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Everyone wants to achieve FIRE, aka "financial independence, retire early." But do you know how much money you’ll need for that? If not, this FIRE calculator will help you figure that out.

If you want to retire early, you can either start setting money aside as early as possible, or start later and save more.

Our FIRE calculator will show you exactly how much you’ll need to save to reach your early retirement goals. You can tweak the numbers to see how much cash you’ll pile up depending on factors like:

  • Different rates of return on your investments
  • Changes to your lifestyle and saving habits
  • An increase to your income

Crunch the numbers below to see what you need to do to retire early.

How the FIRE Calculator works

The purpose of the calculator is to help you determine what’s necessary for you to achieve FIRE status. It can help you to create specific monetary goals, and to know what steps you need to take now to reach those goals.

To use the FIRE calculator you’ll need to provide the following information:

  • Current age
  • After-tax annual income
  • Yearly expenses/cost of living
  • Current investment portfolio amount
  • Yearly contributions toward your investment portfolio
  • Your expected rate of return on your investments (you can use the slider to adjust the percentage)
  • Your current savings account balance (from all accounts)
  • The percentage of income you contribute to your savings accounts
  • Your savings rate of return (interest rate)
  • Your estimated retirement expenses on an annual basis, including income taxes

Once you’ve provided the above information, you can hit the “Calculate” button near the bottom.

You will then be shown your FIRE goal, which is the amount of money you should have to maintain your current standard of living once you reach retirement. The calculator will also provide your FIRE age, which is the age when you can expect to achieve FIRE and be able to retire.

Feel free to run different scenarios through the calculator. You may find you’ll need to contribute more money to your investment and retirement accounts, or experiment with different rates of return to meet your goals.

Summary

The FIRE retirement calculator can help you determine how much money you need to retire earlier than you thought. You’ll also learn at what age you’ll be able to retire (which depends on how much you want to spend each year you’re retired).

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About the author

Kevin Mercadante
Total Articles: 144
Since 2009, Kevin Mercadante has been sharing his journey from a washed-up mortgage loan officer emerging from the Financial Meltdown as a contract/self-employed “slash worker” – accountant/blogger/freelance web content writer – on Out of Your Rut.com. He offers career strategies, from dealing with under-employment to transitioning into self-employment, and provides “Alt-retirement strategies” for the vast majority who won’t retire to the beach as millionaires. He also frequently discusses the big-picture trends that are putting the squeeze on the bottom 90%, offering work-arounds and expense cutting tips to help readers carve out more money to save in their budgets – a.k.a., breaking the “savings barrier” and transitioning from debtor to saver. He’s a regular contributor/staff writer for as many as a dozen financial blogs and websites, including Money Under 30, Investor Junkie and The Dough Roller.
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