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

[Rex G]

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?

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

Good advice, thanks.

Serious photography, with serious, personally-owned equipment, is one of the skills I use at work. I can now "be" a photographer, which does not necessarily mean making a dime. I may decide to attend the Photo Plus Expo in NYC, in late October. In 2018, I may attend a week-long flash photograhy workshop, in the Rockies, taught by Syl Arena. I have attended two of his one-day "Intensive" classes, which merely scratches the surface, compared to a full-immersion workshop. Then, there is outdoor photography. Even without traveling, I have opportunities, living along a major migration route, which attracts bird photographers from all over the world.

My wife volunteers with CERT, and the county OEM, especially doing moulage work for disaster drills. (Make-up and small-scale prosthetics to simulate injuries.) Her health makes it difficult to lug the equipment, so I can help her more with that. I might be able to network while doing this, perhaps leading to a post-retirement career, should I decide to go that route.

Travel is another big one, too. Retracing the routes (and roots) on my mother's side (Scots-Irish) is one project. My father's side is not so easy to trace, here in the USA, but it is a very unusual surname, concentrated in Nancy, in Lorraine, France, so I want to connect with the area. My wife's family is Polish, and she speaks fluent Polish, and has a working knowledge of Russian, useful in Eastern Europe and Israel. (She has friends in Israel.)

Yes, if/when the grandchildren do not keep me too busy, I have plenty to do.

Of course, I can try to be a firearms/defensive tactics training hobbyist/junkie. It would be interesting to see if I can survive another ECQC, after being away from that level of training since 2006.

[voodoo_man]

Good advice, thanks.

Serious photography, with serious, personally-owned equipment, is one of the skills I use at work. I can now "be" a photographer, which does not necessarily mean making a dime. I may decide to attend the Photo Plus Expo in NYC, in late October. In 2018, I may attend a week-long flash photograhy workshop, in the Rockies, taught by Syl Arena. I have attended two of his one-day "Intensive" classes, which merely scratches the surface, compared to a full-immersion workshop. Then, there is outdoor photography. Even without traveling, I have opportunities, living along a major migration route, which attracts bird photographers from all over the world.

My wife volunteers with CERT, and the county OEM, especially doing moulage work for disaster drills. (Make-up and small-scale prosthetics to simulate injuries.) Her health makes it difficult to lug the equipment, so I can help her more with that. I might be able to network while doing this, perhaps leading to a post-retirement career, should I decide to go that route.

Travel is another big one, too. Retracing the routes (and roots) on my mother's side (Scots-Irish) is one project. My father's side is not so easy to trace, here in the USA, but it is a very unusual surname, concentrated in Nancy, in Lorraine, France, so I want to connect with the area. My wife's family is Polish, and she speaks fluent Polish, and has a working knowledge of Russian, useful in Eastern Europe and Israel. (She has friends in Israel.)

Yes, if/when the grandchildren do not keep me too busy, I have plenty to do.

Of course, I can try to be a firearms/defensive tactics training hobbyist/junkie. It would be interesting to see if I can survive another ECQC, after being away from that level of training since 2006.

I am no expert by any measure but I'd be happy to give you a crash course on photography if/when I make it back down to TX.

Photography + travel is a fantastic way to make it your business to explore the sights.

Go to Israel. It is worth the hassle.

Stay away from the Eastern block for a while...still a not so nice place to visit.

[TGS]

If travel is your thing and you've ever wanted to visit Indonesia, now is the time. The conservative Muslim trend is growing, they even just imprisoned a secular governor here for it. Surfers are starting to surf off boats in Aceh instead of staying on land, and the Balinese have told me they're worried about the growing Sharia law support and that their traditional Balinese/Hindu ways may be destroyed....not to mention the crime that Javanese immigration is bringing.

So get on it while you still can! You likely won't be around when the Muslim pendulum starts swinging back towards tolerance and secularism, and there a LOT of cool places to see around the globe where the locals are getting increasingly intolerant of Westerners.

[blues]

Your ignore list must be epic.

Good one, Tom.

[Odin Bravo One]

You know when its time to walk away. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. When its time to go, its time to go. Staying around for the wrong reasons makes you and everyone around you question "why".

[Odin Bravo One]

Your ignore list must be epic.

I have people who haven't even made an account on ignore.

[voodoo_man]

I have people who haven't even made an account on ignore.

[Depmur]

As a recent retiree I'll also say when it's time it's time.


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[Hambo]

Rex, the very beginning of your original post reminded me of when I knew it was time to go. If you let "more money in DROP" or "my supervisor wants me to stay" make your decision, you'll never leave. There is always another dollar or percentage point and someone will always try to talk you out of it to make their life easier. Do what's best for you.

[Beat Trash]

Like you, I missed much of my kids life as they grew up because I was working. I can not get those years back, and I didn't fully appreciate how important to me they were until I realized that I missed much of them.

Life is short, go enjoy the Grandkids...