OMG.....Retirement?!?!

Funny that I discussed retirement in my last post....guess what I got in the mail today?! I got in my teacher retirement account statement!!!!! I cannot believe this, but at the end of this school year, I could retire!!!! I did some "figuring." My plans have always been to retire when I was at 59; however, the more I look at this, it may be smart to retire now!!!! The reason I wanted to retire at 59 was simple....DROP and they figure your retirement based on your 3 highest paid years, which usually works out to be your last 3 years. DROP stands for Deferred Retirement Options Plan; basically, you retire, but keep working. They take your retirement check and invest it into the stock market. Most teachers walk away with a hefty check at the end of those 3 years.  However, the difference between retiring  at the end of this year and the end of year 25 (which is when I would go into DROP) is 1000 a month. Yes that does sound like a lot, but it really isn't. If I retired at the end of this year, then go to work in another state (southern Mississippi is looking really good right now), or go to work for a private school system, I could draw my retirement check from the State of LA and draw a full paycheck from my job! What would that do? Well, I could create my own DROP account. Who says I have to wait on the State of LA? I could live off of my paycheck, and sock away my retirement check, or I could also invest it if I wanted. When I am ready to retire, I would have a nice size saving more than triple what I would get from DROP. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, lots to think about!