Calculating future expenses of your survivor

When calculating the needs of your survivors, building in expenses that you know will occur is extremely important. These expenses are usually the largest factors in determining how much insurance to buy. One of the most obvious of these planned future expenses is the cost of attending college. Build in a cost of about $80,000 to $100,000 per child in today’s dollars. Of course, the actual amount your child needs will probably be considerably more later on, which is taken into account with the inflation factor
The amount of life insurance you buy now is the amount your survivors need if you die soon. If you’re worried about inflation eating into the death benefit, you can buy an insurance policy in which the death benefit increases in value. You can read more about these kinds of policies
You may be aware of other expenses that your family will incur, such as orthodontia, summer camps, special classes for your children, or special medical needs. You should build these expenses into the worksheets. Additionally, you can count on at least one or two of those
unexpected expenditures that come up, including a new roof for the house, a new car, and medical emergencies for which your health insurance doesn’t pay the entire cost. When you complete the budget worksheet, build in some “fudge factor” — about 10 percent of your annual income is good — to account for these unplanned costs.