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FIRE Number Canada: How Much You Need and How Long It Takes

Updated

Your FIRE number is the savings needed to live on investments, and the time to reach it depends mostly on how much of your income you save. This page works through both. It is part of the early retirement hub.

Your FIRE number

FIRE number = yearly spending × 25, the inverse of the 4% rule. The rule comes from US historical data in which the money lasted at least 30 years; a longer retirement usually calls for a lower rate, and so a larger number.

Yearly spendingFIRE number
$30,000$750,000
$40,000$1,000,000
$50,000$1,250,000
$60,000$1,500,000
$80,000$2,000,000
$100,000$2,500,000

Years to FIRE by savings rate

Saving more both grows the portfolio faster and lowers the spending it must cover. Years to reach the FIRE number, starting from nothing, at 5% real returns (after inflation):

Savings rateYears
10%51.4
20%36.7
30%28.0
40%21.6
50%16.6
60%12.4
70%8.8
80%5.6

The years solve savings × ((1 + r)n − 1) ÷ r = 25 × spending, with savings and spending as shares of the same income.

A sample timeline

A household saving $50,000 a year and spending $50,000, at 5% real returns; its FIRE number is $1,250,000.

YearPortfolio
5$276,282
10$628,895
15$1,078,928
17$1,292,018

Where CPP and OAS fit

You can start the CPP retirement pension any time from 60 to 70 (65 is the standard age): it is 0.6% lower for each month before 65 (up to 36% less at 60) and 0.7% higher for each month after (up to 42% more at 70), with no gain from waiting past 70; applying after 65, you can backdate the start up to 11 months, but not before the month after your 65th birthday. OAS starts at 65 at the earliest, so savings carry the whole load until CPP starts and most of it until OAS does. Once they start, they reduce what savings must provide: at the 4% rule, each $1,000 a year of CPP or OAS stands in for about $25,000 of savings. Retiring early also lowers the CPP pension; the early retirement hub shows by how much.

The accounts

  • TFSA: the annual limit is $7,000 for 2026. The annual TFSA dollar limit is the same for everyone eligible, but your room is specific to you: the annual limit is added from the year you turn 18 as a Canadian resident (2009 at the earliest), unused room carries forward, withdrawals are added back the following year, and no room is added for a year you were a non-resident the whole year; changes in the value of your investments don't affect it. Income earned in a TFSA and TFSA withdrawals don't reduce federal benefits such as OAS, GIS and EI, or credits such as the Canada child benefit, the Canada workers benefit and the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (formerly the GST/HST credit).
  • RRSP: the dollar limit is $33,810 for 2026. Your RRSP deduction limit is your unused room from past years plus the lesser of 18% of last year's earned income and the year's dollar limit, minus your pension adjustment, plus any pension adjustment reversal and minus any net past service pension adjustment. Contributions are deducted now and withdrawals taxed later, which can be at low rates in early-retirement years.

Variations

  • Lean FIRE: a low-spending plan, and so a smaller number.
  • Fat FIRE: a higher-spending plan and a larger number.
  • Barista FIRE: part-time work covers some spending, so savings need to cover less.
  • Coast FIRE: enough saved early that growth alone reaches the number by a later retirement age.

Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between August 29, 2026 and September 30, 2026. How we check facts.