I did 27 years 2 months and 16 days. I was fortunate in that I did not burn out until year 25ish(most burn at 15). We had a 5 year drop and I made it 2.5 months and said fuck it I'm out. Age 49 and had 100ac in TN to retire too(that was 14 years ago). I have not had one single 'bored day', but I always knew since I was a kid that I would live 'beyond the sticks'.

"I really do not have anything lined up afterwards."

This is a red flag. Other guys I know that didn't know what to do ended up going back into LE which is fine if that's what YOU want to do. I have been recruited here and turned them down more than once...ain't gonna happen. No one can tell you what to do, or how to cope with that. I think it's a hard thing to deal with but I cannot relate, so be prepared to handle it best you can. The worst thing to do is retire and idle.....'keep moving or die' I say. If you don't have any hobby's then your hobby was LE.

I keep in touch with my true buddies, the rest were all acquaintances that got deleted from my phone a year or so after retirement. I honestly do not miss it, but for those 25 years I would have done the job for free if I didn't have to eat.

Health insurance. You/we were spoiled with good plans with zero or low deductions. Wonderful, but paying a grand a month for that after retirement is insane. If you are reasonable healthy, drop the plan and get one with a high deductible....ours is $10 grand, but monthly is $300(avg). In the 14 years since retirement we hit the deductible 3 times.

$3600 a year x 14 = $50,400
add $30K in deductibles - $80,400

Old city plan:
$12K a year x 14 = $144,000

Savings of $63,600

Anyway, just some of my thoughts to ponder. My take on your situation is that if you hit the wall, get out because you are not doing yourself or any co-worker any favors. Find a hobby and throw yourself into it....airplanes, motorcycles, boats, wood working, redheads, traveling.......live in a van down by the river....anything. Whatever you do have fun....you are fukin retired!

I did 20 years in the military before starting law enforcement so started late in life.  I wanted to do 20 as a LEO and didn't quite make it.

At 19 years and at 58 years old I was a Patrol Sergeant/Watch Commander with the city PD working a long stretch of graveyard shifts.  I was wore out and my tolerance for stupid was not keeping up as I aged.  I was bitching to the wife one day and she said, "quit bitching, pick a date and do it".  So I did.

My state PERS does not provide medical insurance for retirees.  I was lucky in that I had Tricare from being retired military.  Otherwise I would not have been able to leave when I did.

Ironically, the local sheriff, a friend, asked me to come work for him about 6 months later.  I did 5 years part time at the SO as the training officer and serving civils.  I finally hung up the badge and gun for good and started drawing Social Security at 63.

You'll know.

Shit, I’ve been doing Bill Murray for the last 3 years at least.....22 years in.  

.

I have been thinking of going back into the Jail which would be a cake assignment until I hit 2025. I’ve already hit my high five for career and I’ve taken every incentive class there is. I am just burned out at this point.

One call turned ugly, one car chase, one punch or even a curse word.

There a huge number of people-well into the tens of millions, that want to see you dead, crippled or in prison. Preferably crippled in prison.

Almost all of your command staff, the chief or sheriff and every politician in your state would happily feed you feet first into a wood chipper

if it benefited them in some way.

The media is standing by to call you a white Hispanic and a racist, to put every ghetto thug or hood mammy on the 24/365 news cycle calling you

every thing but a child of God, and to run with any lie that makes you look bad in any way.

If you are financially able to go...go. Otherwise you're tempting fate.

As soon as I retired my doctor told me "you got a chance at 70 now.

That first penny check is a real awakening.

13.5 in and can go at 20 with 32% or stay till 25 and get 50% +2% more every year after.  Feb 20th 2032 is 25 and I am out.

OP,,,I was not a PO. I'm 67 and retired at 50. I will however give you something to chew on. I founded a small business that grew into a large business. In the beginning I was the go to guy for any and all solutions. I sold my product. I built my product. I cleaned up the mess I made building my product and on and on. Many years later with 70 employees I found myself no longer a manufacturer but a captive slave to rules, regulations, financial commitments and all the things I was the ONLY one that could do. I absolutely LOVED solving manufacturing issues and I absolutely LOVED selling. After thirty years I had worked my way out of doing what I loved and I knew I was done. We sold. The last years since I was in business have by far been the best years of my life. Now I do what I love to do. The other day I hopped on the tractor and moved a bunch of iron in the shop and went to WORK cutting and welding a new firewood rack. It was a GLORIOUS day. I was BORN to work. I was BORN to build things. Now I can be the guy I was BORN to be.

