Job offer - can i afford it?

Serendip22 · 6 April 2011 at 10:39PM

Going to post this here too. I'm wondering if anyone can help me.

I'm a recent biology graduate and have been offered work in Madagascar for 9 months. The problem is I have very little savings due to being unemployed for the past 8 months and no jobs being available, so need some kind of small loan to pay for my flight over,vaccinations, etc. Or perhaps an overdraft?

However, even trickier is that i wouldn't be able to pay anything back during my 9 months as it's basically a voluntary position and i don't get paid while there. At the end of the 9 months however, i will get my flight costs reimbursed and an extra bonus so will have the money to pay back the loan.

I still have my student credit card at the minute but am in no debt with it. I have the usual student debt but no overdrafts, etc.

If anyone can offer advice, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Ash

Dinah93 · 7 April 2011 at 11:30AM

If you took an overdraft not a loan then you wouldn't need to make repayments for the 9 months. It sounds like a good opertunity to get some experience to beef up your CV, in a very interesting part of the world. Alternatively could you pay for the flights on a CC, set up a minimum payment direct debit to your current account, and sell some of your old things on ebay or at a car boot to build up enough just to cover the minimum payments for 9 months. Vaccinations should be free. If you want to do it there are going to be sacrifices to make it work, but that shouldn't stop you. What would you live on while you were there?