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Your Freedom Number: The Day You Can Walk Away

When my paycheck left me $86.72 a week, I decided I'd retire at 45 anyway. Four numbers told me exactly what it would take. Enter yours — then add Social Security, pensions, rents, or royalties to see your complete retirement income picture. The math takes 60 seconds.

Free calculator · Updated for 2026

Start with your 4 numbers

$
401(k), IRA, brokerage — everything that's invested. $0 is a fine answer; that's where I started.
$
What you can automate today. My first number was $50.
$
Your total monthly paycheck in retirement — from every source combined. Add your other income below and the calculator figures out how much your portfolio has to cover.

Other retirement income — optional

Money that will show up every month without your portfolio writing the check — Social Security, a pension, rental houses, royalties. Leave anything at $0 and the calculator plans as if your portfolio covers it all. Enter monthly amounts.

$
Your estimate from ssa.gov. It typically starts between 62 and 70 — the plan here assumes it's flowing.
$
Teacher, government, military, or company pension — what the benefit statement says you'll draw.
$
Net rent after mortgage, taxes, and repairs — the part that actually lands in your account.
$
Books, courses, music, licensing — recurring income from work you already did.
$
Annuities, a business that runs without you, notes, anything else that pays you monthly.

Please fill in the first 4 numbers (your monthly investing can be 0, but not forever — that's the whole point). The income boxes below them are optional.

Your Freedom Number

$1,200,000

The portfolio that writes you $4,000 a month for life — using a 4.7% withdrawal rate, on top of your other income.

2043
Your freedom year
Age 58
The day you walk
$4,000/mo
Total monthly income
$48,000
Total annual income

Your retirement paycheck, line by line

Every source of income the month you walk away — and what your portfolio actually has to cover.

Income sourceMonthlyAnnual

Lock in your plan

I'll send you The $86.72 Method — the one-page framework I followed from $86.72 a week to retired at 45 — plus the weekly strategies to hit the number you just saw.

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Found me on Instagram or TikTok? Comment FREEDOM on any of my videos and I'll DM you this calculator and the one-pager — @thelisaasmith.
Want your Readiness Score? The 2-minute Can You Retire Early? quiz turns numbers like these into a score out of 100 — and a personalized plan for whatever gap it finds.
Go deeper: the full walkthrough of this math is in Your Freedom Number: Calculate Exactly When You Can Retire, and the withdrawal side lives in The Withdrawal-Rate Table.

Disclaimer: This calculator is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Results are illustrative planning estimates built on simplified assumptions — a roughly 7% long-run average annual return, a 4.7% (or 5% guardrail) withdrawal rate, and any Social Security, pension, rental, royalty, or other income you enter treated as steady monthly amounts available from your freedom date onward — not projections or guarantees. Social Security in particular typically can't start before age 62, and pensions have their own start dates. Markets are lumpy, inflation is real, and personal circumstances differ. Pressure-test any retirement date with a qualified, fee-only financial planner.