What Coast FIRE actually is.
The point where your invested savings, left untouched, will compound into your full retirement number by your retirement age - with zero additional contributions. Past it, you only need to earn enough to cover the life you’re living now.
The idea caught fire in the r/coastFIRE community - now roughly 200,000 members of people trading spreadsheets and crossing stories - as a saner halfway point on the road to full financial independence: you keep working, but the saving is done.
$289,222 = $1,250,000 ÷ (1 + 5%)30
The math, gently.
Three moves, no Greek letters. Everything on this site is computed in today's dollars with exactly these steps - you can audit every figure.
- 01
The FIRE number.
Annual retirement spending ÷ safe withdrawal rate. Spend $50,000 a year and the finish line is:
$50,000 ÷ 4% = $1,250,000
- 02
Discount by time.
Divide by (1 + real return) raised to the years it has to grow. At 30 with retirement at 60 and a 5% real return:
$1,250,000 ÷ 1.05³⁰ = $289,221
- 03
Find the crossing.
Project your actual investments month by month - growth plus contributions - until the curve meets the requirement. On the default numbers:
crossing at 42y 10m · then $0 more required
INTERACTIVE - THE EXPONENT
Touch the exponent. It’s the whole idea.
A fixed $1,250,000 FIRE number, discounted at 5% real.
Coast number needed today
$289,222
$1,250,000 ÷ 1.0530 - same pile, wildly different price of entry.
The FIRE family.
Same destination, different boats. Coast FIRE is the only variant where the retirement portfolio is already finished - work just pays for the present.
Hybridize freely - these are coordinates, not cages.
Five levers that move your date.
Ranked roughly by force. The first two bend the target itself; the last three bend the path to it.
The FIRE number is spend ÷ withdrawal rate, so every dollar shaved off retirement spending removes twenty-five from the target. Cut $1,000 a month from the plan and the finish line moves $300,000 closer - usually years of work closer.
Three crossings.
Different ages, different salaries, same tide. Every figure below is computed with this site’s exact math - tap through and the calculator opens preloaded with their scenario.
Maya, 29
Barista-turned-illustrator
- INVESTED
- $48,000
- SPEND / YR
- $36,000
- RETIRE AT
- 62
- CONTRIB
- $1,200/mo
Coasts at
41y 7m
then ~20 years of optional saving
She crossed while pulling espresso shots; the illustration career is now optional gravy.
Dan, 45
Late starter, two kids
- INVESTED
- $310,000
- SPEND / YR
- $70,000
- RETIRE AT
- 65
- CONTRIB
- $4,000/mo
Coasts at
54y 4m
then ~11 years of optional saving
Started at 40 convinced it was too late. It wasn’t.
Rhea, 36
Engineer eyeing a sabbatical
- INVESTED
- $430,000
- SPEND / YR
- $55,000
- RETIRE AT
- 60
- CONTRIB
- $0 - done
Already coasted
at 35
coast number $426K - cleared the bar at 35
She stopped saving last year. Her net worth didn’t notice.
Composite personas with realistic numbers; math computed with this site’s default assumptions (5% real return, 4% withdrawal rate).
Mistakes that sink crossings.
The math is simple; the discipline isn’t. Four ways crossings go aground - all self-inflicted, all avoidable.
Using nominal returns
8% nominal ≠ 8% real; inflation quietly eats the difference. A crossing computed on nominal growth is a crossing that arrives years late - always plan in real (after-inflation) terms.
Counting the house
Equity in the home you live in doesn’t compound for you - it compounds for the person you sell to, someday, maybe. Only assets that can feed you without evicting you belong in the invested-assets field.
Lifestyle creep
The spend input is a moving target. Every upgrade - the nicer zip code, the second car - raises the FIRE number 25× its annual cost. Revisit the number yearly, honestly.
Panicking at the first bear market
Crossings assume average seas, and volatility is the price of the ticket. Selling into a drawdown right after you coast converts a temporary storm into a permanent hole in the hull.