I know this has nothing to do with Police work BUT it does have to do with being happy. My two cents worth.

I’ve got 21 years in and another 10 before I can file but 13 before I can collect.

Even then I’m leaning towards staying another 10-12 past that. I started at 22.

May go at 55 and start something else.

While not an LEO, I'm active duty Army. I am approaching 18 years. I've also started to look at the reality of future military progressions and promotion to the next rank is around 30%. Plus, you have to get a battalion command. I threw my name in the hat, but we will see what happens this month. Even so, I have a few medical issues that are still not sorted that would make command difficult. It makes me seriously consider getting out at 20 years. The good thing about getting out at 20 is I will make more money doing so. If I am not on the command list, I am definitely retiring in 2023. I was told as a lieutenant from my battalion commander, that the time to retire is when it is no longer fun. I'm starting to have quite a few days that I consider not fun. I think if you are at the point where work is becoming like this, then you should start looking at alternatives. I also made my soldiers, when I was a company commander or in a leadership position, come to me with an exit plan and what they were going to do after the Army. It forced them to do the work so they were set up for success after the military. I've seen lieutenant colonels wait until the last minute to retire, and then have to scramble to get a job the last few months they were in. They ended up doing things that were not exactly what they wanted to do. The new mantra is that retirement is a process, not an event. If you treat it like an event, then you might not like what is on the other side.

Thank you all for the thoughts and suggestions.  I am really thinking harder of leaving in July.  I can start burning some annual and sick time in order to get to my target date.  What a great and weird ride it has become.

Just out of curiosity,  what rank were you when you retired? How many soldiers were you responsible for? Sounds like a bunch too me. Never in the military..highest position i had was acting assistant precinct commander for 8 months. Maybe 120 officers, 15 or so sergeants, and 3 other lieutenants.  My job was a breeze compared to yours. God bless you.

I broke my back and started puking blood every hour from all the meds, the county decided for me

When you get pissed off and get sick and tired of guys like ME.

I saw the Writing on the wall, I had my 25 in, the original plan was to finish out 30, But after unforeseen events, the reason for staying was gone, So I Hit the Big red button on the State Pension website on the dai I was eligible to do so.  I had guys telling me I was stupid, that I should have tried for another Promotion cycle, Yadda yadda yadda.  3 of us went on the same day.  I haven't regretted it.  This August I was out 8 years...EVERY YEAR Since I pulled the pin there have been more reasons to be glad I jumped out when I did.

https://www.lawofficer.com/minneapolis-lt-bob-kroll-retires-and-he-deserves-our-gratitude/

Minneapolis, Minnesota – There may not be a cop in America that has been abused and bashed more than Minneapolis Police Lt. Bob Kroll.

His recently announced retirement brought out the cowards behind the keyboard once again with Mayor Jacob Frey tweeting “good riddance” and the Star Tribune placing his legacy on everything from “the charred rubble of the Third Police Precinct station” to the “graves and grieving families and a police force and a community terrified of each other.”

This is how sick and twisted cities such as Minneapolis are.

We know Bob Kroll the police officer and we know Bob Kroll the man. Kroll has more guts and fortitude than every coward that has used him for the problems that they created times a thousand.

Cowards have marched on his house, they have continually attempted to get him and even his wife fired from their job and in the end, they are the losers.

None of it worked.
Lt. Bob Kroll went out his way and on his terms. He could have taken the easy way out years ago. Kroll has been eligible for retirement for some time but as the union leader in a city that hates those standing between good and evil, Kroll stood tall and defended them.

The good men and women at the Minneapolis Police Department needed Kroll and Kroll took the punishment day after day and year after year.

We have always watched from afar and shuttered at the cruel and bitter treatment that Kroll constantly received from the local and national media. That should tell you more about them than Bob Kroll.

They called him a racist; they called him KKKroll and it goes on and on and every bit of it was a lie and they knew it.

Bob Kroll defended the rights that every American and every police officer has.

To be treated innocent until proven guilty and ensuring that their due process rights were adhered to.

The fact that the City of Minneapolis and their leadership didn’t like him is simply proof that they were not treating their officers correctly and it was Kroll who stood in their way.

