Preparation is a sure sign of your belief! Unprepared means unbelief. We believed - so we prepared! My husband and I believed that we could not keep going the way we were going - so we made changes! One typically can't retire and then live like a wage-earner spending the same amount of money as if you are still working, unless of course, your pension is almost equal to your previous salary. We retired with a decent pension and had a decent amount of savings also, but we realized that our retirement money had to last our lifetime. We soon observed that our bank account balances were not going up, only down. For nearly the first two years following retirement, we paid two mortgages, until our empty 'income-home' sold. Whew! Glad it did! Finances certainly freed up when that 'money-drain' sold! When we retired, I was not Medicare age yet, and my health insurance was no longer paid by my employer. The monthly premium for my health insurance was akin to robbery