GROW · VOLUME 3 OF 3 · DEEP DIVERetirement shelf
FIRE: Financial Independence Retire Early
A complete, computed walk through financial independence and early retirement: how the target and the timeline are worked out, what drives them, and how to invest for them. It then covers the parts most plans miss: reaching retirement money before 59½, health insurance before Medicare, leaving work, and keeping a fifty-year drawdown on track.
Chapters8
Reading time45 min
Worked examples20
Updated2026-10-01
What you will be able to do
- Compute your FIRE number and timeline at several withdrawal rates, and explain why a long retirement needs a lower one.
- See how your savings rate, costs and fees move your date, and pick the levers that matter most for you.
- Sketch a bridge to 59½ using taxable savings, Roth contributions, a Roth conversion ladder, 72(t) payments or the rule of 55.
- Estimate health insurance costs before Medicare and plan your reported income around the ACA premium tax credit cliff.
- Manage sequence-of-returns risk after you stop work with flexible spending, a buffer and an annual review.
Contents
8 CHAPTERS · ABOUT 45 MIN- 01What FIRE Is, and Its Flavours What financial independence and early retirement mean, where the idea comes from, and how lean, fat, coast and barista FIRE differ, each computed for the same household so you can compare targets and timelines.5 min5 computed
- 02The FIRE Math: Your Number and Timeline How the FIRE number and the years to reach it are computed, why the growth rate must be after inflation, and how the withdrawal rate and the length of retirement change the target you need.5 min5 computed
- 03Savings Rate: The Lever That Sets Your Date Why the share of income you save does more to set your timeline than returns do, with computed examples, and how to raise it through the largest costs, higher income, geography and resisting lifestyle creep.5 min4 computed
- 04The Simple FIRE Portfolio and Where to Hold It Why low-cost index funds suit most FIRE plans, what a fee does to your timeline, how to choose a stock and bond split, and the order to fill workplace plans, IRAs, HSAs and taxable accounts.6 min2 computed
- 05Taxes and Reaching Your Money Before 59½ The 10% additional tax and its exceptions, Roth contributions, the Roth conversion ladder, 72(t) payments and the rule of 55, plus the low-tax years early retirement creates for conversions and 0% capital gains.6 min
- 06Health Insurance for Early Retirees: Your Income Sets the Price The coverage options between leaving work and 65, how the ACA premium tax credit works now that the enhanced credit has expired, where the 400% income cliff sits, and how to plan reported income around it.6 min
- 07The Transition: Leaving Work Well Deciding when the plan is good enough to leave, why a little income in the first years helps so much, the practical checklist for the last year of work, and the identity, structure and social life a job used to supply.5 min2 computed
- 08Life After FI: Making the Money Last Sequence-of-returns risk and the ways to manage it, how spending really behaves in retirement, how retiring early changes Social Security, a yearly review routine, and using the freedom, including giving.5 min2 computed
CALCULATORS USED IN THIS BOOK