The nine FIRE models, priced the same way
There is not one financial independence number. There are nine, and for exactly the same life they range from €525,000 to €2,100,000. Every model below is worked out at €3,500 a month of spending, a 4% withdrawal rate and 8% growth, so the comparison is real rather than a definition list.
When can I stop needing to save?
Anyone who wants to know how much longer the hard part lasts.
I only need to work a little
People who like working and dislike being required to.
The halfway strategy
People who want a clear halfway marker rather than an open-ended climb.
Same portfolio, cheaper life
People who are mobile, and who would move for reasons other than the spreadsheet.
I need very little
People with low fixed costs, no dependants, and a genuine taste for a simple life.
I never have to work again
People who want the work question closed for good, and who are comfortable with a long build.
Work because you want to
People who like their work and want the leverage, not the exit.
Don't sacrifice your 30s for your 60s
Anyone who has tried an extreme savings rate and found out what it costs.
Freedom and a great lifestyle
High earners who do not want freedom to cost them anything they currently enjoy.
Most calculators show you the top of that list first, which is the most expensive version of the same freedom. It is also the reason so many people run the numbers once and never go back.
Barista is a quarter of Fat. Same person, same life, four times the difference. Which row you are aiming at matters more than any fund you will ever pick.
Coast is the odd one out and sits at the top of the list for a reason. It is not what you need to be free. It is what you need invested today so that you never have to save again, which is a nearer date and a better question.
Work out how much more you could invest every month without changing your job in the calculator. The assumptions behind every number are in the methodology, and the limits of all of it are in what this is and what it is not.