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How would you like to estimate your needs?
Quick and basic
Sometimes, a quick ballpark estimate is all you need to get started. You can always come back and work it out in more detail later.
Detailed
You can get the most accurate picture of your life insurance needs by taking a detailed look at your assets, expenses, debts and goals.
Simple ways to estimate how much life insurance you need
Below are few simple "rule of thumb" approaches to determining your life insurance needs. These methods are better than a random guess but often fail to account for important parts of your financial life.
1. Multiply your income by 10 🔢
The “10 times income” guideline is often shared online, but it doesn’t take a detailed look at your family’s needs, nor does it consider your savings or existing life insurance policies. And it doesn’t provide a coverage amount for stay-at-home parents, who should have insurance even if they don’t make an income.
The value of a stay-at-home parent’s work can be difficult to calculate. You can start by estimating what you would have to pay someone to provide services, such as child care, that a stay-at-home parent might provide.
2. Buy 10 times your income, plus $100,000 per child for college 🎓
This formula adds another layer to the "10 times income" rule by including coverage for your child’s education. College and other education expenses are an important part of your life insurance estimate if you have kids. However, this method still doesn’t take into account all of your family’s needs, assets or any life insurance coverage already in place.
» MORE: The best family life insurance
3. Use the DIME formula 🪙
The DIME method uses specifics about your finances to provide a more accurate picture of how much life insurance you might need.
DIME
Debt
Income to replace
Mortgage
Education costs
DIME stands for debt, income, mortgage and education — four areas that should be part of calculating your life insurance needs:
- Debt and final expenses: Add up your debts, other than your mortgage, plus an estimate of funeral expenses.
- Income: Decide how many years your family would need support, and multiply your annual income by that number.
- Mortgage: Calculate the amount you need to pay off your mortgage.
- Education: Estimate the cost of sending your kids to school and college.
By adding all of these ballpark figures together, you can get a well-rounded view of your needs. While this formula is more thorough, just note it doesn’t account for the life insurance coverage and savings you may already have. It also doesn’t consider the unpaid contributions a stay-at-home parent makes.
» MORE: What does life insurance cover?
Detailed life insurance calculator
It’s hard to pinpoint how much life insurance you should buy down to the penny, but you can make a good estimate by using our life insurance calculator below to walk through your goals, expenses, debts and assets.
How to manually calculate how much life insurance you need
For a quick life insurance estimate, follow this equation: financial obligations minus liquid assets.
Step 1: Add up the following items to calculate your financial responsibilities.
- Your annual salary multiplied by the number of years you want to replace that income.
- Your mortgage balance.
- Any other debts.
- Any future needs such as college fees and funeral costs.
- The cost to replace services that a stay-at-home parent provides, such as child care.
Step 2: From that total, subtract liquid assets such as savings, non-retirement investment accounts, college funds and current life insurance policies. The number you’re left with is the amount of life insurance you need.
Note that liquid assets are funds you can access quickly without a penalty. Assets such as your house and car don’t count because they could take a long time to sell. Don’t include your 401(k) or other retirement accounts either if you’d have to pay a penalty to access the funds.
How this method works: Let’s say you’re a 45-year-old parent with two teenagers. You earn $75,000 per year and already have a group life insurance policy for $150,000.
Calculating how much additional life insurance coverage is needed could look like this:
- 15 years of $75,000 per year = $1.125 million
- Outstanding mortgage balance = $100,000
- Remaining car loan and credit card balances = $25,000
- College tuition estimates for two children = $120,000
- Funeral costs and final expenses estimate = $20,000
Subtotal = $1.39 million
(Subtract $150,000 group life insurance and $40,000 in savings)
Total life insurance coverage needed = $1.2 million
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Tips for calculating how much life insurance you need
Keep these questions in mind to help you calculate life insurance coverage needs:
Why do you need life insurance?
