Can You Retire…Now? This FIRE Calculator Will Tell You!

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Do I have enough to retire?” is a question most people in the FIRE community grapple with, but today, we’re sharing a FREE tool that will help you put this issue to bed! If you’re concerned about running out of money later in life or developing “One More Year Syndrome,” you won’t want to miss this episode! Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Money podcast! Software engineer Lauren Boland has developed a FIRE calculator that predicts whether your nest egg will be able to support you in retirement. This powerful tool takes dozens of key data points—such as your financial independence number, retirement age, annual expenses, portfolio mix, and historical returns—to simulate multiple retirement scenarios. In this episode, Lauren, Scott, and Mindy are going to walk you through this powerful tool, step-by-step! Does the four-percent rule still work in 2025? How much do you really need to save for retirement? Whether you’re just starting your quest for FIRE or looking to tweak your investment portfolio as you approach retirement, cFIREsim will show you where you stand and what you might need to adjust to meet your retirement goals! In This Episode We Cover A step-by-step walkthrough of Lauren’s FREE cFIREsim tool How much money you actually need to retire early Reverse-engineering your financial independence number Whether you can still retire on the four-percent rule in 2025 How to ensure that your money not only lasts but also grows in retirement And So Much More! Links from the Show Mindy on BiggerPockets Scott on BiggerPockets Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Join BiggerPockets for FREE Email Mindy: [email protected] Email Scott: [email protected] BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group cFIREsim Tool Lauren’s Bluesky Social Security Administration Get to FIRE Faster with Scott’s Book “Set for Life” Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area How Much Do You Need for Early Retirement? (How to Calculate Your FI Number) Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-597 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Will my money last in retirement? It's the ultimate question for anyone chasing financial freedom
0:05.7	and absolutely the biggest question at the heart of the fire movement. Whether you are just starting out
0:12.0	or you are fine-tuning your path to early retirement, we'll explore what it really takes to ensure
0:18.0	your money not only lasts but continues to grow in retirement.
0:22.6	If you have ever wondered how to achieve true financial freedom, this episode is for you.
0:29.0	Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.
0:32.1	My name is Mindy Jensen, and joining me just a little bit later is my not-a-simulation co-host, Scott Trench.
0:38.0	Normally, this is the part of the show where he would insert his own little pun, but he's not.
0:43.9	We'll get back to that next week.
0:46.0	But for right now, Bigger Pockets has a goal of creating 1 million millionaires.
0:50.7	You are in the right place if you want to get your financial house in order,
0:54.6	because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or
0:59.5	where you're starting. Today, we are bringing on Lauren Boland. She is a dear friend of the
1:05.0	podcast and integral to the fire community through her C-fire sim calculator that she created way back in 2013.
1:14.7	This is an episode that relies a lot on video.
1:19.8	So if you are not watching this on our YouTube channel, you might want to hop on over there
1:24.9	and watch it there.
1:25.8	You can also open up the fire sim calculator.
1:29.9	It is at the letter C as in cash. C, fire simsim.com. Follow along and put your own numbers.
1:38.5	Look at what we're actually talking about. It is an excellent tool and we are going to be discussing
1:43.3	it on the show today using
1:45.4	screensharing. If you would like to fire along, hop on over to our YouTube channel, which is
	...

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