In my opinion the main reason to own life insurance is to simply leave cash behind after a death to allow the surviving members to continue living the lifestyle that has been built. If that lifestyle can be continued without the income from the deceased member then the Need for life insurance really is not there, now you are only dealing with the Want aspect. Keep in mind and assuming you are healthy $1 million of term life would only cost about $20-$25 per month each so pretty cheap......about the cost of pizza night.
As for Disability, you buy that to provide on going cash flow during your time when you can't work due to an illness or injury. My opinion is to look at your monthly bank account statement, total up the last 12 months of withdrawals, add in any loans that might be coming out of deferment, and now you know your annual expense. Take that annual expense divide by the equal ratio of your household income (say your wife makes $120k and you make $80k then she makes 60% of the household income) and then each of you buy your ratio of the expenses. As an example your household income is $200,000, your monthly expenses are $8,000 your wife makes 60% of the household income so she would buy $4,800 of coverage (60% of the $8,000) and you would buy $3,200 of coverage, this way if either of you were to become disabled and not able to contribute to the economics of the household then your family would still have the income they needed to come in to maintain the family income. Now this is a needs based process and Not a 'Wants' based process, you may 'Want' more coverage and certainly can purchase more but this is an easy way to figure out what you Need.
Let me know if we can be of further service.
