Coast FIRE is the point where what you already have invested will grow to your retirement number on its own, so you could stop saving for retirement. We measured how many American households have already reached it, using the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released on October 9, 2026: the household’s actual balances against the Coast FIRE number for its age.
Key findings
- About 1 in 9 households aged 25 to 64 (10.7%) have enough in retirement accounts to coast to a $1 million target at 65, at a 5% real return.
- Counting taxable investments as well, such as brokerage accounts and directly held funds, the share is 14.2%.
- For a $1.5 million target it is 7.4% (10.2% with taxable investments); for $2 million, 5.3% (7.7%).
- The share climbs from 1.9% of households in their late 20s to about 14% to 15% from the late 40s on.
- Half of households aged 25 to 64 have less than 4% of the $1 million Coast FIRE number in retirement accounts, largely because many have no retirement account at all.
How many households have reached Coast FIRE, by age
Share of households whose retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s and similar plans) are at or above the Coast FIRE number for their age, for three retirement targets at 65. The number after each share is the 95% margin of error.
| Age of household head | $1 million target | $1.5 million target | $2 million target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 to 29 | 1.9% | 0.8% | Under 0.5% |
| 30 to 34 | 3.4% | 1.3% | 0.6% |
| 35 to 39 | 10.5% | 7.1% | 4.7% |
| 40 to 44 | 10.8% | 7.1% | 4.5% |
| 45 to 49 | 13.7% | 9.7% | 6.9% |
| 50 to 54 | 14.3% | 11.4% | 9.0% |
| 55 to 59 | 15.3% | 10.0% | 8.3% |
| 60 to 64 | 14.4% | 11.0% | 7.5% |
| All, 25 to 64 | 10.7% | 7.4% | 5.3% |
A $1 million target is $40,000 a year from savings at a 4% withdrawal rate, on top of Social Security; $1.5 million is $60,000 and $2 million is $80,000. The biggest step comes between the early 30s and the late 30s: for a $1 million target the share roughly triples.
Counting taxable investments
Many early savers also hold money outside retirement accounts. Adding directly held stocks, pooled investment funds other than money market funds, and bonds:
| Age of household head | $1 million target | $1.5 million target | $2 million target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 to 29 | 6.3% | 3.3% | 2.7% |
| 30 to 34 | 5.5% | 2.8% | 1.7% |
| 35 to 39 | 14.5% | 10.7% | 8.3% |
| 40 to 44 | 13.8% | 9.6% | 6.9% |
| 45 to 49 | 18.4% | 12.9% | 9.6% |
| 50 to 54 | 17.1% | 13.4% | 11.1% |
| 55 to 59 | 18.8% | 13.1% | 10.6% |
| 60 to 64 | 17.7% | 14.7% | 9.7% |
| All, 25 to 64 | 14.2% | 10.2% | 7.7% |
If returns are higher
The Coast FIRE number depends heavily on the return you assume. At a 7% real return instead of 5%, each number is smaller and more households clear it:
| Target at 65 | Retirement accounts, 5% | Retirement accounts, 7% | With investments, 5% | With investments, 7% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1 million | 10.7% | 15.8% | 14.2% | 19.1% |
| $1.5 million | 7.4% | 10.9% | 10.2% | 14.0% |
| $2 million | 5.3% | 7.6% | 7.7% | 10.6% |
What it means for you
Reaching Coast FIRE before 40 puts a household in a small minority, even with a modest target. It also means the milestone is reachable: in every age band from the late 30s on, roughly one household in ten has already passed it. The Coast FIRE calculator works out your own number, the age you can stop saving and the monthly saving to get there sooner, and the FIRE calculator does the same for full early retirement. To compare your balance with other households your age, see retirement savings by age and the average 401(k) balance by age.
How we calculated it
- Data: the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances public summary extract, 2,998 sample households whose head is 25 to 64, weighted to represent all US households.
- Coast FIRE number: the target divided by (1 + real return) raised to the years until 65, using the age of the household head.
- Assets: retirement accounts are the survey’s quasi-liquid retirement accounts (IRAs, Keoghs, 401(k), 403(b), thrift and similar plans). Taxable investments add directly held stocks, pooled investment funds excluding money market funds, and bonds. Pensions, Social Security, home equity and cash are not counted.
- Uncertainty: estimates pool the survey’s five imputations; the margins of error combine imputation variance with the 999 replicate weights, as the Fed’s codebook describes.
- Limits: every household is held to the same target, whatever its income or spending, and the survey reports household balances, not individual ones. Treat the shares as a benchmark, not a verdict on any one household.
Free to use with a citation and a link to this page. The same survey is behind our net worth by age tables.
Figures checked on against Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025 (October 2026) (PDF) and Federal Reserve, 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, public data.