You brought up a good point. Social Security pays benefits to children up to a certain age if one dies. Social Security Administration sends benefits estimate by mail every year. They also provide some online calculators. The Social Security benefits can be deducted from the replacement income need number. If there is not already a calculator online that incorporates this, I promise to make one.

You may want to use a calculator that figures out the present value of a future income stream, selected by the user, and it works pretty well. But it IS mathematical, and unfortunately, some people don’t relate to numbers very well.

One simple way I’ve found to estimate the economic value of your life, intuitively, is to ask yourself the question, “If I could receive, in cash, the death benefit on my life insurance today, would I be willing to work (and live) the rest of my life without pay?” If you say, “yes”, then you probably have enough life insurance. If not, you don’t!