FIRE Calculator

About the FIRE calculator

FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The core idea is to build an investment corpus large enough that a conservative withdrawal rate can fund your annual expenses without relying on salary income.

Use this calculator to estimate your FIRE number, current savings rate, annual savings, and projected years to financial independence. It is useful for high-saving professionals who want a clear target rather than a vague retirement aspiration.

The output is a planning baseline. In India, inflation, taxation, currency exposure, healthcare shocks, family obligations, and market sequence risk can all change the safe withdrawal rate that is appropriate for your household.

1. 1Choose a FIRE style: Select Lean, Regular, or Fat to start with a preset annual expense and safe withdrawal rate, then edit the numbers for your household.
2. 2Enter income and expenses: Use annual figures. The calculator derives annual savings and savings rate from income minus expenses.
3. 3Add current savings: Enter existing investments and savings that can contribute to the FIRE corpus. Exclude assets you do not plan to use for retirement cash flow unless intentional.
4. 4Set return and inflation assumptions: Expected return grows the portfolio, while inflation raises both future savings and the FIRE target in the projection.
5. 5Review the crossover year: The calculator compares projected portfolio value with the inflation-adjusted FIRE target each year and reports when the portfolio first reaches the target.

How is the FIRE number projected?

Balanceₜ = Balanceₜ₋₁ × (1 + return) + Annual savings × (1 + inflation)ᵗ⁻¹; Targetₜ = FIRE number × (1 + inflation)ᵗ

FIRE is achieved in the first year where projected balance is greater than or equal to the inflation-adjusted target. The calculator also handles cases where current savings already exceed the FIRE number.