Find the year work becomes optional.

Frequently asked

What is a FIRE number and how is it calculated?

Your FIRE number is the corpus from which a sustainable annual withdrawal covers your living costs: annual expenses divided by the withdrawal rate. At Rs 60,000 a month (Rs 7.2 lakh a year) and a 3.5% withdrawal rate, that is about Rs 2.06 crore in today's rupees. The calculator then inflates that target each year and projects your corpus against it to find the crossover.

Why does this calculator default to 3.5% instead of the 4% rule?

The 4% rule comes from US market history — US equity returns, US inflation, US sequence-of-returns data. Nepal's higher inflation, different real returns, and tax drag argue for a more conservative rate, and this blog's Nepal-adapted safe-withdrawal analysis lands near 3.5%. The slider goes from 2% to 5% precisely so you can see how brutally sensitive the FIRE number is to that one assumption.

Why does the FIRE target keep rising in the chart?

Because your expenses inflate while you save. A target computed from today's expenses would be stale by the time you reached it, so the calculator inflates the target every year at your chosen rate. Financial independence is when your corpus crosses the moving target, not the frozen one — that is the dot on the chart.

What return assumption is realistic for a Nepali FIRE plan?

The calculator takes a nominal return and a separate inflation rate, so what actually drives the result is the gap between them — the real return. Be suspicious of plans that only work above, say, a 4 to 5 point real-return gap sustained for decades. Run your plan with the gap narrowed a point and see if it survives; the linked roadmap and withdrawal-rate guides discuss what Nepali asset mixes have plausibly delivered.

What if the calculator says I never reach FI?

It means the corpus growth never catches the inflating target within 50 years on those inputs — common when the savings rate is low relative to expenses. The three levers, in order of power: raise the monthly investment (or its step-up over time), cut the expense base the target is built on, and only then reach for a higher return assumption. Halving expenses does double duty: it frees cash to invest and shrinks the target itself.

The numbers behind the sliders

A calculator gives you the shape of the decision; these guides give you the current Nepali numbers to feed it.

• A beginner's roadmap to financial independence in Nepal
  Every step from first salary to FI, sequenced.
• The 4% rule, adapted for Nepal
  Why Nepal's math pulls the safe rate to about 3.5% — the default this calculator uses.
• Coast FIRE for Nepal
  The savings number that lets you stop adding and let compounding finish the job.
• Lean FIRE: the smallest number you can retire on
  The frugal-budget corpus range, and why a paid-off home is the real lever.
• Barista FIRE on a part-time income
  Why every Rs 10,000 a month of part-time work removes lakhs from the target.
• The first 10 lakh is harder than the next 10
  The compounding cliff every FIRE chase has to climb first.