CoastClockAbout
About Coast Clock
We built Coast Clock to answer one question clearly: when could you stop saving for retirement and let what you've already invested do the rest?
What we do
The Coast Clock Calculator is a free Coast FIRE calculator. You enter a few everyday numbers, like your age, take-home pay, spending and savings, and we show the age you could stop contributing, your coast number and the gap to close. Our guides explain the ideas behind it in plain English, with sources.
There's no sign-up and no paywall. Coast Clock is an estimate to help you plan, not financial advice. For decisions about your own money, please talk to a licensed financial professional.
How our estimates work
- Every figure is in today's dollars: we take inflation out of your expected return.
- We assume smooth, steady returns. Real markets go up and down, and the order of good and bad years matters, especially just after you stop contributing.
- We assume your monthly contributions rise with inflation, so they stay level in today's dollars.
- A fixed-rate mortgage payment stays the same in dollars, so in today's dollars it shrinks a little each year until it's paid off.
- Taxes, investment fees and withdrawal risk aren't fully modeled. Social Security and pensions aren't modeled separately yet, so our result is the cautious version if you expect that income.
Privacy
Your calculator numbers stay in your browser. All of the math runs on your device, and we never receive the numbers you enter. If you tap "Save my countdown clock," your inputs are stored only in this browser's local storage, and you can clear them at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser.
Hosting. Our site is hosted on a global content delivery network (CDN). Like any web host, it handles the basic requests your browser makes to load each page (such as your IP address and browser type) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse.
Analytics. To understand how visitors use the site and improve it, we use Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. They use cookies and similar technology to collect usage data, such as pages viewed, clicks, scrolling, device and browser type, and approximate location, and Clarity may record anonymized sessions. The numbers you enter in the calculator are masked from session recordings and never sent to us. We don't run advertising trackers. You can learn more in how Google uses data from sites that use its services and the Microsoft Privacy Statement, and you can opt out of Google Analytics with Google's opt-out browser add-on.
Fonts. The calculator page loads its font from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google's servers to fetch it.
Amazon links. Some of our guides link to products on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. When you follow one of those links you're on Amazon's site, and Amazon's own privacy policy applies.
Contact form. If you need to contact us, feel free to reach out using the form below. We receive your name, email address and message, and we use them only to reply to you. We don't add you to any mailing list.
Contact us
Questions, feedback or spotted a mistake? Send us a note and we'll get back to you by email.