Here is a guide you can use to figure out an amount of life insurance death benefit your family will need.
- It is better to have some life insurance than none, so buy what you can afford.
- At a minimum you want to have ten times your annual income in death benefit. If you make $75,000 per year, you will want to have at least $750,000 of life insurance death benefit.
- If you just started a family and have young children, you should have twenty times your income in death benefit. With young children you must account for the extra expenses. Children make household expenses go up as they grow. You’ll need more life insurance death benefit.
- If you have a mortgage, unpaid credit card debt, or other loans that your surviving spouse will be responsible for add those to the amount of money your loved ones will need.
- Buy as much of the life insurance death benefit amount as your budget will allow.
