Chubby FIRE Calculator

What Is Chubby FIRE?

Chubby FIRE sits between Lean FIRE (minimalist, often sub-$40k/year spending) and Fat FIRE (a lavish, $150k+/year lifestyle) — it's the label the FIRE community uses for a comfortable, upper-middle-class retirement without extreme frugality, typically somewhere in the $100k-150k/year range, though the exact line is more about the vibe of "not scraping by, not extravagant" than a hard number. The underlying math is identical to any FIRE calculation; what changes is the spending target you plug in.

How to Use This Calculator

Enter the annual spending level you're aiming to support in retirement, your current investments, how much you're contributing monthly, and your expected annual return. The default 4% withdrawal rate and 7% return are common FIRE-community starting assumptions, but adjust them to match your own plan.

How We Calculate It

Your Chubby FIRE number is your target annual spending divided by your withdrawal rate — for example, $120,000 in spending at a 4% withdrawal rate implies a $3,000,000 number. We then project your current investments forward with your monthly contributions and expected return, month by month, until they reach that number, to estimate how many years you have left.

A Few Notes

This calculator assumes a steady, constant rate of return and level spending in today's dollars, neither of which real markets or a real life deliver perfectly smoothly. It's a planning estimate meant to show the mechanics and rough timeline, not personalized financial advice — and like any FIRE target, your actual number should reflect your specific expenses, healthcare plans, and risk tolerance rather than a generic community label.