Life Insurance Needs Calculator

Ninety-two million American adults need life insurance or need more of it, according to LIMRA's 2026 Insurance Barometer, and only 52 percent own any policy at all. The reason most of them give for not buying is cost, and the cost is the thing they get most wrong: healthy adults under 35 overestimate the price of a term policy by 7 to 12 times. A healthy 35-year-old man can buy $1,050,000 of 20-year term insurance for about $76 a month, which is less than a tank of gas, and the number that matters is not the premium, it is the coverage, which this ledger builds from your debts, your income, your mortgage, and your children's education, minus what you already have, so the gap it returns is the amount your family would actually be short, not a round number that sounded fine at a benefits fair five years ago.

Sources: LIMRA and Life Happens, 2026 Insurance Barometer Study (fielded January 2026, 5,237 adult financial decision-makers): 92 million U.S. adults need life insurance or more coverage; 52 percent own at least one policy; 38 percent have a need-gap; 18 percent of owners say they do not have enough. 2025 Insurance Barometer Study: about 100 million adults in the need gap; 51 percent own; 47 percent say their loved ones would barely or not at all be financially secure within six months if the primary wage earner died; 61 percent of non-owners say they need it; three-quarters of adults overestimate the true cost, and healthy adults 35 and under overestimate by 7 to 12 times; cost is the top reason for not buying, at 46 percent. Premium rates: Policygenius Life Insurance Price Index, 20-year term, $500,000, preferred non-smoker, monthly: men $29 at 30, $43 at 40, $102 at 50, $268 at 60; women $23, $35, $78, $149; whole life $472 a month at 30 for the same $500,000, about 16 times the term price. National Funeral Directors Association, 2024 General Price List Study: median funeral with viewing and burial $8,300; with viewing and cremation $6,280. Model: DIME total is debts plus income times years to replace plus mortgage plus education for all children plus final expenses; the gap is the total minus savings and existing insurance; the recommendation rounds the gap up to the next $50,000; the premium is an illustrative interpolation of the Policygenius table, scaled by coverage, not a quote. This is a planning estimate, not financial advice, and not an insurance quote.

Step 1 — The income to replace

The income is the largest line in the ledger, because it is the only line that runs for years. Ten years of a $75,000 income is $750,000, which is 61 percent of the DIME total on the defaults, and which is the amount that keeps the household running while the children grow and the mortgage is paid. The years default to 10, which is the middle of the range most planners use, and which covers the youngest child to adulthood in the usual case, though a family with a newborn and a 30-year mortgage should use 15 or 20. Set the years to 0 if nobody depends on your income, because then there is no income to replace, and the ledger prices only your debts and final expenses, which is the right answer for a single person with no dependents. The rule of thumb is 10 to 12 times your income, which is $750,000 to $900,000 on the defaults, and which is a quick gut check, not a plan, because it ignores the mortgage and the education, and the DIME total on the same family is $1,230,000, which is $280,000 more than the 10-times rule after the coverage already held is counted.

Step 2 — The debts and the house

The debts are the bills that do not die with you, and the mortgage is the largest of them. Twenty thousand dollars of non-mortgage debt plus a $250,000 mortgage is $270,000 that the family would still owe on the day after, and which is why the DIME method lists them separately from the income: the income keeps the household running, and the debts clear the balance sheet, and both have to be paid. A family that rents enters zero for the mortgage, and a family that owns outright enters zero too, and the ledger falls by $250,000, which is the difference between a renter's need and an owner's need, and which is why the same income produces a different coverage number in the two cases. The debts default to $20,000, which is the example the DIME guides use, and which is the figure to replace with the number from your own statements, because the debts are the line most people underestimate, and the credit card balance that feels small at $200 a month is $20,000 of principal that the family would owe in full.

Step 3 — The children and the end

Two children at $100,000 each is $200,000, which is the education line on the defaults, and which is the amount to set aside if you want the children's schooling paid for without the income that would have paid for it. A four-year public college costs about $145,000 all-in per the college calculator on this site, so $100,000 a child is a partial fund, not a full one, and the household that wants the full cost should enter $145,000, which raises the total by $90,000. The final expenses default to $10,000, which covers the National Funeral Directors Association's median funeral with viewing and burial of $8,300, with room for the costs the median does not include, because the cemetery plot, the headstone, and the opening and closing of the grave are billed separately, and the family that budgets $10,000 is budgeting the funeral, not the funeral plus the cemetery. The youngest child's age sets the term: at 5, the child is 13 years from adulthood, so the calculator suggests a 15-year term, which covers the years the child depends on you with two years to spare.

