A retirement withdrawal guideline: you withdraw 4% of your portfolio's value in year one, then increase that dollar amount each year with inflation. Based on historical US market data, this has sustained a 30-year retirement in most scenarios, which is why 25x annual expenses (the inverse of 4%) is the common FI target.

Should I include my super balance in this projection?

No. This projection is for assets held outside super, which is what funds the years before you can touch your super. Super is preserved until you meet a condition of release, generally from preservation age, and it grows under its own contribution and tax rules, so it is projected separately by the superannuation calculator. Treat it as a later-stage pool rather than part of an earlier FI number.

Is 25x expenses always the right FI target?

It's the standard rule of thumb, derived from the 4% withdrawal rate. Some people use a more conservative 30-33x (a 3-3.3% withdrawal rate) if they're retiring very early and want a bigger buffer against a run of poor early returns, since a longer retirement has more time for a bad sequence of market years to do damage.

How does my savings rate affect my FIRE timeline more than my income?

A high income with a high spend still needs a large asset base to cover that spending, and saves slowly relative to that target. A modest income with a high savings rate builds assets faster and needs a smaller target, since the FI number itself is a multiple of expenses — so the savings rate compounds in your favour twice over.

What's the difference between FIRE and just retiring at the normal age?

The mechanics are identical — build enough assets to fund your expenses without working — but FIRE targets an earlier date, which mathematically requires either a much higher savings rate, a longer investing horizon starting younger, or both, since compounding needs time to do most of the work.

Does this projection account for investment volatility?

No — it assumes a smooth, constant annual growth rate for simplicity. Real markets move in irregular cycles, and the sequence of good and bad years (especially early in retirement) matters more than the average return. Use a conservative growth assumption to build in some margin for that uncertainty.

FIRE Projection Planner

Project when you reach financial independence

Enter your assets, savings rate and FI target to see your timeline

Your FIRE Numbers

Enter your assets, savings and FI target

Current investable assets ($)

Excluding super — it is preserved until you meet a condition of release, and the superannuation calculator projects it separately.

Monthly savings ($)

Expected growth rate (% p.a.)

Target type

Annual expenses ($)

Expense multiplier (e.g. 25 = 4% rule)

Official sources

The 4% rule and 25x-expenses target are general planning heuristics based on historical market data, not a guarantee of future returns.

This calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product. Before you make a financial decision, consider obtaining advice from someone who holds an Australian Financial Services Licence. We do not, and we cannot advise you.

How to Use This Calculator

1Enter your current investable assets — savings, shares and other investments you hold outside super
2Add your monthly savings rate — how much you're adding to those assets each month
3Set your growth rate assumption and your FI target, either a dollar amount or a multiple of your annual expenses
4See your year-by-year projection and how many years until you reach your target

What is FIRE?

FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early — the strategy of saving and investing aggressively enough that your assets can cover your living expenses indefinitely, without needing to keep working.

The most common way to size the target is the 4% rule: if you can live on withdrawing 4% of your portfolio a year (adjusted for inflation each year after), the portfolio should sustain a multi-decade retirement based on historical market returns. Inverted, that means a target of roughly 25 times your annual expenses.

The 'retire early' part is really a side effect of the savings rate, not the goal itself — someone saving 50% of their income reaches financial independence in well under 20 years, while someone saving 10% may take 40+, purely from the mathematics of compounding a larger surplus.

What actually moves your FI timeline

Savings rate: The single biggest lever — a higher savings rate both grows your assets faster and lowers the expense base your FI target is calculated from, so it works in your favour twice over.
Growth rate assumption: Small differences compound enormously over 15-30 years — the gap between a 5% and 8% assumption can mean a decade's difference in your projected timeline.
FI target size: 25x annual expenses (the 4% rule) is the standard target, but a more conservative 30-33x is common for people wary of sequence-of-returns risk early in retirement.
Access to the assets: This projection covers assets you can reach at any age. Super sits outside it: it is preserved until you meet a condition of release, generally from preservation age, it is taxed under its own rules and it is projected by the superannuation calculator instead.

