There will be gaps for most students- even those who were full day in person. Many teachers could not return due to health reasons (self or family) and there is a serious substitute teacher shortage.
A basic will done by an attorney is not very expensive. Youāre looking at only a few hundred dollars max. I would find an attorney and do it. For a little more a HCPOA and PPOA should be done and in many cases even a living trust.
When my daughter was becoming a resident in Texas and one part of it was her owning a condo, we needed her to make a will. Reason being is if god forbid she died while owning the condo it would revert to her father and me, but weāre divorced and he has nothing to do with it. So her will had to state her beneficiaries (her 5 siblings) of her assets but that I am the sole beneficiary of the condo. It cost $300 for the will.
My husband is a lawyer so he did the HCPOA and PPOA and the attorney reviewed it but he wasnāt familiar enough with Texas law to do the will. Those though are a couple hundred more I think heās said.
Also not all of the forms need to be signed or notarized. I donāt remember which ones donāt need a notary but I was surprised.
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We donāt really have a sub shortage here. Again, not in the districts where I live and or I work. Some schools or areas yes but much of that unfortunately is attributable to low pay and competition.
My sonās high school paid subs $175 this year. Normal rate is $114 before Covid, they originally upped it to $130 but then got worried they wouldnāt get subs and upped to $175/day. Had no problem getting subs and I know a sub who actually had problems finding jobs. As my son said it was also super easy as they didnāt have to do anything. With everything now done on chrome books, even if the teacher isnāt remote, everything is emailed or on Google docs for the students and the sub is literally being paid to babysit. Behavior is good and kids just sit and work or chat.
The primary k-8 itās a little more challenging but there are decent breaks but even there they werenāt short subs. My friend works in those grades and in multiple districts and very few jobs. These schools were paying around $125-130.
Wow that is a lot of money for a sub! Our district canāt find subs and they grab teachers during their prep. As a result students end up having 7 teachers in a day. Itās not unusual for the art teacher to teach math etc.
Here they offer it to a teacher first do they can pad their pension so many will because as you know, pension is based off highest salary. Itās like $40/hr for them in non covid. No idea now. Problem is thatās more than they pay subs so I donāt know why they offer it to them. Clearly thereās a problem with the education salaries and pensions here. My property taxes are ridiculous and now that Iāll be an empty nester they will be even more painful.
Our teachers donāt get paid extra when they teach during preps. NYC teachers do.
But then youād have to live in Waco!
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Havenāt figured out how to deleteā¦
What would be wrong with that?
Itās just not the garden spot of the state. Problematic things going on at Baylor, construction on I-35 through there will never be finished, little diversity. Dh used to live there, and Iād visit him every week so I spent a lot of time there.
Thanks for replying and explaining your writing this. I tend to get (perhaps unreasonably) bristly when I think people are writing off-the-cuff negative comments about places they have never been. You have experience and context.
I am FULL of typos today!
The investment world in 2021 is sillier than Tulip Mania in 1636.
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At least with tulips, there were bulbs to plant and pretty flowers to look at. 
Someone will be left holding the meme investment bag eventuallyā¦ and someone will amass more real estate using their dog coin and nifty profits. As much as I would like to not touch this stuff with a long pole, but sadly, we all have been tricked into these meme stocks as they are included in ETFsā¦ guess why Russell2000 is up so much today?
To be clear, I know enough about Waco to know that within 5 minutes of moving there, the politics there would make my head explode. No thank you. And I get itāyou probably wouldnāt like the politics here up north. Letās agree to both live where weād feel comfortable.
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I donāt live in Texas.
Not anything political for me at all. I couldnāt live up north because I donāt like to be cold - brrrrrr!
Absolutely important with QOL with retirement is not being upset with what is going on politically and otherwise in oneās locality/city/state etc. It is becoming more clear about this beyond taxes, cost of housing, and other financial considerations as well as safety, conveniences/inconveniences, etc.
Since DH decided he wants to stay in our city area, we are staying put in our home and will continue to do home improvements - doing more once I retire in a few months. Not moving away will save me a lot of time with various things; glad I prodded the bee hive so I could get a clear answer out of DH - explored one possibility last year, and another most recently.
When one has a job/career - and they need to live in a particular area, then you make the best of it.
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With regard to teacherās salaries (and police / fire / military), itās all relative. What seems like low current earnings can turn into lifetime job security with outstanding retirement benefits. Wife is a teacher. Lots of friends are teachers. Lots of clients are teachers, law enforcement. To echo what some have said, on the back end most of my teacher friends are ācounting the daysā. The testing environment has gotten crazy and Covid just crushed so many of them (wife was doing simultaneous live and zoom teaching this entire school yr - crazy!) From a retirement perspective, these people tend to have little savings, unless a spouse has a higher earning āprofessionalā career - those couples have it made with good investment accounts / 401ks AND a pension. Even though the typical teacher I deal with has a modest nest egg, their pension cobbled together with SS gets them about 70% of their pre-retirement income - all guaranteed! From a income distribution perspective, thatās worth a couple of million bucks! Think about it. If between the two you get 60 - 70k guaranteed for life at 62 (forget about deferring and all that stuff), it would take 2M of assets to generate the income at 3% - 3.5% growth & distribution rate in perpetuity. Live a normal life expectancy of roughly 30 yrs from that point (actuarily pretty close for those that are already 62) and youāve taken 2M in distributions without any investment risk. If there are other assets - which there usually are, just not lots, even better.
My point is itās a trade off. Lower current salary for job security and retirement benefits (including great healthcare - getting employer based pricing from 55 -65 pre Medicare, frequently subsidized -HUGE!
Job security is a big one too. Here in FL, teachers get tenured very early in their career. Once that happens, very hard to lose your job. May get moved around if principals donāt like you but youāre still in the system. Think about that. How many kids in the private sector have lifetime job security starting in their 20s (or ever)? Answer: NONE. So there are tradeoffs.
All this said, judging from my wife and her wide circle of teacher friends, they didnāt go into teaching for the money or the benefits. They did it to help kids which is GREAT! The demands they face are getting ridiculous but thatās a whole different conversation.
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@Hoggirl with me it would be both politics and the heatācannot stand it!!! I am apparently a cold-adapted personācold doesnāt bother me but just a tiny bit of heat does. I start using my car AC in April here in New England! Put it this way: I can always put on more clothes, but can only take off so much beforeā¦there becomes an issue, LOL.
If you look at where I have vacationed (Ireland, Iceland, Canada) it is clear I prefer cool places!
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Iām with you @MADad. We are planning to move to the Twin Cities next year (D and SIL are settled there). No interest in moving south ( I melt in hot weatherā¦and the politics) and yes I know itās cold there in the winter (we can and will travel) , the taxes are high - we know.