James O. Armstrong is President of NowWhatJobs.net, Inc., and Editor of NowWhatJobs.net. He is also the author of “Now What: Discovering Your New Life And Career After 50” and the President of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc.

Today, there is a greater demand for teachers nationwide than there has been in many years. Of course, there is not an equal demand for every teacher in every specialty, but there is a tremendous need for teachers precisely because so many baby boomers are leaving the teaching profession due to retirement. This development, in turn, offers a great opportunity for other men and women, who are also baby boomers, to take those positions from the retiring teachers.

Let me give you an example. A person who came into the picture as a substitute high school math teacher for our then junior in high school the following year joined the staff of Woodstock High School and became a full-time math teacher in her late 50s. I believe this is the type of transition our nation will see happen with greater frequency all across America. 

In the past, my mother also went back to school to finish her Associate of Arts degree in her early 40s. Then, she earned her Bachelor’s degree, received her Master’s degree, and subsequently taught high school photography through the age of 70 at Parkway South High School in St. Louis County, Missouri. 

And while the individual paycheck may not be significant relative to private industry, public sector pensions for teachers are really excellent.  For example, the formula in the State of Missouri for a retired teacher is 80% of your previous income after 30 years of service.  Teachers are paid a salary based upon their education level, with the max pay level probably being a Master’s degree plus 30 hours. 

In my own circle, I have a good friend in St. Louis, who earned a Master’s degree plus 30 hours, and let us estimate that he retired at $60,000 in annual income from his Suburban St. Louis position. His retirement at 30 years would be 80% of that figure. However, since he actually worked 33 years, the percentage on the retirement formula was 88%.  So, by taking 88% of $60,000, my friend made approximately $52,800 per year, which began at age 55.

Please bear in mind that teachers throughout our nation do NOT qualify for Social Security. So this becomes both a substitute for Social Security and a private pension added together.

But, if someone goes back to school and they qualify to become a teacher in their 40s, they could still work for the next 20 or 25 years. In other words, taking my mother’s case as an example, age 45 + 25 years = age 70. 

The school districts, in turn, want good teachers, so they may continue to extend that teacher’s contract even beyond the normal retirement point, if it’s appropriate in a unique circumstance. 

Continuing adult education instructor
One of my best friends from St. Louis retired as a public school teacher in mathematics after a 33 year career in a suburban high school.  But, his real love has always been music over the years.  So each week, he takes a one hour lesson on the mandolin and a one hour lesson on the guitar. 

Then, at the local junior college during both the fall and spring semesters, he teaches a class on guitar.  He said he doesn’t make much money doing it, but it’s very gratifying to him on an emotional level.

Ministry
Individual men and women may also feel the call to ministry later in life.  That scenario pertained to my own father and my wife. My father went to seminary and graduated in his mid 40s and went on to a longer term career in the ministry.  My book, “Now What?  Discovering Your New Life and Career After 50,” contains 19 profiles, one of which is of my 85 year old father.  My Dad is literally the senior associate pastor — senior meaning oldest — on the staff of St. Louis Family Church, which is perhaps the largest Protestant church in the Greater St. Louis area. 

Ministry today is actually a common career track for men and women, as we get older. This happens with Catholic priests, it happens in the Protestant clergy and it happens in the Jewish clergy as well. My wife is also an ordained pastor, who is a full-time minister in charge of Fresh Harvest Church in Woodstock, Illinois and who is also the point person for Fresh Harvest Ministries. She is also involved with a ministry organization, which has a call to our nation and is located in Washington D.C.

Fitness trainer
I am also a member of the McHenry County College Fitness Center, which has every kind of conceivable exercise machine you can imagine from rowing machines to stationary bicycles to treadmills to a cross country ski apparatus, as well as all sorts of different weight-related machines. MCC’s Fitness Center employs fitness coaches, who have degrees, and these trainers come in all different ages. The oldest one, who once served as a coach for one of the Olympic teams, is today in his 70s. But, he still works on a part-time basis at McHenry County College in the fitness center. 

I believe fitness should be one part of the transition we pursue, as we get older.  In fact, many of the people in my exercise group, who work out three to five days per week at the same time in the early morning, when I use the facility, are actually in their late 60s, 70s or even 80s. The name of this group is “the Wild Bunch,” where I am perhaps the youngest person in the group.

