Flamingo FIRE Explained: How It Transformed Our Family Life

I don’t just want financial independence someday — I want freedom now. Flamingo FIRE is the turning point that makes it possible. It’s a lifestyle shift that helps our family work less today, enjoy semi-retirement soon, and still stay on track toward full financial independence with only a small delay eventually.

I came to that realization recently using our brand-new Flamingo FIRE Calculator, which Marc just released. Less hustle and more time as a family and for ourselves is exactly what I’m striving for after welcoming our third baby girl a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s how Flamingo FIRE changed everything for us — and how it might change your journey too.

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Run your numbers in our FREE Flamingo FIRE Calculator to see when your portfolio can double on its own and carry you to full financial independence.

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What Is Flamingo FIRE?

What is Flamingo FIRE in a nutshell?

Flamingo FIRE is a simple FIRE approach that focuses on balancing freedom today with security tomorrow.

What is the meaning behind Flamingo FIRE?

Many wonder where the unique name comes from. Its inventor, MoneyFlamingo, called it Flamingo FIRE because it’s like FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) standing on one leg — stable (because the goal is to achieve full FIRE) yet relaxed (because you don’t need to hustle toward it). 🦩

I highly recommend checking out her post on Flamingo FI if this topic or my content here resonates with you.

How is it different from traditional FIRE?

In our opinion, Flamingo FIRE combines the best aspects of semi-retirement and early retirement. It’s designed for people looking for an easier FIRE path that still leads to complete financial independence later. These are people, like us, who want more flexibility long before reaching their full FIRE number.

How Flamingo FIRE Works

50 % of FIRE Number

Flamingo FIRE explained (in simple terms): It’s a variation of Coast FIRE and a semi-retirement strategy that lets you enjoy more freedom long before full FIRE. I cover all 13 types of Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) in a full guide on the blog.

Flamingo FIRE encourages you to save 50 % of your FIRE number, then let compounding do the rest. It’s that simple — you work less, live more, and coast to full FIRE within about 5–15 years. The higher your investment returns, the faster you’ll get there. The 5–15 year time frame feels so much more attractive than waiting until age 65+ to eventually achieve full FI.

The Rule of 72 (to Double Your Investments)

This plan follows a simple rule of thumb — the Rule of 72. It shows how long it takes for your investments to double: just divide 72 by your annual return rate.

At a 7% return, that’s about 10 years (72/7 = 10.28 years). So, our investments double in 10 years if the average return is around 7%, and in 5 years if it’s 15% (72/15 = 4.8 years) or in over 14 years if it’s a more conservative 5% rate of return.

If you’d like to explore more variations, check out the post The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Flamingo FI.

The 4 Flamingo FIRE Phases (& Our Family’s Example)

Here’s Flamingo FIRE explained step-by-step, sharing our family’s example as a simple financial independence roadmap.

Accumulation Phase (Inflation-Adjusted)

Save and invest until you’ve reached 50 % of your FIRE number — roughly 12.5× your annual expenses, following the 4 % rule. I talk more about the 4 % Rule (behind your FIRE number) in this post.

👉 Our example: We expect our yearly expenses to be around 48,000 once we achieve full FIRE, inflation-adjusted. That means our Flamingo FIRE point is 600,000, which we hope to reach between age 45–50 (depending on stock market performance). We’ll re-evaluate our numbers as we get closer to reaching our Flamingo FIRE goal.

👉 Inflation-adjusted expenses: Our current 40,000-a-year lifestyle (excluding mortgage payments) is expected to rise to about 48,000 a year by the time we reach full FIRE, based on projected inflation.

Semi-Retirement Phase

Stop saving for investments and start working less while your portfolio continues to grow. We plan to reduce our workload after hitting 50 % of our FIRE number around age 45–50. Meanwhile, our nest egg will hopefully keep compounding quietly in the background while we cover daily costs through part-time income or passion projects or both. In short, we get the freedom to take more risks with our careers.

For us, the full FIRE number is about 1,200,000, meaning we need 600,000 (our Flamingo FIRE number) before we can stop investing based on our expected yearly expenses of 48,000 in FIRE. With a 15 % average return, those investments could double in around 5 years (see above the Rule of 72).

I’m sharing our semi-retirement plan here — one we’ll happily adjust if it ever stops serving our family. But for now, this is where we stand on our journey. (So far, our returns have averaged 20–30 % with these safest index funds.)

Financial Independence

When investments have doubled naturally, we’ll reach financial independence — around age 50 at the earliest (with a 15 % average return and a nest egg of 600,000 at age 45) or age 60 at the latest (with a 5 % average return and/or a smaller nest egg at age 45). In other words, about 5–15 years after we semi-retire, we expect to reach full FIRE.

At that point (age 50-60), work becomes optional. We could start living off our portfolio using one of the Top 4 Early Retirement Withdrawal Strategies, or we could let our investments grow further and continue working.

Traditional Retirement

Once officially retired, it’s possible to enjoy a higher withdrawal rate and greater passive income for comfort if we haven’t started withdrawing yet. Flamingo FIRE gives us the freedom to choose.

