The financial independence number is your annual spending divided by the withdrawal rate you rely on. At $50,000 of spending and 4%, that is $1,250,000 — a portfolio that covers your costs year after year, so paid work becomes optional. The calculator below turns your own figures into that number, projects what your savings grow into, and shows the gap that is left. Everything is in today's dollars, so the answer does not drift with inflation.
Spending $40,000 a year at a 4% withdrawal rate needs $1,000,000 invested. The Coast FIRE number for age 30 is $181,290, so you still need $181,290.
Spending $40,000 a year at a 4% withdrawal rate needs $1,000,000 invested. Your Coast FIRE number for age 30 is $181,290, and your portfolio is already $0 past it.
There is no single financial independence figure, which is why the same salary can produce very different answers. The number is a ratio: the spending you want to sustain, divided by the withdrawal rate you trust. Someone planning $30,000 a year at 4% needs $750,000; someone planning $90,000 needs $2,250,000. Neither is more independent than the other, because they have priced different lives. This calculator holds your spending flat in real terms, so the answer is what that budget costs at today's prices. If your spending will change later — a mortgage ending, children leaving home — run the higher figure and treat the difference as margin. Everything else is arithmetic on top of that one decision.
The return field changes how fast your balance grows. The withdrawal rate changes the balance you need. At 4% the target is 25 times spending; at 3.5% it is about 28.6 times, and at 5% it is 20 times. On $50,000 of spending that is $1,250,000, $1,428,600 or $1,000,000 — a quarter of a million dollars of difference from a single decimal place. Lower rates buy margin against a long retirement and a poor sequence of returns; higher rates get you there sooner but leave less room for error. Pick the rate you would still be comfortable with after a bad decade, then let the return assumption do its smaller job.
Knowing the target is only half of it; the useful question is when you reach it. The chart above plots two paths from your current age to your retirement age: the portfolio left alone, and the portfolio with your yearly contribution. Where either path crosses the dashed FI line is the date independence arrives. Contributions matter most early and least late, which is why a modest yearly amount added for twenty years can move the crossing point by a decade. The four cards update as you type, so you can test a lower return or a later retirement and watch the date move instead of guessing. Set the contribution to zero to see the pure compounding case.
There is no universal figure, because it is your spending divided by your withdrawal rate. At 4%, every $10,000 of annual spending needs $250,000 of portfolio, so a $40,000 lifestyle needs $1,000,000 and an $80,000 lifestyle needs $2,000,000. Two people can be independent on very different numbers. Work backwards from the life you want, then apply the rate.
No. Every figure assumes the portfolio alone covers your spending. If you expect a pension or a state benefit, reduce the spending you enter by that amount, or model only the share the portfolio has to fund. Offsetting those payments keeps the arithmetic honest without pretending the income is guaranteed.
A longer retirement meets more sequences of returns, so many planners use 3% to 3.5% for retirements starting in the 40s rather than 4%. At 3.5%, $50,000 of spending needs about $1,428,600 instead of $1,250,000. Run both rates and see what the extra margin costs in years of saving.
Financial independence means the portfolio covers your spending now. Coast FIRE means it will cover that spending later without further contributions, so you still need income today. Coasting comes first and full independence comes at the end of the compounding; the coast fi calculator works out the earlier milestone.
The ratio matters more than the salary. What counts is the share of income you keep and invest, against the spending you plan to sustain. A large income spent entirely leaves nothing invested; a moderate income with low spending builds a portfolio. The inputs that move this page are spending, the gap between income and spending, and time.