Of course, it is always good to be “the youngest,” no matter how the group is defined.

Wow!  Forbes magazine has slammed St. Louis with the “honor” of being the 10th most miserable city in the country.  (Nice picture at left, eh?)  

I actually like living and working here!  Forbes ranked the metro areas on nine factors: commute times, corruption, pro sports teams, Superfund sites, taxes (both income and sales), unemployment, violent crime and weather. 

I’ve lived here my entire life and find this place to be great.  Yes, unemployment in St. Louis right now is high.  Commute times have been killed by the new I-64 project.  Our teams — well, we all know what’s happening there.  Weather — it’s rough in the summer.  

But all in all, this is a great place to live and raise a family.  We have beautiful neighborhoods, free cultural sites, huge green parks, the best children’s museum in the country, and, of course, Ted Drewes.  St. Louis is a great place to live!

Looking to move to or within St. Louis?  Go to Search Homes St. Louis.  

An interesting article about O’Fallon, MO.

James O. Armstrong is President of NowWhatJobs.net, Inc., and Editor of NowWhatJobs.net. He is also the author of “Now What: Discovering Your New Life And Career After 50” and the President of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc.

There are critical shortages of these men and women all over the United States in medical practices and hospitals everywhere. Therefore, healthcare options provide one of the fastest growing professional fields for Baby Boomers and Active Seniors. Let’s look at healthcare careers that you can pursue right now.

Healthcare administration worker

There are unlimited possibilities because the hospitals nationally are all adding “new wings,” particularly for cancer and cancer research, heart surgery and other specialties, which different hospitals pursue.

Information Technology knowledge will increasingly be required in most of these positions. It’s no longer someone laboriously keeping records by hand anymore, but it’s an individual entering the information into a computer at a reception desk, for example. Today’s medical community is increasingly moving toward a paperless trail of information. Companies such as Kansas City’s Cerner, which is a New York Stock Exchange company where my son Jim works, are very much on the cutting edge of this type of development.

Nurse practitioner

This is going to be a growing field in the future. Walgreens and one of the other major pharmaceutical chains have now established urgent care facilities owned by their respective firms, which feature a nurse practitioner for more routine procedures.

In the future, a growing number of these clinics will open to treat patients, who may or may not have healthcare insurance, or whose doctor’s office may not be open that day.

Geriatric care manager

It’s a growing field. Men and women have all different levels of education and experience leading into these positions. There are even temporary employment agencies that send people out on assignments, which may take place every day, a few days each week or a certain number of hours per day for three days each week, depending on a given family’s needs.

Hospital worker

The good news about hospitals is this: the current AARP list of top employers for men and women over age 50 includes hospitals throughout the U.S. In fact, two of those hospitals have significant facilities in my home county of McHenry County, Illinois. One is Centegra Health System and the other is Mercy Medical, which is based in Southern Wisconsin, but they also have a significant presence in northwest Illinois.

Nurse and nursing assistant

My sister, Tanis Caras, who is 59 years old, has been a nurse and a nurse supervisor, principally in ICU, for many years. In the ICU ward, my sister typically worked three days each week for 12 hours per shift. However, she was literally able to take off four days each week. But, on those days when she was working, she really worked long hours. Please bear in mind that people she monitored were men and women in life and death situations in the Intensive Care Unit of her hospital.

The American Nurses Association, which is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, estimates the future shortfall for Registered Nurses will be 800,000. But, there is already a shortfall of nurses all over America. This analysis also does not include the LPN category of nurses.

So the overall category of nurses in our society, especially as Baby Boomers continue to age, will exceed a one million nurse shortfall in our society in the future, which makes this a really critical issue in our society. Fortunately, there are men and women who have been previously trained as nurses, especially women who may have left the profession to raise a family, for example. The nursing profession today is reaching out to these women to encourage them to come back to their nursing career later in life.

Nurse educator

In order to address the increased demand for nurses, there is also today a crying need for nurse educators, who are willing to go back to school to earn a Master’s degree or PhD so that they can be qualified to teach in a nursing school or at a college level.

Medical technologist and hospital worker

These men and women do all sorts of testing, CT scans and various things having to do with specialized practices in medicine or as workers in a hospital.

