Human Life Value Calculator
Today's value of the pay your family would have received from you
Last updated: October 2026
Inputs
All income and payroll tax as a share of gross pay
Share of take-home pay you spend on yourself
Offsets (optional)
Your estimate in today's dollars
Step by Step
First Five Years and Final Year
| Year | Age | To family (today's $) | Present value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 36 | $60,000 | $58,019 |
| 2 | 37 | $60,293 | $56,377 |
| 3 | 38 | $60,587 | $54,781 |
| 4 | 39 | $60,882 | $53,231 |
| 5 | 40 | $61,179 | $51,724 |
| 30 | 65 | $69,094 | $25,234 |
Why real rates
Pay and investment returns both rise with inflation. Converting both to real rates keeps the answer in today's dollars, so it compares directly with the face amount of a policy you buy now.
The HLV Formula in Plain English
Step 1: After-tax income
Multiply gross pay by one minus your effective tax rate. Life insurance death benefits are generally not taxable income, so everything is compared in after-tax dollars.
Step 2: Net to family
Remove personal consumption to get what would have reached your dependents. On a $100,000 salary with a 20% effective rate and 25% personal consumption, that is $100,000 x 0.80 x 0.75 = $60,000 a year.
Step 3: Discount each year
Grow that amount by real pay growth each year, then divide year t by (1 + real rate) to the power t and add up the years. When real growth equals the real rate, every year is worth the same and the sum is simply the yearly amount times the years, divided by (1 + real rate).
Underwriting limits
Insurers cap total coverage with age-based multiples of earned income. A common pattern is about 30 times income up to age 35, around 20 times in your 40s and early 50s, 15 times near 60 and 10 times or less after that. The exact bands differ from one insurer to the next.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Human Life Value?
Human Life Value (HLV) is the present value of the take-home pay your family would have received from you between now and retirement, after removing what you would have spent on yourself. The idea goes back to economist Solomon Huebner in the 1920s and is one of the standard ways to size life insurance.
Why subtract personal consumption?
A payout only needs to replace the money that would have reached your family, not what you would have spent on your own food, clothes, transport and hobbies. Planners often use 20% to 30% of take-home pay for a married parent. You can change the figure.
What tax rate should I enter?
Your effective rate: all federal, state and payroll tax divided by gross pay. Your top bracket overstates the tax on most of your income. For many households the effective rate is well below the marginal rate, and using the marginal rate understates HLV.
What discount rate does the calculator use?
A real rate: (1 + return) / (1 + inflation) - 1. At a 6% return and 2.5% inflation that is 3.41%. Pay growth is converted the same way, so 3% nominal growth is 0.49% real. The result is in today's dollars, the same units as a policy you buy today.
How does HLV compare to DIME and 10x income?
It depends on your inputs; no method is always highest. For a 35-year-old earning $150,000 who retires at 65, with this page's default assumptions, HLV is about $1,780,000 and 10x income is $1,500,000. DIME counts gross income for every year replaced plus the mortgage and college, so for a young family it often comes out above HLV.
How sensitive is HLV to the assumptions?
Very. In the same example, a return one point lower raises HLV to about $2,020,000, and one point higher lowers it to about $1,570,000. Try a range rather than trusting one number.
How much coverage will an insurer sell me?
Insurers cap total coverage with age-based multiples of earned income. A common pattern is about 30 times income up to age 35, around 20 times in your 40s and early 50s, 15 times near 60 and 10 times or less after that. The exact bands differ from one insurer to the next.