You saved for retirement. Now comes the tricky part: Spending your savings.

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Over the past four decades, private employers have dumped pensions and replaced them with 401(k) savings plans. The result is that millions of Americans are their own pension plan managers, and they get jittery when stocks and bonds tumble. Markets aren’t the only wild card.

Seniors know there is a good chance they will need long-term care at some point, and the cost could run in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Americans frequently compensate for these twin uncertainties by underspending in retirement. Many retirees actually build wealth as they get further into retirement.

By contrast, studies have shown that retirees who have higher pension incomes tend to spend more and not worry about running out of money. JPMorgan studied customers with total retirement assets of between $1 million and $3 million, including present value calculations for Social Security and other pension-like income. It found that customers who received 20% to 40% of their retirement income from pension-like income spent an average of $50,000 a year while those who received 60% to 80% from pension-like income spent $71,000 a year—an additional 42%.

“The conclusion is that it shows the power of the paycheck," says Michael Conrath, chief retirement strategist for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “Having the paycheck gives them the confidence to spend." There are steps you can take to make your nest egg more like a pension that sends you a reliable check.