Women’s Life Insurance Needs Calculator

Usually it’s the man who calculates out his life insurance needs. We have such a life insurance needs calculator on our site.

That calculator would also apply to a woman who is her family’s primary income earner. But what about a woman who is working and taking care of her family or even exclusively a homemaker?

• What is her contribution to family wealth and prosperity?
• How expensive would it be to replace her functions alone in the family and her contribution to family income?

It turns out: very expensive.

See for yourself:

[sniplet woman-analysis]

This is the amount of insurance a woman who would like to protect her family should have during the childhood years. We have worked from a base child care cost of $2000/month with an additional $500 per extra child. Depending on where you live in Canada that figure could go up or down (in a small town with a slow economy, it is likely that you can pay less for quality child care – in a very prosperous larger city, you might pay more).

Since most women don’t have sufficient life insurance, how do solo fathers handle these incredible extra costs? Either by moving and downsizing everything or by rushing into a relationship with the first woman who looks like she might like his children. Sometimes, the loss of the mother destroys the family for both emotional reasons and for the practical ones: there is no one to take care of the children and no means to pay someone to help.

If your own mother or your husband’s mother is relatively young, strong and healthy – and is still very interested in children – you might be part of the lucky few who can afford to leave her family underinsured. In the case you were not there to take care of the children, your mother or mother in-law could step in and fill your role. But would she be willing or able to do this?

As an insurance specialist, I am always astonished at the contribution of a mother to family life. Even calculated in financial terms, it is enormous.