I would like to thank all of you who took the time to respond to me. I am going to respond to each person who responded, and then look to complete a case study. As for other expenses I incurred during the last six and half years, here they go- $3500 for a new bathroom for my parents. $10,000-paid off parents mortgage-$3000-I bought an old boat which I need to sell-$3000 for schooling to become an EMT-Basic and a firefighter. I took a leave of absence for two months to try and complete the firefighting when I was younger. I then got hurt, and had to complete six months of therapy on my hand, so I had to go back to my job. During this time I also visited a career counselor and looked into other jobs. Also realized I needed to get out of being a first responder period. I also messed up with my first car purchase by buying an SUV with bad gas mileage and my commute is terrible. This cost me a lot of money.
frugaldrummer- thank you for your post, not a lot of people I work with plan on staying in my profession for 25 years any longer. Two people have resigned from my department in the last month. I will be shadowing in October when I get on day shift.
Sol-thank you for the hard nosed approach, and so the saying most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it. I plan on facing it. I have the option of contributing to a 457plan. I will also follow you lead and pay off the car this Friday. She is doing private practice after her 20 with the feds. I am going to try to find out if i still get the money the city was supposed to invest if i leave earlier than the 8 years. At 8 years, it is 20% current paycheck when I turn 60. 3% increase after that till death.
cowboy-case study coming
jags-she is going to set up income base repayment. She should start $70-90k a year with incentives as to where in the country she is willing to relocate to. The feds also pay for the move, and help with selling your home.
pbkmain-After 10 years she can qualify for loan forgiveness. She is now on a strict budget, and combined we averaged 10 weddings a year for the last 4 years which is frickin killing me. She took loans from undergrad to doctoral program. (took extra classes to finish completely by 30 years of age. She also finished her dissertation early. This year, she needed to retain the student status, which is another $5,500. At least she is getting a $54 k stipend.
easye-No she was not a van wilder. Just 11 years of schooling. Finished masters early. During different portions of her degree, she had to incorporate a lot of drive time for various projects. In 5 years, she should be over 100k. I too don't like those terms, but I get called it all the time. I also get death threats all the time, which is getting rather old. I know it comes with the job, but I'm rather burned out.
Gondolin-yea she starts at a g11 next year. She will put in her 20 years.
Kaikou-going to look into case study after this post.
IDdebtbuster-Thanks for the optimism.
mozar- I am really sorry about your bad experiences. I want all the crappy cops gone too. I really enjoy that our department does CPA classes, which teaches people about the job, and you even go do hands on learning with building searches and traffic stops to name a few things.
sunshinegirl= I tried talking a class with my job before. I work rotating 12 hour shifts minimum (late calls plus an hour drive time does not help) Im currently not paying for rent which also helps now. I also can have court from 8-4 any weekday, regardless of if i am on night shift. The poor quality of life is getting to me.
pathlesstaken- Is your userid a reference to Robert Frost's poem? 1)Im just venting my burnout
2) going to call the bank friday to pay off the car 3) I like 3 4)She is currently out of state. $54 k stipend this year.
Thank you for your reply
bacci=case study coming
mntngoat-Undergrad, masters, doctoral program. Part time jobs in between, and she still needed insurance. She is 29 in October. We used a Venture One card for her traveling when she needed to do all of her meetings for her match sites.
Thanks again everyone, off to look into the case study.