Pay off student debt or save to invest?

[Sam Parkinson]

I'm new to the BP community!  Learned a ton so far.  

My wife and I are a young couple looking to get started in the real estate investing game. Meanwhile, since September of 2017, we've been aggressively paying down our debt. We've tackled our car and one major loan thus far (approx. $34k), and I've projected that we could pay the remaining $45k by June of 2019 if we keep going at the rate we are now. This is very exciting but I can't help but wonder if we should continue to be patient while paying off debt before we get into real estate or figure out a way to jump in get a property to house hack or live in flip etc.. I'm thinking if we jumped into real estate now, it would prolong how much longer we'd be in debt. So, should we continue to put our heads down and mow through debt or save up and get into the REI game?

I've been stumped by this.  Any and all feedback and advice would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks!