This is a post from staff writer Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the adviser for The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service. He contributes one new article to Get Rich Slowly every two weeks.

I’ve been saving for retirement since my mid-20s, and I write a retirement-planning newsletter every month. Yet here’s the thing: I don’t plan to ever fully retire. And while most people list “retirement” as their number one investing goal, I don’t think most other people should retire, either — at least not at age 64 for men and 62 for women, which are the average retirement ages these days, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

I question the value and wisdom of retirement for financial reasons, for health reasons, and for “why should we encourage people to sit on their butts all day” reasons. However, in this post, I’ll question retirement from a risk perspective: Can anyone really be sure that their savings and benefits will last for a few decades? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Social Security has “issues.”
I’ve written before that all the talk of people getting nothing from Social Security is overblown; everyone will get something. But there are enough problems to suggest that younger and wealthier people should expect to get much less than their currently projected benefit. Not that the current benefits are enough to buy beachfront property; the average annual Social Security benefit is just $14,172. If that weren’t scary enough, according to the Social Security Administration, more than half of elderly beneficiaries receive 50% or more of their incomes from Social Security; for 22% of married couples and 43% of unmarried beneficiaries, Social Security provides 90% or more of their incomes. The fact is, most Americans do not do a good job of planning for retirement.

2. Some people have pensions, but they have their own problems.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, approximately 20% of the over-50 crowd receives income from a defined-benefit pension, with an average benefit of almost $18,000. However, the percentage of Americans who will receive a pension is shrinking. Plus, many of these plans don’t have enough money to pay future benefits. (In fact, the massive underfunding of pension plans — particularly state and local plans — is one of the most underappreciated risks facing our country.) And when a company goes bankrupt, as retirees from Kodak recently learned, benefits can be reduced or eliminated. Most private plans are insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which has the power to take over underfunded plans or those of bankrupt or distressed companies. However, pensioners may not receive their full benefits. Furthermore, the PBGC is on the hook for $107 billion in payments yet has just $81 billion in assets. Government plans are not insured, but their sponsors can always raise taxes — though that’s generally not very popular.

3. Savings to the rescue…or not.
I won’t trot out all the stats about how people don’t save enough, or how the baby boomers, as a group, are entering their golden years with too little gold (that is, net worth — I’m not suggesting that every retiree hoard the shiny metal). That’s bad enough. My concern is that for these (often-too-meager) savings to last, investment markets have to cooperate, and, as we’ve seen over the past decade or so, they often don’t. I’m not predicting Armageddon or anything like that; most of my longterm savings are in the stock market. But investing can be risky; we just don’t know for sure how much a certain stock or even a bond will be worth a decade or two from now. Yes, you can play it safer with CDs or Treasuries, but only if your money will last as long as you do — and keep up with inflation — while earning 2%.

4. Or maybe my home equity will save me…oh, wait.
Several years ago, homeowners could take consolation in the rising value of their homes. Now, with prices down nationwide an average 30%, it’s much more difficult to turn a nest into a nest egg. Of course, this wasn’t supposed to happen. In 2005, Ben Bernanke, then an adviser to President Bush, said on CNBC, “We’ve never had a decline in housing prices on a nationwide basis. What I think is more likely is that house prices will slow, maybe stabilize…I don’t think it’s going to drive the economy too far from its full-employment path, though.” This just goes to show that even smart, well-connected people can get things very wrong, and that just because something hasn’t happened before doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

5. Health care is unpredictable and expensive.
The big wild card in anyone’s finances is health care — what illnesses or accidents will befall them, and how much of the costs will not be paid by insurance. Yes, most folks age 65 or older are eligible for Medicare, and approximately 25% of retirees also get help from former employers. But basic Medicare, by itself, does not provide comprehensive medical and dental care; that costs extra. Plus, the financial challenges facing the Medicare system dwarf any problems Social Security has. As for employer-provided retiree health care, that — like a pension — is a disappearing perk.

6. If I only knew when I’ll die.
From a financial perspective, retirement is a mathematical equation that answers the question: Will I run out of money before I run out of life? You’ll need a lot more money if you die a centenarian than if you die an octogenarian (which is how long the average person lasts, once she or he has made it to age 65). There are plenty of longevity calculators that will factor in your health, family history, and upholstery-potato habits to come up with an estimate of when you’ll join that Great Spa in the Sky (I sure hope there are massages in heaven.). The standard financial-planning advice is that you should assume you’ll live to 90 or 95. But the truth is, no one really knows their date of death, yet it’s a very important variable in the calculus of retirement.

