Human Life Value Calculator

A higher discount rate treats future years of income more skeptically, shrinking each future year's contribution by a larger factor before it gets added into the present-value total, since money further in the future is worth progressively less today at a higher discount rate. The net effect compounds over every remaining working year, so even a modest increase in the discount rate can meaningfully reduce the final figure.

No -- total future earnings is a separate, undiscounted running total of your projected income across all remaining working years, and the discount rate only affects the present-value figure (human life value) that shrinks those future dollars down to today's terms. Raising or lowering the discount rate leaves the raw earnings total completely unchanged.

It does not move the income multiple at all -- because human life value scales proportionally with income throughout the underlying formula, the ratio between the two (the income multiple) stays constant regardless of whether your income is modest or six figures. What the income multiple actually reflects is your years remaining, growth rate, consumption percentage, and discount rate, not the income figure itself.

Yes, within this calculator's model -- pushing retirement age later adds more years of projected income into the present-value sum, and since every added year contributes a positive amount, the total can only grow or stay flat, never shrink, as retirement age increases.

Yes -- personal consumption is subtracted out before each year's income is counted toward the present-value total, on the reasoning that money you spend on yourself is not available to support dependents, so a higher personal consumption percentage directly and proportionally reduces the calculated human life value.