This was the question I took a stab at on the American Express Currency Blog.
My friend Kevin at Out of Your Rut put up a nice intro to this guest post:
How much life insurance do you need? Have about eight to 10 times your gross income as a life-insurance death benefit. Your number will be unique to you. Are both parents working? How many children do you have? How big is your mortgage?
There are a lot of factors that go into how much to invest in life insurance. A smart thing to do would be to look into life insurance sooner than later as policies become more expensive as you age.
Just like Sam said, there are tons of factors, some of which include your mortgage, credit card bills, business or personal loans, medical expenses, number of dependents, college education. All this is compared against your retirement funds, 401K, IRA, pension, investment accounts, savings and whatever else. More specifically, most insurance experts recommend 30 year olds get 15x their gross income, 40 year olds get 12x, 50 get 8x, and 60 get just enough to cover final expenses, such as funeral costs.