I thought I had already posted this, I couldn't find it all together; though a lot is probably scattered around the site. I've probably forgotten more than most people will ever learn about finance, so I had better put it in here. (found it, in middle class) The FIRE movement is made up of people 18-28 (or older I suppose) who want to save and invest and make money as fast as possible so they don't have to work forever. The question is, how much do you have to put away to retire at a young age. Personally, I'd say 35 is a good target for an 18 year old wanting to retire. I've given calculated plans for putting enough into retirement plans, but most of them (except one that only a charity can offer) make you wait until age 60 to use them; those are not ideal. I'll assume modest but reasonable income from a young age, this can be challenging for some as a lot of jobs don't even pay enough to rent. The number I have in mind is $2000 a month, to do that while living at home with parents you probably need to earn $43000 a year, once you're someone's roommate you might be at $72000, about $92000 once you have an apartment and $160,000 a year if you have a wife and 3 kids. This is an oddly high number that ChatGPT estimated, I think you could do it for less; but they assume buying health insurance, new car, etc. You might pull it off with $35k while living with parents (near work so no car), $45000 as someone's roommate, $55000 with your own apartment and $75000 if you have a wife and kids if an employer is paying for health insurance. Putting expenses aside, if you can do $2000 a month investing and save a 3.5% down payment over a 2 year period, then continue to invest and pay it off over a 15 year mortgage you could reach $1 million and own your own home by age 35. Continuing to invest $2000/mo until age 65 turns it into a whopping $20.9 million at a very reasonable 10% (S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 in a 60/40 split could out perform that long term, but I'll go middle of the road.) The downside is it's hard to move that into dividend paying stocks without triggering a 20% capital gains tax, but if you can do it; dividends have a good tax rate and could realistically offer 6% dividends spread evenly through the year via the dividends portfolio I designed.) You could sell off some S&P 500 each year to cover expenses and put some into dividend stocks and the remaining growth could eclipse the amount lost to taxes.
(here's the original post I made, I'll include it here as well; as there's some variety) Financial Independance, retire early. If you can get 'decent' income (not huge, but sufficient) and decent 10% returns, you should be able to get to a $1 million net worth by investing $2000/mo from age 18-35 and at 35 you should be able to retire with $1 million (if investing $1000/mo, you'd be 40 when you have your million, at $500/mo you'd be 48.) That's not impossible to afford on a modest income and still afford some luxury, maybe living at home until your income allows you to save for a house. If you don't have kids, then you might not need to own a home; you can rent a nice apartment in great cities like Pattaya, Thailand or Prague, Czech rep for very reasonable amounts. Having your income in dividend stocks could allow great tax free income in retirement (though selling your growth investments to buy dividend stocks would trigger a long term capital gains tax event, which would cost you probably 20% of your savings (457b retirement accounts, rule of 55 for 401k at age 55 and roth conversion ladder are all helpful tools for the early retiree; though none are geared toward retiring this young generally.)
if you contributed $3500/mo for 12 years (starting at 18) and got 12% you'd be at a million at only 30, but 35 is far more practical as that's a relatively modest contribution and modest yield; high contribution and high yield to reach it slightly faster is challenging and not worth adding risk.