What is Coast FIRE?
Coast FIRE is the checkpoint where your existing investments — left entirely alone — are projected to grow into your full retirement fund by the age you plan to stop working. You keep earning to cover today's bills, but the saving pressure is gone: every dollar you add from that point on is optional. If you want the complete treatment, the flagship Coast FIRE Calculator walks through the formula, and our FIRE glossary defines every term along the way.
This Canadian edition does the same verdict-first job with your actual system in mind: registered accounts like the TFSA and RRSP shape what you'll be taxed later, and the CPP and OAS change how much portfolio you truly need. Four inputs, one verdict — coasting, on track, or behind — plus the exact monthly fix if you fall short.
Where the TFSA, RRSP and FHSA fit
Canadian retirement money lives in two very different kinds of wrapper. A TFSA is tax-free end to end: contributions come from after-tax income, growth escapes tax forever, and withdrawals never appear on your tax return. An RRSP is tax-deferred instead: you deduct contributions today and pay tax on everything you withdraw decades later. Neither changes how fast compounding works — both grow identically inside this calculator — but they change what fraction of your future withdrawals actually reaches your grocery bill.
That distinction maps straight onto the retirement tax-rate slider in Advanced settings. It grosses your spending up so the target covers pre-tax income; a TFSA-heavy portfolio means most withdrawals arrive untaxed, so set the rate low or zero. A mostly-RRSP nest egg will be taxed on the way out, so keep an honest rate in place — otherwise your target quietly under-funds your own retirement.
The FHSA deserves its own sentence. As long as the balance stays invested, it belongs in your invested-assets input. But remember its purpose: it is built for a first home purchase, not retirement. If buying never happens, unused FHSA room — and the money itself — can roll into your RRSP without consuming contribution space, which is why many young Canadians open one early even while still deciding.
CPP and OAS: enter them in Advanced
Most Canadian coasters won't retire on investments alone — two government benefits will eventually flow. Enter them as a single expected annual amount with a start age in the Advanced settings, and the engine builds a two-phase plan: a bridge fund that carries spending from your retirement date until benefits begin, then a smaller portfolio requirement once they start covering part of the budget.
How much to enter? Only ranges are honest at planning distance: the average CPP payment is roughly $850 a month, the maximum roughly $1,400 at 65 — check your personal estimate in My Service Canada Account. OAS adds more, and both reward waiting: defer CPP past 65 and it grows 0.7% per month, about 42% more by age 70; defer OAS and it grows 0.6% per month, about 36% more at 70. A conservative entry today beats a precise guess you can't verify.
A worked example
Maya is 32 with $120,000 invested across her TFSA and RRSP. She spends $4,000 a month and plans to retire at 65, adding $800 a month along the way. She assumes a 6.5% nominal return against 2.5% inflation. These are this page's defaults, so the numbers you see on load match her story exactly.
- FIRE number: $48,000 of annual spending ÷ a 4% withdrawal rate = $1,200,000 at age 65.
- Coast number at 32: $339,259. Maya has about 35% of it, so the verdict reads Behind.
- The solver's fix: adding $177/month flips her verdict to on track for 65.
Notice what Behind doesn't mean here: nobody is telling Maya she can never stop saving anything. It means that at today's pace, compounding alone won't finish the job by 65 — and $177 a month is the specific, checkable amount that closes the gap. Flip the crash test to see whether the same plan survives a 30% market drop tomorrow.
Frequently asked questions
Should I save for Coast FIRE in a TFSA or an RRSP?
Both count — what matters here is the total you have invested and, later, the tax rate you expect to pay in retirement. A TFSA grows completely tax-free and withdrawals never count as income, which makes it the flexible workhorse of a coasting plan: you can pull from it in a low-income year without touching your benefits. An RRSP gives you a deduction at your marginal rate today, but every withdrawal is taxed later, so it favours savers who expect a smaller income after they stop working. If your portfolio is TFSA-heavy, set the retirement tax-rate slider low; if it is mostly registered RRSP money, keep it above zero. Many Canadians split contributions between the two and let each year's brackets decide.
How do CPP and OAS change my coast number?
They lower it, sometimes substantially. Open Advanced settings, enter the combined annual amount you realistically expect and the age it starts, and the engine splits the plan in two: a bridge fund covering spending from your retirement date until benefits begin, plus a smaller nest egg for the years after. For reference, the average CPP payment is roughly $850 a month and the maximum at 65 is roughly $1,400 — but check your own estimate in My Service Canada Account rather than assuming either. Deferral rewards patience: CPP pays 0.7% more per month for every month past 65 (about 42% more at 70), and OAS adds 0.6% per month (36% more at 70).
What return should a Canadian investor assume?
This page defaults to a 6.5% nominal return with 2.5% inflation — a reasonable long-run planning pair for a low-cost, diversified mix of Canadian and global index funds. Converted properly, (1 + nominal) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1, that is roughly 3.9% real, and every projection here is expressed in today's Canadian dollars. Both numbers adjust under Advanced settings, and it is worth testing them: drop the return a point or raise inflation and watch how much further away your coast number moves. The mistake to avoid is simple subtraction or extrapolating a hot recent decade — over thirty-plus years of compounding, small assumption errors move the verdict far more than any single bad market year.
Is the worked example realistic for Canada?
It is deliberately ordinary. Maya is 32, has $120,000 already invested across her accounts, spends $4,000 a month, and adds $800 a month — figures within reach of many dual-income households in our larger cities, and comfortably achievable in most of the country. Her verdict comes back Behind: today's coast number of $339,259 is beyond her $120,000, leaving her about 35% of the way there. The fix the solver finds is $177 a month — less than a transit pass — which puts her on track for retirement at 65. That is the typical Canadian outcome: the distance between Behind and On Track is usually a modest monthly top-up, not a dramatic lifestyle overhaul.
Does my FHSA count as invested assets?
Yes, if it is actually invested — enter its current balance in the invested-assets field alongside everything else. The First Home Savings Account is a hybrid: contributions are deductible like an RRSP, growth and qualified withdrawals for a first home are tax-free like a TFSA, which makes its dollars among the most efficient a young Canadian saver owns. Two nuances matter for coast planning. The account has a fifteen-year lifespan, and if you never buy a home, the room and balance can transfer into your RRSP without consuming contribution space. If home ownership is genuinely off the table, treat FHSA money as core portfolio; if a purchase is plausible, remember those dollars may exit long before your retirement horizon ends.
Coast FIRE is the same idea everywhere — only the wrappers and pensions change. For the full formula walkthrough, the flagship calculator owns it; if semi-retirement appeals more than full coasting, the Barista FIRE Calculator sizes the part-time income that bridges you; and when the verdict comes back Behind, the fastest fixes usually surface through the FIRE Number Calculator or a quick look at what your savings rate implies in years to FI. Whichever door you take, the rule holds: know your number before you quit the job you no longer need.