I made a point of being completely debt free before retirement.
Still have property taxes, though.
I was debt free and retired early, but God had other plans, he gifted me a daughter. Because of her I moved, bought a house with a mortgage, and needed to buy a truck. Was a lean year but now am debt free again.
Almost went back to work but covid stopped that.
Re: Property taxes
I call it government rent.
I’m not retired yet but we paid off our home and all of our other debt. Last year we put half of our retirement savings efforts into creation of an emergency fund. By my calculations we will have 26 months’ income in savings by the time my spouse retires which is end of 2025. If we keep that money in a savings account that pays a minimum of 4%, the interest alone will cover our property taxes. My personal goal is to have 5 years expenses in savings by the time I retire. Full disclosure we are maxing out on my 401, 20% in spouses 401, 15% in a taxable brokerage account and 15% into a HYSA we are quite frugal although we were not always that way.