Coast FIRE is the point at which the money already invested will grow into your target on its own, with nothing added to it. Work still has to pay the bills until the age you picked, but it no longer has to fund the plan. The coast mode on this page draws two lines: what you are projected to hold at each age, and the balance you would need at that age to arrive on target with nothing more added. Where the first crosses the second is the answer.

What is barista FIRE?

Barista FIRE is leaving the full-time job before the portfolio can carry the whole cost of living, and covering the difference with part-time work. The portfolio funds only the shortfall in those years, which is why the number is smaller than a full FIRE number. The barista mode on this page credits the part-time income from the day the full-time job ends until the age you set, and shows what that does to the year the money would otherwise run out.

What is the difference between lean FIRE and fat FIRE?

Only the spending. Lean and fat describe how much a year the plan has to produce, not a different calculation. Doubling the spending doubles the FIRE number at the same withdrawal rate, and it moves the year the portfolio runs out. The lean and fat mode on this page runs the identical arithmetic at three spending levels and puts them side by side, which is the honest way to show that the difference is a dial and not a method.

How much do I need to retire in Canada?

The starting answer everywhere is your spending divided by a withdrawal rate. In Canada two things move it. The first is which account holds the money, because every dollar leaving an RRSP is income in the year it comes out and a TFSA withdrawal is neither taxable nor income, so two identical balances fund different amounts of spending. The second is when your government benefits start, because until they do the portfolio is the only income you have. Both are on this page, and neither is on most calculators. No figure is given here, because the answer is your own spending.

Why is my RRSP worth less than my TFSA in retirement?

Every dollar leaving an RRSP or a RRIF is ordinary income in the year it comes out, at whatever rate applies to you that year. A TFSA withdrawal is neither taxable nor income. Two accounts holding the same balance therefore fund different amounts of spending, and only the tax-adjusted figure is comparable to a FIRE number. That comparison is the whole reason this page asks for the three balances separately instead of one total.

Does retiring early reduce my CPP?

Yes. The contributory period keeps running after the earnings stop, and the years with no earnings in them are part of the record the benefit is worked out from. The estimate in a My Service Canada Account assumes contributions continue to the usual age, so an early retirement produces less than it shows. That is why the income figure on this page is a box you fill in rather than a number printed for you. Put a figure in that box with a start age later than your stopping age and the page says so, beside the numbers. Leave it at zero and the page says something different and equally worth reading: the portfolio is then the only income in every year of the plan.

Which withdrawal rate does this calculator use?

Whichever one you enter. Presets are offered with the study each came from and what that study actually measured, because the published figures disagree and they disagree for reasons worth knowing: one is a worst case from history, one is the same author widening the asset set, and one is forward-looking. Nothing here endorses one of them. The choice is the single biggest assumption on the screen and it is yours.

Tool

When you can stop, and what the money will actually buy

Most calculators divide your spending by a withdrawal rate and hand you one number. In Canada that number is wrong in a specific way: a million dollars in an RRSP is not a million dollars of spending, and a million dollars in a TFSA is. This shows both, plus the years between stopping work and your first government cheque, which are the years that break plans. It runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and nothing is saved when you leave.

Which question are you asking

The shape of the plan

The portfolio carries all of your spending from the day work stops, less any government or pension income once it starts.

You, and when you want to stop

Your age today

The age you want to stop working

What you hold today

TFSA balance today

RRSP balance today

Non-registered balance today

What you add each year

Added to the TFSA each year

Added to the RRSP each year

Added to the non-registered account each year

Retirement

Spending a year in retirement

In today's dollars. Every figure here is worked out from this one.

CPP, OAS and pension income a year

Your own estimate, from your own record. Leave it at zero to leave it out.

The age that income starts

Assumptions

Expected return, % a year

Before fees and before inflation. Lower it by what you pay to hold your funds.

Expected inflation, % a year

Withdrawal rate, % a year

Starting points for the return, derived from the FP Canada / Institute of Financial Planning 2026 Projection Assumption Guidelines (version 2026-FPCANADA-PAG) rather than typed in. The equity share is split evenly across the Canadian, US and international classes those Guidelines publish. They are before fees, and the Guidelines say so: lower the figure by what you pay to hold your funds.

Published withdrawal rates, with what each one measured set out below this calculator. They disagree. Nothing here picks one.

Tax, so the spendable figure is yours

These two are the reason this page can tell you what your money is worth as spending rather than what it adds up to. A TFSA dollar is worth a dollar and needs no rate. An RRSP dollar is all income on the way out, so it needs the higher of these two. A non-registered dollar sits between them, because only the gain is taxed and only part of a gain is income. You can leave them alone and still get the shape of the answer.

Average tax rate on RRSP withdrawals, %

Your estimate of the rate a dollar leaving the RRSP will pay. The starting value is a placeholder, not a measurement.

