I've been paroled!

[Lsbcal]

Utrecht, you have some very concrete plans as a start in ER and that is great! I'm impressed.

 

[Nodak]

Congratulations!

 

[powerplay]

Congratulations! I hope you both enjoy your retirement for many years to come.

 

[audreyh1]

Did you ever explain the origin of your name? I've been through the famous and historic city in Holland a couple of times. Just wondering.

 

[utrecht]

Did you ever explain the origin of your name? I've been through the famous and historic city in Holland a couple of times. Just wondering.

I was stationed in Germany while in the Army in the late 80's. I went to Amsterdam a couple times and saw the city "Utrecht". I never thought much about it until years later when I met my future wife and found out that she went to New Utrecht High School in NYC. We were married in 1995 and got a joint email address. We decided on utrecht@something.com. Ive used the name on and off since then.

 

[eytonxav]

Congrats on your retirements and thanks for your service doing a very tough job.

 

[seraphim]

PI is too much like work. Two years out I'm finally not feeling the stress of the job, and can watch local news without it affecting me. Travel, forget about that line of work, and enjoy your time together. That's what we do. Monday's are the new Sunday, because everyone else is at work and there no crowds anywhere when we go out places. Lol.

Congrats to both of you...


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[utrecht]

When I mentioned getting a P.I. license, I was talking about working for ourselves and taking one or two cases a month when we happen to not be traveling. Anything more than that is out of the question.

 

[Leonidas]

Congratulations Utrecht. I'll tell you the same thing I tell other cops retiring: There is most definitely a great life after policing!

PI is too much like work. Two years out I'm finally not feeling the stress of the job, and can watch local news without it affecting me.

Agree totally. All my friends who retired have almost all gone on to do some similar line of work. DA investigators, PI, other law enforcement agencies, etc. Many of them retired on Friday and went to their new jobs on Monday. Some want to stay busy, but I think most can't imagine life without working. Like one of my former bosses when I was a fed. He was my ASAC and fought hard to try and get extensions past mandatory retirement, his retirement pay more than meets his need and most desires, but he went on to start a PI firm with another former co-worker. Some folks can't give up the badge and gun I guess.

I don't miss waking up in the morning and scanning all the local news websites hoping I didn't have a problem I had to get ahead of before the chief or the mayor's office hit my phone in full-blown freakout mode. I'm 11 years retired now and I don't even pay attention to local news anymore.

 

[Katiek]

Congrats and enjoy your trips!

 

[utrecht]

Leonidas, I don't need to work at all. We've been saving such a high percentage of our salaries that our pensions are higher than what we were previously spending. Add to that 3-4% of our savings and we are able to set a much higher budget for ourselves than we've ever had in our lives. I'm only considering the P.I. thing for an occasional challenge and maybe to fill some time in case I get bored at some point.

We just got back from Cancun yesterday in time to watch the Super Bowl. It was the first time we've ever gotten back from a vacation and not felt any angst about having to hurry and wash clothes and get a million things done in preparation for having to go to work tomorrow (Monday).

A friend of ours used airline miles and surprised us with a 4 day trip to Vegas the weekend of Valentine's day. Retirement is rough.

 

[Mango1956]

Congratulations, Utrecht! Your plans in retirement sound wonderful! My DH loves woodworking and has built alot of our furniture. He also has done some turning on a tabletop lathe he bought. You might enjoy trying that out-it's different from working with table saw, etc. He makes Ikibana style flower holders and has sold them and given them as gifts-people love them! He also plays drums in a three piece instrumental band-another creative outlet. I love having a big garden, growing veggies and some fruit trees, along with ornamentals. I know your wife will enjoy that aspect of retirement. So happy for you, and thank you for your service. All the best!

 

[shasta]

After 24 years of service on the Dallas PD, my wife and I both retired on Friday, which not coincidentally also happened to be my 50th birthday. We had a large retirement party and it was a blast. People we had worked with in various different assignments over the years showed up and congratulated us and told every funny and embarrassing story they could remember. Some I think were even made up. I had one guy show up who I had served in the Army with in Germany in the late 80's. It was very humbling to say the least.

The wife and I met at work when we were both rookies and we have our 20th anniversary coming up. We both spent about half our lives with these people doing a very challenging and rewarding job but now we are ready to move on to our next adventure.

People keep asking how it feels to be retired and honestly right now it just feels like Sunday, but I'm sure very soon its going to feel quite different. We already have 3 trips planned between now and July.

Thanks to everyone here who has given out advice having no idea that I was soaking it all in. Its been a great help as I prepared for this huge transition.

Congrats to you and thanks for years of hard public service work.

 

[braumeister]

Somehow I always suspected there was a connection with my hometown.
New Utrecht HS is not far from where I grew up in Brooklyn, so the name was quite familiar to me.

Trivia: Did you know it was the school shown in the opening sequence of "Welcome Back Kotter" the great old TV sitcom? Gabe Kaplan was an alumnus.

 

[Retch The Grate]

congrats!

 

[Options]

Congratulations! Thank you for your public service of protecting persons, life, and property, and for creating safety and the valuable perception of safety.

 

[utrecht]

Somehow I always suspected there was a connection with my hometown.
New Utrecht HS is not far from where I grew up in Brooklyn, so the name was quite familiar to me.

Trivia: Did you know it was the school shown in the opening sequence of "Welcome Back Kotter" the great old TV sitcom? Gabe Kaplan was an alumnus.

I did know that but only because my wife has told me several times.