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Thinking about taking a road trip? The rising cost of gas might put a dent in your budget if you’re not careful. But how much will you spend on gas for a trip? What should your budget be?

Using a trip cost calculator can help you determine what you are likely to spend filling up your tank on a longer trip. Then you can use that information to decide whether it’s more cost-effective to drive, take a train or bus, or fly.

Let’s look not only at a gasoline cost trip calculator table, but also why you should calculate how much you’ll spend on gas and how you can save money filling up at the pump.

Why Use a Gas Cost Trip Estimator

You may think nothing of filling up your gas tank every few weeks when you’re only driving to work and the store. But consider how much gas you’d use for a trip from, let’s say, San Diego to New York City. With gas prices on the rise, understanding what it will cost you to fuel up for an entire trip can help you better budget your expenses.

Using a gas trip cost calculator can help you figure out how much of your entire trip budget will be dedicated to fueling up.


💡 Quick Tip: Online tools make tracking your spending a breeze: You can easily set up budgets, then get instant updates on your progress, spot upcoming bills, analyze your spending habits, and more.

How to Calculate Your Gas Cost Trip

To figure out how much gas will cost for a road trip, you can, of course, use a trip cost calculator. You’ll need to input basic details, like your type of car (different sizes and types of cars burn gas at different rates) and your route, and the calculator can estimate with real-time gas prices.

But a simple method is to look at your route and the total distance in miles, and divide this number by the number of miles per gallon your vehicle gets. (You can check your owner’s manual to find this out if you don’t already know). This will tell you the number of gallons of gas you’ll need for the entire trip.

Now you’ll need to know the price of gas so you can multiply it times the number of gallons you need. Since gas prices by state may vary wildly, you might take an average of prices found in five places along the way. Tools like Gas Buddy let you search for gas prices in a given city, so you can use this for research.

Gas Cost Trip Calculator Table
Let’s use the process I outlined above to illustrate how you can be your own gas calculator for trip costs.

Distance from San Diego to NYC	2,760 miles
Miles per gallon	22
2,760/22	125 gallons
Average gas price: •   San Diego: $4.57 •   Albuquerque: $3.09 •   Saint Louis: $2.82 •   Indianapolis: $2.99 •   Philadelphia: $2.93	Average: $3.28
125 gallons x $3.28	$410 gas budget

As you can see, it would cost about $410 for gas for the entire trip. Of course, this is based on an average cost of gas, and prices will fluctuate over time and in different towns and cities.


💡 Quick Tip: Income, expenses, and life circumstances can change. Consider reviewing your budget a few times a year and making any adjustments if needed.

Examples of Gas Cost Trips

Let’s look at a few other examples of trips and how much they would cost in gas.

Distance from Los Angeles to Seattle	1,335 miles
Miles per gallon	22
1,335/22	61 gallons
Average gas price: •   Los Angeles: $4.44 •   Stockton: $4.45 •   Sacramento: $4.99 •   Medford: $4.05 •   Portland: $4.99	Average: $4.58
61 gallons x $4.58	$279 gas budget
Phoenix to Dallas	1,067 miles
Miles per gallon	22
1.067/22	48.5
Average gas price: •   Phoenix: $3.13 •   Benson: $3.61 •   Deming: $3.45 •   Fort Stockton: $3.15 •   Abilene: $2.79	Average: $3.23
48.5 gallons x $3.23	$157

Reasons to Calculate Your Gas Cost

So why should you bother using a road trip cost calculator? Well, most people don’t have unlimited funds when it comes to taking a road trip, so for starters, it can help you see how much you’d spend. You might decide it’s not worth driving if the cost exceeds what you’d pay for a flight, bus, or train ride.

Even if you’re not planning a big trip, looking at how much it costs to drive on a tank of gas can be helpful for maintaining your month-to-month budget. Once you understand how much you’re spending on gas, you might explore how to improve gas mileage to get more bang for your buck or you might limit how often you drive to save money.

