Winding-Down LE Career. (Big-City PD)

[Rex G]

I have been taking a one-week "stay-cation," which has given me much time to think. I also did much thinking earlier this year, when I took almost a month of leave, after my grandson was born. Some factors in the equation:

1. The Job, and in particular, being on a night-shift schedule, caused me to miss much of my son's early childhood. It would be nice to see much more of my grandson's early childhood. My son and his family live too far away to easily visit, except during my week-ends, which do not correspond to his week-ends, which change each quarter. I could visit/help daily, if retired.

2. Grand-baby Number Two, same parents as #1, above, is now on the way! The likely time of birth is between Christmas and New Year's Day. I am the only grandparent available to help, within reasonable travel distance, and two infants will make my help more necessary.

3. My Dad will see his eighty-fifth birthday in January 2018. He is starting to need more help with household tasks. My parents live along the route to the grand-babies.

4. My wife retired from her very toxic career two years ago, after nearly working herself to death, and has been wanting me to retire since that time. (She worked for the Harris County M.E., for 21 years, making her one of the most-experienced death scene investigators in the USA.

5. Staffing levels have been improving a bit at work, and the academy has been graduating some good kids, so I need not feel guilty about leaving my colleagues short-handed.

6. It is difficult to know how many years of service is "enough," but thirty is a typical figure, nation-wide, for "full" retirement among LEOs, and I reached thirty-three years of sworn service in March, all of it night shift, and all except a seven-month jail rotation have been patrol. (My retirement is not structured to reach any particularly-defined "full" figure, though one reaches a max pension at 33.33 years if one does not D.R.O.P., and D.R.O.P., which most start at 20 years of service, as I did, has a 20-year-cap.)

7. It is difficult to say how young is "too young" to retire, but I am 55 now, and will be 56 in October. More important than chronological age is physical age. Well into my forties, I seemed fitter than many men ten years my junior, but that started changing about age 47, and by age 54, some were thinking I was already in my sixties. My wife, who did not practice medicine, but has a medical background, has pronounced me as decently healthy for a man of several years' greater age. The prospect of a physical confrontation is becoming much more daunting. Regardless of my skill level, my reflexes are slower.

8. Our new patrol vehicles are now compact cars, the Ford Explorer-based Police Interceptor, difficult to enter and exit in a hurry, especially to exit in a hurry from the right front seat while wearing a full-sized duty pistol. (Yes, I said the Ford Explorer is a compact car, because that's what it is.) My duty belt size setting has not changed since I was a skinny cadet 33+ years ago; it is my long, aging legs working against me, climbing through a too-small door opening, and dealing with a door that does not open wide enough. It broke my heart to give up the Tahoe!

9. Our home/land was bought with cash, and has more than doubled in value since we moved into it, in 2001. (Well, the land is driving the appreciation in value.) I have good interest rate on my truck. Our other vehicles still run well. Money is not a problem, short of hyper-inflation, or a break-down in social order.

10. I do still love some aspects of the job, but there are annoying parts, too. It is probably best to end it on a positive note, before I come to hate it. I know that will need "something to do." There are several things that do come to mind, in the areas of firearms/defensive training, fitness, and hobbies.

I am running out of time to keep typing right now. If anyone is still reading at this point, thanks for "listening." Comments are appreciated.

[blues]

Rex, you've been talking about retirement since I got here so I'm gonna guess that you'll be one of those, like me, who adjust to it just fine.

I took it at age 51. I'll be eligible for Medicare later this year. I believe my b'day is in the same month as yours.

Retirement is awesome. It's not the beginning of the end, it's when you can kick back and do what you feel like doing as long as the wife and the dog and the grandchildren et al agree to it. (I'm lucky in that regard. Just have a wife and dog to take my marching orders from.)

If you're ready, you're ready. I didn't leave the job because I hated the work. I left the job because I hated the politics, the administrators and the lies. (And I wasn't in the mood for the additional culture wars that the melding of two agencies was about to bring about.) I've told the local Sheriff's office if they ever need anything from me, I'm happy to work for free (on a temporary basis).

I may miss the chase now and again but I sure as hell don't miss listening to nincompoops. YMMV.

My advice...try it, you'll like it. I love being a ne'er -do-well. Allows me more time to give Tom Jones ulcers.

