Never go into retirement with debt. I made sure that I had everything, including my mortgage, paid off before I retired. This cut the amount of money I needed to live off by at least half.

Anonymous
Los Angeles, California

I need more money to live on now than I did when I was working. It has forced me to budget differently than I would have imagined. For instance, I have much more free time to shop, so I tend to buy more items impulsively, like shoes, than I would have while I was working, for the simple reason that I didn't have so much time to shop. Also, I spend more time in my apartment, so I tend to eat more snack food. It's not that I'm hungry, just that I'm home more so I eat more. To counter that spending, I eat out less than I did when I was working because I don't have co-workers to go out to lunch with. And now I don't have to buy clothes for work.

Betty Smith
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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