(FORTUNE Magazine) – Actor and comedian Ben Stein is probably best known for roles like the insufferably boring teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and, more recently, as the host of the Emmy Award-winning game show Win Ben Stein's Money. But these days the 58-year-old Stein, who also happens to be an economist and a Yale-educated lawyer, is taking on another role: honorary chairperson for National Retirement Planning Week, an awareness campaign sponsored by several nonprofit financial advocacy organizations, which kicks off the week of Nov. 17. FORTUNE caught up with Stein to discuss how to save--and why not to rely on Star Search. --Janice Revell

What prompted you to get involved in this campaign?

I have been crusading about the need for more and better retirement planning by the ordinary citizen for a long time--I'm actually writing a book about it. It is a major, major problem in this country. We have a huge population approaching retirement age, a very large proportion of whom do not have adequate retirement savings. Something that is not really well understood is that worrying about money is as bad for you as worrying about your health. We're trying to get people into a position where in their latter years they don't have to worry about money.

How big an issue is health care?

There are very serious problems with people not really knowing how they're going to handle their retirement medical expenses. People are just assuming that in some miraculous way, whatever was happening with them before retirement will happen to them after retirement. It won't. I have a close friend in his early 70s who not only can't retire but, because of extremely large medical bills, he's had to go into bankruptcy. And he was a guy who 15 years ago was living like a king.

What are the biggest mistakes people make in retirement planning?

The biggest mistake is simply not saving enough and thinking that Social Security or your company's pension plan will handle it. It won't. The second-biggest mistake is putting your money in excessively risky asset classes. An incredibly smart man named Bernard Baruch said a very smart thing years ago, right after World War I: "Work and save." And I think that as long as people are in a position to be able to work, they should also be in a position to be able to save.

But what about other expenses? Do you think that saving for retirement should take precedence over things like saving for your kid's college tuition?

Absolutely! Your kids can always go to a state school and get scholarships and loans. I'm not talking about wealthy people--they should just pay for it and stop whimpering. But for the ordinary middle-class family, absolutely make the kid pay for it himself. Without question.

Or people could make up for a lack of savings by winning your money on TV?

The game show isn't on anymore, except in reruns. They can try to get on Star Search, which I'm a judge on, and win $100,000. But very few middle-aged people seem to make it on Star Search.