Understanding and Controlling Your Finances

Life Insurance Calculator

The following calculator helps you to determine the total amount of life insurance that you will need. You should rerun this calculation each time you have a child or your life changes significantly.

Expenses
Living expenses - Using the Cash Flow Calculator determine how much money your family will need per month to live life as it does now. Adjust this number up or down to account for things such as diminished expenses in your absense, additional child care expenses in your absence, health care coverage that will dissappear should you die, etc.
Funeral expenses - Funeral and other expenses run between $4,000 and $10,000.
Estate administration expenses - Your spouse will be charged perhaps 5% of your family's asset value to handle the estate. Use the Net Worth Calculator to determine your asset value (not the net worth - the asset value). Multiply by 5% to determine administration expenses.
Taxes - If your net assets total more tha $600,000, your spouse will have to pay perhaps 40% in taxes on it. You will want to see an estate lawyer to ameliorate this expense, but account for it here.
Mortgage and other loan payoffs - It would make life much easier for your family if all loans were erased.
College expenses - If you plan to send your children to college, enter $25,000 for each child for state college or $75,000 per child for private college. Be sure to multiply by the number of children.
Other expenses - Enter any other expenses you may wish to cover, such as emergencies, cars for the kids, etc., in today's dollars.
Income
Spouse's Income - Enter your spouse's annual income after taxes. You may want for your spouse to be able to stop working in the event of your death, and if that is the case enter zero here.
Social Security Income - Enter the amount of money your spouse will receive from Social Security. Social security benefits are paid immediately if you have children under age 18 and they remain in school. You may call the social security administration to get an exact reading based on your contributions and number of children. If you have children and want to enter a rough but fairly accurate number use $20,000. If you do not have children enter 0.
Other Income - Enter the total annual income your spouse will receive from any other sources.
Other Information
Years of social security - Enter the number of years until your youngest child reaches age 18. If you have no children enter 0 here.
Spouse's age - Enter your spouse's age.
Existing Life Insurance - Enter the value of any existing life insurance policies you have.
Click this button to calculate the total amount of life insurance you need.
Total Life Insurance - This is the total amount of life insurance you need.

If the Total Life Insurance figure is negative, then you do not need additional life insurance. Otherwise purchase the amount of insurance indicated.

This calculator makes several assumptions and it will be helpful if you understand them:

It is assumed that all life insurance money will be deposited in ultra-safe investments such as CDs should you die. This is generally the case. It is assumed that CD rates of return, after taking taxes and inflation into account, are zero.
Your current assets such as retirement accounts, home equity, etc. are not considered in order to simplify the calculation. A financial planner or estate lawyer would be a good person to talk to if you have significant assets.
It is assumed that your spouse has no outside retirement savings, will retire at age 65 and will live to age 95. During retirement, your spouse's living expenses are assumed to be 80% of the expenses entered in the Living Expenses field.
"Spousal income" and "Other income" are assumed to end at age 65.

BYG Publishing, Inc.
http://www.bygpub.com - info@bygpub.com
P.O. Box 40492 - Raleigh, NC 27629

Questions or comments, email:
questions@bygpub.com

© 1997 BYG Publishing, Inc.