How Much Life Insurance Should I Purchase? 
The simplest rule of thumb to figure a face amount of life insurance is to take all of your debt -LRB- mortgage , auto , credit card , etc -RRB- plus the cost of educating your children -LRB- if you have young children -RRB- and add it together with ten times your income . For example , if you owe $ 200,000 on a mortgage , $ 20,000 in other debt and the cost of educating two young children is $ 80,000 each . You earn $ 75,000 per year . You would need to have $ 1,130,000 face amount . This would leave your family debt free , children 's college fund paid and $ 750,000 to invest for the income replace of $ 75,000 per year . I recommend using an experienced advisor to help set up the proper amounts with the proper coverage . But this is a good rule of thumb for the `` do it yourselfer '' . 