Investing vs Student Loan

[Alberto Izarraraz]

Hello Everyone, So I really wanted to know people's opinion on this topic. It's really about what I should do. I have a significant amount of student loans. Really talking about $120k of it at about 8%. I also saved up about $23k in my savings. It's hard to save up because I'm doing income based repayment right now. So I go back and forth a bit. My brother was suggesting we flip houses outside our day job so we can build up capital. I see this as a possibility. Other thought is just work on paying it off without investing or flipping. What are people's thoughts? I've seen different things. Rich Dad has been very much invest. Dave Ramsey is very much just work in paying off debts. Seems almost conflicting. I guess part of me is hesitant of spending 5 years paying off debts. But maybe I have to. I would like to start but don't want to be too careless. Thoughts?

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

I am in a similar boat. I started by doing what @Richard Sherman suggested and house hacking. Got a SFH and rented out the spare bedrooms. Been doing it for 2 and a half years now, and it's worked out great. I only wish I had known about BP and my REI goals when I bought the house. If I had, I would have bought a MFH.

Now I'm refinancing my current primary to get my FHA back so I can get a MFH and continue house hacking (having someone pay my mortgage is great; having roommates is getting old). I'm going to keep my primary and turn it into a rental. I'll take the cash flow and split it between paying down debt and saving for the next deal. I plan to do a 203k so I can build a little equity and use that to fund more deals.

Paying down debt is good; purchasing an asset that pays for itself and pays your debt down for you is better.