Tips on How to Save on Gas Money

Speaking of saving money, let’s look at how to save money on gas.

Plan Where You’ll Fuel Up

If you’re planning a road trip, use a tool that shows you exactly where the cheapest gas can be found. You might be able to save $.10 or more a gallon simply by planning ahead. There are even some trip fuel cost calculators that will help you plan where to stop based on gas prices.

Consider How You Pay

There are different types of credit cards that can help you save at the pump. Branded gas credit cards often offer rewards that will shave off a few cents per gallon or give you a bonus after you’ve charged a certain amount of purchases.

You might also consider a cash back credit card that gives you cash or credits for your purchases once you’ve hit a certain threshold.

Look into Alternative Transportation

You may be quick to rely on cars to get around, but there are often other overlooked methods of transportation to consider. Whether it’s a bus, train, Uber, or plane, you might be able to save money by leaving your car at home.

You can also cut your gas costs by splitting them with a friend.

Another way to stick to your travel budget? A money tracker app, which can help you keep tabs on where your money is going while you’re on the road.

Only Use Premium if Necessary

Most cars run just fine on regular unleaded gas, which can be significantly cheaper per gallon than premium versions, especially if you’re on a long trip. Check your car manufacturer’s recommendations to see if you can use regular unleaded gas.

Drive an Empty Car

The heavier your car is, the more gas it burns. So if you’ve been lugging around something heavy unnecessarily, consider leaving the load at home before you drive.

Who Should Save Money on Gas

The real question is, who shouldn’t save money on gas? We could all benefit by keeping a little extra cash in our pockets.

That said, if you’re planning a long road trip, you’ll probably want to explore ways to improve gas mileage and to save on gas. Also if you have a long commute to work, you might be spending more on gas than necessary.

The Takeaway

Paying attention to how much gas costs, particularly for a road trip or long commute, is just smart financial planning. Whether you use an online version or crunch the numbers on a piece of paper, a gas trip cost calculator can help you figure out how much you may want to budget for fill-ups.

Take control of your finances with the SoFi Insights money tracker app. Connect all of your accounts in one convenient dashboard. From there, you can see your various balances, spending breakdowns, and credit score. Plus you can easily set up budgets and discover valuable financial insights — all at no cost.

See exactly how your money comes and goes at a glance.

FAQ

How do I calculate gas cost for a trip?

To calculate gas for a long road trip, divide the number of miles of the route by the miles per gallon your car gets. This is the number of gallons you’ll need to drive the distance. Then, average the cost of gas on your route and multiply this times the number of gallons to get the total cost of gas for your trip.

How much would 1 mile of gas cost?

Divide the cost per gallon by the number of miles per gallon your car will go. For example, if you pay $3.99 per gallon and your car gets 22 miles per gallon, driving one mile would cost about $.18.

How do you calculate fuel to destination?

To calculate how much fuel you’ll need to get to your destination, divide the number of miles of the remaining route by the miles per gallon your car gets. Then, average the cost of gas on your route and multiply this times the number of gallons to get the total cost of gas for your trip.

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Photo credit: iStock/georgeclerk

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Third-Party Brand Mentions: No brands, products, or companies mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.

Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.

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An early retirement used to be considered a bit of a dream, but for many people it’s now a reality — especially those who are willing to budget, save, and invest with this goal in mind.

If you’d like to retire early, there are concrete steps you can take to help reach your goal. Here’s what you need to know about how to retire early.

Understanding Early Retirement

Early retirement typically refers to retiring before the age of 65, which is when eligibility for Medicare benefits begins. Some people may want to retire just a few years earlier, at age 60, for instance. But others dream of retiring in their 40s or 50s or even younger.

Clarifying Early Retirement Age and Goals

You’re probably wondering, how can I retire early? That’s an important question to ask. First, though, you have to decide at what age to retire.

