Cop pension

People are often surprised at the amount some received in the form of pensions. In the recent school shooting in Florida the officer stationed at the school retired with a monthly pension of $8,700. He was a 33 year veteran who retired at the age of 55. His salary last year was $101,000 including overtime. Since I am quite familiar with pensions this seemed out of line so I investigated and found that like many states police are eligible for early retirement at age 55 without a reduction in benefits but that was still too much money. Then I discovered that the officers contributed 3% of their salary to the pension but their employer contributed 21% of their salary. Then if the employee wants to put in an extra 3% into an investment plan the employer will add 11%. That is how you retire at over 100% of salary at age 55. If you earn $50,000 per year and max out on the pension you would contribute $3,000 to your plan and your employer would contribute $16,000. In addition there is no reduction when social security kicks in at age 62.