A caboodle of question marks
The bottom line is, no one can say for certain what their various sources of retirement income will provide a decade or three hence, or whether that income (whatever it is) will be enough to cover the income they’ll need at that point. That said, there are plenty of ways to mitigate all the risks of retirement, which I write about in my newsletter and in my GRS posts. But for now, I’ll just put the question to you: Do you think retirement is too risky? How do you plan to address any potential problems?

Finally, the message of this post is most definitely not “stop saving for retirement.” I continue to max out my 401(k), despite my hope that I’ll be able to work forever. Nevertheless, many people are forced to retire due to bad health or a bad economy. Plus, I’m just 42. By the time I’m 72, I may have changed my mind — or my body has changed it for me — and I’ll actually be ready to sit on my butt all day.

This is a guest post by Fiona Lippey. Fiona is the author of the bestselling book The $21 Challenge and founder of Australia’s largest frugal website, SimpleSavings.net.

If you want to save money, and I mean really save money, then you’re going to have to stop buying Stuff. You have reduce the amount you consume. Today I want to share the system I’ve been using for the last 15 years to reduce my spending and make sure I don’t get tricked out of my hard-earned cash.

Question 1: Stop! Is this a good decision?
Before you reach for your cash, before you grab your credit card, before you pick up the item up from the sales rack, pause for just a minute. Stop yourself and think about whether or not you are about to make a good or a bad decision. A marketer or salesperson’s job is to make you think you need something that five minutes earlier you didn’t know existed. Find a way to trigger your internal alarm bell, so you can stop for a second and move on to question number two.

Question 2: Are you hungry?
If your belly is empty then your decision making is impaired. Our bodies get confused between the desire for food and inedible objects. So if you are hungry, step away, eat something, then wait for 15 minutes before moving on to question three.

Question 3: Is there something else?
There are so many other things you could buy. Is this item really the one you want to spend your hard-earned money on? There are other things you could achieve with this money. Will you be limiting yourself by making the purchase? If you have decided that this is the only thing you want, go to question four.

Question 4: Is it worth the effort?
Every time you reach for your cash, ask yourself if it is really worth the effort. If every $15 you spend is an hour you’re going to have to work, is it worth the effort? Or should you leave your money in your wallet? (It’s so much easier than having to earn extra money!) Now, if you have decided the purchase is really is worth the bother, move on to the fifth question.

Question 5: What will you gain?
Next, work out what you or your family will gain by buying the item. What are the longterm consequences? Will it improve your health and happiness or genuinely give you more free time? How? If you cannot answer these questions positively, then leave your money in your wallet. It is important that you be really skeptical when you answer this question. Now move to question six.

Question 6: What will you lose?
When you buy an item, you both gain something and lose something. If you are lucky, the only thing you lose is cash and the time it took you to earn that money. But this is not always the case. A great example of this is a computer game. You gain entertainment, but you might lose quality time with your family. Once you are certain you have accounted for everything you could lose, move on to the next question.

Question 7: Is there a better way?
Now it is time to shop around for a better price and work out the smartest way to buy it. How can you get the best value for your dollar in the minimum time possible? Occasionally, working it out for yourself will take more time than you save (when calculating your time as an hourly wage), but you will get satisfaction in knowing that you’ve found a great deal and are doing the best for your family. Once you have researched your purchase and found the best way to buy it, go to question eight.

Question 8: Do you have the cash to spare?
Most of the time, buying things on credit is stupid. So if you don’t have the cash, remain free, walk away, and live happily ever after. Consumer purchases aren’t worth burdening yourself with debt. This means you should avoid credit cards, layaways, interest-free loans, mortgage refinancing facilities, etc. Only buy something if you have the spare cash — and if you don’t, go home and save until you do.

If want to save yourself some money, write down the eight steps and put them in your wallet! Every penny you save is one you don’t have to earn!

On Saturday, my friend Tyler hosted a blog meetup.

I first met Tyler several years ago. He was a GRS reader who dropped me a line to see if I’d meet him for dinner. I said “yes” — as I almost always do. Now, several years later, Tyler runs a successful blog of his own. It was fun to see his readers come out to support him.

After giving us a chance to chat, Tyler asked us to break into small groups, to work together to define the word freedom. “What does freedom mean to you?” he asked.