Schedule a few check-ins with yourself, and/or a partner or loved ones, to discuss what “early retirement” means. Is it age 50? Age 55? And what might your early retirement look like? Will you stop working completely? Work part-time? Or maybe you want to switch to a different field or start a business? Perhaps you dream of going back to school, volunteering, or traveling.

Early retirement is different for everyone. So the clearer you can get about the details now, the smarter you can be about how much money you need to make your plan work.

Insights into the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) Movement

There’s a movement of people who want to retire early. It’s called the FIRE movement, which stands for “financially independent, retire early.” FIRE has become a worldwide trend that’s inspiring people to work toward retiring in their 50s, 40s, and even their 30s.

Here’s how it works: In order to retire at a young age, people who follow the FIRE movement allocate 50% to 75% of their income to savings. However, that can be challenging because it means they have to sacrifice certain lifestyle pleasures along the way. For instance, they might not be able to eat out or travel.

Once they retire, FIRE proponents tend to use investments that pay dividends as passive income sources to help support themselves. However, dividend payments depend on company performance and they’re not guaranteed. So a FIRE adherent would likely need other sources of income in retirement as well.


💡 Quick Tip: Before opening an investment account, know your investment objectives, time horizon, and risk tolerance. These fundamentals will help keep your strategy on track and with the aim of meeting your goals.

Financial Planning for Early Retirement

In order to start planning to retire early, you need to calculate how much money you’ll need to live on once you stop working. How much would you have to save and invest to arrive at an amount that would allow you to retire early? Here’s how to help figure that out.

Estimating Retirement Costs and Income Needs

Many people wonder: How much do I need to retire early? There isn’t one answer to that question. The right answer for you is one that you must arrive at based on your unique needs and circumstances. That said, to learn whether you’re on track for retirement it helps to begin somewhere, and the Rule of 25 may provide a good ballpark estimate.

The Rule of 25 recommends saving 25 times your annual expenses in order to retire. Why? Because according to one rule of thumb, you should only spend 4% of your total nest egg every year. By limiting your spending to a small percentage of your savings, the logic goes, your money is more likely to last.

Here’s an example: if you spend $75,000 a year, you’ll need a nest egg of $1,875,000 in order to retire.

$75,000 x 25 = $1,875,000

With that amount saved, and assuming an annual withdrawal rate of 4%, you would have $75,000 per year in income.
Obviously, this is just an example. You might need less income in retirement or more — perhaps a lot less or a lot more, depending on your situation. If your desired income is $50,000, for example, you’d need to save $1,250,000.

Once you reach the traditional retirement age of 62, you would then be able to claim Social Security. (Age 67 is considered “full retirement” age for those born in 1960 and later, and you can wait to claim benefits until age 70.) The longer you wait to claim Social Security, the higher your monthly payments will be. You could add those Social Security benefits to your income or consider reinvesting the money, depending on your circumstances as you get older.

Recommended: Typical Retirement Expenses to Prepare For

Effective Savings Strategies

How do you save the amount of money you’d need for your early retirement plan?

Having a budget you can live with is critical to making this plan a success. The essential word here isn’t budget, it’s the whole phrase: a budget you can live with.

There are countless ways to manage how you budget. There’s the 50-30-20 plan, the envelope method, the zero-based budget, and so on. You could test a couple of them for a couple of months each in order to find one you can live with.

Another strategy for saving more is to get a side hustle to bring in some extra income. You can put that money toward your early retirement goal.

Adjusting Your Financial Habits

As you consider how to retire early, one of the first things you’ll need to do is cut your expenses now so that you can save more money. These strategies can help you get started.

Lifestyle Changes to Accelerate Savings

Take a look at your current spending and expenses and determine where you could cut back. Maybe instead of a $4,000 vacation, you plan a $2,000 trip instead, and then save or invest the other $2,000 for retirement.

You may be able to live more of a minimalist lifestyle overall. Rather than buying new clothes, for instance, search through your closets for items you can wear. Eat out less and cook at home more. Cut back on some of the streaming services you use. Scrutinize all areas of your spending to see what you can eliminate or pare back.

