Run and understand the Coast FI analysis

Coast FI is a test of the saved retirement plan

Coast FI commonly means having enough invested for retirement that, if it remains invested and grows, no additional retirement contribution is needed to reach the planned retirement. The phrase sounds like one account-balance milestone, but the answer depends on retirement timing, spending, taxes, benefits, investment mix, inflation, longevity, and market uncertainty.

YARCalc therefore does not invent a universal Coast FI number. It runs the household’s current modeled plan again with retirement-directed account contributions removed, then evaluates that result against the stochastic success target saved in Planning Policy.

Use current balances and a real future retirement target

Run the test only after saving a dated balance snapshot, investable retirement assets, annual spending, work income, future retirement dates, and planning lifespans. If one of those facts is missing, the page identifies what to complete instead of turning a partial plan into a Coast FI claim.

After you start the test, the shared analysis progress bar reports queued or running work and updates without reloading the page. You can leave and return while the owner-private background job continues.

A young saver may see the Coast FI card on Dashboard before any result exists. “Analysis not run” is not a negative result. It means YARCalc has not yet tested the no-more-contributions plan. The card disappears after the household reaches all modeled retirement dates because Coast FI is then no longer the relevant planning question.

The analysis removes saving without creating hidden saving

The analysis sets modeled retirement-directed contribution schedules to zero from the first projection year. Education-savings contributions are not treated as retirement contributions. Work income, taxes, ordinary living expenses, benefits, retirement dates, withdrawal policy, holdings, and the planning horizon remain in place.

Ordinary Projection puts positive annual cash left after spending, taxes, and contributions into a cash account. Doing that in a Coast FI test would quietly resume saving under another name. The Coast FI analysis excludes that positive working-year remainder from the retirement portfolio and reports the excluded total for transparency.

If income does not cover spending before the household’s modeled retirement, the plan may draw from the portfolio. The detailed result reports that pre-retirement draw so you can see how much of today’s savings the plan uses before retirement. The draw is included in every stochastic path and can lower the success probability, but it does not automatically fail an otherwise sustainable no-more-contributions plan.

Read the status as conditional evidence, not permission to stop saving

Modeled Coast FI target met means the no-more-contributions plan reached the saved stochastic success threshold. Coast FI target not met in this analysis means it missed that threshold. A pre-retirement portfolio draw is reported as important context rather than treated as an automatic failure. Neither label predicts actual market returns or directs the household to change payroll deductions.

Review the displayed success percentage, policy target, retirement ages, balance date, removed current-year contributions, excluded working-year surplus, and pre-retirement draw together. A result can be out of date after the plan version, starting balance date, or saved stochastic settings change; the Dashboard and detail page label that state rather than silently reusing the old conclusion.

Before reducing contributions, test the reasons the result might be fragile: a later spending increase, earlier retirement, a longer lifespan, poor early returns, incomplete healthcare costs, or a legacy goal. Also consider employer matching, contribution tax benefits, emergency reserves, debt, and goals outside the retirement model.

Coast FI is not the same as retiring now or being fully financially independent

The test assumes work income continues according to the saved plan so current living costs can be paid before retirement. It does not answer whether the household can leave work now. Use a separate What-if with an earlier retirement date and the related income, healthcare, spending, and contribution changes for that question.

YARCalc does not guarantee returns, determine job security, value employer matching as compensation, or decide how much personal safety margin is appropriate. The result is a reproducible planning test under the saved assumptions, not a certification of financial independence.