The FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is a lifestyle strategy focused on extreme savings and investment to achieve financial freedom decades before traditional retirement age. FIRE adherents typically save 50–70% of their income and invest aggressively to build a portfolio large enough to cover living expenses indefinitely.
Calculating Your FIRE Number
Your FIRE number is the amount of money you need invested to live off your portfolio indefinitely. Using the 4% rule, your FIRE number is your annual expenses multiplied by 25. If you spend $40,000 per year, your FIRE number is $1,000,000. If you spend $80,000, it is $2,000,000.
The lower your annual expenses, the smaller your FIRE number — and the faster you reach it. This is why FIRE enthusiasts focus on both increasing income and reducing expenses.
Types of FIRE
The FIRE community has developed several variations to fit different lifestyles:
- Lean FIRE: Achieving FI on a minimalist budget, typically under $40,000/year in expenses. Requires a portfolio of about $1 million.
- Fat FIRE: Achieving FI while maintaining a more comfortable lifestyle, typically $80,000–$120,000+/year. Requires $2–3+ million.
- Barista FIRE: Reaching partial FI and supplementing with part-time or low-stress work. Your portfolio covers most expenses; part-time income fills the gap and may provide health insurance.
- Coast FIRE: Saving enough early that your existing investments will grow to your full FIRE number by traditional retirement age, even with zero additional contributions. After reaching Coast FIRE, you only need to earn enough to cover current expenses.
Savings Rate: The Most Important Variable
Your savings rate (the percentage of take-home pay you save and invest) is the single most powerful lever in reaching FIRE. Here is how savings rate maps to working years until FI, assuming a 5% real return on investments:
- 10% savings rate: ~51 years to FI
- 25% savings rate: ~32 years to FI
- 50% savings rate: ~17 years to FI
- 70% savings rate: ~8.5 years to FI
- 80% savings rate: ~5.5 years to FI
FIRE Investment Strategy
Most FIRE practitioners invest in low-cost, diversified index funds — particularly total stock market and international index funds. The strategy is simple: invest consistently, keep fees under 0.1–0.2%, and avoid trying to time the market.
After reaching FI, many FIRE retirees maintain a portfolio of 60–80% stocks and 20–40% bonds plus a cash cushion covering 1–2 years of expenses. This asset allocation balances growth with stability to sustain withdrawals for potentially 40–60 years of retirement.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is FIRE realistic in 2026?
Yes, but it requires discipline and a reasonable income-to-expense ratio. FIRE is most achievable for individuals or households that can maintain a savings rate of 40% or higher. Even if full early retirement is not your goal, adopting FIRE principles — tracking expenses, maximizing savings, investing consistently — improves your financial health regardless.
How do FIRE retirees handle healthcare before age 65?
Common strategies include ACA marketplace insurance (which can be affordable with low reported income), health-sharing ministries, COBRA continuation coverage, spouse's employer insurance, or part-time work that provides health benefits (Barista FIRE). Healthcare is often the largest expense for early retirees to plan for.
What is Coast FIRE and how do I calculate it?
Coast FIRE is reached when your current investments, growing at an expected real return rate without any additional contributions, will reach your full FIRE number by a traditional retirement age (say 65). Our FIRE Calculator automatically calculates your Coast FIRE number and age. Once you reach Coast FIRE, you only need to earn enough to cover your current living expenses.
What are the biggest risks of early retirement?
The top risks include healthcare costs before Medicare eligibility at 65, sequence-of-returns risk (a market crash in your first few retirement years can deplete your portfolio faster than expected), lifestyle inflation that increases your spending beyond planned levels, and longevity risk — your money needs to last 40-60 years instead of 20-30. Building a conservative withdrawal rate, maintaining a flexible spending plan, and keeping some part-time income options open all help mitigate these risks.