Debt Management Before Retirement

Obviously, it’s very difficult to achieve a big goal like saving for an early retirement if you’re also trying to pay down debt. It’s wise to work to pay off any and all debts you might have (credit card, student loan, personal loan, car loan, etc.).

That’s not only because being debt-free feels better — it also saves you money. For example, the interest rate you’re paying on credit card or store cards can be quite high, often above 15% or even 20%. If you owe $6,000 on a credit card at 17% interest, for example, when you pay that off, you’re essentially saving the interest that debt was costing you each year.

Health Care Planning: A Critical Component of Early Retirement

When you retire early, you need to think about health insurance since you’ll no longer be getting it through your employer. Medicare doesn’t begin until age 65, so start researching the private insurance market now to understand the different plans available and what you might need.

It’s critical to have the right health insurance in place, so make sure you devote proper time and attention to this task.

Investment Management for Future Retirees

Next up, you’ll need to decide what to invest in and how much to invest in order to grow your savings without putting it at risk.

Understanding Your Investment Options

How do you invest to retire early? You can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), target date funds, and more.

One major factor to consider is how aggressively you want to invest. That means: Are you ready to invest more in equities, say, taking on the potential for greater risk in order to possibly reap potential gains? Or would you feel more at ease if you invested using a more conservative strategy, with less exposure to risk (but potentially less reward)?

Whichever strategy you choose, you may want to invest on a regular cadence. This approach, called dollar-cost averaging, is one way to maximize potential market returns and mitigate the risk of loss.

Balancing Growth and Risk in Your Investment Portfolio

Because you have less time to save for retirement, you will likely want your investments to grow. But you also need to consider your risk tolerance, as mentioned above. Think about a balanced, diversified portfolio that has the potential to give you long-term growth without taking on more risk than you are comfortable with.

As you get closer to your early retirement date, you can move some of your savings into safer, more liquid assets so that you have enough money on hand for your living, housing, and healthcare expenses.

Retirement Accounts: 401(k)s, IRAs, and HSAs

If your employer offers a retirement plan like a 401(k) or 403(b), that’s the first thing you want to take advantage of — especially if your employer matches a percentage of your savings.

The other reason to save and invest in an employer-sponsored plan is that in most cases the money you save into the plan reduces your taxable income. So the more you save, the less you might pay in taxes.

The caveat here is that you can’t access those funds before you’re 59½ without paying a penalty. So if you plan to retire early at 50, you will need to tap other savings for roughly the first decade to avoid the withdrawal penalties you’d incur if you tapped your 401(k) or Individual Retirement Account (IRA) early.

Be sure to find out from HR if there are any other employee benefits you might qualify for, such as stock options or a pension, for instance.

Additionally, if your employer offers a Health Savings Account as part of your employee benefits, you might consider opening one.

A Health Savings Account allows you to save additional money: In 2023, the HSA contribution caps are $3,850 for individuals and $7,750 for family coverage.

Your contributions are considered pre-tax, similar to 401(k) or IRA contributions, and the money you withdraw for qualified medical expenses is tax free (although you’ll pay taxes on money spent on non-medical expenses).

Finally, consider opening a Roth IRA. The advantage of saving in a Roth IRA vs. a regular IRA is that you’re contributing after-tax money that can be withdrawn penalty- and tax-free at any time.

To withdraw your earnings without paying taxes or a penalty, though, you must have had the account for at least five years (as per the 5 Year Rule), and you must be over 59½.

💡 Quick Tip: Did you know that a traditional Individual Retirement Account, or IRA, is a tax-deferred account? That means you don’t pay taxes on the money you put in it (up to an annual limit) or the gains you earn, until you retire and start making withdrawals.

The Pillars of Early Retirement

Retiring early means you’ll need to have income coming in to help support you. You may have a pension, which can also help. Once you’ve identified the income you’ll be generating, you’ll need to withdraw it in a manner that will help it last over the years of your retirement.