Average tax rate on non-registered gains, %

Lower than the one above, because only the gain is taxed and only part of a gain is income.

You have entered no government or pension income, so the portfolio is the only income in every year of this plan. If you expect CPP, OAS or a workplace pension, putting your own figure in that box will move every number here.

On these assumptions the portfolio runs out at 69. A constant return is a modelling convenience, and the order returns arrive in changes this answer more than the average does.

Your FIRE number: $1,375,000
What you will have, as spending: $636,724
The gap: $738,276

The plan, year by year

Measured as spending, the portfolio reaches $636,724 at age 55. It is the only income in every year of this plan. It runs out at age 69.

The dotted vertical mark is the day work stops.

What each account holds at the age you stop working, and what a dollar in it is worth as spending.
Account	Balance at 55	A dollar is worth	As spending
TFSA	$293,729	$1.00	$293,729
RRSP	$440,593	$0.70	$308,415
Non-registered	$40,682	$0.85	$34,580
Total	$775,005		$636,724

Every year of the plan, in spendable dollars: what the portfolio opens on, what goes in or comes out, and what it closes on.
Age	Stage	Opening	Added, as spending	Taken out	Closing
35	Adding	$140,000	$12,300		$157,360
36	Adding	$157,360	$12,300		$175,347
37	Adding	$175,347	$12,300		$193,984
38	Adding	$193,984	$12,300		$213,295
39	Adding	$213,295	$12,300		$233,304
40	Adding	$233,304	$12,300		$254,035
41	Adding	$254,035	$12,300		$275,517
42	Adding	$275,517	$12,300		$297,774
43	Adding	$297,774	$12,300		$320,836
44	Adding	$320,836	$12,300		$344,731
45	Adding	$344,731	$12,300		$369,490
46	Adding	$369,490	$12,300		$395,144
47	Adding	$395,144	$12,300		$421,725
48	Adding	$421,725	$12,300		$449,266
49	Adding	$449,266	$12,300		$477,803
50	Adding	$477,803	$12,300		$507,372
51	Adding	$507,372	$12,300		$538,009
52	Adding	$538,009	$12,300		$569,753
53	Adding	$569,753	$12,300		$602,644
54	Adding	$602,644	$12,300		$636,724
55	Drawing	$636,724		$55,000	$602,749
56	Drawing	$602,749		$55,000	$567,545
57	Drawing	$567,545		$55,000	$531,069
58	Drawing	$531,069		$55,000	$493,274
59	Drawing	$493,274		$55,000	$454,114
60	Drawing	$454,114		$55,000	$413,538
61	Drawing	$413,538		$55,000	$371,496
62	Drawing	$371,496		$55,000	$327,935
63	Drawing	$327,935		$55,000	$282,799
64	Drawing	$282,799		$55,000	$236,032
65	Drawing	$236,032		$55,000	$187,574
66	Drawing	$187,574		$55,000	$137,366
67	Drawing	$137,366		$55,000	$85,343
68	Drawing	$85,343		$55,000	$31,439
69	Drawing	$31,439		$55,000	-$23,561

How it calculates

Everything on this page is in today’s dollars. The return you enter is nominal, and inflation is taken back out of it using the relation between the two rates rather than by subtracting one from the other, which gives a slightly different and slightly smaller number. A balance thirty years out that still has inflation in it is a figure you cannot price, which is why no nominal balance appears anywhere here.

While you are still adding, each year grows first and your contribution lands at the end of it, so a contribution earns nothing in the year it is made. Contributions are held level in today’s dollars, which assumes you raise what you put in with inflation every year. That is the most optimistic assumption on the page and it is worth knowing you are making it.

Once work stops, the order reverses: the year’s spending comes out first and what is left grows. So the first year’s withdrawal is exactly the shortfall you entered, a figure you can check without a calculator. A year in which your other income exceeds your spending is a surplus, and it goes back into the portfolio.

Tax is taken as a single average rate, charged once, on the RRSP and non-registered balances at the moment work stops. A real drawdown pays tax every year, on the amount actually withdrawn, at graduated rates, in a province. This is a simplification, and it is the reason the two rates are yours to set rather than ours to publish.

The starting points offered for the return come from the FP Canada / Institute of Financial Planning 2026 Projection Assumption Guidelines, version 2026-FPCANADA-PAG, which is the same assumption set Luum uses in the product. They are stated before fees, and the Guidelines are explicit that fees have to be subtracted to reach a net return. This page does not subtract one, because it does not know what you pay.

