Hey r/personalfinance. I read this sub from time to time and have always been really impressed by the advice I see on here. I just wanted to throw out some of my investments and options going forward to look for some suggestions. I'm a 26 year old Peace Corps Volunteer who will be finishing my service in April of 2018. I have a BA in Psychology and a pretty eclectic resume.
I have been making $5,500 contributions to a Roth IRA since 2011 with money that I had saved up for college and didn't use (I ended up going to state school for free). I only have enough left over in savings to make that contribution one more time (2018) before I need to start investing my income. I'm trying to determine the best way to continue to set myself up for retirement and don't know what to do to make sure I can make a contribution in the next 3-5 years as I have some different options. I also don't understand what kind of a hit I'll take if I miss a year or two on making that $5,500 deposit.
Peace Corps grants non-compete eligibility for one year for me to apply to government jobs. I don't think the status of this is threatened by the current budget cuts, but there are FAR fewer jobs out there now with this benefit than there were last year, and they're mostly things like customer service rep, or claims specialist for social security. Other Peace Corps perks include a re-adjustment allowance of around $8500 upon completion of service, $2000 to buy a plane ticket home (a ticket from my country cost about $700) and RPCV status which includes some grant money for grad schools.
So I'm looking at 3 tracks right now.
1) Go to grad school now. There are a lot of options here, but all of them mean that I wouldn't be making any money for the next 2-3 years so it would be very difficult for me to throw down $5500 for the years 2019-2021.
2) Get out of Peace Corps and look for work internationally for 6-9 months while traveling (a US degree goes a long way in Africa and South East Asia). If I don't find anything just take whatever job I can find in the US, including the shitty government non-compete jobs I want.
3) Extending my service for one more year and basically tackling 1 and 2 again next year. I'm hoping the current lull in hiring will pick up and they'll be some better options. Another year here would also give me a chance to improve my grad school applications a bit. Extending also boosts my readjustment allowance to around $12000.
Submitted June 11, 2017 at 11:35AM by PCSV http://ift.tt/2t9xdMC
