🏖️ Coast FIRE Calculator
Find your Coast FIRE number — the amount you need invested today so it grows to your retirement target with no further contributions.
Enter your values
- Projected at retirement (no contributions)€533,829.07
- Gap to Coast FIRE€43,662.94
- Age you reach Coast FIRE34
- Years to Coast FIRE4
What this means
- Your Coast FIRE number is €93,662.94 — invest this today and you can stop contributing.
- You are €43,662.94 short of your Coast FIRE number.
- At your current contribution rate you will reach Coast FIRE at age 34.
- If you stop contributing today, your portfolio projects to €533,829.07 at retirement.
Visual results
Detailed breakdown
| Year | With monthly contributions | No new contributions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €59,810.80 | €53,614.50 |
| 2 | €70,330.82 | €57,490.30 |
| 3 | €81,611.33 | €61,646.28 |
| 4 | €93,707.31 | €66,102.69 |
| 5 | €106,677.71 | €70,881.26 |
| 6 | €120,585.75 | €76,005.28 |
| 7 | €135,499.19 | €81,499.70 |
| 8 | €151,490.73 | €87,391.32 |
| 9 | €168,638.30 | €93,708.85 |
| 10 | €187,025.47 | €100,483.07 |
About this calculator
What is Coast FIRE?
Coast FIRE is a milestone within the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. You reach it when your invested portfolio is large enough that — left untouched to compound at a real return rate — it will grow to your full retirement target by your chosen retirement age, even if you never invest another cent.
The name comes from the idea of “coasting”: once you hit the number, you can stop aggressively saving for retirement and simply maintain your current lifestyle. You still need to work (to pay current bills), but you no longer need to save for the future.
The maths behind Coast FIRE
The coast number is the present value of your retirement target:
Coast Number = Target Portfolio ÷ (1 + real return rate)^years to retirement
At 7% real return over 35 years, €1 today grows to €10.68. So to reach €1,000,000 at retirement, you only need €93,663 invested today — and then nothing more. The earlier you invest, the smaller the coast number, because compound growth does more of the work.
Why real return rate matters
Use a real (inflation-adjusted) return to avoid needing to inflate your retirement target every year. Historical global equity returns of roughly 7–10% nominal translate to 4–7% real after inflation. The calculator defaults to 7% real, which is optimistic for a stock-heavy portfolio but reasonable as a planning assumption.
Coast FIRE vs regular FIRE
Regular FIRE requires you to accumulate your entire retirement portfolio before retiring. Coast FIRE only requires accumulating enough that compound growth handles the rest. This makes Coast FIRE achievable much earlier in your career and is particularly appealing if you have a high savings rate in your 20s and 30s.
Frequently asked questions
What is Coast FIRE?
Coast FIRE is a milestone in the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) framework. You have reached Coast FIRE when your invested portfolio is large enough that, left alone to compound at a historical real return rate, it will reach your retirement target by your chosen retirement age — even if you never contribute another cent. Once coasted, you only need to earn enough to cover current living expenses, not save for retirement.
What is a good target portfolio (retirement number)?
The most common method is the 4% rule: multiply your desired annual retirement spending by 25. If you want to spend €40,000/year in retirement, you need €1,000,000. This rule assumes a 4% annual withdrawal rate, which historically has been sustainable over 30+ year retirements in diversified stock/bond portfolios. For longer retirements (40+ years) or more conservative planning, some use a 3.5% withdrawal rate (× 28.6).
What return rate should I use?
The default of 7% represents a reasonable approximation of long-term real (inflation-adjusted) returns from a globally diversified equity portfolio, based on historical data. If you prefer to be more conservative, use 5–6%. If your portfolio includes bonds or significant cash, 4–5% is more appropriate. Do not use nominal returns (before inflation) as a coast number calculation — inflation erodes the real value of your target.