Dental hygienist

This professional also receives high pay in a dental office. Typically, this individual is a woman, who works as an independent contractor for a dental office or several dental practices.

This high demand individual has typically pursued a two year curriculum at a local junior college. But, the sky is the limit in terms of where that woman will wind up working. Most often, she will be able to choose a dental office or offices close to her home. Finally, these women normally do not work every single day, but rather they pursue their skill three or four days each week.

For more information, please view your home guide St. Louis

by Guest Blogger, James O. Armstrong of NowWhatJobs.net

So, what motivates federal employees and others to move during retirement? While there may be other factors, this list covers a number of the considerations many of our fellow baby boomers and others consider important in making such a decision.

First, we may decide to move because a specific job offer emerges from either the private or public sector. This offer to someone in greater demand could also include a future independent contractor status or registration with a speaker’s bureau or talent agency, for example. Or, it may include starting your own business or even buying a franchise with an established business plan and strategy to pursue. 

Second, we may decide to move because of family considerations, which range from aging parents to relocating so that we can be closer to our children and grandchildren. In fact, a number of my daughter’s closest young adult friends in Greater St. Louis have talked about their parents taking precisely this step recently. By the way, this observation includes the movement of grandparents to the St. Louis area, who have never before lived in that region.

Third, men and women also choose to move to a more exciting part of the US or they may choose to live abroad, which an increasing number of Americans are now deciding to do. For example, a fellow baby boomer web entrepreneur, Ann Fry, decided to move from Austin, TX to New York City over the past year and she has never looked back on her decision. The 62 year old Fry runs a successful web site plus works as a motivational speaker and career coach. So, part of her relocation formula has included an upsurge in her speaking engagements and coaching assignments, especially since she moved to New York, despite the warnings of doom and lack of success from her Austin, Texas-based friends.

Fourth, other men and women choose to move to a different part of the US especially for tax reasons. But, of course, the question, which quickly emerges in this complex set of variables is “which taxes?” Many of us no doubt already know Texas or Florida (part-time) citizens, who have emigrated to these states because neither levies a state income tax. Of course, the winning formula is that “they” actually live in their adopted states for one-half of the year plus one day.

But, did you know that there are actually a total of seven states with no income tax as follows: (1) Alaska, (2) Florida, of course, (3) Nevada, (4) South Dakota, (5) Texas, (6) Washington and (7) Wyoming. In addition, New Hampshire and Tennessee only tax interest and dividends.

Likewise, it should be clearly said that a total of 26 states plus the District of Columbia do not tax Social Security benefits. IMPORTANT: Our web site is against any states taxing Social Security income or public sector pensions from federal, state or local governments. From our standpoint, because of the current and coming labor shortages and especially because of the current skills shortages, our society cannot afford to do anything, which has the net effect of discouraging men and women from continuing to work in America.

Finally, other men and women will factor some or all of these issues into consideration, when deciding where and when to move in our society. In the final analysis, even local sales taxes and property taxes can and should enter into this equation. For example, the City of Chicago recently passed an incredibly high local sales tax, which put this great city at or near the top of local sales taxes in the whole US among major cities. Of course, this consideration only becomes important when someone wants to buy something, whatever that may be.

To tax or not to tax – that will indeed be the question for state and local governments in the future in the US and elsewhere, as a wave of baby boomers begin to consider all of their relocation factors and options. “Yes,” state and local governments would like the bank deposits, which provide the necessary capital needed for consumer loans and local businesses to expand and create even more jobs in that area. “Yes,” state and local governments would also like men and women, who will not be adding to the local student population in our nation’s public schools, but who will never the less be adding to the local property tax base. “Yes,” state and local governments would also like to have men and women, who are creditworthy and who have a greater equity position in their homes move into the community.

But, what if anything are these state and local governments willing to do in order to court “our” favor, you might logically ask? This writer submits to you that the answer to this question will cause state and local governments around the US to make a whole series of different decisions, both now and in the near future, in order to demonstrate “their friendliness” to my fellow baby boomers, who are 78 million strong just in the US.

Please check out our past article about moving to O’Fallon, MO, one of Relocate-America.com’s top 10 places in America to relocate.

As always, you can find out more about St. Louis real estate sales and listings at our website.