How much life insurance do you really need to buy? This is a question that's been asked again and again. Unfortunately, the answer is the same every time. "That's according to you and your needs". You see, everyone has different responsibilities, some people own their own home and some rent, some people are married, while others are single, some people have children and others don't.

There are just to many variables to the equation to give an educated answer to this question. However, there are things that you can do in order to figure this out for yourself. It's not too difficult, however, I don't think that you should finalize it right away. There's bound to be things that you don't think of right off the bat that you'll likely remember in the near future once you've joggled your brain. Also, when you do finally get ready to buy a policy you should add 20-30% "just in case" something else comes to mind later or something unexpected arises. You could always increase your policy later, but what if it's too late? Something to think about. Anyway, let's begin.

Regardless of if you're married or single, you'll need to figure out every bill that you currently have. If you're married you'll want to allow for continuing monthly necessities such as food, utilities, clothing, etc. If you're single these things won't matter.

If you're single you'll basically want to make sure that you've cleared up all of your obligations so that creditors don't come back on your family and you'll also want to make sure to cover your own burial costs.

If you have a house payment you should make sure that this is payed off automatically in the event of your death. You could get a separate policy called a "Mortgage Life" that would take care of it. This is especially important if you are married or have a family.

You should figure your annual monthly obligations and multiply them times the number of years until the kids turn 18. There are also college expenses to consider, cost of living increases, unexpected expenses and more. Be realistic, but be prepared for anything.