Coast FIRE calculator: when can you stop saving?

“Coast FIRE” is the point where your investments are big enough to grow, untouched, into everything you need by the time you stop work. After that you only have to earn what you spend. Two things you control move that date more than anything else: what you pay in fees, and which tax wrappers your money sits in.

To stop work at 55 spending £30,000 a year, you need about £649,000 by then. At 1% fees you’d need £296,000 today to coast; you have £160,000.

At your fees (1%)Age 47you can stop saving; pot at 55: £659,000

At 0.3% feesAge 44you can stop saving; pot at 55: £672,000

What the higher fees cost you£45,000of extra saving: 3 more years before you can stop

Saving £15,000 a year, you can coast at 47 at 1% fees, or at 44 at 0.3%. Cutting fees buys you 3 years of freedom.

Your ageStop work atSpending a year, in today’s money£In pensions now£In ISAs and elsewhere now£Saving a year until you coast£Your own saving, including pension tax relief; it goes into an ISA first, then a pensionGrowth a year, after inflation%Your fees a year%Fund plus platform plus any adviserCompare with fees of%Withdrawal rate%Many UK planners use 3% to 4%

Include the full State Pension (£12,548 a year from 67)

The age you can stop saving at different levels of fees
Fees a year	Stop saving at	Years of saving left
0.2%	43	8
0.3%	44	9
0.5%	45	10
1% (yours)	47	12
1.5%	50	15
2%	53	18

Saving stops once you can coast, so every row reaches the same pot; what changes is how many more years you have to keep saving. All figures in today’s money; growth is after inflation and before fees.

Is your money in the right wrappers?

You can’t usually touch a pension before 57 (from April 2028). Stopping at 55 means 2 years to live on money held outside it: about £60,000 in today’s money. On these numbers you’d have about £396,000 in ISAs and elsewhere at 55, which covers it.

Assumes new savings go into an ISA first, up to £20,000 a year, and the rest into a pension.

Pension first for the tax relief. £100 into a pension costs a basic-rate taxpayer £80 and a higher-rate taxpayer £60, less through salary sacrifice. See your numbers.
An ISA for the bridge. Up to £20,000 a year grows tax-free and can be taken out at any age, which is what makes retiring before 57 possible.
Avoid a taxable account where you can. Outside a wrapper, dividends over £500 and gains over £3,000 a year are taxed, and that drag compounds like a fee. Bed and ISA moves it across each year.
Check what you’re paying. A fund at 0.75%, a platform at 0.45% and an adviser at 0.5% add up to 1.7% a year. A global tracker on a cheap platform can be under 0.3%. Fee calculator.

About the numbers

The pot you need is your spending divided by the withdrawal rate. At 3.5%, that’s about 29 times your spending. The often-quoted 4% comes from US data; many UK planners use a lower rate.
With the State Pension included, the pot covers the rest of your spending for life, plus the State Pension’s share until it starts at 67. You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance for the full amount; check your forecast.
Growth after inflation of 5% a year is roughly what a global share portfolio has delivered over long periods, but there will be bad decades. Try 3% or 4% to be cautious.

Figures checked 16 Oct 2026 for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027), for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland has its own income tax bands. Tax rules change, usually at each Budget. Next review: after the next Budget, and by 6 April 2027.

Illustration only, not financial advice: we don’t know your circumstances, and the value of investments can fall as well as rise. Free, impartial guidance: MoneyHelper.