The DIME Method: A Quick Way to Size Cover

Add up what your family would have to find — that is what to insure. (DIME, in one line.)

The income-replacement method gives a quick estimate. The DIME method builds on it with a fuller checklist, summing four things your family would have to cover if your income vanished. The letters stand for Debt, Income, Mortgage and Education.

Debt: all your debts other than the mortgage — car loans, credit balances, personal loans — that would otherwise fall to your family. Income: the years of income your dependants would need replaced, the largest piece for most households. Mortgage: enough to clear the home loan in full, so the family keeps the roof over their heads. Education: the cost of seeing your children through to the end of their studies.

Add the four together and you have a cover target grounded in real obligations, not a guess. From that total you subtract what you already have — savings, investments and existing policies including the Dependants' Protection Scheme — to find the gap you actually need to fill.

DIME's value is that it is concrete and hard to argue with. Each number ties to a real bill your family would face, which makes the final figure both defensible and easy to revisit as debts fall and children grow.

Illustrative example: the four parts of DIME

The breakdown lists the four components — Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education. Total them, subtract what you already hold, and the remainder is your cover gap. It turns "how much?" into a short sum you can do on one page.