Coast FIRE Calculator South Africa

To use the Coast FIRE calculator in South Africa, enter your age, your retirement age, the yearly spending your investments must cover, and your current retirement and investment balances. The calculator shows your Coast FIRE number: the amount in rand you need invested today so your money can grow into your full retirement capital with no more contributions.

1. Enter your Current Age.
2. Set your Retirement Age. Most employer retirement funds set a normal retirement age between 60 and 65. You can retire from a retirement annuity (RA) from age 55.
3. Enter Annual Spending in Retirement in rand, at today's prices. Multiply your monthly budget by 12. Include medical aid contributions, which rise faster than general inflation.
4. Enter Current Invested Assets. Add your pension or provident fund, RA, preservation fund, tax-free savings account (TFSA), and discretionary unit trusts or ETFs.
5. Enter your Monthly contribution. Include your own and your employer's retirement fund contributions, RA debit orders, and TFSA deposits.
6. Check Advanced Settings. South African inflation runs higher than in most developed markets. CPI has averaged roughly 5% to 6% over the past two decades, so use 5.5% or more. A balanced portfolio with offshore exposure suits a growth rate around 10% to 11%.

How to read your results

• Coast FIRE number: the capital you need today.
• Progress: your current savings as a share of that number.
• FIRE Nest Egg: the full capital needed at retirement, in today's rand.
• Coast Age: the age you can stop contributing.
• Cash Freed: the yearly saving you get back once you coast.
• Real Return: growth after inflation, which matters most in a high-inflation economy.

Enter every amount in rand.

---

The calculator divides your yearly spending by a withdrawal rate to get your retirement target, then discounts it by your real return for each year left. The result is the capital that coasts to your goal on its own.

The formula

FIRE Nest Egg     = Annual Spending ÷ Safe Withdrawal Rate
Real Return (r)   = (1 + Growth Rate) ÷ (1 + Inflation Rate) − 1
Coast FIRE Number = FIRE Nest Egg ÷ (1 + r)^Years

Worked example

Thabo is 30, lives in Johannesburg, and plans to retire at 60. He wants R30,000 a month in today's money, or R360,000 a year. He uses 11% growth, 5.5% inflation, and a 4% drawdown.

1. FIRE Nest Egg: R360,000 ÷ 0.04 = R9,000,000
2. Real Return: 1.11 ÷ 1.055 − 1 = 5.21%
3. Growth factor over 30 years: 4.593
4. Coast FIRE number: R9,000,000 ÷ 4.593 = R1,959,417

Thabo has R600,000 in his provident fund and TFSA, which is 31% of his number. With R10,000 a month going in from him and his employer, he reaches Coast FIRE at age 48. If inflation averages 6.5% instead of 5.5%, his Coast FIRE number rises to about R2.6 million.

Factors that change your result

• Two-pot system. Since 1 September 2024, new retirement fund contributions split into a savings pot (one-third, accessible once per tax year) and a retirement pot (two-thirds, preserved until retirement). Withdrawing from the savings pot shrinks your coasting capital.
• Regulation 28. Retirement funds can hold at most 45% offshore. Discretionary and TFSA money has no such limit, which helps diversify away from rand risk.
• Living annuities. Living annuity drawdowns must fall between 2.5% and 17.5% a year. A 4% to 5% drawdown is a common sustainable range.
• Tax. Retirement fund contributions are tax-deductible within limits, and lump sums and annuity income are taxed at retirement. TFSA growth and withdrawals are tax-free within the SARS annual and lifetime caps.
• Rounding. Results are rounded to whole rand, contributions are added yearly, and Coast Age is shown in whole years.

---