Getting a realistic projection

•Use a conservative growth assumption — the default 6.1% is ASIC Moneysmart's published return ASSUMPTION for a balanced portfolio — a forward-looking outlook, not an achieved return — which Moneysmart states is net of tax and net of investment fees. It is published for a superannuation setting, where a fund pays the tax on its own earnings; outside super the tax on your earnings is your own, and this projection deducts no fees of any kind. Treat it as a starting point rather than an after-tax return. It is also nominal, so pair it with expenses you have inflated over the horizon
•Leave your super balance out of the figure you enter — this projection models assets outside super, and the superannuation calculator projects super on its own rules
•Increase your expense estimate for inflation over a long horizon — expenses in year 20 of the projection won't buy what they buy today
•Revisit your projection annually — actual market returns won't follow a smooth line, and your real savings rate and expenses will drift from the plan

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources

Estimates only. Not financial or tax advice. Full disclaimer for your rights and our limitations of liability.

About this calculator

This calculator exists to show you the arithmetic. It applies published Australian rates, thresholds and formulas to the numbers you enter and shows the working, so you can check it. That is all it does — it produces a number and describes what the number is. It does not recommend anything and it holds no opinion about any financial product.

What can move this result

It only knows the figures you type in. Offsets, deductions, prior-year losses, other income, your partner's position and anything you have not entered are not in the result, and any of them can move it a long way.
Rates and thresholds change, sometimes mid-year and occasionally with retrospective effect. Each calculator shows the financial year and the verification date it is working from — outside that year the result is wrong rather than approximate.
Assumptions are set to a reasonable default and every non-statutory one can be changed. Defaults are not predictions, and a small change to a growth or inflation assumption compounds into a large change in a long projection.
Where a result reaches two or more years into the future it is shown in today's dollars as well as future dollars, because a future-dollar figure overstates what the money will actually buy.
It is a generic calculator. It is not built around any particular product, it does not compare the market, and it cannot tell you whether a product is suitable for you.

Why these default assumptions are reasonable

Investment growth rate: 6.1% a year. ASIC Moneysmart's published return assumption for a balanced portfolio (Willis Towers Watson Global Asset Model outlook, June 2026), the same figure this site's superannuation projection uses — one asset class, one assumed return, everywhere. It replaced an unsourced 7% on 15 August 2026. Moneysmart states the figure is net of tax and net of INVESTMENT fees; administration fees are deducted separately there and not at all here, and it is a forward-looking outlook rather than an achieved return. It is also nominal, so pair it with expenses you have inflated over the horizon, and lower it to model a conservative mix. Source · You can change this input.
FI target multiple: 25 times annual expenses. The inverse of a 4% initial withdrawal rate — the definitional convention of the financial-independence movement this calculator models, popularised by the Trinity study's sustainable-withdrawal research on historical US data. It is a convention, not a guarantee any portfolio sustains 4% withdrawals for an early retirement measured in decades; the input exists so you can plan on a more conservative 28 or 30 times instead. Source · You can change this input.

Related Tools

Superannuation Calculator

Project super at retirement

Loading calculator…

About this calculator

What can move this result

It only knows the figures you type in. Offsets, deductions, prior-year losses, other income, your partner's position and anything you have not entered are not in the result, and any of them can move it a long way.
Rates and thresholds change, sometimes mid-year and occasionally with retrospective effect. Each calculator shows the financial year and the verification date it is working from — outside that year the result is wrong rather than approximate.
Assumptions are set to a reasonable default and every non-statutory one can be changed. Defaults are not predictions, and a small change to a growth or inflation assumption compounds into a large change in a long projection.
Where a result reaches two or more years into the future it is shown in today's dollars as well as future dollars, because a future-dollar figure overstates what the money will actually buy.
It is a generic calculator. It is not built around any particular product, it does not compare the market, and it cannot tell you whether a product is suitable for you.

Why these default assumptions are reasonable

Investment growth rate: 6.1% a year. ASIC Moneysmart's published return assumption for a balanced portfolio (Willis Towers Watson Global Asset Model outlook, June 2026), the same figure this site's superannuation projection uses — one asset class, one assumed return, everywhere. It replaced an unsourced 7% on 15 August 2026. Moneysmart states the figure is net of tax and net of INVESTMENT fees; administration fees are deducted separately there and not at all here, and it is a forward-looking outlook rather than an achieved return. It is also nominal, so pair it with expenses you have inflated over the horizon, and lower it to model a conservative mix. Source · You can change this input.
FI target multiple: 25 times annual expenses. The inverse of a 4% initial withdrawal rate — the definitional convention of the financial-independence movement this calculator models, popularised by the Trinity study's sustainable-withdrawal research on historical US data. It is a convention, not a guarantee any portfolio sustains 4% withdrawals for an early retirement measured in decades; the input exists so you can plan on a more conservative 28 or 30 times instead. Source · You can change this input.