Unlike what the cowards in the media want to tell you, there isn’t one man anywhere that can keep any bad cop on the job and Kroll couldn’t stand bad cops.

He was simply a scapegoat for a bunch of politicians that were incompetent and incoherent in running their city and their police department.

The hate for Bob Kroll picked up steam in the wake of the death of George Floyd but Kroll wasn’t there that day.

It wasn’t Kroll that sanctioned the 2018 training on excited delirium that told officers to subdue subjects on the ground that they suspected were experiencing excited delirium.

It wasn’t Kroll that approved a department policy that a knee to the neck was an approved method of detention.

It also wasn’t Kroll that wrote the autopsy report listing a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl in George Floyd’s body and it certainly wasn’t Kroll that told the world in the autopsy report that Floyd did not die from asphyxia and that he had no marks on his body.

We could go past the Floyd incident to the tragic death of Justine Damond in 2017. Damond called 911 and was shot dead in the street by former Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor who now resides in prison. Noor, the first Somali American officer in the city, was praised by the mayor and sent through an “accelerated” basic training program prior to killing Damond.

And you guessed it. Bob Kroll did not make that decision either.

No, all of those decisions were made by the leadership in the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department. They know they made those decisions but rather than taking responsibility for their actions, they constantly chose to throw Kroll under the bus.

We can’t imagine what Bob Kroll is thinking after the years of abuse from a city that he served for over 32 years including 15 years on the SWAT team and various other dangerous assignments.

The media loves to talk about the complaints and lawsuits filed against him and his endorsement of President Trump but what they won’t tell you is the truth about any of that.

Any cop that serves three decades in a city like Minneapolis will get complaints and probably get sued a time or two. Ask any cop that has worked the streets, especially those that are in Minneapolis, and they will tell you that is the game.

But just like Kroll so often did, when you do your job right and you follow policy, bring it on and that is exactly what they did to Kroll.

If you don’t believe us that Kroll is the stand up guy that we say he is, we will ask you to answer one question.

If Bob Kroll is the evil that the cowards say, then why did he retire, on his own terms, after 32 years?

Why wasn’t he fired?
Because those that went after him had nothing. Trust us, if they had something, Kroll would have been fired long ago. Anyone with a few brain cells knows that.

But they couldn’t do that so they publicly shamed and mocked him every chance they got.

Bob Kroll took it and he took it so he could defend others from getting the same treatment.

Even more dangerous is the reason they mocked and tried to cancel Kroll every chance they got. They knew Kroll wouldn’t budge but they were sending a message to anyone else that tried to stand up to them. For the sake of the Minneapolis Police Department and the citizens that reside there, we hope that Kroll’s leadership is passed on and they stand tall because this hate will not stop with Bob Kroll’s retirement.

As Mayor Jacob Frey sends his teenager style condolences to Kroll on his retirement, we have a message for him.

Lt. Bob Kroll retiring will not fix your problems because you are the problem.

Now that Kroll is gone, who will you blame for the environment that you have created?

The housing market in Minneapolis is booming but there are no buyers. Violence in the city is off the charts and cops are more scared of their politicians and their media than they are the violent criminals.

But the cowards shouldn’t worry.
They will keep lying and they will find someone else to blame and unfortunately they will convince some in the public that the boggie man nightmare called the police union is their enemy while the bodies of the homicide victims keep piling up.

No one is going on vacation in Minneapolis and it’s not because they are scared of Bob Kroll. The city has plummeted to a low that you cannot imagine and Bob Kroll fought to make it better.

He fought to keep cops doing their job which is to arrest criminals and provide a safer environment for the citizens.

He fought to get politicians away from law enforcement because everyone knows how stupid things get then.

Now he is gone and the punching bag for all of the failed policies and politicians are gone.

Part of us say let Jacob Frey and his minions have it. Let them do whatever they want to what was once a great, working class city.

But we care too much about the citizens and we care too much about the police officers that put their lives on the line everyday to give in.

So we tend to do what Bob Kroll did every day since 1989. Never give up….Keep fighting and never let the cowards and the trolls win.

From American Law Enforcement and us here at Law Officer, thank you Lt. Kroll.

Good riddance https://t.co/b94m0dyyjU

Mayor Jacob Frey  (@MayorFrey) January 11, 2021