Coast FIRE Calculator

Can you stop saving and still retire on time? Work out the portfolio size that compounds into your full FIRE number by traditional retirement age.

About You

Your Age35

2065

Target Retirement Age50

3675

Your Money

Current Portfolio

Monthly Savings

Assumptions

Expected Annual Return7%

4%10%

Withdrawal Rate4%

3%5%

Where do you want to retire?

You can stop saving and still retire at 50!

Your $500,000 portfolio will grow to $840,000 by age 50 at 7% return — even with zero additional savings.

CoastFIRE Number for Lisbon

$304,455

Based on $2,800/mo spending, 4% withdrawal rate, 7% return

Portfolio Projection

Compare CoastFIRE by city

🇵🇹

Lisbon

Portugal

CoastFIRE Number

$304,455

Status

You can coast!

FIRE number: $840,000

🇮🇩

Bali (Canggu)

Indonesia

CoastFIRE Number

$271,835

Status

You can coast!

FIRE number: $750,000

🇺🇸

Miami

United States

CoastFIRE Number

$489,302

Status

You can coast!

FIRE number: $1,350,000

What is CoastFIRE?

CoastFIRE means you have saved enough that your portfolio will grow to your FIRE number by retirement age — even if you never invest another dollar. You can “coast” to financial independence, working just enough to cover current expenses without needing to save. It’s the moment your past savings do all the heavy lifting.

Lowest CoastFIRE Numbers

1🇮🇳

Ahmedabad

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

2🇮🇳

Bhopal

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

3🇮🇳

Bhubaneswar

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

4🇰🇬

Bishkek

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

5🇷🇺

Chelyabinsk

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

6🇧🇩

Chittagong

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

7🇮🇳

Coimbatore

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

8🇦🇷

Córdoba

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

9🇸🇾

Damascus

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

10🇹🇯

Dushanbe

$800/mo

$86,987

Can coast!

📈

FIRE Calculator

Calculate your full FIRE number and see how many years until you reach it.

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Tax Calculator

Compare taxes on investment income across 86 countries. Lower taxes = lower CoastFIRE number.

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Ready to build your full plan?

Model life events, tax optimization, and Monte Carlo simulations with 97 years of real market data.

The idea

Save aggressively for 10–20 years until you hit a portfolio size that will compound into your full retirement number by traditional retirement age — then stop saving. You still need income to cover current living expenses, but the retirement math is already solved.

The leverage comes from long-horizon compounding. $200,000 at age 30 growing at 7% real for 35 years becomes $2.14M at 65 — without a single additional dollar contributed. You've made retirement self-funding; now you can earn less, work less, switch careers, or sabbatical without derailing the plan.

Coast FIRE is the version of financial independence for people who like working but hate feeling forced to work at maximum income. Lean FIRE says “stop working now”; Coast FIRE says “stop optimizing for income now.”

The math

Coast FIRE formula

Coast FIRE number = FIRE number ÷ (1 + real return) ^ (years to retirement)

Where FIRE number is your retirement-spending × 25 (or 30 if you want to use the 3.3% safe withdrawal rate), real return is inflation-adjusted expected annual return (7% historical US S&P 500; 5% for current valuations per Pfau / Vanguard), and years to retirement is how long until you plan to start withdrawing.

Sensitivity — Coast FIRE as % of full FIRE number

The two numbers you don't control are your expected real return and how many years until retirement. Here's what percentage of your full FIRE number you need today to hit Coast across each combination:

Years to retirement	5% real (pessimistic)	6% real	7% real (historical)	8% real (optimistic)
10 years	61.4%	55.8%	50.8%	46.3%
15 years	48.1%	41.7%	36.2%	31.5%
20 years	37.7%	31.2%	25.8%	21.5%
25 years	29.5%	23.3%	18.4%	14.6%
30 years	23.1%	17.4%	13.1%	9.9%
35 years	18.1%	13%	9.4%	6.8%

Read: a 30-year-old targeting retirement at 65 (35 years) with a 7% real return needs 9.4% of their FIRE number saved today to coast. A 50-year-old targeting 65 (15 years) needs 36.2%. The longer the horizon, the more leverage compounding gives you — and the greater the sensitivity to getting the return assumption right.

