Term Life Insurance Needs Calculator

How much life insurance is enough? The DIME method adds up what your family would actually need — Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education — then subtracts what you already have. No email, no sales call.

D — Debt & final expenses Non-mortgage debt (cards, auto, loans) Final expenses (funeral, medical)

I — Income replacement Annual income to replace Years to replace it

M — Mortgage Remaining mortgage balance

E — Education Number of children to educate Estimated cost per child

What you already have Existing life insurance Liquid savings / investments

How this works

DIME is a widely used rule of thumb for sizing term life insurance. You add four things your family would have to cover if your income disappeared: Debt and final expenses, Income replacement for a set number of years, the remaining Mortgage, and future Education costs. Then you subtract coverage and savings you already have. What’s left is the gap a term policy is meant to fill.

Term life is usually the cheapest way to cover a temporary need like raising kids or paying off a house — which is exactly what DIME measures.

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