Coast FIRE is the point where your existing investments, left to grow, could eventually reach your full financial-independence target without additional contributions. You still need income to cover today’s expenses, but the pressure to keep aggressively saving for retirement can ease.
That can create room for a lower-paid career, part-time work, a sabbatical, or simply a life that is less obsessed with maximizing every dollar.
How Coast FIRE works
The calculation has three moving parts:
- Your eventual retirement target
- Your current invested savings
- The number of years until you want the money
The longer the money has to compound, the less you may need to contribute today. For example, a portfolio that is not large enough to support you now may still be large enough to grow into a future retirement target.
Use the Coast FIRE Calculator to explore how age, savings, spending, return assumptions, and target age interact.
Coast FIRE is not the same as retirement
Reaching Coast FIRE does not mean your current bills are covered. It means the retirement portion of the plan may be on track if your assumptions hold. You still need a way to pay for housing, food, healthcare, transportation, and the occasional emergency today.
That is why Coast FIRE often pairs naturally with flexible work. A person may choose a job that covers current costs without needing the highest possible salary or a punishing schedule.
Things to test
Small changes can materially change the result. Test a later target age, a lower future spending level, a more conservative return, and an emergency-fund buffer. Also remember that inflation, taxes, healthcare, and market volatility can make the real-world path different from a smooth calculator projection.
Coast FIRE is valuable even before the exact milestone. Seeing how much your current savings may accomplish can replace vague anxiety with a more concrete decision.