Hey, Frank - Come on over. You'll like AZ just fine. I came here from CA about 10 years ago. Mainly because CA taxes were too burdensome on my business.

Anyway, I retired in 2002. My wife gets a teacher's retirement (that evaporates if she does) and I have investments from the sale of my business.
She doesn't get SS because she was exempt due to the teacher thing. I put into SS for years (mostly at the max and had to pay both the employee and employer portions because I was self-employed). I didn't start taking it back out until I was 67 in 2002. Now I'm trying to make my life last long enough to get most of it back, although, if SS went away, I could get by. I was always under the impression that SS was not a retirement program. It was intended to keep you off welfare if you didn't plan for yourself (or had a major problem that depleted your retirement funds). People have tended to expect it to be their retirement. They're in for a surprise. After Medicare is subtracted, there isn't enough left to live very high on the hog, especially if they are still making payments on a house, car, etc.

Good strategy: Invest all that you can and keep it diversified. Change your investment strategies based upon where you are in life. Don't depend upon someone else for your retirement.

Cheers,
Wes