Retirement / FIRE Calculator
Model your path to retirement with compound growth, inflation, and the classic 4% withdrawal rule, and see your FIRE target in today's money.
Portfolio value over time
Portfolio Scenarios
Annual contributions and withdrawals
How It Works
Enter your current age, target retirement age, life expectancy, current savings balance, monthly contribution, expected real return rate, and inflation rate. The tool projects your portfolio year by year from now to retirement, applying monthly compound growth and monthly contributions, then switches to a withdrawal phase after retirement where you draw inflation-adjusted income until the planned end of life. Two interactive charts show portfolio value over time (accumulation followed by drawdown) and your annual sustainable withdrawal. The summary panel highlights the classic 4% rule target (25× your annual spending, derived from the Trinity Study), your projected balance at retirement in both nominal and today’s-money terms, and the age at which your savings are expected to last until — so you can see at a glance whether your current trajectory reaches Financial Independence. Every number is computed in your browser from the inputs you provide; nothing is stored or transmitted.
Worked Example
A 35-year-old with $100,000 already saved and a 7% average return: by 65, that single starting balance alone grows to about $761,000 — money roughly doubles every decade at 7%, and thirty years allows three doublings. Add monthly contributions and the accumulation chart shows the two components stacked. Then the drawdown phase takes over: enter your desired monthly retirement income and the simulation shows how long the portfolio lasts, making the trade-off between retiring earlier and contributing longer concrete instead of abstract.
Use Cases
- Planning a realistic FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) target for a lean, regular, or fat lifestyle
- Comparing the impact of increasing your monthly contribution versus working a few years longer
- Stress-testing your retirement plan against higher inflation or lower expected returns
- Understanding why the 4% rule works and how safe withdrawal rates change with sequence-of-returns risk
- Teaching the power of compound growth to someone just starting their first retirement account
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the 4% rule?
- An empirical guideline from the Trinity Study suggesting that withdrawing 4% of your portfolio in year one and adjusting for inflation each year afterwards has historically lasted 30+ years. The tool highlights your 25× target as a quick reference.
- Does the tool account for sequence-of-returns risk?
- No. It uses a constant expected real return, which understates risk in early-retirement periods. Stress-test by running scenarios with lower returns or higher inflation.
- Are returns nominal or real?
- Enter the real (inflation-adjusted) return. The inflation field is then used only to translate end-of-life balances back into today's purchasing power for the summary.
- What does FIRE mean?
- Financial Independence, Retire Early — a movement aiming to accumulate 25× annual spending so investment returns can replace earned income.
- Are my numbers sent anywhere?
- No. The projection runs in your browser and is discarded on tab close.