Transcription:

Episode 36 – Are You Financially Prepared for Retirement as a Law Enforcement Officer?

16:15

Announcer 00:00:01 This is Blue Money, a finance podcast made for cops by cops. With us. You know your money safe. Retired Lieutenant Jim Donnelly of the Bensalem Police Department and co-host Kevin McGarry of Valley Financial Group come together to help protect and serve your financial needs. This is Blue Money.

Jim Donnelly 00:00:20 I want to welcome everyone back to the Blue Money podcast. This is your host, Jim Donnelly. I’m here with my co-host, Kevin McGarry.

Kevin McGarry. What’s up Jimmy.

Jim Donnelly  Oh, I’m excited for today. We got a special guest, Joe Breezy. Joe, you’ve been a client for a little bit. He has 46.5 years in law enforcement. Recently retired Joe. So I thought you’d be a great person to have on the show. Just talk a little bit about your career and about your financial goals and everything like that. Joe.

Jim Donnelly 00:00:45 So there you go.

Jim Donnelly 00:00:46 Joe deserves the after 46 years body, you know what I mean? So Joe, welcome and.

Joe Abruzzese 00:00:51 Thanks I’m glad to be here. So Joe.

Jim Donnelly 00:00:52 Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Joe Abruzzese 00:00:54 Well, I started the Philadelphia Police Academy in March of 78. Got laid off two times in less than two years, wound up in, working in the first district.

Kevin McGarry 00:01:03 So Joe. Twice in two years.

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:04 Twice in two years. Yeah, we got laid off 19 days right out of the academy. Wow. For 19 days. Who’s the.

Kevin McGarry 00:01:10 Commissioner then?

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:11 it was Joe O’Neil, and Frank Rizzo was the mayor. Well, yeah. And, came back after 19 days, went into the transit unit working the trains and the subway service cars for a year and a half, and got laid off again by Bill green for five and a half months.

Jim Donnelly 00:01:24 Okay.

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:24 Wow. Then I came back, went to the first District South. Detectives. JD, sex crimes for seven years. South. Detectives again for four. And then back to what was the Special Victims Unit for another seven. And I retired out of there in October of oh six.

Kevin McGarry 00:01:39 Joe, when you got laid off, did you have to go back to training?

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:43 No, we were we were completed.

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:45 since we were laid off for only 19 days, we were we were we were still certified.

Kevin McGarry 00:01:49 They don’t have that problem now, right?

Jim Donnelly 00:01:52 Are short there.

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:53 So short. Yeah, it’s just ridiculous.

Jim Donnelly 00:01:55 So how many years are you doing Philly Joe?

Joe Abruzzese 00:01:57 I did 28.5.

Jim Donnelly 00:01:58 And then what was your next chapter after that? What’d you do?

Joe Abruzzese 00:02:01 I retired from Philly on a Friday, in 2006. And on Tuesday I went to the University of Pennsylvania, Police Department. I stayed in uniform for just shy of two years and then made detective on July 7th of oh eight and retired, last Friday. Gave me about 16.5 years in, 16 years in Detective Division.

Jim Donnelly 00:02:22 So, I mean, you were a detective for a long time now. What did you think the biggest difference between Philly PD and UPenn when you were down there being the detective?

Joe Abruzzese 00:02:31 Well, we handled everything just about the same, except for homicides and sex crimes. although we would assist Philly homicide and Philly sex crimes with with different investigations.

Joe Abruzzese 00:02:40 But, University of Penn is more confined. when you’re with the city, you’re working all over the city. If you’re not decentral, if you’re decentralized, you’re working all over the city. with Penn, it was just Penn properties, mostly on campus. We would go out to Chester County if we had properties out there or Delaware County and do what we had to do out there. But basically that was it. It’s just about the same thing as Philly, only it’s much less small scale.

Jim Donnelly 00:03:06 Now what about Joe? Over the years you see a lot of people retiring and and there go through ups and downs, the highs and lows of it. Now you just recently retired. How you feel, man? Like what what how are you feeling about it?

Joe Abruzzese 00:03:17 Well I’m terrified okay. I have no idea what the future holds. I mean, I’ve never. I retired once from Philly.

Kevin McGarry 00:03:24 Joe right there. When you retired from Philly where you’re terrified.

Joe Abruzzese 00:03:27 No, because I already had the job at the University of Pennsylvania lined up, and I knew that, and the reason I went to the University of Pennsylvania was, people asked, why did you go back into police work? Well, I don’t know.

Joe Abruzzese 00:03:38 Computers, right? At 50 years old, I was too old to patch kids, right? So I went into what I know best, the police department. And, there, with Philly, we would pay 6% of our pay towards our pension. At Penn, we would pay 3% of our pay towards our pension. And we were also paid Social Security right now for 28.5 years, I didn’t pay Social Security.

