Coast FIRE at 25
Coast FIRE number at 25
$100,171
On $5,000 a month of spending, invested once and never added to, compounding at 7 percent real for 40 years until 65. That is 7 percent of the $1,500,000 you are aiming at.
At 25 you have forty years of compounding ahead of you, and that is the entire story. Money invested now multiplies roughly fifteen times before you turn 65, so the amount you need in order to stop contributing is startlingly small.
On $5,000 a month of spending, the Coast FIRE number at 25 is around $100,000. That is not a typo. Reach it and you could never invest another dollar and still retire on schedule.
Coast FIRE at 25 by monthly spending
| Monthly spending | FIRE number | Coast FIRE at 25 |
|---|---|---|
| $3,000 | $900,000 | $60,102 |
| $4,000 | $1,200,000 | $80,136 |
| $5,000 | $1,500,000 | $100,171 |
| $6,000 | $1,800,000 | $120,205 |
| $8,000 | $2,400,000 | $160,273 |
Why 25 is the cheapest coast number you will ever have
Every year you wait, the number climbs, and it climbs faster than most people expect because the effect is exponential rather than linear. Coasting at 25 costs about $100,000. Coasting at 35 costs nearly $200,000 for the same retirement. The ten years cost you the difference.
The catch is obvious and worth saying plainly. Almost nobody has $100,000 invested at 25. If you do, coasting is a real option and you should understand what it buys you, which is not early retirement but freedom to take a worse paying job you actually want. If you do not, the number is still useful as a target that is far smaller than the million dollar figure people quote.
If returns disappoint
The return assumption moves this number more than anything else you can control. At $5,000 a month of spending, here is the same calculation at 25 across a realistic range.
| Real return | Coast FIRE at 25 |
|---|---|
| 5 percent | $213,069 |
| 6 percent | $145,833 |
| 7 percent | $100,171 |
| 8 percent | $69,046 |
Run it on your own numbers
Your spending, your retirement age, your return assumption, and what you already have invested.
Open the Coast FIRE calculatorCommon questions
Should I actually stop investing if I hit it?
Probably not entirely. Hitting Coast FIRE at 25 means retirement at 65 is handled, but it says nothing about the forty years in between. A house, a career break or a bad decade of returns all land in that window. Most people who hit it early keep investing at a lower rate and treat the coast number as a floor rather than a finish line.
Does this assume I never get a raise?
It assumes your spending in retirement matches your spending today, in today's money. If your lifestyle grows with your income, your FIRE number grows too, and the coast number you hit at 25 will no longer be enough. That is the most common way this calculation quietly breaks.
Coast FIRE at other ages
- Age 30 · $140,494
- Age 35 · $197,051
- Age 40 · $276,374
- Age 45 · $387,629
- Age 50 · $543,669
- Age 55 · $762,524
Figures assume a 4 percent withdrawal rate, 7 percent real returns and retirement at 65, with spending expressed in today's money. This is general information, not financial advice.