Student Loans vs Buying Real Estate

[John L.]

Hey everyone!

I'm new to the real estate investing world and loving this site! Unfortunately, I graduated from college with 164k in student loan debt which ended up being 1,780/month. I've paid off half of it so far, down to 82k, 811/month.  Now that my student loan payments are much more manageable I've been thinking about focusing on saving/investing instead of continuing to focus on the debt but I'm not sure if it's the smart move or not.

I have 2 loans left:

16k loan at 4.83%, 308/month

66k loan at 5.44% 503/month

Should I pay off one or both of the loans before I get started? Or should I just pay the minimum and save up to invest instead? I know 803/month is still a lot but I make 117k a year and my rent is only 950/month so it's manageable but it still sucks so I'm not sure what to do next.