Coast FIRE calculator
Coast FIRE is the moment your invested assets are large enough that, left alone, compounding alone will carry them to your retirement target by the age you chose. You still work, and you still cover your living costs — you just stop needing to save. It arrives years before financial independence itself, and most people pass it without noticing.
Set your target age and your assumptions below. The gap between what you have and what coasting requires is the figure that matters here.
Your annual spending divided by the withdrawal rate — not a fixed multiple of 25.
A projection is arithmetic on assumptions you choose. It is not a forecast, and it is not advice.
Why it is the more useful milestone
Full financial independence is often fifteen or twenty years out, which is too far away to change how anyone behaves. Coast FIRE is frequently much closer, and passing it changes real decisions: you can take the more interesting job that pays less, drop to four days, or stop feeling that every unsaved pound is a betrayal of a plan.
The number it depends on most
Time. Coast FIRE is compounding doing the work, so the answer is extremely sensitive to the age you pick and to the real return you assume. Someone coasting from 35 to 60 gets twenty-five years of growth; the same person targeting 50 gets fifteen, and needs far more today. Change the target age first and the return second — that is the order in which they matter.
What coasting does not cover
It assumes you can still pay your living costs from work, and that you genuinely leave the invested pot alone. Drawing on it during the coasting years does not just reduce the balance, it removes that money's compounding for the whole remaining period, which is the part people underestimate.
Questions
What is the difference between coast FIRE and barista FIRE?
Coast FIRE means your investments no longer need contributions. Barista FIRE means you cover your costs with part-time or lower-paid work, often for the benefits. They overlap in practice — reaching coast FIRE is usually what makes barista FIRE affordable.
Can I go backwards past coast FIRE?
Yes. A market fall, higher spending expectations, or a lower assumed return can all push the requirement above what you hold. It is a moving line, not a badge, which is why it is worth recomputing rather than remembering.
Does Vault track this continuously?
Yes. Coast FIRE is part of the projection engine in the product and updates as your holdings and assumptions change, rather than being a figure you work out once on a calculator page.