Every shift adds miles to your knees. Every call adds stress to your heart.1 Every year adds another layer of wear that most people never see, and trauma and loss most of us can’t imagine.
Retirement is supposed to be the chapter where you stop paying those dues. But the fire service does not hand out permission slips. If you want to retire clean, you have to be ready financially and emotionally. Those two lines do not always cross at the same time.
Financial readiness
Your pension numbers, not the rumor mill
If you are a firefighter, odds are your pension is the backbone of your retirement income. That makes your retirement date less about a birthday and more about plan rules.
Start with the one document that matters more than hallway talk: an official pension benefit estimate from your plan. Get it in writing. Then stress test it with questions that actually change outcomes.
What counts as pensionable pay? Some plans include certain incentives or specialty pays. Some do not. Your buddy’s pension is not a source. Is your service credit correct? Military time, purchased time, prior service, leave conversions, and breaks in service can create surprises. If something is wrong, you want time to fix it before you separate.
Which payout option fits your household? The biggest monthly check is often the option that stops when you stop. Joint and survivor options generally reduce the check to preserve income for a spouse or beneficiary. That tradeoff is permanent.
Do you have a cost of living adjustment, and how does it work? Some pensions have a COLA, some have caps, some have none. The only answer that matters is what your plan document says.
If your pension estimate plus other reliable income does not cover baseline expenses with room for taxes and healthcare, you are not ready yet. You might be close, but close is not a plan. Make the math real with a simple drill. Take your last three months of bank statements and turn them into a baseline budget. Then build a retirement version of that same budget with three changes:
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Healthcare Premiums & Out-of-Pocket CostsUse real numbers, not the employee-share you pay now. If you retire before 65, the full premium can be three to five times what you're used to.
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Vehicle & Home Maintenance FundRoofs, HVAC systems, and transmissions don't wait for a good market year. Budget a dedicated line item so repairs don't become emergencies.
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A Margin Line for the UnexpectedThink of it like a reserve on the rig — you don't plan to use it, but you'd never roll out without it. A 10–15% buffer keeps one surprise from derailing the whole plan.
If that retirement budget cannot be covered by pension and planned distributions without draining accounts too fast, you have a gap. The gap is not a personal failure. It is just data. Now follow that straight into the next problem: even a strong pension can feel weak when the paycheck disappears and taxes show up.
Replacing the paycheck: income, taxes, and the 457 advantage
Retirement readiness is not your pension amount. It is whether money lands in your checking account every month without you having to scramble.
Build a paycheck replacement plan using two buckets.
Bucket one is steady income: pension and, for some firefighters, Social Security. Whether you have Social Security depends on whether your public employment was covered, whether you earned credits in other covered work, and what rules apply to your situation.2
This is where recent law changes matter. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed January 5, 2025, ended two provisions that had reduced or eliminated benefits for people with pensions from work not covered by Social Security.3 Social Security Administration is also blunt about the misconception: only people with a noncovered pension may see increases, and most state and local public employees work in Social Security covered employment and are not affected.
Bucket two is flexible income from your own accounts: 457(b), 401(k) style plans, IRAs, Roth accounts, and taxable investments.
Here is one firefighter-specific lever worth understanding: a governmental 457(b). Internal Revenue Service notes that distributions from a governmental 457(b) plan are not subject to the 10 percent additional tax that often applies to early distributions, except for certain amounts attributable to rollovers.4
If you retire before 59½, that flexibility can matter. Just do not sleepwalk into a rollover. If you roll 457(b) money into an IRA, those dollars can become subject to IRA rules. That might still be fine, but it should be intentional.4
If retirement is two to five years out, know the current contribution limits. For 2026, the elective deferral limit is $24,500 for many employer plans, including governmental 457(b) plans.5 Many plans also allow $8,000 in catch up contributions at age 50 and over, and certain individuals age 60 through 63 may be eligible for a higher catch up limit of $11,250.5
Now the trap: taxes.
Pension income is typically taxable at the federal level. Distributions from pre tax retirement accounts are generally taxable as income. Roth withdrawals can be tax free when qualified. The point is simple: your pension estimate is a gross number, not a net paycheck.
A serious retirement paycheck plan includes a tax plan for the first year. That first year often stacks leave payouts, cash outs, or other one time money on top of your normal income. If you retire late in the year, you can create a heavier tax year than you expected.
One more firefighter specific rule to confirm: the IRS describes a separation from service exception to the 10 percent additional tax that applies at age 55 in general, and it notes an age 50 exception for qualified public safety employees in certain governmental plans.4
If you are planning to use 401(k) type money early, verify whether your plan and separation age qualify. At this point, you can see the dollars. The next step is to protect the plan from the thing that wrecks more retirements than market swings: healthcare.
