Since 2007 we have been watching one financial crisis after another unfold. Greece has defaulted, Spain is moving that way, the euro is in danger of disintegrating, and the U.S. continues to add on $1.5 trillion deficits to its debt. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve continues to hold short-term interest rates near 0%, which makes for a terrible situation for those wanting to invest in fixed-income. Times are more than interesting when it comes to investing; they’re downright fraught with danger.

There are so many articles written and so much talk today about how a lot of folks in their 50s and 60s either won’t be able to retire before age 70 or may never be able to retire at all. Instead of rehashing this downer of a scenario, I would like to discuss what a person or a couple needs to have today in order to retire before age 65.

From Advisors4Advisors: A nice review of our retirement planning application for advisors.

For those over the age of 50 it is starting to get down to crunch time in terms of coming up with a solid retirement plan. The questions so many in this age bracket ask themselves are: 1) How much money do I need to retire comfortably? 2) When will my money run out in retirement? 3) What can I possibly invest in given how low interest rates are today?

Even with the stock market rally of the past year there are still solid dividend paying stocks available. Many investors are concerned with another decade of slow growth and low to negative equity returns. However, one way to prepare for another decade of slow economic growth is to invest in high dividend yield stocks that have shown they can weather tough economic times and even increase their dividends while it happens. One such company is Eli Lilly and Company (LLY). With a dividend yield of 5.0% and a history of increasing dividends over time, LLY is one of my favorite dividend paying stocks.