FIRE Number

Retirement

FIRE Number is the portfolio size needed to achieve Financial Independence, Retire Early — calculated as 25× annual expenses (the inverse of 4% safe withdrawal rate). $60,000 annual spending requires $1.5M; $100,000 spending requires $2.5M. Reaching FIRE is a function of savings rate, not income — a household saving 50% of income reaches FIRE in 17 years; saving 25% takes 32 years; saving 10% takes 51 years. Reduce your FIRE number by reducing expenses (lower target) and increase your trajectory by raising income while holding expenses steady. Most FIRE practitioners use 4% as baseline; conservative variants use 3.3%.