Larry Light (Contributor with Forbes) had a good article about this
How much income do your survivors need if you aren’t around? This is the only thing that really matters when it comes to determining how much life insurance you need. But to answer this you have to first add up your answers for the above questions.
Let’s say you know you spend $6,000 each month to pay all your bills including taxes. You calculate this using a personal budgeting software program so you know you are on target.
Let’s also assume that this $6,000 pays for everything including future college education, automobile purchases and retirement. Of the $6,000, you earn $3,500 and your husband earns $2,500.
You run a financial plan and figure that by age 65, your maximum Social Security benefit and income from your investments will replace your earned income. That’s when you retire. (Without a financial plan it’s really tough to know how much insurance you need.)
After you do this exercise, you know that you need to replace your income until you reach 65. That’s $3,500 per month for you and $2,500 for your husband.
Your monthly income is equivalent to $42,000 a year. You need enough term insurance so that if you pass away, you could invest the proceeds and earn $42,000 after tax. How do you calculate that?
If you assume you could earn 5% on the money, simply divide $42,000 by 5% and you have your answer. In this example, the number is $840,000. That’s how much savings you need to invest at 5% to earn $42,000.
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