Pay off debt or invest in real estate?

[Benjamin Sulka]

I'm currently a junior in college, looking to invest in multi-family real estate when I graduate. As most students will, I am going to have a decent amount of student loan debt when I graduate. (Probably upwards of 30k)

What advice do you have for paying off debt vs. investing in real estate? I will have a full-time job when I graduate and I am wondering if paying off the debt is most important. 

Thanks so much to anyone who responds. 

All the best, 

Ben

[Andrew Hogan]

Hi @Benjamin Sulka, This seems like this is a recurring question. Try searching for past forums with the same topic. 

The debt is relatively cheap so if it's 4%, that's all you have to beat with your investments for it to make sense (not to mention inflation). Right now the government has paused payments and student debt is 0% so I would never pay off a 0% loan first.

Kiyosaki once justified buying a luxury car by buying a self storage facility that had sufficient cash flow to pay off the monthly car payments. He could have easily paid it off in cash but instead, he traded his cash for tangible assets that produced more cash.

Good luck!