FREE Flamingo FIRE Calculator

How to Calculate Your Flamingo FIRE Number

Here’s the basic formula to calculate your Flamingo FIRE number:
FIRE number ÷ 2

If you want to know exactly how to calculate Flamingo FIRE for your family, we offer a free FIRE Calculator (to find your full FIRE number) and a free Flamingo FIRE Calculator (to determine your Flamingo FIRE number, inflation-adjusted, and map out your freedom journey).

Both numbers — your FIRE number and Flamingo FIRE number — depend heavily on your chosen withdrawal rate and the inflation rate.
If you’d like to explore different scenarios and test various withdrawal rate strategies, try our free Retirement Withdrawal Strategy Calculator.

Using Inflation-Adjusted Returns

Instead of using inflation-adjusted expenses, you can also apply inflation-adjusted returns for a quick overview of your numbers. Assuming an average 7 % return after inflation (based on 10 % annual returns and 3 % inflation) gives you roughly the same result.

In simple terms, your FI number is a moving target. Whether you plan with inflation-adjusted returns or expenses, always track your real results in nominal terms.

The Benefits of Flamingo FIRE: A Lifestyle of Freedom and Balance

Earlier Freedom

Reaching semi-retirement once you’ve hit 50 % of your FIRE number means you can stop aggressive saving and investing years earlier compared to traditional FIRE, which requires reaching 100 % of your FIRE number.

Early Retirement Still Possible

By letting your investments compound into your full FIRE number within 5–15 years, you can still enjoy early retirement — depending on your age, savings rate, and overall market performance.

Full Financial Independence

Since Flamingo FIRE is a variation of Coast FIRE, the end goal of both semi-retirement strategies is the same: to achieve full financial independence one day. That’s incredibly important to me, and I believe many others on the FIRE journey feel the same way.

Smooth Transition

You’re not jumping from 100 % work to 0 %. Flamingo FIRE gives you time to adjust. Many early retirees keep working or earning some income — yet almost no one actually plans for it. With Flamingo FIRE and its semi-retirement phase, you do.

Reasonable Savings Rate

Saving around 50 % of your income can help you reach your Flamingo FIRE number in roughly a decade — a far more achievable target for many families than traditional FIRE’s steep requirements.

Our Flamingo FIRE Story

The Freedom to Choose

Flamingo FIRE is a simple FIRE strategy that fits my ideal: achieving full financial independence one day (unlike Barista FIRE, where it’s not the primary goal) but not as late as with Coast FIRE, which targets traditional retirement age.

I don’t want to be semi-retired (working part-time) for decades, as with Coast FIRE, and I don’t feel comfortable withdrawing from my portfolio early, as in Barista FIRE. Also, when you hit Coast FI — as we did — and realize how much smaller that number is compared to your full FI number, it can feel scary to stop saving and investing. Flamingo FIRE just feels a bit more secure when it comes to achieving full FI.

Still, I sense that something is missing in the Flamingo FIRE approach — I can’t quite define what it is yet, but it feels like there’s a missing piece. We’ll see. However, Flamingo FIRE comes very close to what I was searching for.

Before learning about Flamingo FIRE, I was already convinced that I wanted to stop saving and investing once we hit 50 % of our FIRE number — I just didn’t know it was a thing. I assumed both of us would need to work full-time again to achieve it. But we never did, even after starting our financial freedom journey.

And with three little kids at home now, I don’t want full-time work (and daycare) to be part of our early retirement story. It wasn’t until I used Marc’s free Flamingo FIRE Calculator that I realized: part-time work until we reach 50 % of our FIRE number is enough.

What a relief — that insight changed everything. It showed us that we can live the daily life we want, spend more time as a family, and still become a financial freedom family while always working part-time. Marc’s Flamingo FIRE Calculator truly gave us choice, time, and peace.

Our Financial Situation

We’re a couple turned 40 with three little bundles of joy and a home mortgage of just over 400,000. Over the past five years of our family FIRE journey, we’ve paid off more than 160,000 of that mortgage and built a stock portfolio worth over 150,000 — all while working part-time, taking parental leave, and making memories as a family.

That was possible because we’ve managed to always save 40–60 % of our income, depending on the season of life. Our semi-retirement strategy is to continue working part-time until age 45–50, reaching 50 % of our full FIRE number by then, becoming debt-free and entering semi-retirement. What will we do then? We have plenty of ideas — but we’ll see when we get there.

Realizing that we only need to work part-time to save half of our FIRE number has made financial freedom feel much closer, and we’re grateful to enjoy more time with our kids while building the life we want today.

Why Flamingo FIRE Works (for Families)

Flamingo FIRE is a simple FIRE plan that works especially well for families who value time together over chasing higher income.

It’s about creating family financial independence step by step — balancing flexibility and financial stability. This semi-retirement family approach allows parents to spend more time with their kids, reduce stress, and still build long-term wealth.

By working part-time and letting investments grow in the background, you gain freedom now and the security of full independence later — without the burnout.

Flamingo FIRE taught us that financial freedom is about choosing how to spend your time. It doesn’t have to wait until retirement — it can start right now. By living intentionally and letting investments grow in the background, we found more balance and joy along the way.

👉Discover how our free Flamingo FIRE Calculator can help you find your own Flamingo FIRE number and ideal path so your family can enjoy a balanced, semi-retired life sooner.

🚀 Now it’s your turn: What would your life look like if you reached Flamingo FIRE? Drop it in the comments to inspire others!

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Title image source: Vicko Mozara on Unsplash