Few Driving Pointers

[Deva Link]

Whatty said:

unrepentant said:

Whatty said:

Re police benefits: I wasn't making reference to simply pay, cops in my town in NJ can draw full pension after 25 years service. So joining up at 20 will see you retire on full pay at 45, complete with full medical benefits for life.

I believe that policemen here can retire after 25 years service. However, it's not on "full pay" and I can't believe it is in NJ either. Full pension and full pay are 2 very different things.

You may be right on the 50% - so I stand corrected - however a very quick search yielded this:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200810...

I still maintain that retiring at 45 on 50% of a final salary of $60-80K with 20-25 years of working life left is remarkably generous compared to the private sector. Maybe I should take US citizenship and sign up

Apparently they can retire after 20 years (not 25) on 50% of salary. Early retirement can't be as attractive as it sounds though as they've just won the right to work until 60, where they used to have to retire at 55.

You might think it's great to retire in your 40's, but, at least in the UK, Police (and Firemen) have very limited life expectancy after retirement. It something to do with the job being frequently stressful and in short bursts.

http://www.state.nj.us/njsp/recruit/salary.html

[rich_vw]

All thanks again for the handy tips, week today and I'll be hitting the highways (not literally I hope). As for the local / state forces I shall be keeping my eyes open and hope that a bit of Brit charm will get me by if the worst was to happen. Must say I'm generally quite an economical driver but will see what happens

As for the slight deviation from topic it's quite interesting the value of the pension but could quite imagine the elevated stress over a period of time can't be good for their health!!

[Whatty]

rich_vw said:

As for the slight deviation from topic it's quite interesting the value of the pension but could quite imagine the elevated stress over a period of time can't be good for their health!!

All those donuts don't help either!

Sorry for the digression - have a great trip!

[rich_vw]

Afternoon,

Big thanks, driving went well although did end up going the wrong way up the road on the first day but it was early morning so no real drama thankfully. must say the roads are pretty replaxed compared to UK or maybe it was just my frame of mind...never the less, much enjoyed.

R