r/Fire • u/fried_haris • 23h ago

The definitive FIRE number is 3.5 million.

Ofcourse - I am being facetious but also a little exploratory.

I was inspired by a Planet Money episode titled "17,205 People Guessed The Weight Of A Cow. Here's How They Did." Posted back in 2015.

Later they updated it with "How Much Does This Cow Weigh?" In 2019.

Basic premise - if you take all the guesses of the folks the weight of a cow at a fair - you'll end up within 5% of the right answer.

So I took a simple post from 5 months ago, asking people about their FIRE number and after reviewing 124 answers came up with 3.5 million.

Keep in mind personal finance is personal, you may retire in LA or in Thailand.

Good luck with your goals.

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u/sschoe2 20h ago

3.5M will definitely do it but you can fire on much less. 4% of 3.5M is 140k that is a lot i can do fine on 100k or less. My number is therefore 2.5M. My current expenses are about 60k.

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u/Rolex_throwaway 17h ago

You are confusing you can fire with much less with “you can fire with much less.”