. Your portfolio might never recover even if returns are great after that.
Here's a real example that'll make you think twice: Two people both retire with $1 million and take out $40,000 yearly. Person A gets hit with a 30% loss right away in year one, then earns 7% every year after. Person B cruises along at 7% every year, then takes that 30% hit in year 20. Same average returns overall, right? But Person A could run out of money around year 25, while Person B's portfolio is still going strong past year 30. The order matters. A LOT.
How do you protect yourself? Keep 1-3 years of expenses in cash so you're not forced to sell stocks when they're down. Be flexible – if the market crashes 40%, maybe cut your spending by 15-20% for a year or two. Pick up some part-time work doing something you actually enjoy (that's the whole Barista FIRE thing). Some people even intentionally increase their stock allocation as they age instead of decreasing it. And honestly? If the market tanks right before you planned to retire, just work another year or two. It sucks, but it's way better than running out of money at 70.
Look, I'm not gonna lie – taxes are boring. But getting them wrong could literally cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your retirement. So let's talk about the different account types and some tricks to keep more of your money.
Account Types (the cliff notes version): Regular taxable brokerage accounts let you do whatever you want, but you'll pay taxes on dividends and gains every year – these are great for your early retirement years when you need flexibility. Traditional 401(k)/IRA accounts give you a tax break now, but you'll pay regular income tax when you take money out (plus a 10% penalty if you're under 59½, ouch). Roth 401(k)/IRA is the opposite – you pay taxes now, but withdrawals are tax-free later. And you can actually pull out your contributions (not the earnings) from a Roth anytime without penalty.
The Roth Conversion Ladder (this is kind of genius): So you've got money stuck in a traditional IRA and you're not 59½ yet. What do you do? You convert some of it to a Roth IRA each year, paying taxes on that conversion. Then after 5 years, you can withdraw that specific converted amount without any taxes or penalties. Do this every year during early retirement when your income is low, and you're basically creating a pipeline of accessible money. For the first 5 years, you live off your taxable account. After that, the conversion ladder keeps you going. It's beautiful, really.
Tax-Loss Harvesting: This one's pretty straightforward – when investments drop in value, you sell them at a loss to offset your capital gains, which lowers your tax bill. You can do this throughout the year in taxable accounts. Some robo-advisors will do it automatically for you. Just watch out for the wash-sale rule – you can't buy back the same thing within 30 days or the IRS gets mad. This trick alone can boost your after-tax returns by 0.5-1% a year, which adds up big time.
Asset Location (not allocation – location): This is simple but most people don't do it. Put your tax-inefficient stuff (bonds, REITs, anything that throws off lots of taxable income) in your tax-advantaged accounts. Put your tax-efficient stuff (basic index funds, growth stocks that don't pay much in dividends) in your taxable accounts. That's it. You just improved your returns by another 0.5-1% annually without taking any extra risk.
1. Healthcare Will Cost More Than You Think: Seriously, if you're in the US and retiring before 65 (when Medicare kicks in), healthcare is probably going to be your biggest expense. I'm talking $500-2000+ per person per month. Look into ACA marketplace plans (you might qualify for subsidies if your income is low enough), health sharing ministries, or just move somewhere cheaper. Or heck, move to another country – plenty of FIRE folks do that.
2. Forgetting About Inflation: Your $40,000 annual budget today? In 20 years with just 3% inflation, you'll need $72,000 to buy the same stuff. That's wild, right? Don't just assume your expenses stay flat forever. Look into I-Bonds or TIPS if you want some inflation protection in the safe part of your portfolio.
3. Lifestyle Inflation is Real: You get a raise, suddenly you "need" a nicer car. Make more money, your apartment isn't good enough anymore. This is the killer for FIRE plans. Track every dollar you spend (yeah, it's tedious, but do it anyway). Remember, every $10,000 you spend annually means you need $250,000-333,000 more in your portfolio. That fancy car lease? Could be costing you 5 more years of work.
4. Being Too Optimistic About Returns: Sure, stocks have historically returned around 10% nominally (7% after inflation). But what if the future is different? What if you retire right before a decade-long bear market? Always run pessimistic scenarios. What if you only get 5-6% returns? Can your plan survive? If not, save more or plan to work longer. Better safe than sorry.
5. Retiring TO Something, Not Just FROM Something: This is the one people don't think about until it's too late. Yeah, your job might suck, but it also gives you purpose, structure, social connections, identity. I've read about so many early retirees who hit their number, quit, and then six months later they're depressed and bored. Have a plan for what you'll actually DO with all that free time. Hobbies, volunteering, part-time passion projects – whatever floats your boat. FIRE should be about gaining freedom, not just escaping your cubicle.
