How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?

Updated on February 9, 2009.

If you have a family that's dependent on your income, then you need life insurance. Exactly how much? Truth be told, many of us have too much life insurance — thanks to fast-talking sales reps.

We'll help you find out how much you really need. Most people want enough life insurance to make sure their family can continue to live their current lifestyle even if a breadwinner passes away. To calculate what exactly that figure would be, we take into account both your spouse's and your children's annual expenses, as well as funeral costs.

If you and your spouse both work, you should each fill out a separate worksheet. You may also want to consider what sort of coverage your dependents would need in the event you and your spouse die within a short time of each other. Also, one figure you're going to need in order to fill out this worksheet is a rough estimate of your annual expenses. Our worksheet can assist with that.