With a new year upon us and with income taxes, capital gains taxes, and dividend taxes going way up for those making over $400,000 a year ($450,000 for joint filers), and payroll taxes going up for everybody else, it’s time once again to ask how much the typical couple might need to retire.

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. It is difficult to find good companies that have both. This means that there is often a choice to be made. All else equal, should one invest in the company that has that enticing high dividend yield, but a low dividend growth rate, or does one exude patience and invest in the company with a relatively low yield, but a high dividend growth rate? To help answer this question I looked at two companies that offer these different alternatives: Kimberly-Clark (KMB) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

A few weeks ago I wrote a fairly popular article that discussed the rising possibility that the federal government will change the cost of living (COLA) index that social security payments are tied to. I wanted to follow up with more information on just how large of an impact this change can have.

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. It is difficult to find good companies that have both. This means that there is often a choice to be made. All else equal, should one invest in the company that has that enticing high dividend yield, but a low dividend growth rate, or does one exude patience and invest in the company with a relatively low yield, but a high dividend growth rate? To help answer this question I looked at two companies that offer these different alternatives: Verizon (VZ) and Coca-Cola (KO).

As we get closer to the “fiscal cliff” more politicians have been discussing how to reduce the coming crushing burden of entitlements. That means Medicare and Social Security are in the crosshairs. Of course most of those in Congress do not want to be the ones who actually cut anything for fear of losing votes. But one way they can social security payments without calling it a cut is to change how social security payments are indexed to inflation.