Coast FIRE is the point at which you've accumulated enough that compound growth does the rest. You stop contributing, keep working to cover current spending, and by your pension date there's enough.
It isn't early retirement. It's the moment your future is arranged and you only have to work for your present. For most people this is the first FIRE milestone that's genuinely achievable, and in the Netherlands it sits considerably closer than English-language calculators suggest.
What is Coast FIRE exactly?
With full FIRE you stop working. With Coast FIRE you stop saving for later.
The distinction lies in what your wealth still has to do. Under Coast FIRE your current wealth only has to grow until your pension date: you add nothing, take nothing out, and leave it alone. From that moment your income covers only your monthly spending.
Practically that means you can work less, take a job that pays less but suits you better, or stop for a year without your retirement suffering. The pressure to set aside an amount every month is gone.
The calculation
Two steps.
Step 1: what do you need at your pension date?
Not your full FIRE number. Only the amount that covers the gap at state pension age between your spending and what arrives then.
At €40,000 of spending, €18,000 state pension and €12,000 occupational pension, that gap is €10,000 a year. At a 4% withdrawal rate you need €250,000 at 67.
Step 2: discount it back to today
Coast number = amount required / (1 + r)^years to your pension date
For someone aged 35, with 32 years to go and a 5% real return:
€250,000 / 1.05³² = €52,467
You don't need more than that. If that €52,467 is left alone for thirty-two years and averages 5% real, there's €250,000 at 67.
Your Coast number by age
The same person at different ages. For comparison, the figure without state or occupational pension, the American calculation, sits alongside.
| Age | Years to go | American | Dutch | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 42 | €128,840 | €32,210 | €96,630 |
| 30 | 37 | €164,436 | €41,109 | €123,327 |
| 35 | 32 | €209,866 | €52,467 | €157,400 |
| 40 | 27 | €267,848 | €66,962 | €200,886 |
| 45 | 22 | €341,850 | €85,462 | €256,387 |
| 50 | 17 | €436,297 | €109,074 | €327,223 |
| 55 | 12 | €556,837 | €139,209 | €417,628 |
A thirty-five-year-old in the Netherlands with just over fifty thousand euros invested has their old age broadly arranged. That's a lower figure than most people expect, and it's why Coast FIRE is a more useful concept here than full FIRE.
Why the Dutch figure is so much lower
Because state and occupational pensions do the heavy lifting.
The American calculation assumes that at your pension date your full spending must come from your own portfolio: €1,000,000 for €40,000 a year. The Dutch calculation assumes state and accrued pension together deliver €30,000, leaving €250,000 required.
A quarter of the amount, and that difference is magnified by thirty years of compounding into a fraction of the starting figure.
That isn't a trick. It's the direct consequence of a country with a basic provision and mandatory pension accrual. Anyone using American Coast FIRE calculators is setting themselves a target four times too high.
The trap: Coast FIRE isn't early retirement
Here the article has to be honest, because that low figure invites the wrong conclusion.
Set it beside the full FIRE number for the same person:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Coast number at 35 | €52,467 |
| Full FIRE number (stopping at 50) | €614,970 |
Coast FIRE is nine percent of full FIRE. The other ninety-one percent is the bridge: the seventeen years between fifty and your state pension date in which you pay for everything yourself.
Coast FIRE arranges your old age. It doesn't arrange stopping early. Those are two completely different amounts, and confusing them is the most expensive mistake in this subject.
What Coast FIRE does mean: every euro you save from that point goes towards stopping sooner rather than being able to stop at all. You've moved from surviving to choosing. That's a real difference, but it's a different difference from being retired.
What five years of delay costs
The Coast number rises the later you start, at a steady percentage:
| From | To | Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 30 → 35 | €41,109 → €52,467 | +28% |
| 35 → 40 | €52,467 → €66,962 | +28% |
| 40 → 45 | €66,962 → €85,462 | +28% |
Every five years of waiting raises the bar by roughly 28%. That's not a penalty but arithmetic: five years less growth means bringing more yourself.
The flip side is encouraging. In absolute euros, for someone in their thirties this is tens of thousands, not hundreds. Coast FIRE is an achievable first milestone for most people, even when full FIRE isn't.
