How much life cover does a family actually need?
Every calculator online will tell you to insure ten times your salary. It is a tidy number and it is almost never the right one, because it ignores the two things that actually decide the figure: what you owe, and how long other people will depend on you.
Start with the debt, not the salary
Add up the mortgage balance, any loans, and the cost of raising each dependent child to the point they leave education. That total is the floor. Anything a partner already has in savings or a workplace death-in-service benefit comes off the top.
- Outstanding mortgage and secured loans
- Unsecured debt you would not want inherited
- Years of household income still needed
- Education and childcare to the end of school
Then decide how long
A term policy that ends when the youngest child turns twenty-two costs a fraction of whole-of-life cover, and for most families that is exactly the window that matters. Buy the term you need rather than the term a calculator suggests.
Nadia writes about personal insurance, claims and the small print most people never read. She has spent twelve years helping families pick cover that actually pays out.
More Posts by Nadia Okafor
The debt-first framing finally made this click for me. I had been anchored on the salary multiple for years.
Worth adding that death-in-service usually stops the day you leave the employer. Easy to over-count.