I recently had a prospective client come to me with an interesting case. He and his wife have $800,000 saved, half of which is in an IRA. He and his wife are both currently 45 years old. They want to retire by age 58 and they never want to worry about the principal. They only want to live off of dividends and/or interest income.

Most investors know by now that income planning in today's low interest rate world has become exceedingly difficult.

I spend a lot of time helping people understand how much money they will need to meet their retirement goals. Many of these people believe that they must have at least $1 million saved in order to retire and never worry about running out of money. Today I want to show that many people do not necessarily need $1 million or more to retire comfortably. I will show an example couple who is very concerned that they won't have enough money saved. They also fear that interest rates will remain low and they don't want to just put everything into equity funds.

It is not easy these days to find companies that pay a dividend yield of nearly 5%, have never cut their dividend in over 40 years, and who continue to increase the dividend at a nearly 10% rate. But there is one such company out there. Altria (MO), parent company of Phillip Morris, continues to pay out its steady dividend, even during recessions, making it a wonderful addition to retirement portfolios.

Some people are fortunate enough to think about retiring when they hit age 60, or even before then. But the truth of the matter is, most people have no idea when they can retire comfortably.