I spend a lot of time helping people understand how much money they will need to meet their retirement goals. I have found that many people thinking about retirement are making simple calculations that can lead to disastrous decisions. For example, I have come across countless people who simply add up their social security and pension payments, assume a high rate of return on their investments, and apply a best-guess tax rate to all of that income. They then compare that to their expected expenses in retirement.

Many of us remember the days when being a millionaire meant you had made the big time. The same was true when retiring with $1 million in the bank. But compounding inflation and low interest rates have turned that idea on its head.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I spend a lot of time helping people understand how much money they will need to meet their retirement goals. Many people rack their brains and do lots of research trying to come up with assumptions for inflation, rates of return on investments, and many other items that go into a retirement plan. But too many of these same people only spend a few minutes thinking about their life expectancy. This is unfortunate because a person's life expectancy can be the biggest factor changing the outcome of a plan.

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.

The word "retirement" means different things to different people. Some people look at it as the year in which they will quit working full time and will take on a part time job while relaxing a lot more. It can also mean the year in which people take their social security and/or pension.

With both stocks and bonds gyrating wildly again many of us are reminded of just how volatile the markets can become. This also convinces many people that they cannot risk being invested very heavily in equities as they approach retirement.

I spend a lot of time helping people understand how much money they will need to meet their retirement goals. Today I want to look at this another way: What will $2 million actually get you in retirement? This is an interesting question because a) Many people believe that $2 million is a comfortable amount to meet their retirement goals and b) We can look at the different ways in which a couple can use this $2 million without running out of money.

Retiring before age 60 is but a dream for many people approaching this age. Unfortunately, the average retirement age has increased over the last decade as many folks have figured out that they a) didn't save enough and/or b) couldn't use their home as a cash machine any more.

Many of those thinking about their retirement like to ask if their money will see them through their retirement years and how much they might be able to pass on to their heirs. Unfortunately many people (and some financial advisors) look at investment returns through time as something that is static. They plug in some annual return assumptions and look at the results from there.

For those of us not fortunate enough to receive a large pension for life after retiring, there is a real question of whether or not many of us can retire comfortably or securely, even at age 65. I have consulted with many clients who had this simple question: Can I retire by age 65? I’ve even had a few people ask me if they can ever retire. They simply had no idea if they had enough money invested and enough future income to cover all that they wanted to do in retirement.

Many people in their 40s are finally at this point beginning to save a decent amount of money every paycheck. This by itself can be a big accomplishment for many people. But a lot of those same people have yet to even begin thinking about a retirement strategy.

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.