How much life insurance do we need?

How much life insurance do we needHow much life insurance do we need?

Several individuals plan for their investments, but miss to plan for their life insurance. Do you know how much life insurance do we need? Here are some of the tips on how to compute the amount of life insurance an individual may require.

There are several methods to compute on how much life insurance do we need and there is no hard and fast rule for this.

a) Simple computation: Under this method, one can compute the life insurance by multiplying their annual income with 8 or 10 times. The assumption here is an individual’s family can survive for 8 to 10 years in the absence of the insurer. E.g. If an individual has Rs 5 lakh per annum income, he need to take Rs 40 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs as insurance. This is the quickest and simplest way to compute know how much life insurance do we need.

You may also like : LIC Jeevan Sugam – Review

b) Capital fund method: Under this method, one can compute the insurance requirement by calculating the yield of the life insurance value. E.g. If a person has an annual income of Rs 5 lakh, then to earn this Rs 5 lakh per annum @ 8 % interest p.a, an individual requires Rs 60 Lakhs as capital. So an individual can take Rs 60 lakhs as insurance for him or her and in case the insurer is not there, his family can deposit in a bank and earn Rs 5 lakhs per annum @ 8% interest.

c) Family need method or detailed insurance coverage method: Insurance can be taken by adopting a detailed method. This method is generally advised by many financial advisors too.

Compute regular expenses: Consider all regular expenses which are required to run our home. Add any quarterly or yearly expenses and apportion this as monthly regular expenses. It includes all groceries, mobile charges, rents, insurance, etc. The amount of such regular expenses should be computed for 8 to 10 years time period. e.g. if all such expenses per month are coming to Rs 25,000 per month, then the amount required under this category would be Rs 25,000 x 12 (months in a year) x 10 years = Rs 30 lakhs

Debts: Consider all house loan debts, car loans, personal loans etc., which you are paying every month. Your family should not end up in selling them to pay-off debts when you are not there. Assume that the total debts are Rs 15 lakhs.

Children education: Education has become costly and fees are increasing year on year. If you consider 5% annualized increase in year on year education cost, estimate what would be the approximate cost of your child education. Assume that it is Rs 5 lakhs.

Add any other expenses which are not forming part of above costs.

Now the total amounts required running your house + pay-off all debts + completing child education, would cost you Rs 50 lakhs. Means, you should take a life insurance for Rs 50 lakhs to meet your family needs under this method. This is the accurate way to compute on how much life insurance we may require.

Also read: How to choose best term insurance plans

Now you would have got doubt about the premiums charged by life insurance companies to take such insurance. Consider taking term insurance policies where you pay very less premium and get high insurance coverage.

This way, you can plan well on life insurance and keep your family secured even when you are not there. How many of us know that we can achieve such goals even when we are not there by doing a simple planning well ahead of time.

Readers, have you planned your life insurance properly? What are your experiences?

If you like this article, please share it with your friends on Facebook and twitter. The links are given at the bottom of the article.

Suresh
How much life insurance do we need

Suresh KP

12 comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *