Calculator
FIRE Calculator
Find out how large your dividend portfolio needs to be before the income alone covers your expenses — and, optionally, how long it could take to get there.
Your target
How much you'd want your dividends to pay you each year.
Want a timeline? (optional)
Fill these in to see how long it could take to reach your target.
Portfolio needed to retire on dividends
$1,000,000
$40,000 per year ÷ 4% yield
Fill in your current portfolio value and/or monthly contribution on the left to see an estimated timeline for reaching this number.
Estimates only, based on a constant yield and steady contributions — real markets and dividend payouts fluctuate.
What is FIRE, and how is this number calculated?
FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. One version of it is built entirely around dividends: instead of selling investments to fund your life, you own enough dividend-paying stock that the payouts alone cover your expenses — the portfolio pays you like a salary, without you ever having to sell a share.
The math is a rearrangement of the yield formula. If yield equals annual dividend income divided by portfolio value, then the portfolio value you need is your desired income divided by the yield. Wanting $40,000 a year at a 4% average yield means you'd need a $1,000,000 portfolio — a smaller income target or a higher yield brings that number down, though very high yields often come with more risk.
The optional timeline projects your current savings and monthly contributions forward, reinvesting your returns along the way, to estimate when you'd cross that line. It's a simplified model — it assumes a steady yield and doesn't account for taxes, dividend cuts, or market downturns.
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