Complete guide to Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) in 2026. Calculate your number, savings rate strategies, and Lean/Coast/Fat FIRE.
Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) isn't about quitting work — it's about making work optional. Here's exactly how the math works.
Annual Expenses × 25 = Your FIRE Number. Spend $40K/year? You need $1M invested. The 4% safe withdrawal rate makes this work indefinitely.
$625K–$1M target. Live on $25–$40K/year. Frugal lifestyle, low cost-of-living area. Achievable in 10–15 years with 60%+ savings rate.
Save aggressively early, then 'coast' — stop investing and let compounding do the rest. Hit $200K by 30, retire at 60 with $2M+ at 8% returns.
$2.5M–$5M+. Live on $100K–$200K/year. Maintain pre-retirement lifestyle. Requires high income + 40%+ savings rate.
Hybrid: enough investments to cover most expenses + part-time job for healthcare and fun money. Most realistic for many.
10% saved → 51 years to FIRE. 25% → 32 years. 50% → 17 years. 65% → 10 years. 75% → 7 years.
Cut the Big 3 (housing, transport, food). House hack, drive used, cook home. Then attack income — raises and side hustles uncap the ceiling.
Lifestyle inflation, ignoring health insurance, underestimating taxes in retirement, no buffer for sequence-of-returns risk.
Calculate your FIRE number. Track every dollar for 30 days. Open a Roth IRA. Automate investments. Use the Monthly Income Booster app to find income streams that accelerate your timeline.
Tax rules, limits and pay data change. Check the current figures with the primary source before acting on them.