---
title: Coast FIRE — what it means and why it matters | Allocate AI
description: Having enough invested that, with no more contributions, it will grow into a full retirement fund by normal retirement age; you only cover today's bills.
canonical: https://allocateai.io/glossary/coast-fire
site: Allocate AI — https://allocateai.io
---

# Coast FIRE

Having enough invested that, with no more contributions, it will grow into a full retirement fund by normal retirement age; you only cover today's bills.

Coast FIRE is the point where your retirement savings can finish the job on their own. Once the invested balance is large enough that compound growth alone will carry it to your target by, say, 65, you can stop contributing and simply cover today's bills. You still work, but every dollar earned is for now, not for later.

The math depends on time. Suppose you want $1,500,000 at 65 and expect 7% average annual growth. At 35, you would need about $197,000 invested to coast there. At 40, about $276,000. At 45, about $387,000. The earlier the balance is in place, the smaller it needs to be.

What coast FIRE buys is flexibility. It makes a lower-paying but more meaningful job affordable, or a few years of part-time work while children are small, without giving up on retirement. It is also a useful midpoint to celebrate on the way to full financial independence.

The risk is that the projection is only as good as its assumptions. Seven percent is a long-run average that includes decades of both boom and bust; a bad ten-year stretch right after you stop contributing can leave the balance short. Many people keep contributing something, or set a coast number using 5% or 6% for a margin of safety.

The common mistake is hitting the coast number and then spending down the balance, or counting unvested stock toward it.

[Try the FatFIRE Withdrawal Calculator →](https://allocateai.io/calculators/fire-withdrawal)

## Related terms

- [FIRE (financial independence, retire early)](https://allocateai.io/glossary/fire) — A plan to save a large share of income so that investments can cover living costs long before traditional retirement age.
- [Compound interest](https://allocateai.io/glossary/compound-interest) — Growth on top of growth: earnings are added to the balance, and then those earnings earn too, so money grows faster the longer it is left alone.
- [Safe withdrawal rate (the 4% rule)](https://allocateai.io/glossary/safe-withdrawal-rate) — The percentage of a portfolio you can spend each year, adjusted for inflation, with a good chance it lasts 30 years; the classic estimate is 4%.
- [Time value of money](https://allocateai.io/glossary/time-value-of-money) — The idea that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar later, because today's dollar can be invested and grow in the meantime.

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Allocate AI is a budgeting and financial-planning app: link your accounts, say what you want in plain words, and it writes the plan and stages every change for your approval. Read more at https://allocateai.io or see all pages in https://allocateai.io/llms.txt.