Coast FIRE Calculator Australia

To use the Coast FIRE calculator in Australia, enter your age, your planned retirement age, the yearly spending your super and investments must cover, and your current balances. The calculator returns your Coast FIRE number: the amount you need today so your super and investments can grow into a full retirement fund without any more voluntary saving.

1. Enter your Current Age.
2. Set your Retirement Age. Your super preservation age is 60 if you were born after 30 June 1964. The Age Pension age is 67. Most Australians plan around one of these.
3. Enter Annual Spending in Retirement in today's dollars. Include rent or rates, private health insurance, and travel. If you expect a part Age Pension, subtract it.
4. Enter Current Invested Assets. Add your super balance (from your fund or myGov), ETFs, shares, and managed funds outside super.
5. Enter your Monthly contribution. This input is different in Australia. Your employer must pay the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) of 12% of your ordinary earnings, and that keeps flowing while you work. Enter your SG after the 15% contributions tax, plus any voluntary saving.
6. Check Advanced Settings. The Reserve Bank of Australia targets 2% to 3% inflation. Super funds pay up to 15% tax on earnings during accumulation, so a slightly lower growth rate reflects that.

How to read your results

• Coast FIRE number: the balance you need today.
• Progress: how close your current balance is to the Coast FIRE number.
• FIRE Nest Egg: the full balance you need at retirement, in today's dollars.
• Coast Age: when your balance crosses the coast line at your current contribution rate.
• Cash Freed: the yearly saving you can stop once you coast.
• Real Return: growth after inflation.

Enter every amount in Australian dollars.

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The Coast FIRE calculator Australia works out the balance you need at retirement, then shrinks it by the after-inflation growth your money earns before then. The smaller figure is what you need invested today.

The formula

FIRE Nest Egg     = Annual Spending ÷ Safe Withdrawal Rate
Real Return (r)   = (1 + Growth Rate) ÷ (1 + Inflation Rate) − 1
Coast FIRE Number = FIRE Nest Egg ÷ (1 + r)^Years

Worked example

Chloe is 30 and wants to retire at her preservation age of 60, spending A$50,000 a year. She uses 6.5% growth, 2.5% inflation, and a 4% withdrawal rate.

1. FIRE Nest Egg: A$50,000 ÷ 0.04 = A$1,250,000
2. Real Return: 1.065 ÷ 1.025 − 1 = 3.90%
3. Growth factor over 30 years: 3.153
4. Coast FIRE number: A$1,250,000 ÷ 3.153 = A$396,404

Chloe has A$150,000 in super, so she sits at 38%. With no more contributions, that balance grows to about A$473,003 by 60, far below A$1.25 million. But her employer pays 12% SG on her A$147,000 salary, about A$1,250 a month after contributions tax. With SG alone, Chloe reaches Coast FIRE at age 57, without any voluntary saving.

Factors that change your result

• Compulsory super. SG continues while you're employed, so "coasting" in Australia usually means stopping voluntary contributions, not all contributions.
• Tax inside super. Earnings in accumulation are taxed at up to 15%. Earnings in a retirement-phase pension are tax-free, within the transfer balance cap.
• Age Pension. The Age Pension is means-tested on income and assets. A large balance may reduce or remove it.
• Access before 60. Super is locked until preservation age, so retiring earlier needs money outside super.
• Rounding. Results are rounded to whole dollars, contributions are added yearly, and Coast Age is shown in whole years.

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