Establishing Multiple Income Streams

Having different streams of income is important so that you’re not just relying on one type of money coming in. For instance, your investments can be a source of potential income and growth, as mentioned. In addition, you may want to get a second job now in addition to your full-time job — perhaps a side hustle on evenings and weekends — to generate more money that you can put toward your retirement savings.

The Role of Social Security and Pensions in Early Retirement

Social Security can help supplement your retirement income. However, as covered above, the earliest you can collect it is at age 62. And if you take your benefits that early they will be reduced by as much as 30%. On the other hand, if you wait until full retirement age to collect them, you’ll receive full benefits. If you were born in 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67. You can find out more information at ssa.gov.

If your employer offers a pension, you should be able to collect that as another income stream for your retirement years. Generally, you need to be fully vested in the plan to collect the entire pension. The amount you are eligible for is typically based on what you earned, how long you worked for the company, and when you stop working there. Check with your HR department to learn more.

The Significance of Withdrawal Strategies: Rules of 55 and 4%

When it comes to withdrawing money from your investments after retirement, there are some rules and guidelines to be aware of. According to the Rule of 55, the IRS allows certain workers who leave their jobs to take penalty-free distributions from their current employer’s workplace retirement account, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), the year they turn 55.

The 4% rule is a general rule of thumb that recommends that you take 4% of your total retirement savings per year to cover your expenses. To figure out what you would need, start with your desired yearly retirement income, subtract the annual amount of any pension or additional revenue stream you might have, and divide that number by 0.4. The resulting amount will be 4%, and you can aim to withdraw no more than that amount every year. The rest of your money would stay in your retirement portfolio.

Monitoring Your Progress Towards Early Retirement

To stay on course to reach your goal of early retirement, keep tabs on your progress at regular intervals. For instance, you may want to do a monthly or bi-monthly financial check-in to see where you’re at. Are you saving as much as you planned? If not, what could you do to save more?

Using an online retirement calculator can help you keep track of your goals. From there you can make any adjustments as needed to help make your dreams of early retirement come true.

How to Manage Early Retirement When You Get There

The budget you make in order to save for an early retirement is probably a good blueprint for how you should think about your spending habits after you retire. Unless your expenses will drop significantly after you retire (for instance, if you move or need one car instead of two, etc.), you can expect your spending to be about the same.

That said, you may be spending on different things. Whatever your retirement looks like, though, it’s wise to keep your spending as steady as you can, to keep your nest egg intact.

The Takeaway

An early retirement may appeal to many people, but it takes a real commitment to actually embrace it as your goal. These days, many people are using movements like FIRE (financial independence, retire early) to help them take the steps necessary to retire in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

You can also make progress toward an early retirement by determining how much money you’ll need for post-work life, budgeting, and cutting back on expenses . And by saving and investing wisely, you may be able to make your goal a reality.

Ready to invest in your goals? It’s easy to get started when you open an investment account with SoFi Invest. You can invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and more. SoFi doesn’t charge commissions, but other fees apply (full fee disclosure here).

Invest with as little as $5 with a SoFi Active Investing account.

FAQs

How much do you need to save for early retirement?

There isn’t one right answer to the question of how much you need to save for early retirement. It depends on your specific needs and circumstances. However, as a starting point, the Rule of 25 may give you an estimate. This guideline recommends saving 25 times your annual expenses in order to retire, and then following the 4% rule, and withdrawing no more than 4% a year in retirement to cover your expenses.

Is early retirement a practical goal?

For some people, early retirement can be a practical goal if they plan properly. You’ll need to decide at what age you want to retire, and how much money you’ll need for your retirement years. Then, you will need to map out a budget and a concrete strategy to save enough. It will likely require adjusting your lifestyle now to cut back on spending and expenses to help save for the future, which can be challenging.

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Third-Party Brand Mentions: No brands, products, or companies mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third-party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.

Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.

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