This is the most naive thing I have ever read...
With all due respect... Do you know what a good retirement plan is? Do you have the slightest concept of how retirement funds/pensions work? How does the volatility of the federal budget fare against your expected "retirement" outcome? What about future children? Wife? What will her job be? Her spending habits? Your spending habits? How does your retirement work if said federal spending budgets cut your pension? Will you have a back up retirement fund? Will you make sure its diversified enough to grow faster than inflation? Will you make sure that said retirement fund portfolio is tax-advantaged and invested in low-expense ratio funds?
People spend they're entire college career studying the above shit, so no... I know for a fact you have no clue about any of that...
tl;dr... You have no idea of three things, 1)personal finance 2)where you'll be in 20+ years 3)if said "pensions" will still be available and/or enough...
Continuing... You sound exactly like a lot of young Marines I served with... "I wanna do career, then be a cop sarge"-types... Don't get me wrong... Its great to think about the future. It's awesome you want to pursue public service. Ultimate respect to first responders. But to sit back and not pursue higher education is asinine, especially when it is free (gi bill, hazelwood, TA, mcep, etc)... Let me 'xplain why...
Lets say you join... hooyah! get some.. you're in for 8 years... time to re-up... well due to unforseen reasons ie. budget cuts, prior njp, wife, kids, whatever it may be... you're forced to get out... Now you only have 8 years ad enlisted... boom back to real world... Now its time to be a civilian... Don't get me wrong, your military experience was honorable... but you're not the only person with them, and unless you have a very transferable skill from the military, you're going to be hard pressed to find a job doing what you did in the military. HOWEVER, the most valuable asset you have is the experience. The experience of being part of a team, having a mission, peer leadership, communication, being responsible... <--- This is what makes military experience most valuable... but you're missing one other critical part... Education.
Someone wise once told me.... "No matter what happens in your life... No one will ever be able to take away your experience and education."... let that sink in.
On Education....
1) Degrees do not cost 100k
2)You get out of a degree to which you put in... So don't pick a cheesedick degree. Feel the struggle. Challenge yourself. There is a reason why doctors and engineers get paid a lot.
3) Degrees can provide opportunities experiences can't... Perfect example... Being a Navy Pilot! If I leave the military, I can be a civilian pilot, or a geologist(my degree). Thats two doors for fair income.
4) Many career ladders require a degree... Do you think the senior most enlisted of the Navy don't have degrees? Wrong... They do..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Stevens... He wouldn't have got to the position he's at without said "100k worthless degree"... Oh and he was an Aviation Warfare Specialist as well...
With regards to your comment, "d
egree that is a piece of paper that majority of the time doesn't get you anywhere"... You are wrong. Dead wrong... People who go nowhere are people with bad attitudes and decide to blame their degree. You're on a forum for aviator-types... Majority are officers, who know more and have seen more than you may ever will... They all have degrees(officers), and those degrees along with good attitudes and experience have propelled them. For the record... I was an enlisted grunt who has a degree... I now get to be a pilot. I'd say my degree is getting me somewhere.
/rant