About the Lean FIRE Calculator
Lean FIRE target for a frugal retirement on a lower budget (typically under $40k/year), with time to reach it.
Also known as: lean fi, frugal fire.
How to use this calculator
- Enter annual spending in retirement, safe withdrawal rate, current investments, annual savings and the other fields.
- The result updates instantly as you type — press Calculate (or Enter) at any time.
- Review the breakdown shown under the main result.
- Use Copy result or Share to save the answer or send a link with your inputs.
Formula
FIRE number = annual spending ÷ withdrawal rate (≈ 25× spending at 4%)
Worked example
Using the values pre-filled in the calculator above:
- Annual spending in retirement = 28,000
- Safe withdrawal rate = 4 %
- Current investments = 150,000
- Annual savings = 40,000
- Real (after-inflation) return = 5 %
the calculator returns:
- FIRE number: 700,000
- Years to reach it: 10 years
- Gap today: 550,000
- Progress: 21.43%