What is Freedom?
I was sitting with Tammy and Logan (they of the tiny house) and with our friend Michelle, who also lives in a tiny house. We brainstormed ideas. One obvious answer was that, in many ways, money equals freedom. When you have money, you have more options. Or, more precisely, when you have no debt, when you spend less than you earn, then you have more options.

But freedom is more than money, of course.

“To me, freedom means being able to what you want, when you want,” I said. We talked about that for a bit. We talked again about how money makes this more likely.

“But I think to be free,” said Michelle, “you have to somehow be aware of what your options are. You have to be conscious that you’re making choices that reflect your values, choices that allow you to do what you want, when you want.”

“Fair enough,” I said.

After more discussion, we realized that each person at our table already felt very, very free. None of us worries about money: I’ve experienced a windfall; Tammy and Logan and Michelle have intentionally minimized their expenses so that money is no longer a stressor. We each do work we’re passionate about. We have good friends, we have purpose. We’ve adopted lifestyles that give us freedom, or at least a sense of it.

“I think a lot of feeling free comes down to shifting priorities,” Tammy said. “It means choosing to relate to money, and other parts of life, in ways that others don’t.” Tammy wasn’t saying that she thinks we’re better than anyone else — far from it! — but that in order to obtain this feeling of freedom, we’ve each made choices that we like but others might not. Such as living in small spaces. (If I’m doing my math right, the four of us live in three separate spaces that combine to total 985 square feet. My apartment is the bulk of that.)

Conquering Fear
Tyler took some more time to speak with his readers. He talked about his own ideas of freedom. “The core of freedom is conquering fear,” Tyler said. “It can be scary. We want to draw cartoons, or climb mountains, or do whatever makes us happy. But often, people are afraid of freedom because with freedom comes risk. When you choose freedom, you make choices for yourself. Nobody else makes them for you. And when you make choices for yourself, the responsibility — or the blame — for the outcome rests with you.”

At our table, we talked about the relationship between freedom and power.

“In some ways, freedom and power are interchangeable,” Logan said. “When you have freedom, you have power. Not like you have authority or control over other people, but you have power over your own life.”

“Here’s a thought,” I said. “If you’re lucky enough to be free, do you have an obligation to help others who aren’t free? To give them this power too? And there really is an obligation, then doesn’t that mean you’re not actually free?”

“It’s like a paradox!” Tammy said.

The Limits of Self-Determination
But here’s the rub: Even if you’re free, even if you have power over your own life, bad things happen. You might get struck by a car. You might have a stroke. Your country might experience hyperinflation. You’re only free to the extent that you can control life. And beyond a certain point, life is out of your hands. (Though, again, the more money you have, the less impact these events have on you. Another argument for a fat emergency fund!)

What’s more, as free as you might be, you only have that freedom because your environment allows you to have it. If you lived elsewhere, or elsewhen, you might not be able to do what you want to do, when you want to do it. You might not have the freedom you do now.

Because of this, and because I’m fortunate to be very free myself, I’m finally starting to think of other people. I feel called to help others move closer to this ideal, to give them find the power to do what they want, when they want.

Money and Freedom
Money can’t buy happiness, it can’t buy love, and it can’t buy freedom either. But money does make obtaining these goals much, much easier. When you have money, you don’t have to worry about the basics. To re-visit Psychology 101, money helps you build the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

When you have money, you’re able to take care of your physiological needs, like finding food and water. You’re also able to better take care of your body and your belongings, able to afford a safe place to sleep. Because money makes it easier to have these things, it further grants you the freedom to focus on higher parts of the hierarchy, such as self-esteem, confidence, and achievement. If you worried each day about how you were going to feed yourself and your family, you wouldn’t have time to pursue these higher aims. You wouldn’t have the freedom to do so.

But here’s the thing: I don’t think money does buy freedom if the person with the money becomes obsessed with protecting it or with obtaining more. Money is a tool. It’s useful only insofar as it helps you achieve your goals.

An old friend contacted me by Facebook the other day. We’re going to get together for coffee soon. (Where “coffee” is a euphemism for “any other drink because J.D. doesn’t like coffee”.) During our conversation, my friend asked, “So what do you do now that you sold your web site? Do you not work? Do you just go to the gym and travel the world?”

Ha. I wish. I feel like I’m busier than I’ve ever been. But to tell the truth, I’m busy in a different way. In the past, I was busy, but I was busy doing things that other people wanted. Now, I do things that I want. Most of the time, even my work feels like play.

I’m a happy man. I have a good life. I’m able to do what I want, when I want. This isn’t because I’ve bought my freedom and my happiness, but there’s no question that having savings, eliminating debt, and living below my means has given me peace of mind, has allowed me to take risks that I might have otherwise avoided.

