Too Old to change careers?

[kantuckid]

The one fact about government jobs, especially state jobs is they mostly pay little-guess how I know this. KY this week, our guv has gone on a salary kick to find and hire social workers and juvenile justice workers by jumping the start pay up to low-mid 30's . Thos are and have been the two highest turnover jobs in KY state government for many years. Teachers are a maybe for higher pay but I've never seen it be logical yet here. State trooper start pay here is getting a 25K annual boost. Nursing very much in demand but nothing new there as that was true a long ways back as well. Scholarships are being added along with nursing schools sharing vacancies with each other but real people with kids, a home and bills, etc. even if free school was a reality-"like Joe says", the bills still keep coming for people like the OP. As a tech school admission guy I talked to adults nearly every day and the glaring issue wasn't financial aid it was how to pay the bills while in attendance. 
My own salvation to return to school at age 30 was fact that my wife was irregular, and we had no kids yet. :D
 
State jobs don't help the OP keep his federal retirement going though. He's already near the age limit for a federal corrections job with no degree. 
Federal jobs can be much higher pay in comparison to state jobs but very location oriented-like most jobs really. If the OP's military skill sets translated directly to civilian work-then he'd be in luck. There's a reason many who leave the military go directly into civilian jobs by living near a base to allow such work that can pay well w/o a degree, plus have fed retirement. Our Navy son became far more emplyable based on Navy nuclear engineering added to his civil eng.. Our oldest son's pilots skills translated to his continued civilian flying, his eng deg matters less for him to work as a pilot than his aircraft certifications. 
OP-good luck being satisfied in your work.  

[metalspinner]

It's never too late. My mom started college at age 50 - the same year I started college. Imagine my surprise that she signed up in the same elective class I was in!😂😆

It took her 8 years of part time enrollment, but she graduated with bachelors in business. 

Everyone's reasons for a degree are different. I think for Mom it was about personal development. My older sister was the first in our entire family to graduate, I was the second, and Mom was the third. 

[kantuckid]

I my own case, the degree was only a ticket to something next inline. It held no aura of greatness, never was the thing that my journeymens card was too me. I've got 3 or 4 of them and never been to a college graduation as I had better things to do. I did see my kids graduate though but it was no surprise either. 
Thats a neat story about your Mom! My Mom took up golf about that same age and played until she got cancer. My Dad, a professional athlete wouldn't play at all. After WWII he just stopped sports-mostly as he did play softball some at the highest levels. 
I'm certain that many of those folks I gave the GED test were prouder of their diplomas than I was of my degrees. After 13 years, it was "anti-climactic" for me. and time to move on. I'll admit that I was sort of proud to graduate summa cum laude after managing to flunk out twice :D 

[Iwawoodwork]

Kantuck,  yes public agency employment may start low depending on the persons skill level in the particular field and/ or how bad the agency needs a position filled, but the person generally has to ask about higher pay.  Also need to look ahead, when I went to work for the state of Oregon I started near the bottom of my classification, but we got annual raises and in 5-6 years my wage level was good plus excellent benefits. the Pension and benefits and long term job security until retirement age were a major reason for leaving the private sector. Also, unlike the private sector the agency (OR-OSHA) I worked for was a lot less concerned about age than much of the private sector. 

[kantuckid]

Not to seem all knowing but I was/am, in fact well informed and a career counselor FT.  I was also a state employee and the pay was meager at all levels unless a patronage job. In reality I was an extremely rare bird in education, a counselor with real world of work experiences. Most go into it as a pay jump plus a ticket out of the classroom. Simply said, I've been around the block. Ask about higher pay?  :D

Here's ya an e.g.- at my last vo-tech school job nearing the end of my educational venture (around 1999) that lasted 27 years (my 5th career) I was making ~ $58-59k. The lady who was supposedly over the state tech school counselors after we'd just been taken over by the new system replacing KY's community colleges came to visit me & my school. She was a PHd and making the rounds, as it were. I asked around after I'd met with her and learned that her job paid her $93,000 to start and the factoid I also knew was that she'd never set foot in a school before nor provided services to a single real student.
Is that what you meant about asking about higher pay? ;D
When I quit and went to a public county system as a HS principal I made $64 k that next year. Of course a HS principal has more days in their contract and works night and day, so by the hour it wasn't much for a nearly 700 student HS.
Ky state employees in merit jobs were mostly all in one or the other regular retirement systems. Having jumped ship to be a juvy superintendent I had 4+ years in the regular and the balance in teacher retirement so I got a full teacher and a partial regual system retirement. My wife has 20 in teacher and a few in regular for when she was a teacher/principal in a correctional/prison school. Our 4 checks allow us to live like kings because we are very self contained & conservative too. I'm also a very rare person that gets any SS at all while drawing a government pension. But, it's about 30% of a full SS check-my wife gets 100% cause her university group voted to pay into both systems. I retired age 58.
Private sector -I know about that one. Lots more money there by quantum leaps and bounds. My oldest son makes more than the state superintendent of schools flying his helo.
BTW, we have state OSHA in KY as well.
OR- I applied there in 1974 when I finally finished college. they actually sent me a form letter asking me to not come there as they had too many people coming already, true story. CO was much the same deal-Boulder told me they had 3,000 applicants for every opening. I kind of stumbled into staying here in KY, which was one of my choices to begin with.
State jobs and security is somewhat of a mis-nomer IMO. In Vo-tech they open/close programs all the time and many are contract employees now, not in a merit retirement job. Here today, gone end of contract. 401K thing nowdays if you can stay working.

