Coast FIRE Number at 30

Retiring at 65 with a 7% return, 3% inflation and a 4% withdrawal rate, in today's dollars.

How fast you get there from $60,000

Starting at 30 with $60,000 invested and planning to spend $60,000 a year, here's when you'd cross the line at different monthly contributions.

Very few people are coasting at 30, and the ones who are usually had a high income early. For everyone else, 30 is when the date gets decided, because the next few years often bring the biggest raises so far and the biggest purchase of your life.

Where do your raises go?

Lifestyle creep is the quiet one. A raise that all goes to a nicer apartment or a newer car costs you twice. You invest less now, and you also raise the spending you’ll expect in retirement, because by then that’s simply how you live. Neither shows up as a decision. It just happens over a few years of reasonable-looking upgrades.

My rule is simple: half of every raise goes to contributions before it hits my checking account, and the other half I get to enjoy. You still feel richer every year, and you don’t have to rely on willpower each month.

House or investing?

Buying a home is the other big fork. A lot of people pause retirement contributions for a few years to build a down payment. It feels temporary, but the Coast FIRE target keeps climbing the whole time the money isn’t going in, so even a short pause pushes your date back further than its length.

That isn’t an argument against buying. A house that’s paid off by 65 lowers the retirement spending you plan around, and that lowers your number. It’s an argument for keeping at least the employer match going and stretching the down payment timeline a little.

Jordan at 30

Jordan has $85,000 invested, expects to spend $70,000 a year in retirement and puts $2,500 a month into a 401(k) and IRA, counting the employer match. Jordan’s Coast FIRE number is $461,221.

The three-year pause moves Jordan’s date from 47 to 53, because the balance sits still while the target doesn’t. The extra $500 a month does the opposite. That’s the whole decade in one table: small, boring increases pull your date in, and long gaps push it out.

What to do before 40

Lock in a contribution amount you can hold through a move, a wedding or a baby, and raise it with every pay bump. If a down payment is coming, save for it on top of the match rather than instead of it. And check your retirement spending figure once a year, because at 30 it’s the number most likely to drift up without you noticing.

Other ages: 25, 28, 31, 32, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55. Or see every age on one table.