Sarah's Lean FIRE Journey: Sarah's 35 now and living on $30,000 a year. Sounds tight, but she's happy – she lives in a cheap city, bikes everywhere, cooks at home. With the 4% rule, she needed $750,000. Started at 28 with $50k saved, then dumped $40k yearly into the market (she was making $80k and living on the other half). Went aggressive with 80% VTSAX and 20% VXUS. Eight years later? Done. She doesn't live fancy, but she's free and that's what mattered to her.
David and Maria's Fat FIRE: These two are living proof you can FIRE comfortably if you have high income. They wanted $120k a year for travel and a nice lifestyle. At 3.5% withdrawal (playing it safer with early retirement), they needed about $3.4 million. Sounds impossible, right? But they started at 32 with $400k already saved, were making $250k combined, and saved $125k every year. Went 90/10 stocks/bonds. Ten years later at 42, they hit their number. Their secret? They maxed out every tax-advantaged account, kept spending at $100k even as income grew, and rented out extra rooms in their house for additional cash flow.
James and the Barista FIRE Compromise: James is 38 with $500k saved but only needed $50k a year to live. Problem? That's only $17,500 at a safe 3.5% withdrawal rate. Not quite enough. But here's the thing – he didn't need full FIRE, he just needed OUT of his soul-crushing corporate job. So he found part-time work doing something he actually likes, makes $35k, which covers the gap AND gives him health insurance. Plus he's not bored, has work friends, and has a huge safety cushion. Sometimes "coast FIRE" or "barista FIRE" is actually better than full retirement.
Step 1 - Figure Out Your Numbers: First, you gotta know what you actually spend. Go back through the last year of expenses – all of them. Don't guess, use real numbers. Then think about retirement – will you spend less (no commute, paid-off house) or more (travel, healthcare)? Pick a withdrawal rate (I'd go 3-3.5% if you're early retiring, maybe 4% if you're older). Then just divide: Your Annual Expenses ÷ Withdrawal Rate = Your Target Portfolio.
Step 2 - Enter What You've Got: Put in all your current savings and investments. Add each thing separately – your stocks, bonds, ETFs, whatever. Be realistic with the return estimates (don't just assume 10% forever). Make sure your allocations add up to 100%. And yeah, more stocks = more potential growth but also more stomach-churning volatility.
Step 3 - How Much Can You Save?: Enter how much you plan to save each year. Be honest with yourself – can you really keep this up for 10-15 years? Think about different scenarios. What if you get a raise? What if you take time off to have kids or care for parents? You can edit contributions year by year if you want to get detailed about it.
Step 4 - Set Up Your Withdrawals: Put in how much you'll need to pull out each year (use today's dollars, don't try to account for inflation manually). If you're still building wealth, keep dividend reinvestment ON. Once you retire, switch it OFF so dividends become income. Set your tax rate to whatever you expect (probably lower in retirement). Hit calculate and see what happens year by year.
Step 5 - Stress Test Everything: This is super important – don't just run one happy scenario and call it done. Try some nightmare scenarios. What if returns are 2% lower? What if you need to spend 20% more? What if the market crashes 40% in year 5 of your retirement? If your plan survives all that, great. If not, you need to save more, work longer, cut expenses, or get comfortable with more risk.
Step 6 - Check In Every Year: FIRE isn't fire-and-forget (see what I did there?). Check your plan annually. Are returns what you expected? Spending more than you planned? Did tax laws change? Life happens – you might get married, have kids, get sick, find an amazing job opportunity. The key is being flexible enough to adjust when reality doesn't match your spreadsheet.
It's basically a tool that shows you whether your retirement plan actually works. You enter your savings, how much you'll add each year, expected returns, and how much you'll withdraw – then it projects everything forward to see if you'll run out of money or not. Way better than just guessing or hoping for the best.
Totally free, no signup, no email required. Everything saves in your browser locally, so your financial info never leaves your computer. I built it this way on purpose because I wouldn't want to upload my financial data to some random website either.
You can use EUR, USD, GBP, or CHF. Just pick whichever one you actually use and all the calculations and displays will be in that currency.
Financial Independence, Retire Early. Basically, save and invest aggressively (50-70% of income if you can), keep expenses low, build up enough investments that you can live off 3-4% withdrawals forever, then quit your job way before 65. Some people retire in their 30s or 40s doing this.
Lean FIRE is retiring on minimal spending (under $40k/year usually) – think living in a cheap area, simple lifestyle. Fat FIRE is retiring with plenty of money for travel and luxury – you'll need way more saved. Barista FIRE is having enough that you only need a chill part-time job to cover the rest. Coast FIRE means you've saved enough that if you stop contributing now, it'll grow to fund a traditional retirement – so you can stop stressing and just cover current expenses. Pick your poison.
Quick math: take your annual expenses and multiply by 25 (that's the "Rule of 25"). Need $40k a year? That's $1 million. But this assumes 4% withdrawals, which might be too aggressive if you're retiring super early. It really depends on your spending, your risk tolerance, and how conservative you want to be. That's why you should use this calculator to test different scenarios instead of relying on rules of thumb.
