Size your life insurance need with income replacement, your mortgage, debts and education — minus savings and survivor benefits. Free, no quotes.
Pick a situation, then edit any field to match yours.
What your family would have to replace, and for how long.
Counted once: replacing your income already covers the payment while both run.
Survivor benefits, a spouse's pay or a pension reduce what a policy has to do.
This is an educational estimate of how much cover you need, not insurance or financial advice, and not a quote. Your circumstances vary; consider speaking with a licensed advisor.
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Most people are handed a rule of thumb — ten times your salary, maybe fifteen — and left to guess from there. This calculator does the itemised version instead: it replaces your income for as long as your family would need it, adds what is genuinely still owed on the mortgage, adds debts, education and final expenses, then subtracts what your family would already have. It also does the job the shorthand cannot: it discounts the income stream, because a payout gets invested while it is being drawn, and it counts your mortgage once rather than twice. There is a second mode for the narrower question — how much cover clears the mortgage, over what term, for one life or two.
DIME — Debts, Income, Mortgage, Education — is the popular shorthand for sizing a policy, and it gets the ingredients right. Where it goes wrong is the arithmetic. It multiplies income by years with no discounting, as if the payout sat in a drawer earning nothing for two decades. It adds the whole mortgage balance on top of an income figure that was already paying that mortgage, funding the same payment twice. And it has nowhere to record the survivor benefits, spouse's earnings or pension a family would actually keep receiving — which for a household with young children is often the largest single number in the whole calculation. Fix those three and the itemised need usually lands near the 10×–15× shorthand instead of two or three times it.
Coverage formula
The longest replacement horizon and the largest education bill. Also the case where survivor benefits matter most, because children under 18 qualify.
You only want the loan cleared. The mortgage mode gives the cover, the matching term, and what level cover costs you over decreasing.
Two names on the mortgage. Compare one joint first-death policy against two single ones — same loan, very different outcomes if you separate.
You have a policy from an employer or an older purchase. Enter it and the calculator reports the gap rather than the gross number.
Nobody relies on your income, so the need collapses to debts somebody else would inherit plus final expenses — usually far below any income multiple.
A short replacement window, a nearly-paid mortgage and substantial savings. The need is often much smaller than it was a decade ago.
Replacing your income already pays the mortgage while both run. Only what would still be owed after that is charged to the policy — the single biggest reason simple DIME calculators overstate.
A payout is invested while it is drawn down. Twenty years of income is worth less than twenty times one year, and the calculator says by how much.
Social Security survivor benefits, a spouse's pay and a pension all reduce what a policy has to do. Most calculators have no field for them at all.
If the only job is clearing the loan, switch modes: cover needed today, the term to match, and decreasing versus level compared side by side.
Your itemised number is shown against the 10×–15× shorthand, with a plain explanation of why they differ — rather than a contradiction you have to referee.
No premium is quoted and no details are collected. This estimates need; pricing is a carrier's job.
Enough to replace the income your dependants would lose, clear the debts they would inherit, and pay for anything you were going to fund — typically education. Subtract what they already have: savings, survivor benefits, a spouse's income and any existing policy. For most households with children that lands somewhere between five and fifteen times income, but the itemised number is the one to act on.
Two reasons, both deliberate. Other calculators multiply income by years with no discounting, which ignores that the payout is invested while it is drawn. And they add the whole mortgage balance on top of an income figure that was already covering the mortgage payment — funding the same payment twice. This calculator discounts the income stream and charges only the part of the mortgage that income replacement does not already cover.
Ten to fifteen times income is the common shorthand, and it is a reasonable starting point for a median household. It has no way to know about a large mortgage, three children heading to university, or a spouse who earns as much as you do. When the itemised number and the shorthand disagree, the itemised one knows more about you.
It is your call, and the calculator handles both. If the policy clears it, your family owns the home outright and no longer needs the payment — so only what would still be owed when income replacement ends is charged. If they keep paying it, the mortgage is not added at all, because the replaced income covers the payment. What you must not do is both, which is what adding the full balance to an undiscounted income multiple does.
It is what a lump sum earns above inflation. Your family draws the money over years while the rest stays invested, so the pot does not need to hold the full nominal sum on day one. Two percent is deliberately cautious for a conservative mix. Enter zero if you would rather assume the money sits in cash and simply keeps pace with prices.
Social Security survivor benefits, a surviving spouse's earnings, a pension or annuity that continues, and rental income. Survivor benefits are usually the largest and the most overlooked: a surviving spouse caring for a young child and the children themselves can each qualify, subject to a family maximum. Check your own figure with the Social Security Administration rather than guessing.
Because it depends on your full earnings record and the age of each child, and a wrong figure here moves the answer by hundreds of thousands. The honest version is a field you fill in from your Social Security statement. A number we invented would look more helpful and be worth less.
Decreasing cover falls with the balance, so it always clears the loan and rarely much more — the cheaper shape, and what most mortgage-protection policies are. Level cover stays at the opening balance the whole term, so it pays a surplus that grows as the loan shrinks. That surplus goes to your family, which is genuinely useful, but you are paying for it every month.
A joint first-death policy pays out once, on the first death, and clears the mortgage. It is cheaper than two policies. Two single policies pay separately, so the survivor still holds cover of their own, and they survive a separation — a joint policy generally does not. If cost is the constraint, joint; if flexibility matters, two singles.
No, and deliberately so. Premiums depend on age, health, tobacco use, family history and each carrier's underwriting, and any number produced without those is theatre. This calculator sizes the need. For how a permanent policy's cash value and return actually behave, see our whole life insurance calculator.
Term covers a defined period for a fraction of the cost, and matches the shape of most needs — which fall as debts clear, children grow up and savings build. Whole life costs several times more and builds cash value, which suits a permanent need such as estate liquidity. Most families buying to protect income and a mortgage need term.
Yes to both, and the calculator treats them differently on purpose. Savings reduce the need itself, because they are already there to be spent. Existing cover does not change the need — it changes the gap, which is what you actually have to go and buy. That is why they appear at different points in the calculation.
Around 110,000 to 120,000 for four years at an in-state public university in 2026, including living costs, and roughly double that for a private one. Adjust for how many years away it is and what you expect to be covered by savings, scholarships or the child's own earnings.
Any time the inputs move materially — a birth, a move, a new mortgage, a large raise, a job change that alters group cover, or a divorce. Otherwise once a year. The need usually falls over time as the mortgage shrinks and savings grow, which is worth knowing before you renew a policy.