DIME, broken into the questions it actually answers.

D — Debt

The total of all non-mortgage debt: credit-card balances, auto loans, personal loans, student loans, medical-debt balances. The component answers the question, “what would the surviving spouse have to clear to start clean?”

Two practitioner debates exist within the debt component. First, whether to include student loans: federal Direct Loans have a death-discharge provision (the loan is forgiven on the borrower’s death), so they need not be covered; private student loans typically do not, so they should. The conservative practice is to include all student-loan balances in the debt component unless you are certain the loans are federal and will be discharged.

Second, whether to include final expenses (funeral, burial, immediate medical bills not covered by health insurance): some practitioners treat final expenses as a separate fifth component (DIME-F); the calculator on this site folds them into the debt component, with a typical $10,000–$25,000 placeholder appropriate to most US households. Add final expenses to your debt input figure if they are material in your case.

I — Income replacement

Annual gross income times years of replacement. The component answers, “how long can the surviving family rely on a stand-in for the working income before the surviving spouse can re-establish earning capacity or before the dependents become independent?”

The years figure is the most judgment-heavy input in DIME. Practitioner conventions:

• 5 years: short-horizon coverage. Appropriate when the surviving spouse has career capacity to re-earn quickly, dependents are near-adult, or when the household has substantial separate retirement assets.
• 10 years: standard default. Bridges most households through the period where dependents grow up and the surviving spouse re-establishes career trajectory after the disruption.
• 15–20 years: long-horizon coverage. Appropriate for households with very young children, single-income households, or those where the surviving spouse’s career re-entry is genuinely uncertain.
• To-retirement: aggressive coverage. Sets years equal to (65 − insured’s current age). Produces large coverage figures and is appropriate primarily for primary earners with very young children and limited household savings.

The component does not adjust for inflation in its simple form: $80,000/year × 10 years = $800,000 in present-day dollars, which the surviving family draws down over 10 years at the original real value. If you want to adjust for inflation explicitly, multiply each year’s contribution by an inflation factor and discount back, which produces the human-life-value calculation discussed on the HLV page.

M — Mortgage

Outstanding mortgage principal balance. The component allows the surviving family to either pay off the mortgage outright (eliminating the largest recurring obligation) or to continue mortgage payments out of the income-replacement component without budget pressure.

Two notes on the mortgage component:

1. It is somewhat redundant with the income component if the income component is sized to cover the mortgage payment as part of the regular budget. Practitioners differ on whether to count the mortgage explicitly or fold it into the income-replacement years. The conservative practice (which this calculator follows) is to count the mortgage explicitly, producing a buffer that allows immediate payoff if the surviving spouse prefers debt-free housing security over income-stream maintenance.
2. It excludes second mortgages and HELOC balances in the simplest form. If your household has these, add the balance to the mortgage component.

E — Education

Total expected cost of children’s tertiary education. The component answers, “what would the deceased’s contribution to college funding have been over the next 5–20 years, and how much capital is needed to substitute for it?”

Sizing the education component requires three inputs:

• Number of children: count children currently in the household for whom college is a reasonable expectation.
• Type of education: US public in-state, US public out-of-state, US private, international. Costs differ materially.
• Inflation: education costs have historically inflated 1–2 percentage points above CPI. For a child currently age 5, inflate the current cost by approximately 4.5 % per year for 13 years to get the future-cost target.

Approximate working numbers as of 2026: US public in-state, $100,000–$140,000 for a 4-year degree (tuition, fees, room, board); US public out-of-state, $180,000–$240,000; US private, $300,000–$400,000. Inflate forward to your child’s expected start year.

Some households consciously decline to fund college fully through life insurance, intending instead that surviving children rely on financial aid, scholarships, or self-funded loans. That is a defensible decision; if so, set the education component at a partial figure or zero. The DIME framework accommodates the decision; it doesn’t mandate full education funding from life insurance proceeds.

Worked example: 32-year-old dual-income household

Household: insured age 32, spouse age 30, two children ages 4 and 1. Insured’s annual gross income: $95,000. Spouse’s income: $58,000 (relevant for capacity to absorb shortfall).

• Debt: $18,000 (credit cards $4,000; auto loan $14,000)
• Income (10 years × $95,000): $950,000
• Mortgage: $245,000 outstanding on a 30-year fixed at 6.5 %
• Education: $400,000 (two children, US public out-of-state, inflated forward)

Total DIME need: $1,613,000. Existing employer group life: $190,000 (2× salary). Coverage gap: $1,423,000.

The household’s practical decision: a 20-year level-premium term policy at a $1,500,000 face amount, sized to round up the gap and to expire approximately when the youngest child reaches age 21. Annual premium for a healthy 32-year-old non-smoker on this profile is typically $850–$1,500 from a competitive carrier.

Worked example: 56-year-old empty-nester

Household: insured age 56, spouse age 54, two children both adult and financially independent. Insured’s annual gross income: $145,000.

• Debt: $0 (paid off)
• Income (5 years × $145,000, since the surviving spouse and household have substantial retirement assets and the income-replacement need is shorter): $725,000
• Mortgage: $85,000 outstanding (final years of an old refinance)
• Education: $0

Total DIME need: $810,000. Existing employer group life: $290,000 (2× salary). Coverage gap: $520,000.

The household’s practical decision: a 10-year level-premium term policy at $500,000 face amount. The need is short-horizon (the household will reach retirement self-sufficiency within 10 years), so a long-term policy would over-insure. Annual premium for a healthy 56-year-old non-smoker is typically $1,800–$3,200 depending on health rating.

When DIME under-covers

DIME is a structural-obligations framework. It does not include the value of the deceased’s non-monetary contributions to the household: child-rearing, domestic management, eldercare, household maintenance. For households where the lower-earning or non-earning spouse provides substantial domestic value, DIME on the higher earner under-covers; the surviving spouse may need to hire replacement services (childcare, housekeeping, etc.) at material cost.

The pragmatic adjustment: insure the non-earning or lower-earning spouse for $250,000–$500,000 to cover the cost of replacement domestic services through the dependents’ growing-up period. The premium for a 32-year-old non-smoker is modest ($300–$500/year for 20-year term) and the protection genuinely meaningful.