It says you can pull out 4% of your portfolio the first year you retire, then adjust for inflation every year after that. So $1 million portfolio = $40k withdrawal year one. The Trinity Study found this had a 95%+ success rate for 30-year retirements historically. But here's the catch – if you're retiring at 35 for a 50-60 year retirement, 4% might be pushing it.
For 30 years? Yeah, historically it's been pretty safe. For 50-60 years? Eh, a lot of people think you should go lower – like 3.5% or even 3% if you're really conservative. The longer your retirement, the more chances you have to hit a really bad market at the wrong time. Use this calculator to test what happens with different rates.
This is the nightmare scenario: you retire, market immediately crashes 30-40%, you're pulling money out the whole time, and your portfolio never recovers even if returns are great later. It's not about average returns – it's about the ORDER of returns. Get unlucky with timing and you're screwed. Best defense? Keep 1-3 years cash, be willing to cut spending in bad years, or work part-time if needed.
Honestly, it depends on your risk tolerance. Young and building wealth? A lot of people go 80-100% stocks for max growth. Getting close to retirement? Maybe dial it back to 60/40 stocks/bonds. Some people use age-based rules like "120 minus your age = stock percentage." Others use that three-bucket approach I mentioned in the guide. Try different mixes in this calculator and see what you're comfortable with.
Index funds, 100%. Yeah, stock picking sounds sexy and you might think you can beat the market, but most professional fund managers can't do it consistently, so what makes you think you can? Index funds (VTI, VXUS, VWRL, etc.) are dirt cheap, instantly diversified, and they just work. Save the stock picking for your "fun money" account if you really want to try it.
Yep, and you can switch between them in this calculator. While you're building wealth, reinvest everything – the compound growth is insane. Once you retire, you can either keep reinvesting (more growth) or use dividends as income (less selling, which feels psychologically better for some people). Personally, I like the dividend approach for the peace of mind, even if it's not optimal on paper.
SUPER important. Like, way more than most people realize. A 1% fee sounds tiny, right? But on a $500k portfolio over 30 years, that's over $300k in lost growth compared to a 0.1% fee. That's INSANE. Always check expense ratios. Anything over 0.2% and you should probably find a cheaper option. Every 0.1% adds up big time.
Just click "+ Add Asset" and you can add rows for each thing you own – stocks, ETFs, bonds, whatever. Enter what percentage of your portfolio each one is (must add up to 100%), the expected return, and dividend yield. The calculator will figure out your overall weighted returns. You can even put in ticker symbols and it'll try to fetch current prices for you.
Stocks have historically done 7-10% after inflation, but who knows about the future. I usually go conservative with 5-7%, moderate is 7-8%, optimistic is 8-10%. Bonds are more like 2-5%. Don't just pick the highest number and hope for the best – test multiple scenarios to see if your plan holds up even if returns suck.
You enter your expected tax rate and the calculator applies it to your dividends and capital gains. For withdrawals, if you say you need $40k net after taxes and your tax rate is 20%, it'll actually withdraw $50k gross so you end up with $40k. It's not perfect (real tax optimization with Roth conversions and all that is way more complex) but it gives you a realistic ballpark.
Enter your baseline contribution, hit calculate, then you can edit specific years in the results table. Super useful for modeling stuff like "I'll save $50k for the next 5 years, then drop to $30k when we have kids, then ramp back up to $60k in my 40s." Makes your projections way more realistic than assuming the same amount forever.
Yeah, this is a big one if you're in the US and retiring before 65. Your options: COBRA (expensive and only lasts 18-36 months), ACA marketplace plans (you might qualify for subsidies if your income is low enough), health sharing ministries, or just get a part-time job that provides benefits (Barista FIRE). Budget at least $500-2000+ per person per month. It's rough. Outside the US? You're probably fine with much cheaper healthcare.
People fight about this constantly. Pay it off and you've got guaranteed returns equal to your interest rate, plus you'll sleep better and need less in your portfolio. But keep it and you maintain liquidity, plus if your rate is like 3% and you think you can earn 7% investing, the math says invest. I'm personally more in the "pay it off for peace of mind" camp, but plenty of people successfully FIRE with mortgages. Your call.
You've got options: do the Roth conversion ladder thing I mentioned earlier (convert traditional IRA to Roth, wait 5 years, withdraw penalty-free), use 72(t) SEPP if you want to commit to equal withdrawals, take advantage of the Rule of 55 if you're leaving your job at 55+, or just use regular taxable brokerage accounts (no penalties, just capital gains tax). Most people use a mix – taxable accounts first, then Roth ladder, then traditional accounts much later. Talk to a tax pro though, don't just wing it based on some website.
Nope. This is a tool and some educational content. Your situation is different from everyone else's. Talk to actual financial advisors and tax professionals before making big decisions. I'm just a person who built a calculator, not your financial advisor.