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 look at 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.

When looking to build a long-term portfolio of stocks that pay high dividends, investors usually come up with a mix of stocks that either have high dividend yields or high dividend growth rates. However, it is not easy to analyze and compare how various dividend payers will pay off in the long-run. That is why it is important to look at both dividend yield and growth through time and calculate some objective numbers. For this article I want to look at possible payoffs for Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).

More than half of those approaching retirement fear that they will run out of money. Because of this we have a record number of people in this country working into their 70s. There are also more people than ever before that have cut their expenses to the bone, moved in with their children, or have sold their home and moved into a low-cost apartment just so they are sure they won’t run out of money.

For many investors approaching retirement income planning for retirement has become extremely difficult, if not downright impossible. So many people had hoped to live off of income generated by relatively safe treasury bonds and high quality corporate bonds, but that strategy is out the window for most given where interest rates are today.

When I look to add dividend paying stocks to my retirement portfolio I always look for companies that have a long history of paying dividends as well as a history of solid growth in those dividends. It's even better if the company has shown it can weather recessions by not cutting its dividend when the economy goes south.