Retire Anywhere
Retire Anywhere re-prices your spending in 83 cities, countries and regions and shows the FIRE number each one would need. Treat its numbers as estimates for comparing places, not as a plan.
Open FIRE and click the Retire Anywhere map card at the top of the Settings sidebar. It opens full screen. Click Back to FIRE to close it.
What you see
- Across the top: Current FIRE Age, Earliest Possible, Years Gained (or Years Lost), Savings Boost and Cost of Living for the place you are looking at.
- A map you can search ("Search 83 cities, countries, regions"), filter by region, or limit to Lower cost than home only.
- Top Picks and All Locations lists.
- On the right: Cost of Living Comparison, Adjusted FIRE Target with the New FIRE Number, the age you could retire by, and Where the money goes across spending categories.
- Click a place to open its guide: climate, costs, safety, healthcare, visas, taxes, neighbourhoods and more. Some places show "Guide coming soon."
How it works
- It starts from your monthly spending: last year's total ÷ 12, the same figure FIRE uses.
- It splits that spending into categories. If you spent at least $2,000 over the last 12 months, it uses your own mix by category group; otherwise it uses a typical retired household.
- Each category is re-priced from your home area to the destination using published price-level data (US regional prices for your home metro, international price levels for destinations).
- Housing and healthcare abroad are raised for how you would live there, and healthcare more so if you move at 65 or older.
- The new monthly cost × 12 × your FIRE multiplier is the New FIRE Number.
New FIRE number = estimated monthly cost there × 12 × your multiplier
- Example: if a city comes out at $3,500 a month, at 25x its FIRE number is $3,500 × 12 × 25 = $1,050,000.
Tune the assumptions
Under How you'd live:
- Standard of living: Local, Expat (the default) or Premium. Expat and Premium raise housing and healthcare costs.
- Housing today: whether you rent or own outright, and what your home would rent for.
- Age when you move: under 65, or 65 or over.
- Extra costs abroad: anything else you would pay, such as flights home.
These are saved with your FIRE settings when you press Save on the FIRE page.
Set your home location
Comparisons start from your home area. Set it in Settings, under your profile, in Home Location: pick your metro from the list. If you have not chosen one, FIYR uses the US average.
How much to trust it
If you see "Showing a sample baseline", FIRE could not produce a date for you yet, so sample numbers are shown. Add your birthdate on the FIRE page and make sure it has spending and a reachable date to get your own figures.
Common questions
How does Retire Anywhere work out a city's FIRE number?
It re-prices your monthly spending, category by category, from your home area to that place, then multiplies the monthly cost by 12 and by your FIRE multiplier.
Is Years Gained exact?
No. It is a rule of thumb, roughly 1.2 years earlier per 10% lower cost, not a full re-run of your projection.
Why does it show sample numbers?
FIRE could not calculate your date yet. Add your birthdate and make sure the FIRE page has spending and a reachable Freedom Date.
Why does it ask for my home location?
It is the starting point for every comparison. Without it, FIYR compares against the US average.
Still stuck?
Email us. A real person who builds FIYR reads every message.