re: BRPD has a great retirement benefit.

DROP has nothing to do with this situation. DROP has nothing to do with the amount of retirement you get. When you elect into it, you stop earning years. Your retirement is calculated and paid into a DROP account(this is like a savings account). Once you are out of it(you can stay in it for up to 5 years), you receive the money from the account and start receiving your monthly retirement. DROP actually saves money due to number of years not increasing(this keeps your retirement amount from going up, unless maxed), and less money the government has to put into retirement. Also, most of these retirement systems have a penalty for drawing before a certain age. I'm not looking up this one though.