FIRE Calculator Prompt for Financial Independence Planning

What you need

You need your current invested assets, monthly net income after tax, and actual monthly spending figures. Do not include residential property values in your invested assets unless you intend to sell the property to fund living expenses upon reaching financial independence.

In the snapshot template context section, provide accurate monthly spending figures. The FIRE formula derives your target capital directly from your annual living expenses. If your monthly spending is four thousand euros, multiplying by twelve produces an annual baseline expenditure of forty-eight thousand euros. Include recurring subscriptions, tax costs, and health expenses in that monthly expenditure number. If you receive rental income or dividends that will continue in retirement, note them so the model can isolate net portfolio withdrawal requirements.

Fill out the snapshot template below, copy the text block, and paste it into your preferred AI chat interface alongside the prompt below.

Here is my financial snapshot. Use only these numbers.

Currency: [e.g. EUR]
Date: [today's date]
Age: [optional]

ASSETS
[name] — [category: cash / stocks / ETFs / crypto / property / metals / other] — [value]
[name] — [category] — [value]
...

LIABILITIES
[name] — [type: mortgage / car loan / credit card / student loan / other] — [outstanding balance] — [interest rate if known]
...

CONTEXT (optional but improves the answer)
Monthly income after tax: [amount]
Monthly spending: [amount]
Amount I add to savings or investments each month: [amount]
Value of the same assets 12 months ago: [amount]

The prompt

Copy this exact text and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini directly beneath your snapshot block.

You are a financial analyst familiar with the financial independence movement.
Using my snapshot above:

1. Calculate my current savings rate from the income and spending figures.
2. Calculate my FIRE number at a 4% withdrawal rate, then at 3.5% and 3%, and
   explain what the difference between those rates buys me.
3. Estimate years to financial independence at my current savings rate, and show
   how that changes if I raise the rate by five and by ten percentage points.
4. Show what share of the way there I already am.
5. Explain the two assumptions in this calculation that are most likely to be wrong
   and in which direction.

Show all arithmetic. Ask for anything missing rather than filling it in.

What good output looks like

The output should begin with your savings rate arithmetic, subtracting monthly spending from take-home income and dividing by total take-home pay. It presents the percentage plainly, showing the exact ratio of income directed into investment assets each month.

Next, the model calculates your target FIRE capital across three standard safe withdrawal rates: four percent, three and a half percent, and three percent. At four percent, the target equals twenty-five times annual spending, which Trinity Study data established as surviving thirty-year horizons in historical US markets. At three percent, the multiple increases to thirty-three times spending. The model explains that the lower withdrawal rates buy insurance against multi-decade retirements and severe early market crashes.

The projection section must calculate your timeline in years to independence based on your current savings rate and existing invested capital, assuming a five percent real return. It then demonstrates how boosting your savings rate by five percentage points and by ten percentage points reduces the working years required.

The response shows your current progress as an exact percentage of your target portfolio. If you have accumulated two hundred thousand toward an eight hundred thousand goal, you are twenty-five percent of the way there.

It concludes by examining the two weakest assumptions in the calculation, such as spending staying constant over twenty years or tax rates remaining unchanged.

What this can't tell you

This prompt relies on static spending assumptions that rarely hold true across thirty or forty years of adulthood. It cannot anticipate lifestyle changes such as raising children, caring for elderly parents, or unexpected chronic health costs.

The model cannot verify whether historical American equity return sequences will repeat in global markets over your specific timeline. It assumes inflation-adjusted returns follow smooth averages, ignoring sequence of returns risk where early market crashes deplete capital prematurely. It has no insight into sovereign capital gains taxes or wealth taxes that could reduce net investment withdrawals. Language models frequently make algebraic errors when solving logarithmic compound annuity formulas, so verify timeline years with an offline spreadsheet.

Doing this without the retyping

Tracking your path to financial independence with external prompts means re-entering your income, expenses, and portfolio balances into text boxes whenever market prices move. In Sumio, this FIRE analysis is one of sixty-two prompts built directly into the app. It calculates your savings rate and independence timeline with one tap using current portfolio valuations. Your financial records stay stored on your device, with no account required and no ads.