The FIRE movement is full of contrarians—people who’ve decided to push back against society’s status quo checklist for life. People who’ve decided they don’t need to buy the biggest house they can afford, lease brand new cars, dine at the finest restaurants, and keep up with the Joneses, no matter the cost.
These contrarians are on a mission to take back control of their most precious non-renewable resource—their time.
Unfortunately, the road to FIRE is paved with those who’ve lost their way for various reasons. Some have burned out from overwork or deprivation due to extreme frugality. Others have found the FIRE movement a bit too extreme, making it a non-starter altogether, despite being attracted to many benefits of pursuing FIRE.
If you’ve been deterred or disillusioned on your path to FIRE, coast FIRE may be the key to your FIRE dreams.
Coasting offers another path to financial independence—one that is focused more on the journey rather than the destination. For some, this may be precisely what you need to renew or begin your unique FIRE journey.
Why should you coast?
There are many different reasons you might decide to coast, but let’s start with the first.
A significant benefit of coasting to financial independence is that you can typically reach your coast FIRE number in a fraction of the time it would take to reach your full FIRE number.
So, rather than grinding for 10 to 20 years to achieve FIRE, you can reach your coast number in as little as 5 to 10 years, allowing you to work flexibly from there, enjoying many of the benefits of a FI lifestyle much sooner.
What’s your coast FIRE number?
Your coast FIRE number is the amount of money you need to have invested to fully fund your future retirement needs.
You can calculate your coast FIRE number using this coast FIRE calculator from Walletburst.
For example, if you want the option to retire at age 55—never needing to work again—and you’ve decided that based on your expenses and other income in retirement, that you will need $1.25 million, then you will need approximately $370k invested at age 30 to begin coasting*.
Already past 30? No worries, here’s what you would need at a few different milestones to start coasting using the numbers above:
$470k at age 35*
$600k at age 40*
$770k at age 45*
*assuming an 8% annual return with 3% annual inflation, for a real return of 5%
Keep in mind that your coasting situation and the resulting number are unique—there are no rules around how much you need to spend, what age you should plan to retire, or any other inputs. So you can create whatever coasting situation feels right for you—as long as the math checks out.
What happens when you reach coast FIRE?
When you reach coast FIRE, your options are wide open. You’ve now fully funded your future retirement needs and only need to work enough to cover living expenses.
This gives you a lot of potential flexibility and freedom, allowing you the time and space to design a lifestyle that offers many of the benefits of financial independence while working flexibly to cover your lifestyle costs.
Let’s imagine that you reach coast FIRE, and you’re making $100k per year after taxes. Assuming your lifestyle costs you $70k per year, you’ve got an extra $30k to make some decisions with.
If your work arrangement permits, you may decide to downshift, trading that $30k in for fewer hours at work, freeing up some precious time to spend as you please. As long as you’re still making enough to cover your living expenses and your employer is on board, working fewer hours may be just what you need right now.
This could allow you to spend more time with friends and family, pursue new or old hobbies, and focus on your health and wellness.
That’s the beauty of coasting—it can free up time now to enjoy the journey, rather than delaying all of the flexibility until you reach the final FIRE destination. It shifts your freedom and flexibility into the present, all while still progressing towards your ultimate FIRE number.
What if you reach coast FIRE but can’t stand your job anymore?
If you reach coast FIRE but can’t stand your job anymore, it may be time to switch things up, and coasting will allow you to do just that.
Since you only need to work enough to cover your lifestyle costs, you may have the ability to pull off a career change or shift gears to seasonal, part-time, or even freelance work. As long as you’re covering your lifestyle costs and feeling fulfilled by your work, there’s no limit to what you can do.
If a career change feels right for you, explore the best jobs for coasting to financial independence.
So, should you pursue coast FIRE?
Whether or not you should pursue coast FIRE is a very personal decision, driven by various factors.
On the one hand, coast FIRE offers much of the freedom and flexibility of FIRE sooner, making it an attractive option for some pursuing financial independence. So if you feel the standard path to FIRE is a bit too extreme, or you’ve gotten burned out on your way to FIRE, then coasting may be a great fit for you.
For a more detailed list of the benefits of coasting, see Ten reasons why Coast FIRE is the best FIRE.
On the other hand, even after you reach your coast FIRE number, you’ve still got to continue working, meaning that it may not be a good fit for those who are heavily focused on the “RE” portion of FIRE.
To use an analogy, I like to think of coasting to FIRE versus the standard path to FIRE like the tortoise and the hare.
The tortoise is coasting, always headed in the direction it wants to go, but not in any hurry—enjoying each step of the way. Meanwhile, the hare is racing to reach FIRE as quickly as possible—okay with sacrificing the journey to reach the final destination as soon as possible. In the end, they both get where they want to go, despite their different journeys.
In the end, some people will gravitate towards and identify with the tortoise, and others with the hare. The beauty is that there’s no right or wrong, just different strokes for different folks.