FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is a personal finance movement built on a simple mathematical principle: once your investment portfolio generates enough passive income to cover your annual expenses indefinitely, you are financially independent. The 25× Rule — your FIRE corpus = 25 times your annual expenses — is derived from the 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate: a corpus of 25× annual expenses can sustain 4% annual withdrawals (adjusted for inflation) for 30+ years with high historical success probability.

In the Indian context, the 4% SWR is generally considered conservative — Indian equity markets have historically delivered higher real returns than US markets, suggesting a 5–5.5% SWR may be sustainable for well-diversified portfolios. However, India also has higher inflation (5–6% versus 2–3% in the US), higher concentration risk in fewer index constituents, and less mature bond markets. Most Indian FIRE practitioners use 3.5–4% SWR for conservatism.

The path to FIRE has two levers: increasing your savings rate and increasing your investment return. Savings rate matters more than return in the early years. A household saving 50% of income can reach FIRE in approximately 17 years regardless of starting net worth; saving 70% reduces this to 8–9 years. The typical FIRE calculator assumption of 10–12% equity CAGR and 6% inflation yields a real return of 4–5% — the engine that makes FIRE mathematically achievable.

Use this calculator to compute your FIRE corpus target (25× your annual expenses) and the monthly SIP needed to reach it by your target FIRE age. Adjust the SWR percentage to model conservative versus aggressive scenarios. The calculator assumes constant returns and does not model sequence-of-returns risk, which is the primary risk in the first 5–7 years of a FIRE withdrawal phase. Educational use only. Consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser for personalised financial independence planning.