Updated 22 October 2026

Coast FIRE in Australia: a worked example

Coast FIRE and financial independence answer different questions. One asks whether existing investments could grow to a future target. The other asks whether you have reached that target already.

Start with spending, in today’s money

Consider a fictional person who wants to spend $4,000 a month. That is $48,000 a year. With an illustrative withdrawal assumption of 3.5%, the Freedom Clock’s target is $48,000 ÷ 0.035, or approximately $1.37 million in today’s purchasing power. Changing the withdrawal assumption changes this target substantially. This division does not establish that a retirement plan is sustainable.

What the Coast point means

Suppose the person is 35 and chooses 65 as the destination age. The model has 30 years for existing investments to grow. At a hypothetical constant real return of 3% a year, approximately $565,000 could grow to that $1.37 million target over those 30 years without new contributions. The person would still need to pay their living expenses during the intervening years.

This is a simplified example, not the calculator’s default return. The tool derives its real return from the nominal return, inflation and fee entered in assumptions. A different return or a later destination age produces a different Coast point. Contributions are added monthly until that projected point.

Read the date as a scenario

The displayed month is the first month the model crosses a threshold under constant assumptions. It cannot predict market returns or an exact day when it will be safe to stop working. Compare the lower-return sensitivity case, increase estimated spending, and try a more cautious withdrawal assumption to see how dependent the result is on your inputs.

The Australian superannuation complication

A balance can exist without being available for current spending. The Freedom Clock does not separately model superannuation access or the accessible investments needed to cover the years before super can be withdrawn. Including an inaccessible balance can therefore create an early date that cannot fund the intervening years. Check Moneysmart’s super access guidance when deciding which investments belong in a scenario.

A useful way to explore

1. Enter spending that includes housing, irregular expenses and relevant taxes.
2. Choose the age and assumptions explicitly instead of treating defaults as forecasts.
3. Compare one change at a time: a contribution increase, a fee increase or a pause.
4. Keep the limitations beside the result when sharing it.

The model excludes taxes, pensions, volatile returns and retirement drawdowns. For background on the growth mechanism, see Moneysmart’s explanation of compounding. This guide explains the tool; it is not a recommendation to invest, retire or change contributions.