Early retirement changes the period of uncertainty
A conventional retirement estimate and a financial-independence goal can share the same saving maths, but an earlier retirement creates more years of spending to fund. Inflation, longevity and the sequence of returns become important over that longer period.
The Finpockett retirement calculator now includes FIRE and Coast FIRE modes. FIRE divides inflated annual spending by an entered initial withdrawal rate. An expense multiplier lets you test a lower-spending or higher-spending lifestyle without opening separate calculators.
The withdrawal rate is not guaranteed safe
At ₹6 lakh of annual spending, a 4% initial withdrawal scenario implies ₹1.5 crore before future inflation adjustments. A 3% scenario implies ₹2 crore. That difference is arithmetic, not a certification that either amount survives every market path.
The simple corpus-multiple method does not resolve taxes, healthcare shocks or losses early in retirement. Repeat the estimate under lower returns and a longer planning lifetime, and review how near-term spending would be funded.
What Coast FIRE means here
Coast mode asks whether existing retirement assets could grow to the target without further contributions. Its annual timeline therefore assumes zero new monthly deposits. The required corpus today discounts the future target using the selected accumulation convention.
Reaching a Coast threshold still relies on the future growth assumption and does not fund current living expenses. Separate independence from employment income today from a projection that assets may eventually fund retirement.