FIRE number calculator: what 25 times your spending leaves out
Your FIRE number is the portfolio that pays your spending for good; this one adds the 2026 federal tax on what you withdraw and the health premiums you carry until Medicare at 65.
Your FIRE number, tax and health included
$1,651,865
The plain 25× rule would say $1,500,000: $151,865 short.
| Spending ÷ withdrawal rate | $1,500,000 |
| Federal and state tax on withdrawals | $57,651 |
| Health premiums from 45 to 65 | $94,214 |
| Tax in a typical year | $2,306 |
Tax: 2026 brackets and standard deduction (Rev. Proc. 2025-32), half of the non-401(k) money assumed taxable with 40 % gains.
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · figures read on irs.gov and healthcare.gov · not personal financial advice
A FIRE number is usually spending divided by the withdrawal rate: $60,000 a year at 4 % gives $1,500,000, the familiar 25×. That figure assumes every withdrawn dollar is yours to spend, which is rarely true in the United States. Money from a traditional 401(k) or IRA is ordinary income, so part of each withdrawal goes to federal tax; for a single filer who stops at 45 with 60 % of the money pre-tax, the 2026 brackets and the $16,100 standard deduction take about $2,306 a year, which raises the target by $57,651. Health coverage is the second gap: with $7,200 a year of premiums after any tax credit, the twenty years from 45 to 65 cost $94,214 in today's money. The complete number is $1,651,865, not $1,500,000. The calculator above lets you change the spending, the account mix, the age you stop and the premium you expect.
Three parts of one target
The calculator splits the number into pieces you can check one by one. The first is the classic part: yearly spending divided by the withdrawal rate. At 4 % that is 25 times spending; at 3.5 % it is about 28.6 times. The second is the tax part. Each year you must withdraw your spending plus the federal tax that the withdrawal itself creates, and every dollar of yearly tax needs its own 25 dollars of capital at a 4 % rate. The third is the health part, treated differently because it stops: premiums run only until Medicare at 65, so the calculator adds their present value as a lump instead of dividing them by the withdrawal rate.
In the default case the three parts are $1,500,000, $57,651 and $94,214. The tax part looks small next to the first, and it is, for a modest budget. It grows quickly with spending and with the share of money held in pre-tax accounts, which is the next section.
Mostly pre-tax savings: how much does the tax part add?
Your FIRE number, tax and health included
$2,031,683
| Spending ÷ withdrawal rate | $1,800,000 |
| Federal and state tax on withdrawals | $153,553 |
| Health premiums from 48 to 65 | $78,129 |
| Tax in a typical year | $6,142 |
Why the account mix moves the number
Three kinds of money are taxed in three different ways when you spend them. A pre-tax 401(k), 403(b) or traditional IRA is taxed in full as ordinary income. A taxable brokerage account is taxed only on the gain you realize, and long-term gains sit in a 0 % band up to $49,450 of taxable income for a single filer in 2026 ($98,900 on a joint return). Roth money withdrawn under the Roth rules is not taxed at all. The same $60,000 of spending therefore costs a different amount to withdraw depending on where it comes from.
| Share in 401(k) and IRAs | Federal tax, first year | Added to the number | Number before health |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 % | $5,705 | $142,614 | $1,642,614 |
| 80 % | $3,960 | $99,004 | $1,599,004 |
| 60 % | $2,306 | $57,651 | $1,557,651 |
| 40 % | $823 | $20,573 | $1,520,573 |
| 20 % | $0 | $0 | $1,500,000 |
| 0 % | $0 | $0 | $1,500,000 |
With everything in pre-tax accounts the tax is $5,705 a year and the target rises by $142,614. With only a tenth pre-tax, the ordinary income stays under the standard deduction, the gains fall in the 0 % band, and the tax part disappears: the number is $1,500,000. Married couples filing jointly have twice the deduction and wider brackets, so the same 60 % mix costs $404 a year instead of $2,306.
The mix is not frozen, of course. Years of low income after you stop working are a chance to convert pre-tax money to Roth at a low rate, and the order in which you draw accounts changes the tax of each year. The calculator takes a steady blend, which is a reasonable average; the early retirement calculator plays the accounts year by year instead.
The health part depends on when you stop
Employer coverage ends with the job, and Medicare starts at 65. Everything in between is yours to pay: COBRA for a while, then a Marketplace plan, whose premium tax credit depends on your income. That is why the field asks for premiums after any credit. The earlier you stop, the longer the stretch and the larger the lump.
| Age you stop working | Years to Medicare | Health part of the number |
|---|---|---|
| 40 | 25 | $106,550 |
| 45 | 20 | $94,214 |
| 50 | 15 | $78,470 |
| 55 | 10 | $58,376 |
| 60 | 5 | $32,731 |
Stopping at 40 instead of 60 roughly triples this part. The premium itself is the biggest unknown: it depends on age, county, household size and income, and the credit can cut it sharply when withdrawals are planned to keep income moderate. The health insurance guide explains how the credit is computed and where its 400 % line sits.
Stop at 50 with a higher premium
Your FIRE number, tax and health included
$1,438,139
| Spending ÷ withdrawal rate | $1,300,000 |
| Federal and state tax on withdrawals | $33,512 |
| Health premiums from 50 to 65 | $104,627 |
| Tax in a typical year | $1,340 |
Reading the result card
The large figure is the complete target. The line under it gives the gap with the plain 25× rule, $151,865 in the default case, which is about 2.5 years of spending that a classic calculator never asks you to save. The rows break that gap down. "Tax in a typical year" is the federal bill on one year of withdrawals at the account mix you entered; it is the figure to compare with your current tax return, and it is usually far lower than people expect, because the standard deduction and the 10 % bracket absorb the first slices of pre-tax income. If that row shows zero, your mix already keeps ordinary income under the deduction and gains in the 0 % band.
Two fields move the result more than the others. The withdrawal rate changes the classic part in proportion, and the premium changes the health part almost one for one with the number of years to 65. The share in pre-tax accounts matters mainly at higher spending, where withdrawals reach the 22 % bracket.
What the number still leaves out
State income tax is set to zero by default; the folded field takes your state rate, and the state tax page lists the states that exempt part of retirement income. Social Security is left aside on purpose, as a margin rather than a planned source. The figure is also silent about access: a portfolio can match the number and still be stuck in a 401(k) that pays a 10 % additional tax before 59½. Reaching the number at 45 means planning which accounts pay the years until then, through taxable savings, Roth contributions, the rule of 55 or a conversion ladder.
All amounts are in today's dollars. The calculator treats the 2026 brackets as indexed to inflation, which is how they move each year, and uses a real return (after inflation) only for the health part. Change any field and the three parts update separately, so you can see which assumption drives your own target.