FIRE Savings Targets by Age: Are You on Track?
The exact FIRE savings targets for every age from 25 to 55. See whether your current portfolio puts you on track — and what to do if the gap is larger than you expected.
If you are 35 and have $200,000 invested, you are ahead of the benchmark in ways that most financial media will never tell you. If you are 35 and have $80,000, you are closer to on-track than you probably think. If you have $0, the news is not as bad as it sounds — but the math is specific about what you need to do next.
Most retirement advice gives you generic ranges. "Have 1x your salary saved by 30, 3x by 40." These rules are built for the median consumer who plans to work until 65 and spend a fixed percentage of a salary they don't have yet. They are vague by design.
The tables below are not vague. They are the precise FIRE savings targets by age — calculated from the actual math of compound interest and safe withdrawal rates, for anyone who wants financial independence as a real, calculable goal.
FIRE Savings Targets by Age
Your FIRE savings target at any given age is the amount you need invested today so that — without further contributions — your portfolio will grow to your full FIRE Number by your target retirement age.
This is your Coast FIRE number: the point at which compound interest takes over and finishes the job for you. It is not a static multiple of your salary. It is a precise figure derived from your age, your planned retirement age, and how much you plan to spend in retirement.
The tables below show the target for retirement at 65, two spending levels, and a 7% real annual return — the S&P 500's historical average of ~10% minus ~3% inflation (source: officialdata.org).
How These Targets Are Calculated
The formula is a two-step process. First, your FIRE Number: annual retirement spending divided by the Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR) of 4%, as established by the Trinity Study (Cooley, Hubbard & Walz, 1998). Second, your age-specific target: that FIRE Number discounted back to today using 7% real compound growth.
Step 1: FIRE Number = Annual retirement spending ÷ 0.04
Step 2: FIRE Target (age n) = FIRE Number ÷ (1.07)^(65 − n)
This approach — using the Coast FIRE method rather than a static salary multiple — produces targets that are specific to time and math, not arbitrary rules of thumb. For the full methodology, see the Coast FIRE number by age reference tables.
The FIRE Benchmark Tables
These are The FIRE Benchmarks: the amount you need invested at each age to be mathematically on track for full financial independence at 65.
If You Plan to Spend $50,000/Year in Retirement
Full FIRE Number: $1,250,000 | Assumptions: 7% real return, 4% SWR, retire at 65
| Age | FIRE Savings Target | Years of Compound Growth Remaining | |-----|--------------------|------------------------------------| | 25 | $83,500 | 40 years | | 30 | $117,000 | 35 years | | 35 | $164,000 | 30 years | | 40 | $230,000 | 25 years | | 45 | $323,000 | 20 years | | 50 | $453,000 | 15 years | | 55 | $635,000 | 10 years |
If You Plan to Spend $75,000/Year in Retirement
Full FIRE Number: $1,875,000 | Assumptions: 7% real return, 4% SWR, retire at 65
| Age | FIRE Savings Target | Years of Compound Growth Remaining | |-----|--------------------|------------------------------------| | 25 | $125,000 | 40 years | | 30 | $176,000 | 35 years | | 35 | $246,000 | 30 years | | 40 | $345,000 | 25 years | | 45 | $484,000 | 20 years | | 50 | $680,000 | 15 years | | 55 | $953,000 | 10 years |
All figures in today's dollars, inflation-adjusted. Tables updated April 2026.
What Your Gap Actually Means
Look up your age in the table that matches your planned retirement spending. Compare it to what you actually have invested today. The difference is The Benchmark Gap — the distance between where your money is and where it needs to be for compound interest to take over.
The Gap is information. It is not a verdict.
Think of it like a GPS. When you enter a destination and it says "you are 3 hours away," that is not a judgment about your worth as a person. It is your current position, the destination, and the math between them. You can drive faster. You can take a different route. You can move the destination closer. The app does not tell you whether the trip is worth making. It tells you where you stand.
Your FIRE Benchmark does the same thing.
If your current portfolio is at or above the benchmark: Compound interest is already doing the heavy lifting. Your retirement is mathematically on track. Every additional dollar you contribute now accelerates the timeline rather than rescuing it.
If your portfolio is within 30% of the benchmark: You are close. A modest increase in monthly contributions closes the gap in a few years. The finish line is visible.
If you are well below the benchmark: The gap is larger, but it is not permanent. The three levers available to you — saving rate, planned retirement age, and planned retirement spending — are all adjustable. The math responds to all three.
A 40-year-old with $80,000 invested and a $50,000/year retirement goal is about $150,000 below the benchmark. At $1,500/month additional contributions at 7% real return, that gap closes in approximately 6.2 years — putting them at the benchmark at 46, with 19 years of compounding remaining before age 65.
The situation looks worse in static terms than it is in time-adjusted terms.