Jim Donnelly 00:03:59 Yeah.

Joe Abruzzese 00:04:00 So I had to build that up or I probably would get a zero amount every month.

Kevin McGarry 00:04:05 Phillies won one of the districts that doesn’t pay into Social Security or other departments.

Jim Donnelly 00:04:11 Yeah, I think that’s one of the things a lot of Philly cops don’t understand it and how important it is. I didn’t know I was a Philly cop for three years before I went to Bensalem, and I never realized I was in pain or anything. None of it. But it’s a big thing when you’re about to retire, and then you got to live off your pension and you don’t have that Social Security where a lot of other officers, you know, in Pennsylvania do have it.

Jim Donnelly 00:04:29 It’s a huge perk. So like Joe, that’s that’s huge for you. Obviously, you know, in retirement now that you’re getting Social Security.

Joe Abruzzese 00:04:34 Yeah. Back then I was so young I didn’t think about Social Security. Back then, I wasn’t thinking about getting older. And, you know, a couple of times I thought I was going to get killed and I wouldn’t live this long, you know, but, when it came time, when you got older and you had to start thinking about different things and start thinking about your future, you have to think about these things, about Social Security, know, and, try to get as much income as you can. And because things are so expensive today.

Kevin McGarry 00:04:57 Yeah, they.

Joe Abruzzese 00:04:58 Are, you know, and and you want to be able to, to take care of your family and, and, and let them live the life that they’re used to and that you’ve you’ve brought for them.

Kevin McGarry 00:05:08 Provide it.

Jim Donnelly 00:05:08 That’s the thing. Now, what do you think, Joe? Like, looking back, like you said, it was 46 years, 46.5 years.

Jim Donnelly 00:05:14 Is there anything you wish you would have did differently when you first started out in law enforcement? Are you happy? Where are you at? Kind of what your portfolio or your retirement money? Is there anything that you look back that that you wish you would have did differently? Or are you happy where you’re at?

Joe Abruzzese 00:05:25 There’s a lot of things I would do different. Okay. I, I would have tried to found a way to pay into Social Security or some kind of bank account or savings account that would give me the money at my age now. I would have started saving a lot sooner than I did.

Kevin McGarry 00:05:41 Joe, not to cut you off on that, but with law enforcement, can you work other jobs to put into Social Security if you’re a Philly?

Jim Donnelly 00:05:49 Yeah, there’s a there’s there’s jobs. There’s some jobs. Can’t like carry a gun. You can’t do private security. There’s things that can.

Kevin McGarry 00:05:55 Work like you can’t.

Joe Abruzzese 00:05:57 You can’t do.

Joe Abruzzese 00:05:57 Liquor. you can’t work in a bar, you can’t own a bar.

Joe Abruzzese 00:06:01 you can’t do, collections. You can’t do personal protection, stuff like that. You can work in a, in a, in a in a Lowe’s or Home Depot or an office settlement setting or something like that. But they have limits on your time during the week, because if they need you, they don’t want you going to another job.

Jim Donnelly 00:06:18 If you’re just getting a cop and you’re running on and you’re you’re in court all day, it’s tough to hide the side hustle. But what the what? The one thing that people should look at is if, you know, sometimes they’re going to become a police officer turn 30. So they worked for like eight years and they’re close to having that 40 credits and they don’t have it yet. So when you retire, go go somewhere where you can get the other credits towards that 40. So there’s things that’s why it’s important to meet with different advisors, or look at your Social Security statement to figure out how you can maximum.

Kevin McGarry 00:06:44 Well, that’s what I was saying.

Kevin McGarry 00:06:45 Like with the firemen we deal with there in Philly is farms.

Jim Donnelly 00:06:48 For.

Kevin McGarry 00:06:49 Off. So they can go get that, get those.

Joe Abruzzese 00:06:51 Firemen worked to ten hour days to 14 hour nights. Then they’re all for four. And and they have a lot of time to do their side hustles.

Kevin McGarry 00:06:58 But the point of it is this part of the conversation is finding a way to get into social Security.

Jim Donnelly 00:07:04 Sure. Yep. So besides that, Joe, what else would you maybe try to pay in the Social Security or get a side hustle? What else?

Joe Abruzzese 00:07:10 Definitely start to shave earlier. I really didn’t save anything until I got my drop money. Right? I try to put money away, but then there was always a bill here and there. So you take it out and you put it away, you take it out and you spend it. and then when they came out with this drop program, it was like a godsend.

Jim Donnelly 00:07:26 Yeah. For a lot of officers. Yeah.

Joe Abruzzese 00:07:27 I mean there was no way I would ever be able to put that kind of money away.