How sensitive is this to your return assumption?
Very. And that's the most important caveat on any Coast number you encounter.
For someone aged thirty-five, with thirty-two years to go:
| Assumption | Coast number |
|---|---|
| 3% real | €97,084 |
| 4% real | €71,264 |
| 5% real | €52,467 |
| 6% real | €38,739 |
Between 3% and 6% sits a factor of 2.5. Over a long horizon the assumption dominates the answer: more than in any other FIRE calculation, because no further contributions arrive to absorb a disappointment.
Practically: calculate conservatively. A Coast number computed at 6% and delivered at 3.5% means discovering at sixty that you under-contributed for twenty years, with no time to repair it. The asymmetry in that risk justifies a lower rate than you'd use for the accumulation phase.
Coast FIRE and your pension accrual
One thing often skipped: the Coast number above assumes €12,000 of occupational pension arrives at 67. That amount exists because you keep working.
That fits the definition: Coast FIRE means you keep working, just stop saving. As long as you stay employed, your pension accrual continues and the assumption holds.
But work less, or move to self-employment, and that accrual stops or falls. Then your Coast number changes, because the gap after your state pension date grows. Anyone moving to three days a week on reaching Coast FIRE needs to redo the sum with a lower pension figure.
That's why your actual pension figure belongs in this. It's on mijnpensioenoverzicht.nl, and in this calculation it isn't a detail but half the answer.
How do you know if you're already there?
Three things, in this order.
Your total invested wealth. Not just your investment account. Also your crypto, your annuity investment account and whatever sits at other brokers. What you don't count doesn't count.
Your pension gap after your state pension date. Expected spending minus state pension minus occupational pension. Divide that by your withdrawal rate.
The discount factor. Your years to state pension age, and your return assumption.
Most people trip on the first. Not because it's complicated, but because it's spread across three or four places and nobody adds it up.
How Gylder fits in
Coast FIRE is exactly the kind of goal a target amount with a target date was made for, and it's simpler to set than full FIRE, because the date is fixed: your state pension age.
The bridge calculator on the site works out your Coast number and sets it up as a wealth target, with your state pension date attached. Your total wealth updates daily and is set against it, and the projection runs on your own measured growth rather than an assumed percentage.
That last part matters more with Coast FIRE than elsewhere. Your entire plan rests on the assumption that your wealth reaches the finish on its own. A projection reflecting what you've actually done, rather than what a formula promises, is the only thing that tells you whether that assumption holds.
What can't go in: your accrued employer pension. In this calculation it doesn't belong as wealth anyway, but as the future income stream that lowers your Coast number. An annuity or pension investment account at a broker connects normally.
What this doesn't tell you
The assumption is the whole plan. Coast FIRE without further contributions lives or dies on returns. There's no monthly payment left to offset a disappointing stretch, which makes it more sensitive than a plan where you keep contributing.
It calculates with the state pension as it stands. The age has shifted over recent decades and is tied to life expectancy. Anyone calculating a Coast number at thirty is calculating against a date that can still move, and each shift backwards lengthens the period you have to bridge yourself.
It says nothing about the years in between. Between now and 67 you still have to earn your spending. Coast FIRE removes the pressure to save, not the need to work.
It's one figure for a life with corners in it. Job loss, a renovation, a child. Coast FIRE assumes you leave your invested wealth alone, which is easier said when nothing goes wrong.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Coast FIRE and Barista FIRE? Under Coast FIRE you work fully for your current spending but save nothing more for later. Under Barista FIRE your wealth already covers part of your spending, so you can manage on a lower income.
Can I stop working after Coast FIRE? No. Coast FIRE only arranges your old age. Stopping earlier additionally requires the bridge amount, which is by far the larger part.
Which return should I use? More conservative than you'd use for accumulation: 3.5 to 4.5% real is defensible. No further contributions arrive to absorb a shortfall.
Does my house count towards my Coast number? Only if you intend to realise it. But a mortgage repaid by 67 lowers your spending, and that lowers your gap and therefore your Coast number.
What if I work less after reaching Coast FIRE? Your pension accrual falls and your gap after state pension age grows. Recalculate your Coast number with the lower pension figure: it can easily come out thousands higher.