Retirement & Finance · 🇰🇷 Korea
NPS vs FIRE Comparison Simulator
Compare lifetime National Pension payouts vs FIRE asset 4% withdrawals from year of birth, income, and savings — age 65–95 monthly cash flow, after-tax, and NPS-dependence ratio.
About this tool
NPS vs FIRE Comparison Simulator answers the most-debated retirement question in Korea: "Should I just trust the National Pension, or build my own FIRE corpus?" Enter year of birth, average standard income, contribution months, current net worth, monthly savings, expected real return, and post-retirement annual spend. The tool projects (1) the lifetime NPS monthly payout from age 65 using the official A-value / B-value formula and (2) the FIRE-asset 4% withdrawal — then compares 30-year (age 65–95) cumulative payouts, monthly cash flow, after-tax value, and an "NPS-dependence ratio." It supports early / deferred claiming (60 / 65 / 70), ISA + pension-savings separated taxation, 2–3% inflation adjustment, and a toggle for the proposed pension-reform scenario (13% premium / 42% replacement). Built on the same NPS and FIRE engines as firekr and yeongeum so the assumptions stay consistent. Export a PNG result card for KakaoTalk / Threads. All inputs stay in your browser and never reach a server.
Use cases
Scenario 1
"I'd rather invest the premiums myself" check
Compare 30-year cumulative payouts: NPS lifetime annuity vs investing the same monthly premium yourself in an ETF — see the gut-feel answer in actual numbers.
Scenario 2
Hybrid strategy — top up the gap with FIRE
Size a FIRE corpus that exactly fills the monthly shortfall NPS leaves, then check the "safe-to-95" probability.
Scenario 3
Claim at 60 vs 65 vs 70
Simulate early (60, −30%), normal (65), and deferred (70, +36%) claim ages — pick the right one given your family longevity and expectations.
Scenario 4
Reform scenario (13% premium / 42% replacement)
Toggle the proposed reform parameters and instantly see how a 13% premium and 42% replacement rate flow through to your own payout.
Scenario 5
Couple aggregation mode
Aggregate both spouses' NPS plus a shared FIRE corpus to set household-level cash flow, then prioritize IRP / pension-savings contributions.
Features
- Official NPS A-value / B-value formula applied verbatim
- FIRE 4% rule + ISA / pension-savings separated taxation
- Age 65–95 monthly cash-flow chart (both stacked)
- Claim ages 60 / 65 / 70 toggle
- Reform scenario toggle (13% / 42%)
- Result PNG card + share URL (Threads / KakaoTalk)
- In-browser only — income and assets never leave the device
WHEN TO USE
When to use this tool
NPS vs FIRE Comparison Simulator is most useful in the situations below. If your case doesn't fit, check the "Related tools" or "Other tools in this hub" sections at the bottom of the page.
Case 1 · "I'd rather invest the premiums myself" check
Compare 30-year cumulative payouts: NPS lifetime annuity vs investing the same monthly premium yourself in an ETF — see the gut-feel answer in actual numbers.
Case 2 · Hybrid strategy — top up the gap with FIRE
Size a FIRE corpus that exactly fills the monthly shortfall NPS leaves, then check the "safe-to-95" probability.
Case 3 · Claim at 60 vs 65 vs 70
Simulate early (60, −30%), normal (65), and deferred (70, +36%) claim ages — pick the right one given your family longevity and expectations.
Other tools in this hub
These hub-mates pair well with this tool. The scenarios differ slightly — compare them side by side.
- 🏦 Korean NPS Pension Estimator— Compare early / normal / delayed Korean NPS scenarios without NPS login, with lifetime totals.
- 🏠 HF Reverse Mortgage Calculator— Estimate Korean HF reverse mortgage monthly payouts; compares lifetime / term / mixed plans.
Tool-specific FAQ
Frequently asked
- Q. Is the NPS formula accurate?
- A. Uses the published A-value (system-wide average) / B-value (your own average) / contribution-months formula verbatim. Actual payouts shift each year with A-value updates and inflation indexing — treat as a reference simulation.
- Q. Does the 4% rule hold in Korea?
- A. Back-tested on US data and risky as-is in Korea. The tool offers a 3.0–3.5% rate calibrated to KOSPI + Korean treasuries (same engine as firekr).
- Q. Is this investment or policy advice?
- A. No — it is a reference simulation using public NPS formulas and standard 4%-rule / tax assumptions. The tool does not declare a winner.
- Q. How is the pension reform modeled?
- A. Toggle the reform scenario to recalculate at 13% premium / 42% replacement; otherwise it stays on the current 9% / 40% default until the National Assembly passes the bill.
- Q. How is this different from firekr / yeongeum?
- A. firekr handles FIRE only; yeongeum handles NPS only. This tool runs both engines side by side under one set of assumptions to answer the public-vs-private question itself.
- Q. What is the NPS-dependence ratio?
- A. The share of monthly living expenses covered by NPS. Above 50% means high policy-risk exposure; below 30% means heavy reliance on personal FIRE assets.
Sources / references
Related guides / blog posts
Long-form posts in the Retirement & Finance hub or sharing the same tags. Skim one before or after using the tool to make the result easier to interpret.
🏦 Guide
Korean Home Pension vs National Pension vs Private Pension — 2026 Comparison
A side-by-side table of the three Korean pensions plus four asset-mix strategies showing how to combine them by net-worth profile.
🔥 Guide
Korean FIRE — Is It Actually Feasible? (2026)
Re-deriving the 4% rule for Korean tax, inflation, and pension realities — ₩1.2B needed at ₩48M annual spend, with 4 realistic accumulation scenarios.
Related tools
🇰🇷 Korea
Korean NPS Pension Estimator
Compare early / normal / delayed Korean NPS scenarios without NPS login, with lifetime totals.
- NPS
- Early claim
- Delayed claim
🇰🇷 Korea
HF Reverse Mortgage Calculator
Estimate Korean HF reverse mortgage monthly payouts; compares lifetime / term / mixed plans.
- HF
- Reverse mortgage
- Lifetime payout
How we run it / disclaimer
This tool is advisory and does not constitute legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. All calculations and document generation run in your browser; inputs are never sent to a server. Ads follow Google AdSense policy and are kept separate from tool accuracy.