Healthcare and the expensive stuff that shows up right after you leave
If you retire in your 40s or 50s, healthcare is not a side issue. It is the bridge.
Medicare is health insurance for people 65 or older, with some earlier eligibility exceptions.6 If you retire before 65, you need coverage that spans the gap. Common bridges include retiree medical, a spouse’s plan, COBRA, and individual marketplace coverage.
COBRA can allow continuation of group health coverage for a limited period, often 18 to 36 months, but you may pay the full premium plus an administrative fee.7 That cost can be a budget shock if you have only ever seen the employee portion of the premium.
Also plan for the long tail of the job. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found a modest increase in cancer diagnoses (9 percent) and cancer related deaths (14 percent) in a large cohort of career firefighters compared to the general population.8 That is one reason retirement planning should include realistic medical cost assumptions, not just the “I feel fine right now” test.
Don’t ignore disability and survivor planning either. Even if you are leaving healthy, your household still has risk. Your pension elections, beneficiary designations, and any coverage you carry should tell the same story. If they do not, fix the mismatch before you retire. 12 months before your target retirement date, do a benefits and health exit review.
If the money side is not stable, delay the retirement date if you can, adjust spending, or build the bridge with a clearer plan. Toughness does not pay medical premiums.
Once the finances start to look workable, another truth shows up: you can retire with great numbers and still feel wrecked. That is the emotional side.
Emotional readiness
Identity, belonging, and the silence after the last shift
A lot of retirements fail quietly, not financially. The money works, but the person does not.
A National Fire Academy applied research project examining firefighter retirement transition found that prominent losses after retirement can include camaraderie, identity, purpose, and a sense of belonging.9
FIRESCOPE has also emphasized that retirement can be more challenging for first responders because the work carries a strong public service identity and a career of traumatic calls that may have been left unattended for years.10
So the readiness question is not just “Can I afford to retire?” It is “What do I run toward when I walk away?”
Three checks help.
First, can you describe yourself without the job title? If the only answer is “firefighter,” retirement can hit like a collapse. Build a second identity before you leave, something you show up for on purpose.
Second, who is your crew after you turn in gear? Contact stops being automatic. If you do nothing, isolation can sneak in. Third, what calls are still living in your head? Retirement does not erase them. It just removes the distraction of the next shift.
If you want a practical off ramp, start six months before retirement. Choose one community anchor you will attend weekly. Choose one physical routine you can keep without a station schedule. Choose one project that forces learning, not just killing time.
If this part feels uncomfortable, that is a signal to plan, not a signal to ignore it.
Relationships, routines, and mental health in the first year out
The first year after retirement is where a lot of people either stabilize or drift.
Create structure. Not fake busywork, but a routine that protects sleep, movement, and connection. A lack of structure can feed irritability and isolation, especially if the job was your main social network. Talk through household expectations before you retire. Retirement changes the rhythm at home. Without conversations, small frustrations can turn into daily conflict.
And take mental health seriously. U.S. Fire Administration has highlighted concern about firefighter suicide and the need for comprehensive mental health and suicide prevention resources, while noting research that roughly 20 percent of firefighters and paramedics may meet PTSD criteria at some point in their careers.11
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has also summarized research estimating that about 30 percent of first responders develop behavioral health conditions, compared with 20 percent in the general population, and it discusses higher suicidality risk reported in firefighters in some studies.12
If you have depression, anxiety, intrusive memories, anger spikes, or you are using substances to shut your brain off, do not wait for retirement to fix it. Retirement can remove stressors. It can also remove the structure that was keeping you afloat.
Retiring from the fire service is leaving a tribe. If your finances are solid but your mind is not, you are not ready yet. If your mind is ready but the money is not, you are not ready yet. When both sides line up, retirement starts looking less like a cliff and more like a controlled exit. If you’re unsure, click the button below; we’d love to talk you through the next chapter of your life.
2. https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10051.pdf
3. https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html
5. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-25-67.pdf
6. https://www.medicare.gov/basics/get-started-with-medicare
7. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/laws-and-regulations/laws/cobra
8. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/blogs/2017/firefighter-cancer.html
9. https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/efop/Jordan-P-Saas-Retirement-and-the-Loss-of-Identity.pdf
10. https://firescope.caloes.ca.gov/ICS%20Documents/FIRESCOPE%20Behavioral%20Health%
20for%20Retiree%20Needs%20and%20Best%20Practices%20White%20Paper.pdf
11. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/summit/2023-factsheets/mental-health-and-wellbeing.pdf
