FIRE Planning Workbook: Calculating Your FI Number and Building Your Path

Understanding the FIRE framework conceptually is different from knowing your specific FI number, what savings rate will get you there, and how your current financial picture maps onto that path. This course provides the structured exercises to move from general principles to a concrete, personalized plan. By the end of this course you will be able to calculate your personal FI number based on your target annual spending, determine the savings rate required to reach it on your desired timeline, and model safe withdrawal scenarios that account for sequence-of-returns risk. What you will learn: - How to build a detailed early retirement spending estimate: essential expenses, discretionary spending, healthcare costs, and irregular large expenses - The FI number calculation: applying the 25x and 33x multipliers and understanding what each implies about withdrawal safety - A savings rate worksheet: calculating your current rate and modeling the specific income or expense changes that would increase it meaningfully - Portfolio projection templates: modeling growth at conservative, expected, and optimistic return assumptions to estimate a range of FI dates - The early withdrawal access problem: how to structure accounts to access funds penalty-free before age 59.5, including the Roth conversion ladder and the rule of 55 - Sequence-of-returns risk worksheet: stress-testing your plan against a bear market in the first three years of retirement - Healthcare cost planning: estimating insurance costs during the pre-Medicare gap years and incorporating them into your FI number - A milestone tracking template for monitoring progress toward financial independence over time The course uses eight worksheets introduced sequentially, each with a worked example and a blank version for your own data. Short reading segments explain the reasoning behind each calculation. A synthesis exercise at the end asks you to produce a one-page personal FIRE plan summarizing your FI number, target date, and required savings rate. This course is designed for individuals who are seriously pursuing financial independence and want to move beyond online calculators to a rigorous personal plan. Suitable for those with some basic investing knowledge. This course is educational and does not substitute for advice from a licensed financial advisor or tax professional.