What will the agent ask you?
A good agent asks before it answers. Expect questions like these, and answer the ones that matter to you.
- What would a year cost once you stop working, in today's dollars, and would anything in it change, such as housing or health coverage?
- Which accounts count: a 401(k), an IRA, a brokerage account, an HSA? Some cannot be drawn on without a penalty before a certain age.
- Would part-time work, rent, or a pension cover some of that spending, and for how long?
- How much do you invest each month now, and will that change?
- What growth rate after inflation are you willing to assume, and what withdrawal rate fits a retirement that could last 40 years or more?
What does a good answer look like?
A worked example on sample data: one person, 34, with $142,600 across a 401(k), an IRA, and a brokerage account, investing $3,200 a month and spending $52,000 a year.
You
When could I stop working if I keep saving like this?
Your agent
Your accounts hold $142,600, and you spent $52,000 over the last 12 months. Covering that at a 4% withdrawal rate takes $1,300,000. At 5% growth after inflation, investing $3,200 a month gets you there at 51.
Your agent
Two assumptions move this most. At 4% growth instead of 5%, the age is 53. A retirement that starts at 51 could last 40 years or more, so a 3.5% withdrawal rate is worth a look: it raises the number to about $1,485,700, which you reach at 53.
Your agent
Part-time income changes it most. If work you enjoy covered $24,000 a year, the investments would only need to cover $28,000, a number of $700,000, which you reach at 44. I saved a page in Candor with the monthly amount, growth, and withdrawal rate as assumptions you can change. Social Security isn't counted.
Illustrative example with sample data, not a customer result.
What does a weak answer look like?
Your FIRE number is 25 times your annual expenses. Save aggressively, invest in low-cost index funds, and you could retire in your 40s or 50s. Use an online calculator to find your exact date.
- It never used your balances, spending, or monthly saving, so there's no date.
- It applies the 4% rule without asking how long the retirement would last.
- It doesn't say which assumption moves the answer or what part-time income would change.
- Nothing is saved, so next year you start over.
Start the projection from your real balances
A retirement projection is only as good as its starting point and its assumptions. Candor gives your agent your balances, debts, and what you actually earn and spend. You supply what the accounts cannot show, such as a pension estimate or the age you would claim Social Security. A live page keeps the projection current as your balances change, and lets you move the date yourself.
Check the answer
- Find every assumption on the page: growth, inflation, spending in retirement, and income after you stop working. Each should be a number you can change, not a fact the page states.
- Check that debts carry into retirement until they are paid off. A loan you plan to clear first changes the early years more than any growth rate does.
Choose a next step
Try a few dates and keep the one you are planning for as a goal. Your agent can revisit the page each quarter and tell you whether the picture moved.
Where Candor fits
Your agent works through the question with you, builds the plan, and keeps you on it. Candor gives it your real accounts, exact figures, and the goals, budget, notes, and decisions from earlier sessions, in whichever agent you use. Its review raises what's worth talking through and tells your agent why. Candor is not a licensed advisor and gives no advice; your agent does the advising, and the decisions are yours.
- Candor connects to banks read-only and cannot move money.
- Candor never sells your financial data or trains models on it, and you can export or delete it.
- Every agent read and change is recorded with its reason.
Common questions
- What is FIRE?
- FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. Financial independence means what you have invested could cover your yearly spending through withdrawals, so a paycheck becomes optional. Many people who reach it keep working, just on their own terms.
- How do I calculate my FIRE number?
- Divide the yearly spending your investments must cover by your withdrawal rate. At 4%, that is 25 times the spending, so $48,000 a year needs $1,200,000. At 3.5% it is about 28.6 times, or about $1,371,400. Use spending in today's dollars with a growth rate after inflation, so the answer stays in today's dollars too.
- What is Barista FIRE?
- Barista FIRE means leaving full-time work once your investments cover part of your spending, and covering the rest with part-time or other income. The investments only need to cover the gap, so the number is smaller. In the calculator's default, $20,000 a year of other income lowers the number from $1,200,000 to $700,000 and brings the age from 50 to 43.
- What is the difference between lean, fat, and coast FIRE?
- They differ in the spending the number covers or in when saving stops. Lean FIRE covers a lean budget, fat FIRE a generous one, so the same formula gives a smaller or larger number. Coast FIRE is having enough invested today that growth alone could reach your number by a later retirement age, so saving more becomes optional; the coast FIRE calculator works that out.
- What growth rate should I use?
- Use a rate after inflation, since the spending you enter is in today's dollars. In the historical data William Bengen used for his 1994 study, a mix of 60% stocks and 40% intermediate-term Treasuries returned about 8.2% a year compounded, close to 5.1% after inflation. The Federal Reserve aims for 2% inflation over the longer run. Past returns are no promise, so try a lower rate and see how far the age moves.
- Is the 4% rule safe for early retirement?
- Bengen's 1994 study found a 4% first-year withdrawal, raised with inflation after that, lasted at least about 35 years from every starting year he tested, and he framed it for people retiring around 60 to 65. A 1998 study in the AAII Journal tested payout periods of 15 to 30 years. Retiring at 45 can mean 45 years or more, and Morningstar's 2021 research, using forward-looking return estimates, put the safe starting rate for a 50/50 portfolio at about 3.3%. A lower withdrawal rate raises the number and pushes the age out.
- Does the calculator count Social Security?
- No. It counts only what you invest and any other income you enter. You can claim Social Security as early as 62, and the monthly benefit grows the longer you wait, up to 70. Social Security's own calculators estimate your benefit for each claiming age; adding it as other income from that age would lower what your investments need to cover later on.
- Does Candor work this out from my accounts?
- Your agent does, from your records in Candor. It reads your balances, what you invest each month, and what you spent over the last year, asks what the records can't show, like the income you would have after you stop, and builds this page in Candor with the assumptions labeled. Candor gives no advice; your agent works through it with you. Candor connects to banks read-only and cannot move money.
Sources
- Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data, William P. Bengen Journal of Financial Planning (Financial Planning Association)
- Retirement Savings: Choosing a Withdrawal Rate That Is Sustainable AAII Journal
- The State of Retirement Income: Safe Withdrawal Rates Morningstar, November 11, 2021
- Why does the Federal Reserve aim for inflation of 2 percent over the longer run? Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, August 22, 2025
- Planning your Social Security claiming age Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, January 29, 2026
- Use Social Security retirement calculators to estimate your benefits USAGov, January 16, 2026