[Jim Watson]

Not LE, but my agency made me an early retirement offer I could not refuse. I worked a couple of projects on "staff augmentation" but that was a while back and I can say I have not missed that place a single day.

[Duces Tecum]

From your post, you don't need the money. Work will get along without you. Your wife is already retired. Both your parents and your son's family need your help . . . and you really don't know (none of us do) how many years you have remaining. Did I say, "You don't need the money?"

There seems to be a lot of weight on one side of the scale, doesn't there? Looks like it may be time, Rex, that you stopped taking care of us and started taking care of them.

Thanks for every year you put in.

[hufnagel]

Not a LEO:
Sounds like, you've done your bit, served your community well, and are seeing the writing on the wall. Retire, enjoy your adult kids and infant grandkids, and don't look back.

[Soggy]

. . . and you really don't know (none of us do) how many years you have remaining.

This is very true.

[JHC]

DOOO EEET!

[voodoo_man]

If you do not need the money or the medical, run like hell.

I have seen many old timers who stay on the job just because they have sick kids or grandkids they are taking care of they need to stay because they need to keep medical coverage for them, their sacrifice.

There are a lot of old timers I worked with who retired the very moment they were able to do so comfortably, nearly all are perfectly comfortable with their choice, one old timer Lt did so a little too early, in his words, he misses it.

The #1 suggestion most of these guys have is that you need to have plans on what you want to do when you retire. Sure, seeing your family more is important, helping out your kids with their grandkids is great and helping your father is something you seem to want to be able to do more hands on. Will you be doing that 24/7? What are you going to be doing in the meantime? Do you have a part time job you want to do? Open a business? Start a podcast? Drive an uber?

We've all heard the stories of guys who retire from long careers and drop dead a few months later. One guy I worked with for a while retired at 35 years on the job, 3 months later he died of a heart attack in the same house he lived in during his entire career. In contrast I had an old Sgt who retired with nearly 40 on the job who lives down in FL now in a gated community, drives a custom golf cart around and teaches criminal justice part time at the local community college, he also teaches senior citizens privately at the local range, by appointment. He is super happy and will probably outlive most of us.

Having that reason to wake up in the morning, aside from family, is very important.

Since I want to give you some stuff to think about - one of our old timers retired with 32 years on the job after a good shoot, said "fuck this" after IA started giving him a bad way to go (it was a bank robbery-related thing) and he retired halfway through the investigation, back then you used to get about 3 months off after a shoot. He decided that he was taking his wife and they were going to travel the planet. He sold everything he didn't absolutely need, made the city deposit his pension check into an internationally accessible account and the last time I spoke with him via email he was on his sixth month in the southern part of Italy. Traveling the world is a very good way to start off your retirement, or even giving yourself and your wife something to look forward to.

[Rex G]

I agree that the scale is tilted toward leaving. Being an FTI/FPE, I answer to the Field Training Sergeant, and she would like me to stay through part of November, to evaluate the rookies from a new, now-ongoing academy class, but has indicated she would understand if I left before then. (She would, however, probably have kittens if I left before evaluating two rookies scheduled to ride with me later this month. I will not do that to her.)

If I can convince myself to finish the long, hot summer, I will be given 160 Personal Hours on September First. These have no cash value, I have to "burn" them. That would give me another month paying into my 457 and D.R.O.P. accounts, while not having to actually work the hours. While I do not "need" the money, that is a substantial boost to my tax-deferred nest eggs.

[octagon]

Rex, this is a big personal decision. I retired last year at 46 and I have no regrets. Part of my reasoning was spending the last 10 years apart from my wife due to our jobs in different states and commuting on weekends as well as the cost and complexity of two households. Financially we have more income now than while I was working. That aside I am so much more relaxed and happy. My wife is also. I have been able to do a lot of things I would have felt pressured to get done and not enjoyed. Travel, built a racecar, shooting schools, and quality time to go along with quantity of time.

The job politics weren't great but working nights made that less of a problem for me which is why I probably stayed for 17 years. One of the other reasons I retired was because I saw some guys put in extra years and then die or get sick shortly after retirement without a chance to enjoy it. A good friend is currently fighting stage 4 cancer on the second year of the DROP program and his wife (also a LEO and a friend) has 3 years to go. They are recent empty nest-ers and moved to their dream home just a couple years ago. The one thing no one can buy is time. Best of luck with your decision.