The Math Behind the Numbers
Here is a full worked example so you can verify any row in the tables above.
Profile: Age 40, plans to retire at 65 with $50,000/year in retirement.
FIRE Number:
$50,000 ÷ 0.04 = $1,250,000
Years of compound growth remaining:
65 − 40 = 25 years
FIRE Savings Target at 40:
$1,250,000 ÷ (1.07)^25 = $1,250,000 ÷ 5.427 = $230,318
Rounded to $230,000 in the table. If you have $230,000 invested at 40 and never add another dollar, your portfolio grows at 7% annually for 25 years:
$230,000 × (1.07)^25 = $230,000 × 5.427 = $1,248,200
That is within $2,000 of the full FIRE Number. The math is exact.
Run your own version of this calculation — the Coast FIRE calculator takes your age, current savings, and retirement target and shows your trajectory across three scenarios simultaneously.
If You're Behind the Benchmark
Being behind The FIRE Benchmark is not a signal that early retirement is off the table. It is a signal that the current trajectory does not reach the target at its current rate — which is information, not destiny.
Three variables control the outcome, and you can adjust any of them.
Lever 1: Increase monthly contributions. Every additional dollar invested today is worth more than a dollar invested in five years, because it gets more compounding time. The relationship is not linear — it is exponential. Closing a $150,000 gap at 40 requires about $1,500/month for 6 years at 7% return. Waiting until 45 to start the same effort takes roughly $2,400/month to achieve the same result by 50.
Lever 2: Adjust your retirement age. Moving the target retirement date from 65 to 68 gives your portfolio three more years of compound growth — which lowers the required balance today. For the $50,000/year scenario, shifting retirement by three years drops the age-40 benchmark from $230,000 to approximately $188,000. Same money, more runway.
Lever 3: Reduce planned retirement spending. Your FIRE Number is directly proportional to your planned annual spending. Trimming retirement spending from $75,000 to $60,000 per year cuts your FIRE Number from $1,875,000 to $1,500,000 — a 20% reduction in the target that flows directly into a lower benchmark at every age.
For a detailed look at whether early retirement is realistic at your current gap, see whether early retirement is realistic for your situation.
If you know your gap and want a step-by-step plan to close it, the guide on how to close the gap and reach your FIRE target covers the process in four concrete steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the FIRE savings target by age?
Your FIRE savings target at any age is the amount you need invested today so that compound interest grows it to your full FIRE Number by your target retirement age — without additional contributions. For a 35-year-old planning to retire at 65 with $50,000/year in retirement, the target is approximately $164,000, assuming 7% real returns and a 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate.
How much should I have saved for retirement by 40?
For a $50,000/year retirement at 65, the FIRE savings benchmark at 40 is approximately $230,000. For a $75,000/year retirement, the benchmark at 40 is approximately $345,000. These figures assume 7% real annual return and 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate (Trinity Study, Cooley, Hubbard & Walz, 1998).
How much should I have saved for retirement by 35?
At 35, with 30 years of compound growth remaining before age 65: approximately $164,000 for a $50,000/year retirement, or approximately $246,000 for a $75,000/year retirement. These are Coast FIRE targets — the amount needed today to coast to full financial independence by 65 without further contributions.
How much should I have saved for retirement by 30?
At 30, the FIRE savings benchmark is approximately $117,000 for a $50,000/year retirement and approximately $176,000 for a $75,000/year retirement at age 65. Starting earlier lowers the required amount sharply — at 25, the same $50,000/year retirement requires only $83,500 invested, because 40 years of compound growth does more of the work.
What if I'm starting from zero at 40?
Starting from zero at 40 with a $50,000/year retirement goal means you need to accumulate $230,000 to hit the benchmark — and then stop contributing if you want to coast. At $1,500/month invested at 7% real return, that takes approximately 8.4 years. You'd cross the benchmark at 48, with 17 years of compounding remaining before 65. Starting from zero does not disqualify you from financial independence. It changes the timeline and the required monthly effort.
Should I use my salary as a benchmark instead of these tables?
Salary-based benchmarks — "have 1x by 30, 3x by 40" — are designed for people planning to spend a fixed percentage of their working income in retirement. The tables here are based on actual planned retirement spending and compound math, which makes them more precise. If your planned retirement spending is 60% of your current salary, the salary-multiple rules are roughly consistent with these tables. If it is higher or lower, the salary rules will either overstate or understate what you actually need.
The Bottom Line
The FIRE Benchmark at your age is not a judgment. It is a coordinate — your target position on the map toward financial independence.
If you are ahead, compound interest is already carrying the load. If you are behind, you have three levers and a specific gap to close. In both cases, the math is clear.
Most people never check this number. They have a rough sense of whether their retirement accounts feel like "enough" — which is not a strategy, it is a guess. The tables above replace the guess with a calculation.
Your position is now known. What you do with it is the only question left.
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