[Iwawoodwork]

Well I guess my 20 years with OR-OSHA was a better experience than yours in Kentuck. I was fortunate, never saw any lay offs but saw some bump backs and the agency always found places for those affected. I worked as a senior inspector, field office mgr. and Region manager and yes I was paid a little less than the private sector but never lost my job due to closures, company buy outs, or doing away with a section.  or because the new manager/owner/ceo wanted their own people in place. I previously had worked 22 years for Weyerhaeuser and saw what happened to their supervisors, safety managers and employees when they shut down operations in the 1980's, for most it was out the door and have a nice life. Those higher salaries don't mean much when unemployed.

[kantuckid]

I just wrote something that told the political stuff then deleted it. Dirty laundry it is or was. When I finally got a HS principals job as my last gig- my sons said "finally Dad" as they knew what took place. I'd told them if they ever applied for a state job I'd sabotage them as a favor :D
The irony is the same stuff happened in KS to my own Dad. From WWII to retirement in ~ 1979 he became the DMV truck dept boss but because he'd not play politics, he never went as high as he should. The week after he retired his position left the merit system and a used car jockey replaced him at twice the pay as an appointment. 
For me it was the good, the bad and the ugly, like the movie...

[kantuckid]

Note that I've used an Army buddy who worked for Weyerhauser and quit as my e.g. of changing careers on this forum. They stuck him at a desk after 6 months of trees in the forest deluxe then a desk so and he quit. Changed to being a PT who worked weekends like 3 on, 4 off, then off to fish and hunt all week. Which was when the draft came and he took his ROTC commission active. We fished our way all over GA & SC from Fort Gordon, GA. Life was good cause I met my wife in Augusta, GA one night at The Partridge INN.  

[BCCrouch]

Salary: foresters don't make great money. Your wife will definitely being going back to nursing either half-time or full-time because it's not just the two of you. Kids are expensive to raise and both vocational and formal educations are budget-busters these days. Are you OK with the idea of your wife's career being the one that takes priority when one of the kids is sick and needs to be tended at home? Nurses make [bleeping] fine money and foresters don't--smaller paychecks get stuck at home so the bread-winners get to keep on winning the bread.

Benefits: acceptable in government, often mediocre in the private sector. You'll likely be better off tapping into those of your wife once she's back to full-time work.

Co-workers and boss: are you prepared to be a 40-something greenhorn, a noobie with grey hair, doing the work of a freshly degreed forester who is supposed to be in his early twenties? Can you tolerate being a 44-year-old man being treated as a 22-year-old youngster? The age on your driving license carries no weight. Time in the field matters.

Location: does raising your three children in a two-stoplight town appeal to your wife? Foresters don't start at the DNR, USFS, or corporate headquarters with all of the amenities they might desire within a twenty-mile radius, and this includes good-quality hospitals. Living in a twerpy town of 1,500 on the rump-end of nowhere is not a preference many people acquire over time. They either like it or they don't according to the peculiarities of their personality and where they were raised.

[kantuckid]

My Army buddy who I used for many years when I was a career counselor-one of the reasons he was attracted to forestry was derived from having a Dad who took him fishing and hunting in the wild places he came to love. So, he chose forestry and worked in one of those somewhat remote locales and a happy guy until they jerked him into an urban setting and married him to a desk. Thats when he switched to a career that gave him many days off to head for the woods. 
Another friend of ours was an advertising guy in KS and we canoed KS rivers together with him and our wives. Sam Cook tired fast of desk work and became a foremost, syndicated outdoor writer based in Duluth, MN for the rest of his family and work life, fishing, hunting and such his way through life. The obvious point to be taken is forestry is far from the only way to skin that cat of an outdoor fetish for being in the woods. 
The age factor I've talked with hundreds if not thousands of people about as an admissions counselor talking to young and older people. When young any number of jobs that result in a forced career change mean that age is an important pause to think for anyone as it may slap you in the face later. Military careers & law enforcement are two prime e.g.'s as are some heavy construction jobs such as roofer or concrete work. During covid the newer e.g. might be medical careers? I can see a respiratory therapist tiring of the death around them?  The odds of a person doing some things for years to come are physically wishful thinking. Many jobs have a short expiration date!- not just being an athlete which was my main aspiration in life! times a million... :D
When I was young, I read the Topeka-Capitol newspaper and in the business section were the common Santa Fe RR retirements. Very common to see a guy who'd started as a mail boy in their big office bldg. there and later becoming a self made man an after 50 years of hustle retiring form the only employer they ever had. Forget that stuff in the world at hand!  
Having a life plan is the far-sighted thing to do but when were young most of us are that live forever person we enjoy being at that moment.