Start with the life, not the number.
Every FIRE number starts with the wrong question: “how much do I need?” The right one is “what life do I actually want, and what does it cost?” Build it here, line by line. Your pot is just that answer, multiplied.
Explain it like I’m five
First, find what your life really costs: add up home, food, fun, everything, for one whole year. Then multiply by 30. A pot that big, invested, makes enough new money each year to pay for your life. This page is the adding-up part.
New to all of it? This idea is stop 6 of Start from zero: ten short lessons that assume nothing.
Price the Life
Home
rent or mortgage, bills, repairs
Food & eating out
groceries, and eating out when it’s worth it
Health & sport
gym, kit, staying in shape
Getting around
car, fuel, transport, the odd flight
Travel & time off
the trips you actually look forward to
Fun & the good stuff
spend freely here: this is the point of it
Insurance & the boring stuff
insurance, subscriptions, the buffer for surprises
Today’s prices, in today’s money. Round numbers beat false precision: you’re after the shape, not the cent. Tax on the way out is its own question (see Where You Live). This is your number, not a plan, and not advice.
The life, per year
€30,000
€2,500 a month, the way you’d actually live.
The pot that funds it
€900k
30× your spending, 3.33% a year drawn down.
The link carries these exact numbers. Anyone with it can read them, and opening it sends the address to the host.
Priced this life a while back? The number has aged quietly. Restate it in today’s money before you trust it. The Old Number
The yearly cost you built here is the File's spending line. Keep it in The Exit File and put a range around it. Keep this in The Exit File
Common questions
- Do I need €900,000 in the bank right now?
- No. It’s the pot you’re building toward, not cash you need today. And it’s in today’s money: you’re aiming for what €900,000 buys now, not some scary inflated future figure. The Exit Calculator shows how long it takes to get there at your pace.
- Why is the pot 30× what I spend in a year?
- Because living off it means drawing about 3.3% a year (30× your yearly spending) and letting the rest keep growing. It’s a deliberately cautious version of the old “4% rule”: a bigger multiple means a smaller, safer yearly slice.
- I ticked “could cut”. Why didn’t the big number drop?
- On purpose. Those ticks don’t shrink your number here; they carry over to the Exit Calculator, where you can see what cutting them does to your timeline. This page is for pricing the life you actually want, before you start trimming it.
- What should I put in each row?
- What a genuinely good year costs you, not a stripped-back budget, not a fantasy. The point is your real life, priced honestly. Everything the other tools tell you is only as true as these rows.
Nothing here is financial, investment, medical or retirement advice: it’s arithmetic and education. The calculators use the numbers you enter, The Exit Rehearsal compares your own Plan and Reality without interpreting either, and The Spare Key prices the fallback you enter without recommending one. Some tools remember work in the browser, some can place a scenario in the page address, and the Rehearsal and the Spare Key stay in this browser unless you print them, download them, or keep them in your account. Each tool tells you what it keeps and where. Decisions about your money are yours, ideally with a licensed adviser. I’m happily not one.
Bring me a challenge.
The Exit Audit, then ninety minutes: a straight verdict, real alternatives with their pros and cons, and your first move. If you want someone to nod along, I’m the wrong person to pay.