Step 4 — What you already have

Fifty thousand dollars of savings plus $150,000 of existing insurance is $200,000 already covered, which is the amount subtracted from the DIME total, and which is why the gap is $1,030,000 and not $1,230,000. The existing insurance defaults to $150,000, which is twice a $75,000 salary, and which is the usual workplace default: most group policies pay one to two times salary, which is $75,000 to $150,000 on the defaults, and which is a fraction of the $1,050,000 the family actually needs, and which ends the month the job ends, because group coverage is tied to the employer and not to the person. The savings are the money the family could spend without selling the house, and the retirement accounts count only if the family could actually reach them, because a 401(k) that the spouse cannot touch without a penalty is not the same as a savings account. The age and sex set the premium estimate only: a 35-year-old man pays about $76 a month for $1,050,000 of 20-year term, and a woman the same age pays about $61, because women live longer and the insurer prices that in.

The ledger

THE GAP IS REAL

A family earning $75,000 with a $250,000 mortgage, $20,000 of other debt, and two children needs $1,230,000 in total: $750,000 to replace ten years of income, $250,000 to clear the mortgage, $200,000 for the children's education, and $20,000 of debt plus $10,000 of final expenses. It already has $200,000 covered, $50,000 of savings and $150,000 of insurance, so the gap is $1,030,000, and the recommendation rounds that up to $1,050,000. The 10-times rule would have said $750,000, which is $280,000 short, because the flat multiple ignores the mortgage and the education. A healthy 35-year-old man pays about $76 a month for $1,050,000 of 20-year term, and a woman about $61, and the whole-life price for the same cover runs about $1,210 a month, which is 16 times the term price, and which is the reason the term policy is the default choice for a family buying protection, not an investment.

What the years do to the number

Four versions of the same family, differing only in how many years of income the coverage replaces. Five years of income is $375,000 of replacement, for a DIME total of $855,000 and a gap of $655,000, recommended $700,000 at about $50 a month. Ten years is the default: $750,000 of replacement, $1,230,000 total, $1,030,000 gap, $1,050,000 recommended at about $76 a month. Fifteen years is $1,125,000 of replacement, $1,605,000 total, $1,405,000 gap, $1,450,000 recommended at about $104 a month. Twenty years is $1,500,000 of replacement, $1,980,000 total, $1,780,000 gap, $1,800,000 recommended at about $130 a month. The premium roughly doubles between five years and twenty, from $50 to $130 a month, while the coverage more than doubles, from $700,000 to $1,800,000, because the premium is priced on the coverage and the age, not on the years of replacement. The years are the choice that matters most, because they are the choice about how long the family needs the income, and the family with a newborn should use 15 or 20, while the family with a teenager can use 5 or 10.

What the same $500,000 costs at every age

The price of $500,000 of 20-year term insurance for a healthy non-smoker, from the Policygenius price index. A 20-year-old man pays $29 a month, and so does a 30-year-old, because the mortality risk barely moves in the twenties. At 40 the same man pays $43, at 50 he pays $102, and at 60 he pays $268, which is 9.2 times the price at 30, because the risk of dying in the next twenty years rises steeply after 50. A woman pays less at every age: $23 at 20 and 30, $35 at 40, $78 at 50, and $149 at 60, which is about 20 percent less than a man the same age at 30, and 44 percent less at 60. The table is the reason the cheapest time to buy is now, and the second-cheapest time is next year, and the reason to lock a 20- or 30-year term while young is that the price is set at the age you buy, not the age you are when you claim: a 30-year-old who locks a 20-year term pays $29 a month until 50, while a 50-year-old buying the same cover for the first time pays $102.

The premium estimate on this page interpolates this table for your age and sex, then scales it by your recommended coverage. It is an illustrative ballpark from published price-index rates, not a quote: your own price depends on your health class, your smoking status, and the insurer, and a smoker pays roughly three and a half times a non-smoker for the same cover. Get three quotes before buying, and buy the term length that covers the years someone depends on you.

The number to carry out of this page is the gap, not the premium, because the premium is the price of the answer and the gap is the answer. One million thirty thousand dollars is the amount this family would be short, and $76 a month is what it costs to close it, and the ratio between those two numbers is the whole argument for term life insurance: the protection is a thousand times the price, and the price is less than a tank of gas, and the family that does not buy it is not saving $76 a month, it is leaving a $1,030,000 hole in the budget for the people who would inherit it. The second number to carry is the 10-times rule's shortfall, because $750,000 sounds like a lot of insurance until the mortgage and the education are counted, and the shortfall is $280,000, which is the amount the flat multiple silently drops. The third number is the term, because a 15-year term that ends when the youngest child is 20 is the right length, and a 10-year term that ends when the child is 15 is not, and the length is set by the child, not by the premium. The calculator on this site prices all of it on your income, your debts, your mortgage, and your children, in the time it takes to type them.