Should you buy more coverage than you need today?
Inflation, rising income, and the case for sizing coverage to the family you'll have — not the one you have now.
Should I buy more life insurance than I need right now?
Often yes, because coverage is cheapest today and your health may not stay this good. Buying a larger amount now locks the rate for the whole term and avoids reapplying later. The limit is what the insurer will issue against your income, and what you can comfortably keep paying.
DIME gives you a number based on today. But a policy you buy at 32 has to still work at 45, and three forces quietly erode it over that stretch.
Force one: inflation
A $1,000,000 death benefit is fixed. The cost of living isn't. At 3% average inflation, $1,000,000 twenty years from now buys roughly what $550,000 buys today.
Your policy hasn't shrunk — the money it pays has. Any coverage sized precisely to today's expenses is quietly under-sized for the year it's most likely to be claimed on.
Force two: your income will probably grow
Most people earn meaningfully more at 45 than at 32. Since coverage exists to replace income, a policy sized to a $70,000 salary leaves a real gap once you're earning $110,000 and your household has adjusted to it.
Force three: the family may not be finished
Another child adds roughly $100,000 in future education costs alone, plus years of dependency. Sizing to the family you have today can mean re-shopping at an older age with whatever health you have then.
How much extra is sensible
A reasonable rule: take your DIME number and add 20–30%. If DIME says $1.2M, look seriously at $1.5M. Then check the price at the next breakpoint — because of how carriers band coverage, the step up is often far cheaper than proportional.
What isn't sensible is buying coverage so large it strains the budget. A lapsed $2M policy protects nobody; a maintained $1.2M policy protects a family. Affordability you can sustain for the full term beats a bigger number you abandon in year six.
Two alternatives to simply buying more
Laddering. Buy a 30-year policy sized to your baseline need, then layer a 20-year policy on top for the child-raising years. The second expires when that need does, and your total premium drops without leaving a gap.
A guaranteed insurability rider. This lets you purchase additional coverage at set future dates without proving your health. It costs a little and is genuinely useful in your twenties and early thirties, when income growth is most likely.
When buying extra doesn't make sense
If your need is genuinely declining — mortgage nearly paid, children nearly independent, retirement assets in place — the arithmetic reverses. In your fifties, coverage need usually shrinks year over year, and sizing to a future that's smaller than today is the correct read.
The practical takeaway
Size coverage to the family you'll have in ten years, not the one sitting at your table tonight. Then verify the premium is comfortable enough that you'll still be paying it in year eighteen — because a policy in force is the only kind that ever pays.
Educational content only. Not financial, tax, or legal advice.