Kevin McGarry 00:07:30 Does Philly PD pay for any education courses or classes? Do you know?

Joe Abruzzese 00:07:37 Well, I’ve been out for 18 years, so I don’t know if they still do it. They did let me go to community college for, I forget what it was a class for a short time, and they paid. But that was way back when I was, you know.

Jim Donnelly 00:07:49 Yeah, like some of the townships, like, say, Bensalem. It’s just in your contract. If you have, like your master’s degree, you’d get like three grand a year. If you had like a bachelor’s degree, you might be like 20, 200. I don’t know the exact numbers. So they are paying you. It’s a it’s a bonus, but they’re not paying you to go back. It’s not like that.

Jim Donnelly 00:08:03 Right? Yeah.

Joe Abruzzese 00:08:04 They, you know, like I said in the beginning, they would pay for a little bit, but I know some police departments now are paying you more, like Jim said for for higher education, right?

Jim Donnelly 00:08:14 Joe, what about now? You’ve been a client for about two years now.

Jim Donnelly 00:08:17 What’s your personal experience about working with Financial Advisor and just give it how you feel? Is it, you know, up and downs? Is it tricky at times? How do you feel about working with advisors?

Joe Abruzzese 00:08:27 After I retired and I moved to a different location? I got to know you a little bit. You came to my house a few times. We talked. I got to know you. And then at one point, you dropped off some literature about Valley Financial, and it took me a while to get up the nerve to do it because I never, never invested it before. I didn’t know anything about the market. my wife’s still nervous to this day. You know, she has no idea. I should tell her. Just calm down. Everything’s going. You know, we’re okay. But at one point, I decided that to give you a call, and I said, alright, it’s time to invest because I wasn’t making any money with in the bank, with my money sitting in my, my drop account.

Joe Abruzzese 00:09:05 So And, you came over, you told me what to do. We came to. I came to your office. We sat down. You, me and Kevin. We talked. And I felt a lot better about what I was getting myself into.

Kevin McGarry 00:09:17 Right. And I think I think the big thing, Joe, when we sat down with you, which what we do with every client is financial planning. Yeah. The to help you understand the, the the money that you work your, your ass off all these years, it has to meet your DNA, your income, your risk tolerance and longevity. And that’s what I think help when remembering the meetings. Get you to feel more comfortable.

Joe Abruzzese 00:09:41 Yeah. It was you know, there’s times when you’re still nervous or scared because you don’t know what the world is, what’s happening, you don’t know what’s going to happen. But, I’m very happy. I’m very happy that.

Jim Donnelly 00:09:52 You work with people. So it does. It’s been beneficial for you.

Jim Donnelly 00:09:55 Very, very. Okay. Now, what about Joe? Any advice for any rookie cop just starting out there or even a veteran cop that’s going to retire soon? You you’ve seen everything over the 46.5 years. So is there any advice you’d like to give our listeners out there or someone that listens to this podcast?

Joe Abruzzese 00:10:09 First of all, you have to take care of yourself. You got to keep your health. make sure you stay healthy. If you have any money in a bank, you have enough that you want to invest. Read. Do research. Get somebody to give you advice on what to do. Don’t just let the money sit in the bank because eventually you’re going to spend it. If it’s there, you’re going to spend it. If you’re investing it, you keep hoping that it gets better and better and better, and at some point you’re happy with with with it, you know.

Jim Donnelly 00:10:38 Yeah. And I think the one thing that when we’re meeting with a lot of clients now, a lot of police officers, they might have 200 K in the bank.

Jim Donnelly 00:10:44 They never had that kind of money in and and have it in a money market. Banks are paying 5% 4.5 and they’re feeling like oh man this is good. And that’s a great return. Yeah. The problem is when we’re going to make these the feds are doing cuts in September and they’re going to be cutting. It’s going to be 50 basis points or 25 basis points. And they’re going to keep cutting cotton as it’s going. The banks are not paying that anymore. So these people have really had that lump sum of money in there. It’s just not going to be that profitable anymore. And that’s where I really need to start looking at a turn of investments instead of just sitting. Because how how many times we see that where guys are sitting in a lot of money.

Kevin McGarry 00:11:18 I think people get nervous. They think when they sit down with a financial advisor and they start speaking about the markets and portfolios, they they compare it to going to a casino.

Joe Abruzzese 00:11:29 Yeah, yeah. But it was a foreign language to me until you guys actually sat down and broke everything down and and explain certain things in certain terms to me and everything.

Joe Abruzzese 00:11:38 But you going back to people having 200,000 in a bank? I was, I was only getting like one tenth of 1% on my drop money.

