If I had to lie to my friends about that in order to avoid judgement and snark, they likely wouldn't be my friends any more.
There are two situations where I can see why I'd even consider lying. The first would be to lie to very specific family members (since you can't really un-family someone like you can unfriend someone else). Trying to avoid or lessen attempts at money grabbing from family might tempt me to lie, though I don't know that I actually would, and given that if I did, I'd need to get other family members on board with lying on my behalf, it seems even less likely.
The second would be if I just don't want to engage someone, so if a relative stranger (who is likely going to stay that way) asks when I do, I might lie. Actually, as I type this, i realize I have done this. I'm not sure if I'm retired. (DH still works and I quite my last job to be a trailing overseas spouse, and now that I'm back in my home country I'm not sure what the future holds.) When we were rental hunting, several agents asked me what I do, and it was easier to just say "I'm a writer" than to explain. And it's not a lie, exactly. I writer is someone who writes. The fact that I'm not currently paid to do it doesn't change that. This lie was told for simplicity's sake, and to someone I will likely never see again.