Coast FIRE by age

The balance that grows into a full retirement with no further saving, computed at every age from 25 to 50. Coasting is the earliest milestone on the FIRE ladder and the one most people can actually reach.

What the grid shows

At 25 it takes $227,000 to coast toward a $60,000 retirement. At 50 the same retirement needs $770,000.
That is $543,000 of extra capital for an identical outcome, bought entirely by starting 25 years later.
A dollar invested at 25 multiplies 7.0 times by 65. At 50 it multiplies 2.1 times.
Every page recomputes when you change the return assumption, which carries more weight here than any other input.

Coast FIRE number by current age and target annual spending
Age now	Runway	$40K/yr	$60K/yr	$80K/yr	$100K/yr
25	40y	$152K	$227K	$303K	$379K
28	37y	$175K	$263K	$351K	$438K
30	35y	$193K	$290K	$387K	$483K
32	33y	$213K	$320K	$426K	$533K
33	32y	$224K	$336K	$448K	$560K
35	30y	$247K	$370K	$494K	$617K
37	28y	$272K	$408K	$544K	$680K
38	27y	$286K	$429K	$571K	$714K
40	25y	$315K	$472K	$630K	$787K
42	23y	$347K	$521K	$695K	$868K
45	20y	$402K	$603K	$804K	$1.00M
50	15y	$513K	$770K	$1.03M	$1.28M

Retiring at 65 on a 5% real return, with the retirement target sized at a withdrawal rate scaled to the length of the retirement rather than a flat 4%. Social Security and taxes are excluded. Each age page lets you change the return, the retirement age and your current balance.

Reading the grid

The column is your budget, not your salary

Pick the column matching what you expect to spend in retirement, from a year of real statements rather than an estimate. Income does not appear in this calculation at all. Spending sets the target and the target sets everything else.

Coasting is permission, not instruction

Most people who hit the number keep saving, because it pulls the date forward. What changes is that a career break or a lower-paid job stops costing you the retirement. The optionality is the point.

The return assumption dominates

Discount at 8% because that is the historical nominal average and the number comes out roughly 40% too small. Use a real return. The shortfall from getting this wrong only surfaces with a decade left to fix it.

Test the target against real market history

Coasting assumes a smooth real return that no real portfolio delivers. A projection against 95 years of actual returns shows what a bad first decade does to the plan.

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