Kevin McGarry 00:11:46 Yeah. Thinking about that. Right. Like, yeah. 72 Rachel, which we went through many times with the 72 divided by 1%, it’s going to take you 72 years to double your money. Right?

Joe Abruzzese 00:11:56 Right. And,

Joe Abruzzese 00:11:59 you know, it’s it’s just wasn’t getting anything for it. And, you know, it’s just sitting there and, and I needed I wanted to do something to try to make that grow a little bit if I could.

Jim Donnelly 00:12:08 And I don’t blame. Please watch out there. I mean, listen, we know we don’t really trust anyone. We know that. Right? And it takes a while to trust people. Right. And you see all this stuff on the news and the, you know, you hear horror stories that they work their whole life, and someone took their money and it’s gone and right. It scares people. So we do get it.

Jim Donnelly 00:12:23 But that’s why you have to really shop around, look what you’re doing and talk to professionals. You don’t have to go with the first one you talk to. There’s thousands of them out there, hundreds of them out there. But get some advice when you try to do it yourself. And we’re not educated on it. It’s really, really backfires.

Joe Abruzzese 00:12:36 When I was at Penn, back in 2008 when they had that that recession, one of the ladies, there had some money invested, and she lost a ton of money, and she had to work two more years in order to get some of that money back. I didn’t want to do that. Sure, sure. You know, and and it was just, you know, police are brave. They’re supposed to be not afraid of anything. But you’re always afraid of the unknown, you know? And the future is the unknown. No matter what or how good or how bad you’re doing, the future is always the unknown. You don’t know what the future brings.

Kevin McGarry 00:13:07 That’s right, that’s right. And Joe, so many times we see so many law enforcement personnel coming in here, and they’re out there protecting society, and they are brave. But when they have to speak about money, they look very, very nervous and scared. Well, that’s.

Joe Abruzzese 00:13:22 Because they’re asking for help. We’re not used to asking for help and to get things explained to us. And they don’t want it. I mean, they work hard for their money. Everybody does. And they don’t want to lose anything.

Kevin McGarry 00:13:31 No, absolutely. It’s 100%. And that’s, I think the one thing in growing up, the, you know, in the city and the schools, no one speaks about money.

Joe Abruzzese 00:13:39 No.

Kevin McGarry 00:13:40 And the more you can overcommunicate and speak about it and feel comfortable about it, planning becomes easy. Right, right. Or it gets easier, right?

Joe Abruzzese 00:13:50 Yeah. yeah. The more you learn, the more you know, it gets a little easier. and obviously you have to have the money to, to invest.

Joe Abruzzese 00:13:59 But, once you get to know what’s going on, it gets a little easier.

Jim Donnelly 00:14:04 Well, Joe, I want to thank you for being on the podcast today. I mean, it’s been nothing but great to me for the last couple of years. Everything you’re really a great guy. I’m really great that we’re working together. I’m glad that we’re building a nice friendship going forward. You had 46.5 years in law enforcement. That’s a ton of time for anyone who has done the job to put the uniform. When you were the detective for a while, it’s a lot of time. You saw a lot of time. Definitely made a difference. A lot of people’s lives, especially being the detective sticking up for the victims. I couldn’t stick up for themselves or be the voice, so I just really be proud of. I’m proud of your body for 46 years, so hats off to you. Awesome. but that’s going to wrap up the Blue Money podcast. Joe, thanks for being on Kev. Anything you want to add before we wrap it up?

Kevin McGarry 00:14:42 Yeah, just for our listeners and anyone out there, you know, just listen to Joe.

Kevin McGarry 00:14:47 He was uncomfortable. He was unsure, but he seeked out help and he started to plan. Now my guy is retired. He’s going to have a great retirement and he’s going to enjoy it. It’s okay not to know, but just speak up and and people are out there to help.

Jim Donnelly 00:15:02 So thanks guys. If anyone has any questions about this podcast or anything about the financial world or a portfolio review or anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Kevin. I be safe out there guys. Safe.

Announcer 00:15:13 Thanks for listening to Blue Money. To learn more about Jim and Kevin, or for a free financial assessment, visit Valley financial.com or click on the link in the podcast description or shownotes. Until next time safe investing. This material is intended to be educational in nature and not as a recommendation for any particular strategy, approach, product, or concept for any particular advisor or client. These materials are not intended for any form of substitute or individualized investment advice. This discussion is general in nature and therefore not intended to recommend or endorse any asset, class, security or technical aspect of any security for the purpose of allowing a reader to use the approach on their own before participating in any investment program or making any investment.

Announcer 00:15:55 Clients, as well as all other readers, are encouraged to consult with their own professional advisors, including investment advisors and tax advisors. Valley financial can assist in determining a suitable investment approach for a given individual, which may or may not closely resemble the strategies outlined herein.