Will your savings coast to your target.
Coast value at retirement
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Status
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Real value (today's naira)
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Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| Year | Projected balance (nominal) |
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The one question this tool answers
Coast FIRE is a checkpoint, not a finish line. The idea is simple: at some point your invested pot is already big enough that, left alone to compound until you retire, it grows into your full retirement number without another naira from you. Hit that point and you have bought yourself freedom. You still need to cover today's bills, but you no longer have to save for retirement on top of that. This calculator takes the money you have invested now, grows it at your expected return for the years left until you stop work, and tells you whether the result clears the target you typed in.
It is built for someone in their late twenties or thirties who saved aggressively early and now wants to know if they can ease off. It is also a reality check for anyone tempted to believe a big balance today guarantees a comfortable retirement, because in Nigeria the silent thief is inflation, and this tool shows you its bite.
How the growth is projected
The maths behind the result is a single compounding formula. Your current savings are multiplied by one plus your expected return, raised to the power of the years remaining. No future contributions enter the calculation at all, which is the whole point of the coast test. The status flips to "Coast FIRE reached" the moment that grown figure equals or exceeds your target.
Return and inflation are assumptions, not promises. The defaults here use an 18 percent expected return and a 23 percent inflation rate, and that inflation figure is an indicative headline number drawn from National Bureau of Statistics style data rather than a guaranteed constant. Nigerian inflation has been high and volatile, so treat both inputs as dials you should test, not certainties. Run the tool again with a lower return to see how fragile a "reached" status can be. Equity-style returns are never guaranteed, and a few weak years early on change the picture more than later ones.
A NGN 40 million pot over 25 years
Take the default scenario. You have NGN 40 million invested, 25 years until retirement, an expected return of 18 percent, and a target FIRE number of NGN 375 million. Using the rates this calculator applies, the pot compounds to roughly NGN 2.5 billion in nominal terms. That smashes the 375 million target, so the status reads reached. The curve below crosses the target line near year 13, meaning on these assumptions you would coast past your number well before you actually retire.
Why NGN 2.5 billion is worth far less than it sounds
Here is the trap most coast calculators hide. That NGN 2.5 billion is a nominal figure. Discount it back at the 23 percent inflation rate the tool uses, and its buying power in today's naira is only about NGN 14.2 million. So the pot that looks enormous on paper would, in real terms, buy you a fraction of what 40 million buys today. The tool compares the nominal coast value against the nominal target you typed, which is why the status can say reached while the real value figure quietly warns you the win is smaller than it appears.
The practical lesson: set your target FIRE number in future naira, not today's. If you anchor a 375 million target to today's prices but let inflation run at over 20 percent, you have set the bar far too low. A real, judgement-tested approach is to inflate your desired annual spending out to your retirement year first, build the target from that, and only then run the coast check.
Does reaching Coast FIRE mean I can stop working?
No. Coast FIRE only means you can stop saving for retirement. You still need income to cover rent, food, school fees and everything else until your retirement date. It is the moment your retirement is on autopilot, not the moment your living costs disappear.
What expected return should I assume in Nigeria?
There is no correct figure, which is why it is an input. A naira pot heavy in equities or money-market funds might be modelled higher, but those returns partly reflect high inflation rather than real growth. The honest move is to run the tool twice, once optimistic and once conservative, and plan around the gap rather than the best case.
Why does my real value look so small?
Because the real value figure strips out inflation to show what the future pot buys in today's money. With inflation modelled at 23 percent over many years, even a large nominal balance shrinks sharply in real terms. It is the most important number on the page if you want an honest read on your retirement.