BB there probably are many mediocre annuities. One of ours last year beat returns on the stock market.
Yes, some states have caveats.
However outdated wills and complicated family situations, along with states that have laws that need careful consideration…that is why we want to make sure the state we end up in before we update wills and do any legal estate work. Some can simply be by having life insurance beneficiaries who you want, for example.
" This is the eternal debate - take SS now and save my own money for later " - True. But one new factor for many of us is that we’ll no longer have employer pre-65 medical insurance. For that reason and others, we lean toward taking SS early.
Does anyone feel like they have saved too much money for retirement and wish they had lived a more lavish lifestyle through the years?
Well, I guess if you really feel that, there’s no time like the present to change your ways! 
i’ve regretted that we didn’t do more travel with our kids. (We did have vacations, travelling cross-country each year to visit with relatives. That was our priority, which made sense. I’m just sorry we didn’t have time/budget to do both.) . Happily we did a wonderful Europe trip together after the 2nd one graduated from college.
I wish I had led a more active lifestyle when I had my health, but I’m going to need the money: I expect to live a long and increasingly frail existence.
@colorado_mom, I can relate. When our kids were little, we took a 4 or 5 night trip to a drivable beach town for vacation. Then we took that as our “pre-vacation” and went elsewhere for our “real vacation.” Now that they are all “adults” (1 of 3 still in college), my husband would prefer NOT to take them places, but I like inviting them along on some trips. I feel like we don’t have much bonding time, and if we can afford it, why not? Youngest graduates next spring, and I’m thinking about whether we should try to do a big vacation to celebrate no more tuition. Problem is, we can’t predict job situations.
We did a lot of inexpensive travel when we could. We would tag along when H was sent to conferences from when the oldest child was 6 months until he reached 5th grade. It was great as employer paid H’s trip and car rental and hotel and we just paid for the rest of our air and stayed with family or friends for the rest of the trip.
So Dr, no regrets about spending/saving as we did then or now.
We did tons of travel when the kids were young. People always gave us a hard time saying they wouldn’t remember it. I’m sure they don’t remember it all but they remember pieces, and they have a love of travel, interesting cuisines, and adventure. Plus, it was the best family bonding time, being together 24/7 without any commitments for any of us getting in the way. We cut back on the travel a bit during the high school and now the college private school tuition years but we’re down to just 2 years worth of tuition left and have started to gear up again. I figure inviting the kids to join us, as well as their significant others, will help us get to see them more. At this point, our kids are more well traveled than we are and they are often better at taking charge on trips and navigating different cultures.
Another thing we will do is use up cash value in our life insurance policies - Don knows how to do it. Of course our agent doesn’t encourage - the insurance likes to use that money (which they have for years and years).
@SOSConcern , it’s when you try to get to the “cash value” that the joke finally reaches its punchline. Let’s hope Don knows what he’s doing. Bogleheads is full of stories of cash value not being cash, if you know what I mean.
Definitely plan on spending more on vacations a few years out of retirement.
I know I will have a harder time spending the amount we are spending now. So we need to travel as much as we can, or the more expensive travels, before retirement.
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It surprised us how much more financially comfortable things were once the mortgage was finally paid off and once we paid the last of the college bills. It’s one thing to know intellectually that after the tough, lean times things will improve, another entirely to experience the relief in lower bills. Even tho we still pay all D’s expenses, they’re lower than her expenses + college expenses.
I’m looking forward to that feeling, @HImom!
Yes, it helps us sleep better at night and guilt-free travel. We invite the kids to travel along if they’re available. 
@colorado_mom, what would the advantage be of taking Social Security early in relation to not having pre-65 medical insurance?
Early or late, I think SS strategies are worth spending $40 on at www.maximizemysocialsecurity.com. It gets complicated with married couples and different earnings, life expectancy, children’s ages, ex spouses, etc.
In our situation, it made the most sense for me to file at 62, earning two kids a fair amount of benefits (they were pretty young for a father as old as me), and for DW to delay until age 70. DW has longevity in her family; I don’t.
@planner03 , Yes, I do regret having been so frugal when I hear the potential of having my hard-earned savings taxed. But I don’t regret the flexibility it has given us to have some choices now.
@doschicos It’s something I am thinking a lot about lately. Now that the money is accumulated I find myself wondering what the point was? The same frugal nature that allowed me to be a super saver isn’t evolving as time goes by and I feel overwhelmingly sad that I wasn’t able to allow myself and my family to enjoy the money through the years. You really can’t take it with you…
@planner03, I’m still in the phase of trying to figure out what “enough” is, although I suspect many people would say I have enough now. What I’m really struggling with is when to actually retire. I am 55 and can retire next year. I am likely to retire at 58, but I often think I “should” work longer. My neighbor suddenly died this week. He appeared to be healthy, and he was only 50. That really made me think about remembering to enjoy “today,” because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow.