Result cards as shown by the BankrateToday Coast FIRE calculator (v2.6, September 2026). CPP and OAS defaults from the Government of Canada’s published CPP retirement pension amounts, verified August 2026.

What makes a Coast FIRE retirement calculator different

Most retirement calculators ask how much you want at retirement and tell you how much to save each month to get there. A Coast FIRE retirement calculator works backwards from a different question: if you stopped saving today, would your current portfolio grow enough on its own?

The answer depends entirely on compound growth. Money invested at 35 has 30 years to grow before a retirement at 65, and at a 4.5% real return it roughly doubles every 16 years — so $200,000 at 35 becomes about $749,000 by 65 without a single further contribution. The calculator finds the threshold where that growth alone is enough, and tells you exactly how far from it you are. If you want the arithmetic behind it, see how to calculate your Coast FIRE number; if you are new to the idea, start with what Coast FIRE is.

How to use the Coast FIRE retirement calculator: every input

The calculator opens in Canada mode (RRSP, TFSA, CPP + OAS), with a one-tap switch to US terms. The inputs, in order:

• Current age. The gap between this and your retirement age sets how many years your money compounds — the single most powerful variable.
• Target retirement age. One-tap presets for 55, 60 and 65. Earlier retirement means fewer years of growth and a higher Coast FIRE number.
• Annual spending in retirement. In today’s dollars — do not inflate it, the real-return maths handles that. $50,000–$70,000 is a realistic range for many Canadians.
• Current invested assets. Everything invested for retirement: RRSP, TFSA, FHSA, non-registered. Leave out your home and cash savings.
• Monthly investment contribution. What you add today. Set it to $0 to test whether you have already coasted.
• CPP + OAS (monthly). Tap “Use average CPP + OAS” to fill in $1,629 — the 2026 average CPP at 65 ($877) plus the maximum OAS for ages 65–74 ($752). Anything you enter here is spending your portfolio does not have to cover, so it lowers every downstream number.
• Investment return. Presets for 5.5% (cautious), 7% (baseline) and 8.5% (optimistic). A diversified equity portfolio has historically returned 6–7% nominal over long periods.
• Inflation. The Bank of Canada targets 2%, the midpoint of its 1–3% range; 2–2.5% is a sensible input. The calculator subtracts it from the return to get the real rate.
• Safe withdrawal rate. 4% standard; 3.5% if you plan to retire before 55.
• Investment fees (Advanced). Your MER. 0.2% for index ETFs; 1–2% for actively managed funds — and it matters more than it looks.

Couple mode asks for each partner’s age, retirement age, assets and contributions separately, plus one combined household spending figure and one combined CPP + OAS figure. It then reports a joint Coast FIRE number, each partner’s progress, and who reaches Coast FIRE first. The couples guide explains why a joint number differs from two individual ones.

Reading the status line

Above the six result cards the calculator gives one of three verdicts. They are worth reading literally:

• “You have already reached Coast FIRE!” — your current investments alone will grow to your retirement number by your retirement age. Contributions are optional from here.
• “On track for Coast FIRE at age N” — at your current monthly contribution you will cross the threshold at age N. The years card shows how long that is.
• “Keep saving – adjust your plan” — at your current contribution you will not cross the threshold before your retirement age. The years card reads “Adjust plan”. This is the state people misread most, so it gets its own section below.

Six ways people misread the results

• Comparing the Coast FIRE number to a future balance. It is stated in today’s dollars. Compare it to what you have invested right now, nothing else. A $286,000 Coast FIRE number at 35 does not mean you will have $286,000 at 65 — you will have roughly $1 million.
• Reading “Adjust plan” as “impossible”. It only means your current contribution rate does not reach the threshold before your chosen retirement age. Raising the contribution, pushing retirement from 60 to 65, or trimming planned spending will usually flip it — try each slider and watch the status change.
• Treating the retirement number as a forecast. It is what you will need on retirement day, not what you are on track to have. The two only match if you land exactly on the Coast FIRE number and then stop.
• Assuming a surplus means stop investing. It means you can. Continuing to invest after coasting either brings retirement forward, raises retirement income, or builds a cushion against lower returns. Many people keep going.
• Running two individual calculations for a couple and adding them. A household has one spending figure, one combined CPP + OAS and two contribution streams; the joint number is not the sum of two singles. Use couple mode.
• Trusting one set of assumptions. The number is extremely sensitive to the return rate. Run it at 5.5%, 7% and 8.5% (the presets) and treat the spread as your real answer — our guide on what return rate to use explains why, and real vs nominal returns covers the inflation half of that.

How to improve your result, ranked by impact

• Start earlier. Each additional year of compounding at 4.3% real cuts the number you need today by about 4%; ten more years cuts it by about a third. A 30-year-old needs roughly 34% less invested than a 40-year-old targeting the same retirement.
• Reduce planned spending. The retirement number is directly proportional to it: trimming planned spending from $70,000 to $60,000 removes $250,000 from the retirement number at a 4% withdrawal rate, and the Coast FIRE number falls in proportion.
• Enter CPP and OAS. A couple each receiving the 2026 average CPP plus maximum OAS has about $39,096 a year covered, which takes roughly $977,400 off their combined retirement number at 4%. Leaving the field at $0 is the most common way Canadians overstate their target. A defined-benefit pension does the same job on a larger scale — see Coast FIRE with a pension.
• Raise the monthly contribution. This does not change the Coast FIRE number, but it moves the Coast FIRE age closer. Model it with the contribution field.
• Cut fees. Moving from a 1.5% MER to 0.2% adds 1.3 points of real return, which over 30 years lowers the Coast FIRE number by about a third.

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Frequently asked questions

Last updated: September 2026. Reflects calculator version 2.6; CPP and OAS figures verified against Government of Canada published amounts, August 2026.