Four concrete examples

Young career · age 30 · Austin

$197K to coast

$70K/yr retirement spending → $1.75M FIRE at 25×. 35 years of 7% real compounding means $197K today reaches $1.75M at 65. Saved aggressively through 20s, hits Coast at 30, switches to a lower-stress creative career from there.

Mid-career · age 40 · US

$381K to coast

Same $70K/yr target, but 25 years to retirement instead of 35. Needs $381K (21.8% of FIRE number) saved to coast. Realistic for many two-income households — the moment when aggressive saving converts into career optionality.

Geo-arbitrage · age 35 · planning Lisbon

$158K to coast

Planning retirement in Lisbon at $1,800/mo ($21.6K/yr) → $540K FIRE. 30 years of 7% real means $158K today reaches $540K at 65. Geo-arbitrage plus a 30-year horizon makes Coast achievable at a lower portfolio than most US-based retirees.

Late starter · age 50 · NYC

$794K to coast

$100K/yr NYC spending → $2.5M FIRE. 15 years at 7% real means $794K needed today (31.7% of FIRE). Still achievable for high earners, but Coast in your 50s means the benefit is mostly psychological — only 15 years of post-Coast career left.

What to actually do after hitting Coast

The textbook answer — stop saving, work enough to cover expenses — is rarely what people actually do. Three common patterns, each defensible:

1. True coast. Savings rate drops to zero, you work to cover current expenses, portfolio compounds untouched. Maximum career and lifestyle flexibility. Risk: if your return assumption was wrong, you won't know until it matters.

2. Hybrid coast. Keep saving $500–$1,000/month (~10–15% savings rate) as a hedge against return underperformance and to pull forward the full-FIRE date. Most common in practice. The psychological safety of being past Coast remains, but you're building optional cushion.

3. Coast + career pivot. Use Coast as the trigger to switch to lower-income / higher-meaning work: teaching, nonprofit, creative ventures, founding something risky. The retirement math removes the downside of lower income. This is the pattern the FIRE community was originally built to enable.

Coast vs the other FIRE variants

Variant	Portfolio threshold	Keep working?	Best for
Coast FIRE	Enough to compound to FIRE by 65	Yes, covering expenses only	People who like working but want off the savings treadmill
Barista FIRE	Partial FIRE + part-time income gap	Part-time, often for benefits	Those who need US healthcare subsidy
Lean FIRE	25× low-budget spending (~$30–40K)	No	Disciplined minimalists, or geo-arbitrage destinations
Fat FIRE	25× comfortable spending ($100K+)	No	High earners who want margin for travel, family, uncertainty

Frequently asked questions

What is Coast FIRE?

Coast FIRE is the point where you have enough saved that your portfolio will compound to your full FIRE number by your target retirement age — even if you contribute zero dollars from now on. You still need income to cover current living expenses, but you no longer have to save for retirement. It's the middle ground between active accumulation and full FIRE, popularized by The Mad Fientist in the mid-2010s.

How is the Coast FIRE number calculated?

Coast FIRE number = FIRE number ÷ (1 + expected real return) ^ (years to retirement). If your FIRE number is $1.5M, you expect 7% real returns (inflation-adjusted), and retirement is 15 years away, your Coast FIRE number is $1.5M ÷ 1.07^15 ≈ $544,000. That's the portfolio size at which you can stop saving.

What real return should I use?

The common defaults are 6%, 7%, or 8% real (inflation-adjusted). US S&P 500 historical real return is ~7%. Global diversified portfolios are closer to 5–6%. Vanguard's forward-looking 10-year projection at 2026 levels is 4.5–5.5% real. If you want the honest-pessimist case, use 5%. If you're targeting average history, use 7%. The calculator lets you adjust this because it's the single biggest assumption.

