The total amount of invested savings you need before your investment growth alone can cover your annual living expenses indefinitely — commonly estimated as 25 times your annual expenses.
If you spend $40,000 a year to live comfortably, your FIRE number is roughly $40,000 × 25 = $1,000,000. The idea: if you withdraw about 4% of a portfolio that size each year, history suggests it holds up over a long retirement without running dry. Spend less, and your number shrinks. Spend more, and it grows — the number is really just a mirror of your lifestyle.
Someone spending $60,000/year needs about $1.5M ($60,000 × 25). Someone spending $30,000/year needs about $750,000. Same math, very different targets — which is why lowering expenses is often the fastest lever toward FIRE, not just earning more.
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