Saturday, August 11, 2012

21 years with the BFD!!!

Well, it is August 11th, 2012 today.  I have just enjoyed having the last two weeks off from work, using vacation time to spend with my family, and to work on a whole lot of yard work and clean-up around the place.  We even managed to squeak in a fun weekend of camping at Silver Lake last Friday through Monday!  :-)

This morning, I head back to work again.  And on this day, 21 years ago, I started working as a firefighter for the City of Bellingham!!!  Yes, today is my BFD 21 year anniversary!  :-)

That's the great news..... 21 years have come and gone so very quickly, it is hard to imagine.  I can still remember very vividly, receiving the phone call to offer me the job.  It has been a fantastic career so far for me, and I am truly blessed to do what I do for a living.

The not so great news is..... after crunching numbers for retirement, and looking ahead at pension dollars and retirement savings through 401k, it doesn't look good for me to be able to retire at age 53 with 30 years in, as I have been planning for some time now!  :-( 

Staying an extra 5 years does huge things financially for me that I simply can't ignore!!!  A pension of 60% goes up to 70%, and the 401k money will easily have more than another $150k in it over those 5 years.  And, for all of that, I will still only be 58 years old.

So, my 9 year count down has just changed to be my 14 year count down..... unless something changes.  Oh well.... the first 21 years went by so fast, I can only imagine that the next 14 will be just as fast.....probably faster.

For now, time to get ready to head back to work again..... I really did enjoy my time off, but I am looking forward to getting back in the driver's seat of my fire engine once again as well.  :-)

2 comments:

  1. I am so proud of your 21 year career. Congratulations Ski!

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  2. Congrats on the Anniversary, I hear you about the retirement thing! I am very proud of you brother, keep it up!

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