Welcome back! Just a quick note: I am not a financial advisor or in any way qualified to provide financial advice. I am just some guy on the internet with a blog, where I share my experiences and thoughts. You should do your own research and seek advice of a qualified professional.

If you have not read my previous post about compound interest, I do recommend reading it before reading this one. Otherwise, let’s go!

If you are a cop, you have likely been told that you will not get rich doing this job. Not a helpful thing to tell a young recruit at the beginning of his or her career. I am not arguing that this statement is incorrect, but rather an inaccurate one.

The Ride-alongs

Starting in late 2006 into early 2007, I began doing some ride-alongs with different police agencies. I wanted to graduate early from my university and pursue a law enforcement career. As the story usually goes, I was bright-eyed, motivated, and inspired to make a difference in my little corner of the world! One thing that almost every officer told me while riding shotgun with them was:

“Hey kid, just know you aren’t going to get rich doing this job and you’ll likely work a ton of overtime just to pay for your first divorce.”

Inspiring, right?

Anyways, I was working between one and three jobs at any given time to get through college. My room and board was covered by being a resident advisor at one of the dorms. I usually worked an additional part-time job at the front desk and/or a third job at a local restaurant or some other side job (for example, I was pretty good at making smiling burgers at Red Robin).

Therefore, this whole “you are not going to get rich” spiel I got from the officers did not deter me at all. Not only was becoming a peace officer an improvement of my financial situation at that time - it would also mean I could make a positive impact, in a way I wanted to, in my community.

What is Rich?

What do we mean by rich? It is a relative and subjective term.

What I think a lot of police officers mean when they say you will not get rich in this profession is that there are other professions that pay you more. Of course! Law enforcement is not the highest paying profession or anywhere near the high-end of the income distribution curve.

You and I likely know others that make more money and enjoy some incredibly generous benefits in their professions. If they are our friends, that is wonderful. This happened to one of my friends recently. After some time of career uncertainty, he was able to join a reputable and generous company. Friends should celebrate each others’ good fortunes and successes.

Often, the problem is that we use a type of confirmation bias - we will search our minds for examples of our friends that make more money than we do. But do we take the other side of that and consider how some of our friends are likely struggling in their careers/income? Jealous comparison can be a thief of joy, gratitude, and friendships.

So if by saying that “this profession won’t make you rich” we mean that it doesn't provide an income that would put you in the high-income earning category - this is correct. In that way, one might understand why someone would explain to others that becoming an officer will not make you rich.

Truth about Law Enforcement Incomes

Again, most law enforcement positions do not pay salaries that would be considered high-income salaries. This was especially true for the first half of my career. Sometimes agencies struggle with competitive compensation compared to other agencies because contracts, funding, and other issues are being resolved at the political level. This is in constant flux and can change significantly over time.

The reason I previously stated that it was inaccurate to tell someone interested in, (or especially at the beginning of this career) that it will not make him or her rich is because it makes a lot of assumptions about what rich means.

And even if we mean income-wise, many officers work substantial amount of overtime and moonlight to supplement their income - which makes a difference on the income statement.

This is an example of the assumption that the income in police work is limited.

Some officers have the availability to work nearly as much overtime as they can possibly manage. This significantly impacts how much a law enforcement officer can make - potentially allowing for high incomes to be achieved through many hours of overtime.

The point is… income is not really the problem for many officers. In fact, often when officers chase higher incomes, they end up paying significantly in other areas of their lives, such as health, relationships, careers, and more.

(In the future, we will discuss this topic more. We will explore the implications to our health and other wellness factors if our overtime and moonlighting inhibits us from taking care of ourselves.)

And like many other professionals, some officers may still explore side hustles and entrepreneurial ventures.

Although income is an important factor in building wealth, it is not the reason police officers cannot achieve financial freedom. But first, let’s consider what money cannot buy.

Money Won’t Buy…

• Money will buy us a nice house… but it will not buy us a home.

• Money will pay for a good time… but it will not buy us friends or make the experience meaningful.

• Money will pay for a good doctor… but it will not buy us good health.

Hopefully we have all heard these reminders at some point in our lives. I find it helpful to keep these in mind because it is easy to pursue things that I think will make me “happy.”

It takes introspection to consider why it is we are giving up our time and life energy in exchange for money (beside the obvious necessities like food, shelter, water, clothing, etc.).

Money is just this thing that we all agree has some likely value in the future. This allows us to use money in the future to exchange goods and services among one another. It is a tool for you to pursue your purpose. Money by itself does not bring meaning, nor happiness. And happiness is a temporary emotion; whereas, meaning is more deeply related to a pursuit of purpose.

Money is a Tool

Have you met someone who is purpose-driven and seems to have found meaning in life? How much did the amount of wealth matter to this person?

The people I have admired the most in my life have spoken about and treated money as a tool. It was much more about the freedom that money provided than the wealth it created.

When we search within ourselves and ask what matters most to us we often find that money translates to a means of achieving freedom - financial freedom. This type of freedom allows us to spend more time doing what matters most to us. Ultimately, it is interesting that we spend time to earn time. What we do with that time can be different for each of us.

What could we accomplish if we had more time, energy, passion, and financial resources to devote to what matters most to us?

Financial Freedom

What we could be communicating to new officers (who are often inexperienced financially) is that it takes sacrifice today to build a future of financial freedom. It takes discipline and hard work to earn financial freedom. It takes purpose and vision to provide us the why for our discipline.

It is a derivation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of enduring almost any how by having a why. In other words, if you have a vision of financial freedom for your future, could you endure the sacrifice today to build that future? Yes you can!

Maybe one of the most powerful reminders of this idea is expressed in Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. What is your why? What is your purpose for sacrificing your time and life energy in exchange for your income?

In the last post, Compound Interest | World’s Most Powerful Force, we discussed compound interest being the “most powerful force in the universe” as described by Albert Einstein. Also, I just realized how happy I am with the title of that post due to that redundancy in the previous sentence. Okay, now that I patted myself on the back… let’s get to the important part.

If you are willing to sacrifice today, you can earn your financial freedom!

Most of us have an incredibly difficult time wrapping our minds around the power of compound interest. Time and compound interest is so powerful that it can turn a law enforcement salary into financial freedom through investing. The difficult part is making the sacrifice today (meaning it will affect spending in order to invest). Remember the three ways of using money from the last post?

The three ways to use money is:

• to spend it

• to save it

• to invest it

The sacrifice is difficult because it requires a careful decision about how much to:

• enjoy the present (to spend),

• prepare for near future (to save), and

• to build financial freedom (to invest).

No right answer exists without you and I asking ourselves what is important to us? What is it we want to pursue in life? For what purpose? Then it might become more clear how to use money (the crucial tool) to realize our plans and vision.

Could it be that a rich life means that someone is living with purpose while earning the means (tools) to pursue that purpose? How much meaning could be discovered in providing for the basic necessities of a family?

What does rich mean to you? No matter what you choose to exchange your time and life energy for, let’s explore what it means to be rich (or live a good life).

Could it be that it is financial freedom we seek instead of a high-income? After all, we often say that we did not join this profession for the (level of) “pay.” However, we can help each other remember that it does not doom us to financial insecurity. If we are willing to make the proper sacrifice, we may earn the financial freedom we seek.

What are you willing to sacrifice today to gain your financial freedom and independence?

I plan on writing a series on financial independence, among other off-duty wellness topics. I invite you to leave a comment or contact me and let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback (so that I can learn to better serve you). Following the social media channels (see below) will allow you to stay updated on blog posts being released and any news from Boukabou Solutions.