<prompt> Human: Hi, recently I have been concerned and have gained interest about retirement plans and started questioning my parents about their retirement plan. Currently, I only have very limited knowledge and same goes for my mother. However, I am aware that my Dad is fairly educated on how retirement plans work but I dont see him that much to question him about it. My dad currently has a 401k and maxes out plan. However, since he maxes out his plan our expenses are lived off of what my mother makes. She is self-employed and only has one employee. However, she doesnt have a retirement plan. Would it be better to max out my fathers plan and not create a retirement plan for my mother and live off of her expenses as a family, or would it be better to use portions of each paycheck in there respective retirement plans. This brings to my next question. Since my Dad has a retirement plan and my mother does not, what would happen if one day my dad just left us. Im not talking death as in a divorce or moved to another country after he cashed in also of his retirement funds? This would be unfair to my mother because we have been living of her paychecks and she hadnt made a retirement plan. Whilst my dad was just cashing all of his paycheck towards his retirement. Any answers and input would be greatly appreciated!  <response>: Im not taking death as in a divorce or moved to another country after he cashed in also of his retirement funds?Im not sure what kind of answer youre expecting here. There is absolutely nothing to legally stop him from withdrawing 100 of the money from his retirement account and doing with it as he pleases. It doesnt matter if you think its fair or not. She would have no recourse in that situation. 