Coast FIRE vs Lean FIRE vs Barista FIRE — which is which?

Coast FIRE: enough saved that it'll compound to full FIRE by 60–65 without further contributions. You still work to cover current expenses. Lean FIRE: enough total savings to retire now on a modest budget ($30–40K/yr). Barista FIRE: partial portfolio + part-time work (often chosen for US health insurance). Fat FIRE: portfolio supporting $100K+/yr indefinitely. Coast is the only one where you keep working full-time but don't save.

What's the practical benefit of hitting Coast FIRE?

Three things change. First, career flexibility — you can take lower-paid work you actually enjoy, switch industries, or freelance, because you no longer need to optimize for savings rate. Second, psychological safety — the retirement part is handled, so job loss or a sabbatical year doesn't derail the plan. Third, lifestyle inflation becomes genuinely OK because the compounding is already locked in.

How does geo-arbitrage affect Coast FIRE?

Enormously. Because Coast FIRE is a function of your FIRE number, and FIRE number is a function of retirement spending, cutting your planned retirement cost of living in half cuts your Coast FIRE number by the same proportion. Someone targeting $1.5M FIRE in Miami has a $544K Coast number at 15 years out. Someone targeting $450K FIRE in Chiang Mai has a $163K Coast number at the same horizon — 70% less to get to the same 'stop saving' moment.

What assumptions does this calculator make?

Default: 7% real return, inflation-adjusted withdrawals at 4% from your FIRE age onward, continuous compounding from your current portfolio, zero additional contributions after hitting Coast, no tax drag during accumulation (assumes retirement-account tax shelter). Taxes DO apply to Coast-phase income you earn to cover current expenses — that's separate from the portfolio math.

What if my expected return is wrong?

The sensitivity is significant. At 7% real for 15 years, you need 36% of your FIRE number today. At 5% real for 15 years, you need 48% — 33% more portfolio. That's why we show the sensitivity table: the Coast number you hit today assumes a return you don't know. A common hedge is continuing to contribute small amounts post-Coast (say, $500/month) — this absorbs most of the return-assumption risk.

Should I actually stop saving once I hit Coast FIRE?

Many people don't, and that's usually right. Hitting Coast reduces the necessary savings rate to zero, but continuing to save past that point pulls forward your full-FIRE date. 'Coast and keep saving 10%' is a popular middle ground — you get the psychological safety of being past Coast plus the option to retire earlier if career or life shifts. Coast is a threshold, not a cliff.

How does Coast FIRE interact with Social Security or pensions?

If you're planning a traditional retirement with Social Security or a pension, your 'FIRE number' is lower than 25× spending because you're replacing some income with the benefit. That lowers your Coast FIRE number too. For US Social Security, if you expect $2,000/mo starting at 67, that's $24K/yr income — subtracting from the FIRE-number calculation means you need 25× ($spending − $24K) in portfolio. Run it both ways: without SS (conservative) and with SS (realistic) to see the range.

Can I Coast FIRE in my 30s?

Mathematically yes, practically requires hitting the number young. A 30-year-old targeting full FIRE at 60 with $1.5M FIRE number and 7% real returns needs ~$197K saved to Coast. That's achievable by age 30 for high earners who save aggressively in their 20s — roughly $25K/yr of savings from age 22 gets you there. It's harder but very doable if career and savings discipline cooperate. Starting later (age 35+) the math gets less forgiving because you have fewer compounding years left.

What's the biggest risk of the Coast FIRE plan?

Sequence-of-returns risk at the beginning of retirement, same as full FIRE. A Coast-FIRE saver who hits their number at 40 but retires into a 1966-style decade of stagnant real returns could find their Coast math doesn't hold up. Mitigations: target a 30× multiplier for the 'FIRE number' input (more conservative than 25×), keep some savings flexibility after Coast rather than literally zero, and consider working part-time for the first few years of retirement if markets disappoint.

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