How Much Life Insurance Coverage Should I Have?
Generic multiples of your income are a starting point, not an answer — here's a more complete way to size your coverage.
Beyond The '10x Your Salary' Rule
You've probably heard some version of 'get 10x your income' — it's not wrong, but it's incomplete. It ignores your actual debt, how many years until your kids are independent, whether a spouse works, and what you want covered beyond just replacing income.
A Better Framework: DIME
A more complete approach adds up four categories: Debt (everything beyond the mortgage — credit cards, loans), Income (years of income you want replaced, times your annual pay), Mortgage (your remaining balance), and Education (future costs like college for your kids). Add those together and you get a number grounded in your actual life, not a generic rule of thumb.
Where This Gets Personal
Two families with the same income can have very different needs — one has aging parents to support, another has a special-needs child with lifelong care costs, another is five years from an empty nest. This is exactly why a real conversation beats a calculator: the number should reflect your actual situation, not an average.