How Much Life Insurance Do You Actually Need? A Connecticut Family Worksheet

If you read Day 1 of this series, you already know the rule-of-thumb answer. Today we are going to replace that rule of thumb with an actual number.

The rule of "10–15× your income" exists because it is fast, but it ignores everything that makes your situation specific: how much mortgage you have left on your Glastonbury home, whether your spouse works, how many kids you have, and where they might go to college. The worksheet below is what we walk Connecticut clients through during a free coverage review — you can do it yourself in 10 minutes.

The DIME-plus method

DIME stands for Debts, Income replacement, Mortgage, Education. The "plus" is the additional Connecticut-specific costs most calculators forget — childcare replacement, household labor replacement, and final expenses.

D — Debts

Total up everything you owe other than your mortgage: credit cards, auto loans, student loans, personal loans, medical debt, and any business debt you personally guaranteed. The goal is to wipe these out so your surviving family is not making payments on your behalf.

For a typical Hartford-metro household, debt totals usually land between $25,000 and $75,000.

I — Income replacement

Multiply your gross annual income by the number of years your family would need that income replaced. The right multiplier depends on your situation:

• Young kids at home: 18–25 years (until the youngest reaches independence).
• Teens at home: 8–15 years.
• Empty nesters with working spouse: 5–10 years.
• Single income household: add 3–5 years to whichever bracket above.

Why not multiply by all working years until retirement? Because death benefits are paid as a lump sum that can be invested. Even a conservative 4% withdrawal rate on a properly invested benefit produces decades of income. The Insurance Information Institute publishes useful national benchmarks here too.

M — Mortgage

Take the current outstanding balance on your mortgage. The goal is to leave the home free and clear so your surviving spouse and children are not forced to sell or downsize during a period of grief.

Hartford-area benchmarks for early 2026:

• West Hartford: median single-family $475,000; typical mortgage balance $300K–$425K.
• Glastonbury: median $510,000; typical balance $325K–$450K.
• Hartford (city): median $245,000; typical balance $175K–$220K.
• Farmington: median $445,000; typical balance $290K–$395K.
• South Windsor: median $385,000; typical balance $250K–$340K.

E — Education

Estimate the cost of educating each dependent child. Use these 2026 Connecticut benchmarks:

• UConn (in-state, on campus): roughly $34,000/year × 4 = $136,000 per child.
• CT private universities (Trinity, Wesleyan, Yale): $85,000–$95,000/year × 4 = $340,000–$380,000 per child.
• Out-of-state public: $50,000–$70,000/year × 4 = $200,000–$280,000 per child.

Most Connecticut families plan around the in-state UConn number unless they have a clear college plan in mind.

+ — The "plus" Connecticut families miss

Three categories regularly get left off the worksheet:

• Childcare replacement if a stay-at-home parent dies. Hartford-area daycare costs roughly $18,000–$26,000 per child per year. Add this for each child until they reach school age, then add after-school care ($6,000–$10,000/year) until age 12.
• Household labor — cleaning, lawn care, snow removal, meal preparation, errands. Replacement value in the Hartford area runs $15,000–$25,000 per year.
• Final expenses. Funeral and burial in the Hartford metro now averages $9,000–$14,000. Add another $5,000 for related closing-of-affairs costs.

A worked example: the typical West Hartford family

Meet the Bennetts: Mike (38, software engineer, $145,000 income) and Priya (36, marketing director, $115,000 income). Two kids, ages 6 and 8. They own a Colonial in West Hartford with a $385,000 mortgage balance, $18,000 in auto loans, and $8,000 in credit card debt. Both kids are likely UConn-bound.

Here is Mike's coverage need:

Mike actually needs around $3M in coverage — far above the rule-of-thumb $1.45M (10× income) and significantly higher than the $2.18M his employer's 1.5× salary group plan would provide. We cover the group plan gap on Day 7.

Priya's worksheet runs similarly: $2,070,000 income replacement + her share of debt and final expenses = roughly $2.4M of coverage need.

What about stay-at-home parents?

Stay-at-home parents are routinely under-insured because their economic value does not show up on a W-2. The replacement cost of full-time childcare, household management, transportation, meal prep, and after-school logistics in the Hartford area runs $80,000–$120,000 per year.

Most stay-at-home parents in Connecticut should carry $500,000–$1,000,000 of term life insurance — not the token $50,000 most agents recommend. We dive deeper into this on Day 9, the new-parent guide.

What can be subtracted from your need

Three things legitimately reduce the death benefit you need to buy:

1. Existing retirement and savings. 401(k), IRA, brokerage, savings accounts — assets that pass to your spouse can reduce the income-replacement portion of the need.
2. Social Security survivor benefits. Your surviving spouse and minor children may be entitled to monthly Social Security survivor benefits. The SSA's survivor benefit estimator shows what to expect — for a typical Hartford-area earner, this is often $2,500–$3,800/month for a spouse with minor kids.
3. Existing employer-provided coverage — but only the portion that travels with you or that you would have for the term you are calculating. For most people, this should NOT be subtracted because it disappears when you leave the job. (See Day 10 for why.)

Frequently asked questions

Tomorrow: A harder truth — why most Hartford residents are dramatically underinsured, and why it is not their fault.