The withdrawal rate is not settled

4%, The original study: William P. Bengen, Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data, Journal of Financial Planning, October 1994The highest first-year rate that survived every US historical sequence since 1926 for at least 30 years, raised with inflation each year after the first, on a portfolio held 50% in common stocks and 50% in intermediate-term Treasuries.Read at source on 2026-09-26: document 1
4.7%, The author, revised: William P. Bengen, Research Report #1, 18 September 2025, on the rule set out in his book A Richer Retirement, with Research Reports #3 and #5The worst case across the 357 retirement start dates in his own database, not a typical outcome. His book set the rule on a fixed 55% stocks, 40% bonds and 5% cash, which he runs on a 30-year planning horizon. The cited report is the one that moves his preferred mix off that, to 65% stocks, and records the worst case landing at 4.65%; by March 2026 he describes the figure as applying to portfolios with 65% stocks.Read at source on 2026-09-26: document 1, document 2, document 3
3.9%, The forward-looking one: Morningstar, The State of Retirement Income research for 2026, published 3 December 2025Forward-looking return and inflation assumptions rather than history, on spending held level in real terms, with a 90% chance of money remaining after 30 years, at an equity weight between 30% and 50%. Government income is excluded from it.Read at source on 2026-09-26: document 1

This page does not pick one. The three differ because they measure different things, and the figure you choose is the single biggest assumption on this screen.

What this deliberately does not do

It publishes no CPP, OAS or RRIF figure. Your CPP and OAS estimates are in your My Service Canada Account, worked out from your own contribution record. A copy of those numbers on this page would go stale, and yours would still be the right ones.
It has no province and no tax brackets. The two tax rates are yours to enter, and one average rate charged once is a simplification of a bill that arrives every year at graduated rates.
It does not model the minimum you must take out of a RRIF. Those withdrawals are forced whether or not the plan wants the income, and they are the part that turns a retirement plan into a tax problem.
It assumes one steady return. Real returns arrive unevenly, and the order they arrive in changes the answer more than the average does. That is sequence risk, and no constant-return calculator can show it.
It tells you nothing about what to hold. It compares levels you enter, and it ranks nothing. Where a holding belongs across your accounts is the subject of asset location across accounts.

Common questions

What is coast FIRE?: Coast FIRE is the point at which the money already invested will grow into your target on its own, with nothing added to it. Work still has to pay the bills until the age you picked, but it no longer has to fund the plan. The coast mode on this page draws two lines: what you are projected to hold at each age, and the balance you would need at that age to arrive on target with nothing more added. Where the first crosses the second is the answer.
What is barista FIRE?: Barista FIRE is leaving the full-time job before the portfolio can carry the whole cost of living, and covering the difference with part-time work. The portfolio funds only the shortfall in those years, which is why the number is smaller than a full FIRE number. The barista mode on this page credits the part-time income from the day the full-time job ends until the age you set, and shows what that does to the year the money would otherwise run out.
What is the difference between lean FIRE and fat FIRE?: Only the spending. Lean and fat describe how much a year the plan has to produce, not a different calculation. Doubling the spending doubles the FIRE number at the same withdrawal rate, and it moves the year the portfolio runs out. The lean and fat mode on this page runs the identical arithmetic at three spending levels and puts them side by side, which is the honest way to show that the difference is a dial and not a method.
How much do I need to retire in Canada?: The starting answer everywhere is your spending divided by a withdrawal rate. In Canada two things move it. The first is which account holds the money, because every dollar leaving an RRSP is income in the year it comes out and a TFSA withdrawal is neither taxable nor income, so two identical balances fund different amounts of spending. The second is when your government benefits start, because until they do the portfolio is the only income you have. Both are on this page, and neither is on most calculators. No figure is given here, because the answer is your own spending.
Why is my RRSP worth less than my TFSA in retirement?: Every dollar leaving an RRSP or a RRIF is ordinary income in the year it comes out, at whatever rate applies to you that year. A TFSA withdrawal is neither taxable nor income. Two accounts holding the same balance therefore fund different amounts of spending, and only the tax-adjusted figure is comparable to a FIRE number. That comparison is the whole reason this page asks for the three balances separately instead of one total.
Does retiring early reduce my CPP?: Yes. The contributory period keeps running after the earnings stop, and the years with no earnings in them are part of the record the benefit is worked out from. The estimate in a My Service Canada Account assumes contributions continue to the usual age, so an early retirement produces less than it shows. That is why the income figure on this page is a box you fill in rather than a number printed for you. Put a figure in that box with a start age later than your stopping age and the page says so, beside the numbers. Leave it at zero and the page says something different and equally worth reading: the portfolio is then the only income in every year of the plan.
Which withdrawal rate does this calculator use?: Whichever one you enter. Presets are offered with the study each came from and what that study actually measured, because the published figures disagree and they disagree for reasons worth knowing: one is a worst case from history, one is the same author widening the asset set, and one is forward-looking. Nothing here endorses one of them. The choice is the single biggest assumption on the screen and it is yours.

Educational only, and accurate to what you enter. This is not advice and it is not a forecast. For the Canadian mechanics behind the numbers, the bridge years, the window in which an RRSP costs the least to empty, and what an early retirement does to the benefit you have been counting on, see retiring early in Canada.