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I'm 23 years old. In a year I'll be graduating from an average state school with an MA in international relations. I did my undergraduate degree in political science. I only have about $5,000 in debt from undergrad. I live at home with my parents and my stipend comes out to about $1,100 a month during the school year.

Past year:
>seen friend with a fresh undergrad degree in finance (and a long list of criminal offenses) get a job pretty easily, $50k starting (maybe got job through nepotism)
>another friend with an undergrad degree double major in business economics and international business about to graduate and getting interviews pretty easily for $45k-$60k jobs

I'm jealous and want to make money. I love studying geopolitics but I would rather be making an adult salary and studying that stuff in my off time. I would love to start a website dedicated to geopolitical analysis but I need a primary source of income.

I majored in political science because I had an aversion to math back when I picked my major. Definitely should have done economics. I'm over that now but I don't have a lot of quantitative experience. I have taken several statistics courses and have some experience with data analysis. I don't know if doing more statistics course work will matter if my degrees are still Poli Sci/International Relations.

My questions:
>Can I make myself competitive for the private market by time I graduate?

>Should I pursue a 2-year master's in Applied Economics or something similar after I finish this degree? Obviously it will be fully funded and a STEM degree offers a higher stipend.

>Should I even consider a PhD in International Relations/Political Science before I stack money?

>Should I pay off my student loan debt next year with my stipend? As far as I know it's not accruing interest while I am in grad school.