Good article. I agree that everyone is different, so we must be willing to assess our own futures with a degree of self awareness. I retired at age 54 from a career in public education. I don't get social security. I get my state pension plan instead. Its' higher than social security because I worked six years in administration and so my monthly amount was based on my three highest paid years. My husband retired at age 65, however, and started collecting his social security. However, right after I retired, we sold our house and all of our belongings. He quit his job and we lived all over the world for the next four years. Our agreement was that if we returned stateside to live, he'd find another job. My goal was to live debt free, with the lowest overhead possible. That means we paid cash for our current home and cash for cars. We keep our overhead low, so we could survive on two part time jobs and our savings if I lost my pension or he loses his social security. I always live as though that could happen. Our savings remains untouched and we've invested in land as well.