The Life Insurance Needs Calculator Pack: Seven linked calculators, every formula checked by recalculation

Seven calculators for working out how much life insurance your own numbers point to. Sheet 1 runs the DIME method (debt, income, mortgage, education), sheet 2 turns years of income into a lump sum today at a discount rate you choose, and sheet 3 subtracts what you already have to show the gap ($1,022,059 in the worked example). Later sheets find the term length your youngest child and mortgage call for, price a stay-at-home parent's work, and compare premiums you have been quoted. Every figure is an example for you to overwrite, and premium cells take your own quotes. These are estimates, not insurance, financial or legal advice, and they do not recommend a policy, an amount or an insurer. Every formula was recalculated and checked against an independent implementation before this shipped.

What is in it

7 calculators, one per sheet. Overwrite the blue cells with your own numbers and everything else follows. Nothing is locked, there are no macros, and it opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.

• DIME method: What do debt, income, mortgage and education add up to?
• Income replacement (PV): What lump sum today replaces the income for the years needed?
• Needs minus what you have: How much new coverage closes the gap after what you have?
• Term length: What term length, in years, covers the need?
• Stay-at-home parent: What would it cost to replace a stay-at-home parent's work?
• Term vs permanent premiums: What do your term and permanent quotes cost side by side?
• Coverage ladder: What do two policies of different terms cost against one?

Every formula was checked

This pack contains 45 formulas. Before it was published, every one of them was recalculated by a spreadsheet engine and compared against an independent implementation of the same arithmetic written in Python. All 45 agreed to within a cent, and the workbook carries a Verification sheet saying so.

That is an unusual thing to be able to claim about a spreadsheet, and it is the main reason to buy this one rather than download a free template. A formula that looks right and is wrong is worse than no formula at all, because you will act on it.

What each calculator assumes

There is a sheet listing this, because a calculator that hides its assumptions is just a number generator:

• DIME adds the four figures at face value: no interest is earned on the payout, no inflation, and nothing you already own or hold in coverage is subtracted. Every figure is yours to set.
• The family draws the same amount every year; the discount rate is a real return above inflation, so the yearly figure keeps its buying power. Taxes on the earnings are not modeled.
• Every need is paid on day one from the payout; the income figure is already discounted on sheet 2, the others are not. Savings counted here are only what you would want spent this way. A payout's tax treatment is not modeled.
• The need ends when both the youngest child is independent and the mortgage is paid; years until you stop working are shown for reference only. Quoted terms are entered shortest first. Which terms an insurer offers you is the insurer's.
• The work is bought at the prices you enter, every week of every year counted, paid at each year end. A surviving parent's own time or lost earnings are not added.
• Both premiums stay level for the years compared. The difference is invested at the end of each month at the rate you enter, before tax. The cash value is your illustration's figure for that year; this sheet does not project one.
• Premiums are level for each policy's term and every policy runs to the end of its term. Policy A is the longer one. Whether your need falls as the sheet assumes is your estimate; nothing here predicts it.

What this is not

Not financial, tax or legal advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, borrow or sign anything. These are calculators: they show what a choice costs, not which choice is right for you. Where a published rate or threshold is used it is the one current when the pack was built. Those change, the arithmetic does not.

Honest about the format

One .xlsx workbook, 7 calculator sheets plus Start Here, Assumptions and Verification. Not a PDF, not a physical product, not a Notion template. Available immediately after purchase; nothing ships.

Refunds

If this isn't what you expected, email me within 30 days and I'll refund you in full, no need to explain. Because it's an instant download I can't take the file back, so I'd rather you just had your money back.