Pay off student loan or save for real estate investing?

[Benjamin Kelley]

I wanted to know your take on what would be the best way to go. We are looking to flip our first house whenever we save up the funds. We will also be attending our first REI meeting next week to hopefully talk to private investors and get educated. I'd rather use my own money to buy the flip and fund the rennovations, but we are also considering the private lending. I am currently making over 1k a month payment on a student loan and I have an excel sheet showing it should be paid off by the end of next year (2014). I am about 14k in debt from the loan at 5.375% interest rate. Should I keep paying on my student loan or would you rather me save that money for a flip? Or should I keep paying on my student loan and just go the private investor route. Or should I save the money and also use a private lender. Thanks for your time.

-Ben