Has anyone joined the United States Coast Guard? I am currently considering joining the Coast Guard active duty for 10 years and then transitioning over to either Air National guard or reserves.
The reason for this is the 10 years I am in I can save for retirement. I can put about 50% of all my pay and allowances into a retirement fund so when I get out at the age of 35-36 I will have a decent amount of cash saved up for retirement and then I was going to get my RN license after getting out and working as a registered nurse untilI I am 60 years old and putting in about 15% of my check into the savings as well. During this time I will work in the Air National Guard working towards my retirement. My question is do you feel this is a good idea or should I just neglect this and stick with getting my paramedic now in the civilian world and going Air national guard while working at the fire department? I am just worried I will not be able to retire with a good amount of savings. Is it possible to achieve my paramedic while in the Coast Guard?
I am honestly just overally concerned with retirement in the future that I want to be able to retire comfortably and not have to worry about working again but I am 25 years old and till havent started saving and that worries me a little.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to comment of on my post.
You can say I am a bit overally concerned with my future. All I think about on a daily basis is how my future will look because I feel like I failed early. I did not really do anything special from the ages of 18-23. All I did was work at a Fire Department from 21-23 and before those ages I worked random jobs. I never really knew what I wanted to do at that time so I became a Firefighter/EMT. During that time I decided I wanted to become a nurse because of how much I really enjoyed the medical field but when I started to pursue my nursing degree, the fire department fired me due to conflicting issues.
Now I am turning 25 years old in a couple days working a random ambulance job hoping to get back on with the Fire Department. I do not have a whole lot of money saved up due to all the money I did have saved up ended up going towards school. I ended up getting 40 credits before deciding to leave college to pursue my paramedic license which starts in two days. I am not In debt but I am still living at home with my parents which makes me feel like a loser and bum. My long term goal is to become a nurse but right now I am looking to just get back on with the fire department while working towards my paramedic so I can have a steady career. Then I was going to bridge from my paramedic to my RN which only requires one day a week attendance here in the state of Georgia.
I'm worried about my retirement because I do not want to be 65-70 years old still having to worry about working. I want to be able to retire with my house paid off and just worrying about relaxing until I hit the can. Yes I would like to travel but that is not a vital component. I just want to retire and live within my means. Seeing that I am turning 25 and still haven't started saving for retirement scares me and I am a bit depressed due to living at home still with my parents. Once I get hired on with a fire department I can move out. I just need to get hired. I just wish I never made those mistakes. I feel like I wasted 6 years of life.