Here's one truth about retirement investing. It's not necessarily about how much money you save, it's about how much your nest egg provides after you retire. Investing in top-quality dividend stocks can not only help you grow your money before you retire but can provide a stream of passive income in perpetuity after you do.

One stock I've been buying shares of in my own retirement portfolio for more than a decade is Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O), and it's a big part of my passive income strategy, both now and in the future. Here's why.

Realty Income is a real estate investment trust, or REIT (pronounced "reet"), that specializes in freestanding properties occupied by retail tenants. As of the latest available information, Realty Income owns more than 13,100 properties throughout the U.S. and Europe. About 80% of its rental Income is from retail tenants, but it also owns industrial, agricultural, and gaming properties in its portfolio.

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Source Fool.com