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Ok so in March my job with Houston Fire Dept made me an offer I accepted. In order to free up city budget money they offered 3000 employees who were eligible to retire cash incentives to retire and start drawing a pension. The only caveat is that we were ineligible to apply for a job with the city of Houston for one year. So with the incentive based on salary and longevity and a terminal leave pay it was about 25k pretax as a cash lump sum to walk away and 25k a year to stay away from city employment. Plus we get to pay active employee rates for five years for health insurance instead of the retiree rates for So basically 50k for one year of doing anything but answering fire and ems calls. And if I go back to the city next May, I keep my longevity pay and such but my pension payouts shop and I big in paying into the pension fund again.
So I retired after 23 years of 911 work in police and fire and ems. I bought a $200 e-bike or myself and my son as a fun hobby. Started doing the short trips to the store and errands on the e-bike. 15 mile range and 15 mph. Zippier than me pedalling with more range than me pedalling. Then I found a new job in private sector dispatching private ems transport. Aunt Sadie needs a wheelchair bus to get from the nursing home to dialysis twice a week. Uncle Timmy is coming home from hospice for his final days and needs a full ambulance for medical frailty. Prisoner Fred needs to go from the Minimum Security Facility to the Cancer Center for treatment with his escort. I do the appointment setting. It’s two miles from home and I commute by e-bike exclusively so far. I haven’t seen anything since cell phones that feel like such a life changing device. Has my light bill gone up? Maybe but it’s summertime in Texas. Who can tell? Am I spending less time at traffic lights? Yes. Am I spending less money fuel? Yes, noticeably so. Is it more fun than my Nissan Versa? Heck yea. I have saddle bags and rear bag and a rear seat that I rode my 6’ tall son around on the back. Will it last ten years? I’m sure it won’t but for $200 bucks I can buy one every year and still spend less than $2000 dollar back would cost which also wouldn’t last ten years.
So I retired after 23 years of 911 work in police and fire and ems. I bought a $200 e-bike or myself and my son as a fun hobby. Started doing the short trips to the store and errands on the e-bike. 15 mile range and 15 mph. Zippier than me pedalling with more range than me pedalling. Then I found a new job in private sector dispatching private ems transport. Aunt Sadie needs a wheelchair bus to get from the nursing home to dialysis twice a week. Uncle Timmy is coming home from hospice for his final days and needs a full ambulance for medical frailty. Prisoner Fred needs to go from the Minimum Security Facility to the Cancer Center for treatment with his escort. I do the appointment setting. It’s two miles from home and I commute by e-bike exclusively so far. I haven’t seen anything since cell phones that feel like such a life changing device. Has my light bill gone up? Maybe but it’s summertime in Texas. Who can tell? Am I spending less time at traffic lights? Yes. Am I spending less money fuel? Yes, noticeably so. Is it more fun than my Nissan Versa? Heck yea. I have saddle bags and rear bag and a rear seat that I rode my 6’ tall son around on the back. Will it last ten years? I’m sure it won’t but for $200 bucks I can buy one every year and still spend less than $2000 dollar back would cost which also wouldn’t last ten years.
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