The FIRE Planning Workbook calculates your FIRE number, your Coast FIRE number, and a 40-year projection of your portfolio — all in one spreadsheet. No email required. No sign-up. Just download and start planning.
Works in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice
What's Included
How to Use the Workbook
The workbook follows the standard spreadsheet color convention: blue cells are inputs you edit, black cells are formulas, and green cells highlight results. You only ever need to type in blue cells.
1. Enter your numbers in the Inputs tab
Start here. Enter your age, target retirement age, current balances (investments, cash, other assets), monthly contribution, and monthly expenses. The three assumptions — expected return, inflation, and withdrawal rate — live at the bottom of the same tab. Everything else in the workbook reads from this single source of truth.
2. Read your results on the Dashboard
The Dashboard updates instantly: net worth, FIRE number, progress percentage, years to FIRE, and current savings rate, plus a milestone tracker at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of your target.
3. Compare scenarios in the FIRE Number tab
A scenario table crosses expense levels with withdrawal rates from 3% to 4.5%, so you can see how your target moves if you spend $500 less per month or withdraw more conservatively.
4. Check the Coast FIRE tab
It computes the amount that grows to your FIRE number by retirement with zero further contributions, compares it to what you have today, and shows how the number shifts for different retirement ages.
5. Follow the 40-Year Projection
A year-by-year table and chart of your portfolio: contributions, growth, and the crossover point where investment returns outearn what you put in. The horizontal line marks your FIRE number — where the curve crosses it is your projected FIRE year.
No Macros, Pure Formulas
This workbook uses standard Excel formulas only—no macros, no VBA. That means:
- Full transparency: See exactly how every number is calculated
- Cross-platform: Works identically in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice
- Safe to use: No security warnings, no "enable macros" prompts
- Easy to customize: Modify any formula to fit your situation
Default Assumptions
The workbook comes with sensible defaults that you can adjust:
- 7% annual return (historical stock market average)
- 3% inflation (typical long-term average)
- 4% safe withdrawal rate (the Trinity Study standard)
All assumptions are in the Inputs tab. Change them to match your expectations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The workbook uses standard formulas only—no macros, no VBA—so it imports cleanly into Google Sheets. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it, or use File > Import inside Sheets. Formulas, conditional formatting, and the projection chart all carry over. It also works in LibreOffice Calc.
It multiplies your annual expenses by 25, the standard rule of thumb derived from the 4% safe withdrawal rate. The FIRE Number tab also shows a scenario table for withdrawal rates from 3% to 5%, so you can see how a more conservative or aggressive assumption changes your target.
Yes. The Inputs tab holds every assumption: 7% annual return, 3% inflation, and a 4% withdrawal rate by default. Change any of them and the whole workbook recalculates. Every formula is visible and editable—nothing is locked or hidden.
Your Coast FI number: the amount that, if invested today, grows to your full FIRE number by retirement with no further contributions. The tab compares it against your current invested assets and shows scenarios for different retirement ages. For an interactive version, try the Coast FIRE calculator.
No macros, no VBA, no external connections—standard Excel formulas only. You won't see any security warnings or "enable macros" prompts, and you can inspect exactly how every number is calculated.
The spreadsheet is best for offline planning and custom tinkering—you own the file and can modify any formula. The Fire Planner runs a month-by-month simulation of your full financial picture with Monte Carlo simulation, historical backtesting, and stress testing, and saves your data locally in the browser. Many people use both: the spreadsheet for quick scenario math, the Fire Planner for the full plan.
Update the balances in the Inputs tab and the Dashboard recalculates your net worth, progress percentage, and years to FIRE. The workbook shows a current snapshot rather than a history. If you want automatic check-in history and milestone tracking, the Fire Planner records balance updates over time.
Want More?
The spreadsheet is great for planning, but if you want to track your progress over time with automatic updates, try the Fire Planner—our interactive dashboard that saves your data locally and shows beautiful visualizations of your FIRE journey.
Other Free Templates
Prefer a focused sheet for one job? We also have a net-worth & progress tracker, a Coast FIRE spreadsheet, a savings-rate worksheet, and a budget template — plus the raw Shiller S&P 500 dataset if you want to back-test.
Try the Interactive Version
The Fire Planner offers the same calculations with a better interface, automatic milestone tracking, and projection charts that update as you add data.
Open Fire Planner →