FIRE Calculator
Calculate your path to Financial Independence and Retire Early
Your effective tax rate including federal, state, and local taxes
The safe withdrawal rate from your portfolio (4% is traditional)
Retirement expenses are calculated based on your current annual expenses. Taxes and cost of living adjustments will be applied automatically.
FIRE Target
Based on 4% withdrawal rate
Years to FIRE
FIRE at age 54
Monthly Income
Safe withdrawal amount
FIRE Progress
Portfolio Growth Projection
Portfolio at Retirement
Total Invested
Investment Returns
Success Probability
What Is FIRE and How Does This Calculator Work?
Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) is a financial strategy built on one principle: save and invest enough that your portfolio generates passive income to cover your living expenses indefinitely. When your investments can sustain your lifestyle without a paycheck, you have reached FIRE.
For NRIs, FIRE is more complex than it is for most. You are managing income in dollars, investments across two countries, tax obligations in both jurisdictions, and a potential relocation that can change your retirement math entirely. A move from New York to Pune, for example, can reduce your annual expenses by 50 to 65%, which means your FIRE number could be significantly lower than you think.
This calculator accounts for all of that. Enter your income, expenses, current investment corpus, and retirement preferences. It calculates your FIRE number, projects your portfolio growth year by year, estimates your timeline, and shows you how retiring in India changes the entire picture versus staying in the US.
How to Use the FIRE Calculator
Step 1: Enter Your Personal Information
Start with your current age, annual income before tax, and your actual annual expenses. The calculator auto-calculates your annual savings after applying the tax rate you enter. Also enter your total current investments, including your 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, brokerage accounts, and Indian investments such as mutual funds, NRE fixed deposits, and equity holdings.
Step 2: Set Your Retirement Planning Targets
Enter your expected annual return on investments. A 7 to 8% return is typical for a diversified equity portfolio over the long term. Set your safe withdrawal rate, which determines how much of your portfolio you draw each year in retirement. The most widely used figure is 4%, based on the Trinity Study. Add your life expectancy and your desired annual retirement expenses, which may be quite different from what you spend today.
Step 3: Customize Advanced Settings
Set your inflation rate (3 to 4% is a reasonable estimate for US-based planning), your expected retirement tax rate, and your FIRE strategy. The three strategies available are Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, and Coast FIRE. Each targets a different corpus size and lifestyle, explained in the next section. Also toggle whether you plan to return to India after FIRE, which directly affects the Location tab output.
Step 4: Add One-Time Income or Expense Events (Optional)
Planning to sell a property in India at age 52? Expecting a large RSU vest at 48? Have a child's college expense at age 50? Use the one-time events section to add these at the exact age they will occur. You can add both income events and expense events. The calculator folds them into your portfolio projection automatically, giving you a more accurate picture than a flat savings rate alone.
Which FIRE Strategy Is Right for You?
Fat FIRE
Fat FIRE means retiring with full financial independence and no lifestyle compromise. Your portfolio needs to sustain a high annual expense budget, typically $100,000 or more per year if you stay in the US. This requires a larger corpus and a longer savings runway, but it gives you maximum flexibility. No budget constraints, no downsizing, no geographic compromise. Fat FIRE is most relevant for high income NRIs in cities like San Francisco, New York, or Seattle who want to maintain that standard of living in retirement without ever going back to work.
Lean FIRE
Lean FIRE means reaching financial independence with a more minimalist lifestyle. Annual retirement expenses are significantly lower, often under $40,000 in the US or much less if you return to India. Because your target corpus and ongoing expenses are both smaller, you can reach FIRE faster. This strategy works well for NRIs who plan to return to a lower cost city in India, have simple lifestyle preferences, or are willing to trade early freedom for frugality.
Coast FIRE
Coast FIRE is a milestone, not a finish line. You reach Coast FIRE when your existing investment corpus, left untouched and allowed to compound, will grow on its own to fund a comfortable retirement at a normal retirement age. Once you hit this milestone, you no longer need to save aggressively. You only need to earn enough to cover your current living expenses. Many NRIs use Coast FIRE as a mid-journey checkpoint that reduces financial pressure while keeping the long-term plan intact. The Analysis tab shows exactly when you will hit this milestone.
Understanding Your FIRE Calculator Results
Overview Tab: Your FIRE Number and Timeline
The overview tab shows three core outputs: your FIRE target amount (the total corpus you need to retire), your years to FIRE, and your projected monthly retirement income from your portfolio. Below the summary cards, the portfolio growth chart plots your investment balance year by year from today through retirement. You will also see total amount invested, total investment returns generated, and a success probability percentage, which estimates the likelihood that your plan sustains your retirement without running out of money.
Analysis Tab: Income Breakdown and Coast FIRE Milestone
This tab breaks down your projected retirement income sources in a pie chart format, so you can see how much comes from portfolio withdrawals versus other income sources you have entered. It also shows your Coast FIRE timeline in a bar chart, letting you visualize how far away that milestone is even if full FIRE is years further out. If you are considering going part-time, taking a lower stress role, or starting a business before fully retiring, the Coast FIRE milestone tells you when you have earned that flexibility.
Location Tab: Retiring in the US vs Returning to India
This is the tab most NRIs find most revealing. When you toggle "Return to India After FIRE" in your inputs, the Location tab shows a side-by-side comparison of your annual retirement expenses in the US versus India. Given the significant difference in cost of living, returning to India often reduces your required corpus by 40 to 60%. That translates directly into retiring several years earlier. Use this tab to put a number on the geographic decision before making it.
Sensitivity Tab: Stress-Testing Your Retirement Plan
Retirement planning is built on assumptions, and assumptions can be wrong. The Sensitivity tab shows how your FIRE timeline shifts if your savings rate is 5 percentage points higher or lower, and how it changes if your annual investment return comes in at 5% instead of 7%. It also surfaces key insights in plain text, flagging which variables have the most impact on your plan. Use this tab to understand where your plan is fragile and where you have room to adjust.
When Should NRIs Use This Calculator?
When You Are Just Starting to Think About FIRE
If you have heard about FIRE but have no idea what number you are working toward, start here. Even rough inputs give you a baseline. You will immediately see whether you are on track, years ahead, or significantly behind. That starting number becomes the anchor for every financial decision that follows.
When You Are Deciding Whether to Return to India
The India versus US retirement cost comparison in the Location tab is one of the most practically useful outputs in this calculator. If you are undecided about where to spend your retirement years, run both scenarios. You may find that returning to India lets you retire five to ten years earlier. That is a significant variable in a life decision that is easy to underestimate without the numbers in front of you.
When Your Income or Expenses Change Significantly
A promotion, a layoff, a new mortgage, a child's birth, or selling an investment property all shift your FIRE timeline. Come back to the calculator whenever a major financial event happens and update your inputs. The Sensitivity tab also helps you see how resilient your plan is if a disruption cuts your savings rate temporarily.
When You Want to Stress-Test Your Retirement Plan
Do not only plan for the base case. Use the Sensitivity tab to run pessimistic scenarios: lower market returns, higher inflation, a longer life expectancy than expected. If your plan holds up under those conditions, you can move toward retirement with real confidence. If it does not, you know exactly which variables to address.