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Basics · 3 min read
What is FIRE?
Financial Independence, Retire Early. Or better: make work optional.
25–33×
your yearly spend is the classic FIRE target
The short version
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. You're financially independent when your investments can pay for your life indefinitely, without a salary.
The "retire early" part is optional. Most people who reach FIRE keep doing something: consulting, building, creating, caring. The difference is that they choose it. That's why we say: don't retire, make work optional.
How it works
Three levers decide how soon you get there:
- ●Savings rate: the share of your income you invest. The single biggest lever.
- ●Returns: what your investments earn over time, after costs.
- ●Spending: what your life costs. Lower spending helps twice: you save more now, and need less later.
Your two key numbers
Your FIRE Number is the corpus you need. Your Freedom Age is when you'll have it. Everything else on this site exists to help you move those two numbers.
Example
Spends ₹60,000/month → ₹7.2L/year
At a 3.5% withdrawal rate → FIRE Number ≈ ₹2.06 Cr (today's ₹)
Invests ₹50K/month from 27 → free in her mid-40s
Try it on your numbers
Find my Freedom Age →🎓 Learn 1-on-1
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Estimates, not guarantees. Projections assume steady average returns and inflation; real markets are bumpy, and returns are not guaranteed. This is an educational tool, not investment, tax or financial advice. See our methodology, assumptions & limitations · Last updated 25 October 2026.