This guest post from Aloysa is part of the “reader stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks from all levels of financial maturity and with all sorts of incomes. You can read more from Aloysa at My Broken Coin.

For six years, I lied to my ex-husband about how much money I was making. Some people make up lies trying to build self-esteem. Those people lie “up”. I lied down, hiding how much money I made, and underestimating the work I was doing.

I didn’t do this for some malevolent purpose. In fact, I thought I was doing my ex-husband a favor. I tried to protect his ego and his self-worth. Unfortunately, as we all know no good deed goes unpunished.

Background
I was born far away from the United States. When I met my ex-husband, my homeland was going through some turbulent times. The Soviet Union was in ruins: The job market was unstable, food was expensive and in scarce supply. Our government was changing the national currency on what seemed to be a weekly basis. Stability and financial security were ideas long forgotten.

When we got married, my ex-husband was serving in the military, making good money. By the time I graduated from college, our country had transformed from a socialist state into a free-market, exploring and building capitalism.

It was then that the tables suddenly turned: My ex-husband left the military and ended up laying cement for a private construction firm. As a college graduate, I got an entry-level position with a small firm in the automobile industry. A year later, that small firm grew into one of the biggest wholesale trading firms in the country, propelling my career.

Then the marriage trouble started.

Protecting His Ego
My ex-husband was sincerely happy when I got my first huge promotion and my first salary increase. That first increase put my salary way above his. He seemed excited about more money flowing into the family. That didn’t last long.

First, he started to make snippy comments about my job during conversations with our friends and family. Later, I noticed that every time people asked me what I was doing for a living, he dismissively waved his hands and said something non-essential, trying to undermine my achievements.

I started to suspect that maybe his ego was hurt. Maybe the fact that I was becoming a successful career woman who was working more hours, and ultimately bringing more money home, was somehow diminishing his self-wroth. Maybe he felt that his role as a “breadwinner” was being taken from him.

I thought about it, I dwelled on it, and finally determined that it was all my fault. I decided that I was not going to disgrace my ex-husband’s sense of self-respect by announcing that I made a bonus that would allow us to renovate our small apartment.

It was the beginning of our end.

Easy Come, Easy Go
We were always supporting our relatives from both sides as much as we could. But when I started making more money, I was pressed to help the family of my ex-sister-in-law more than usual. The more I worked, the more I made, the more money was leaving our family and going into her household. Every bonus, every salary increase was viewed by my ex-husband as an additional source of support for his sister.

She was a stay-at-home mom with a stay-at-home alcoholic husband. Both seemed to conveniently live off our (well, my) money. I didn’t mind helping them, but constantly supporting them with every extra penny that we could made me feel that we were encouraging and sustaining her husband’s alcoholism.

Another major concern surfaced about the same time. Between our own expenses and helping their family, we weren’t able to save anything for ourselves. It didn’t matter how much both of us were bringing home. It was all gone by the end of the month. We had no savings, no emergency money, none of the financial security that both of us wanted.

How It All Unraveled
Over the years, I began to keep secret most of my pay increases and bonuses. I stashed away money, and I hid my purchases.

Did I feel guilty? Of course I did. But over time, you get used to lying, and it becomes your second identity. You live a life of lies, and you think that this is the way to live it.

It’s one of the things lies do to you. Everything you lie about works to replace moments, words, events from your life, until you cannot remember why any of it mattered. It takes so much energy to hold on to the lies that you lose your grip on what’s important.

And every lie is a relationship killer. Even a small lie, because eventually that small lie will become a big one.

Lies make you feel empty — and afterward, lonely too.

Why I Would Never Do It Again
You could say that I was young and naïve. I thought I could save a marriage built on lies. I call myself foolish. Foolishness is always best seen in retrospect.

Joint goals make a strong foundation to marriage, along with trust and understanding. Years later, after the divorce, I look back at our marriage and I have to admit that we didn’t have any common goals. We didn’t know where we wanted to go together, what we wanted to build.

Sometimes you have to accept that a notion of a “traditional relationship” is a fluid one. Roles can be reversed any time. Life can change on a dime. It shouldn’t matter who makes more money in the relationship. What should matter is having similar attitudes towards money.

No one should ever equate money to power in marriage. Marriage is a partnership, not a rivalry. If you can’t be happy for your partner’s success, then maybe it’s time to reconsider your relationship.