Think of life insurance as part of your overall financial plan. That plan should take into account future expenses, such as college costs, and the expected growth of your income or assets. Be prepared to reassess your life insurance needs in the future as your situation changes.
Who will your life insurance payout support?
Talk with your family. How much money does your spouse think the family would need to carry on without you? Do your estimates make sense to them? For example, would your family need to replace your full income or just a portion?
How long will you need life insurance?
Consider buying multiple, smaller life insurance policies. You can buy more than one life insurance policy to vary your coverage as your needs ebb and flow. For instance, you could buy a 30-year term life insurance policy to cover your spouse until your retirement and a 20-year term policy to cover your children until they graduate from college. This strategy is called “laddering.”
Ultimately, make sure to buy what you can afford. Say you’ve estimated that you need $500,000 of life insurance, but that amount of coverage isn’t in your budget. It’s better to buy a smaller policy than nothing at all and get more coverage later as your finances allow.
🤓 Nerdy Tip
Plan for inflation. Your income will likely increase over the years, and so will your expenses. While you can’t anticipate exactly how much either will increase, a cushion helps make sure your spouse and kids can maintain their lifestyle regardless of inflation. Should I get term or whole life insurance?
Term life insurance is cheaper than whole life insurance, but it covers you only for a certain period of time. Term life insurance is sufficient for most people, but permanent coverage from whole life insurance can be useful in some cases.
Term life insurance
Less expensive: Term life insurance is generally the cheapest type of life insurance.
Temporary: Term life insurance lasts for a set period of time, such as 10, 20 or 30 years. You might buy a 30-year policy to cover your mortgage or a 20-year policy to cover your income until your kids go to college, for example.
No cash value: You can't cash out or borrow against the value of a term life insurance policy.
Who it's for: Most people. Term life insurance is a good fit if you want affordable coverage that lasts a specific amount of time.
Whole life insurance
More expensive: Whole life insurance can be significantly pricier than term life insurance.
Permanent: Whole life insurance can last your entire life, so you’ll want to take into future plans or lifestyle changes like buying a house or having a family, as well as final expenses, such as burial costs.
Builds cash value: Over time, whole life insurance policies grow in cash value, which you might be able to cash out or borrow against.
Who it's for: People who can afford higher premiums for permanent coverage that builds cash value over time.
Ready to buy a policy? Compare life insurance quotes to estimate your costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need life insurance?
Life insurance is a good idea if your death would place a financial burden on others — for instance, if a spouse, parent, business partner or children rely on your income or contributions for their own financial support.
Another reason for purchasing life insurance is to help cover any outstanding debts such as a mortgage, to pay for final expenses like burial costs or to help heirs avoid estate taxes.
Is $500,000 enough life insurance?
For some people, a death benefit of $500,000 may be enough to cover final expenses and pay off outstanding debts. However, it may not be enough to serve as a long-term method of income replacement.
To estimate how much life insurance you need, add up everything you pay for now such as a mortgage or child care. Then add in everything you might need to pay for in the future like college tuition. It might also make sense to add in a cushion for any final expenses or long-term care costs for aging parents or children with special needs.
How much life insurance do I need at 60?
There’s no set rule for how much life insurance you need at each age, but there may be a few reasons you’d need less life insurance at 60 than you did at age 40 or 50.
Depending on when you plan to retire, you may need less life insurance as an income replacement. You might have already paid off any large debts like a mortgage, and any children could be financially supporting themselves by the time you are 60. If this is the case, a smaller whole life insurance policy could support your retirement income or pay for final expenses or you may not require life insurance at all.
What is the "human life value" method?
The human life value or human life calculation is a way to estimate your income based on what you might earn in the future. There are various ways to do this, but one method is to take the average annual income in your field for a younger professional or tradesperson under 40 and multiply it by 30.
For those over 40, consider multiplying the average annual income for experienced professionals or those at the leadership level in your profession or trade by 20 instead.
