Coast FIRE Explained: When You Can Stop Saving for Retirement

Coast FIRE is the point where your existing investments will compound to your full retirement target by the traditional retirement age — without you contributing another dollar. You still need to earn enough to cover your living expenses, but you no longer need to save any of it.

It's the first major milestone on the path to financial independence, and for many Australians, it arrives years before full FIRE.

What Coast FIRE Actually Means

The definition is specific and often misunderstood:

You have enough invested that, with zero further contributions, compound growth alone will carry your portfolio to your full FIRE number by the traditional retirement age (67 in Australia).

After hitting Coast FIRE, you need to keep earning — but only enough to pay the bills. Every dollar of your income goes to living expenses. Nothing needs to be saved or invested.

This opens up real choices:

• Take a lower-paying job that you actually enjoy
• Drop to four days a week without worrying about your retirement
• Change careers without stressing about the savings hit
• Take extended leave knowing your investments are compounding in the background

The key constraint: you cannot touch your investments. They need to stay invested and compounding until 67.

How Coast FIRE Is Calculated

The Coast FI Number is the portfolio value needed today such that compound growth alone reaches your target by 67:

Coast FI Number = Target FI Number / (1 + Real Growth Rate) ^ Years to 67

For example:

• Target FI: $2,000,000 (today's dollars)
• Real growth rate: 5.37% (8% nominal minus 2.5% inflation)
• Current age: 35, so 32 years to 67

Coast FI Number = $2,000,000 / (1.0537)^32 = $373,000

If your total net worth (super + investments) exceeds $373,000 at age 35, you've hit Coast FIRE. Your investments will compound to $2M by 67 with no further contributions.

Why It's Anchored to Age 67 (and How to Change It)

Coast FIRE defaults to the traditional retirement age (67 in Australia — when the Age Pension becomes available), not your personal retirement target. This is deliberate and important.

If Coast FIRE used your personal target, a strange thing happens: setting retirement to 67 instead of 55 would make Coast FIRE easier to hit (longer compounding horizon = lower bar). Two people with identical finances would get different Coast FIRE results just because of their stated goal. That's not useful.

By anchoring to 67, Coast FIRE answers a consistent question regardless of your personal ambition: "Have I saved enough for a normal retirement?" Your personal retirement target drives a separate, harder milestone — full FIRE.

Premium users can adjust the Coast FIRE retirement age in the Assumptions section of the calculator. Setting it to 60, for example, answers: "When can I stop saving and still have enough by 60?" — a higher bar (less time to compound) but useful if you want to target an earlier Coast milestone.

Coast FIRE and Superannuation

Coast FIRE works particularly well in the Australian system because of super:

1. Super is locked until 60. You can't touch it anyway, so "don't touch your investments" is already the default for your super balance.

2. Super contributions continue from your employer. Even after Coast FIRE, if you're still employed, your employer pays the Super Guarantee (12% in FY2025-26). This is on top of the compound growth Coast FIRE already assumes — it's a bonus.

3. Super has a tax-advantaged growth rate. Earnings inside super are taxed at 15%, not your marginal rate. This means super compounds faster than equivalent investments outside super.

4. By 67, super is fully accessible. The traditional anchor (67) is well past preservation age (60), so there's no liquidity issue — you can draw from both super and non-super investments.

The practical effect: most Australians with reasonable super balances and stable employment will hit Coast FIRE earlier than they expect, because super is doing silent heavy lifting in the background.

Coast FIRE vs Full FIRE

Coast FIRE is always reached before full FIRE. The gap between Coast FIRE and traditional retirement age (67) is the coasting window — the period where saving is optional but working is still required to cover your expenses, i.e. you can't start dipping in to your retirement fund.

When Coast FIRE Doesn't Help

Coast FIRE is a motivational milestone, not a retirement plan. Some limitations:

• You still need to work. Coast FIRE doesn't free you from earning. If you lose your job, your expenses still need to be covered.
• It assumes steady returns. Real markets are volatile. A crash early in the coasting window could push your Coast FIRE date back.
• It doesn't account for lifestyle changes. If your expenses increase (kids, health issues, housing), the target moves.
• It says nothing about how you'll retire. Coast FIRE is about the savings side only. Drawdown strategy, super access, and pension eligibility are separate planning questions.

How to Check Your Coast FIRE Status

Our FIRE calculator computes your Coast FI Number automatically and tracks it year by year in the projection. You'll see:

• Coast FI Number — what you need invested today to coast to FIRE by 67
• Coast FIRE Year — the year your net worth crosses that threshold
• Coasting Window — how many years of optional saving you'll have between Coast FIRE and traditional retirement age

The Coast FI year appears on the projection chart as a milestone. From that point forward, as long as your investment returns meet or exceed the nominal growth rate and you don't drawdown on any of it early, you'll be able to retire at the traditional retirement age with full coverage.

Next Steps

1. Run your numbers — use our FIRE calculator to see your Coast FIRE date
2. Read about Barista FIRE — the next milestone, where you can reduce to part-time work and start drawing down
3. Understand the bridge fund — if you're targeting early retirement, read our bridge fund strategy guide